Animation Breakdown: Cheese Burglar

A.K.A. My favorite Noveltoon!

I said a Paul Sommer animation ID was next in my last post. I will get to his work eventually, but I wanted to do this first.

I will break down one of my favorite cartoons in tonight’s post, 1946’s “Cheese Burglar” (de-facto dir. James Tyer.) For those who don’t know about this cartoon, Herman the Mouse attempts to divide a cat and dog’s friendship so he can raid the fridge. This was the only Noveltoon laid out and timed by Tyer, which gives this cartoon a leg up on the more solid, tamer Noveltoons. Tyer and his fellow animators, William Henning and Ben Solomon, make this the most appealing Noveltoon style-wise. Each animator possesses different strengths. Henning’s style has an emphasis on solidity, with things not squashing and stretching beyond what’s necessary. Solomon was great at orienting characters from various angles, adding wonderful dimension to his scenes. Tyer uses whole bodies to emote, and his disregard for anatomy enables his characters to express themselves in less-than-conventional ways. When the three united on shorts like this, they offered the best Famous Studios had. Without further stalling, here’s my animator breakdown for “Cheese Burglar!”

(Thank you to Steve Stanchfield of Thunderbean for the restoration, and Milton Knight and Thad Komorowski for their partial IDs)