EXCLUSIVE ANIMATOR BREAKDOWN: "Barnyard Babies" (1935) (Patreon)

Click here to watch the animator breakdown video. 

If you saw the announcement yesterday, I’d like to present this exclusive animator breakdown of Barnyard Babies! Released May 25, 1935 and processed in two color Technicolor, this is one of the Happy Harmonies produced by Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising.

Mike Barrier was kind of enough to lend the production draft, one of a handful salvaged by its director Rudy Ising. A total of twelve animators are credited in the papers—some are given whole sequences, but the assignments mostly change from shot to shot throughout the film. The star animator of this cartoon is Jim (Tony) Pabian contributing to the main thread of the story, with the rooster and hen rushing to hatch their offspring for the “Better Babies” contest.

Other animators credited on this film are Bob Allen, Carl Urbano, Cal Dalton, Pete Burness, Tom McKimson, Bob Stokes, Francis “Frankie” Smith (brother of animator/director Paul J. Smith), Lee Blair (brother of Preston Blair) and George Grandpre, with Gil Turner and Joe D’Igalo animating small, tertiary scenes.

One ambiguous detail of the production draft is a credit to “Tony + group” in the last five shots of the cartoon. The animation at the end of picture looks entirely like Pabian’s work in drawing/movement, but the inclusion of a group in these designated scenes is unclear.

I should note that this animator breakdown will become a future Cartoon Research post, so this video will be available for two weeks and the post will be deleted Saturday, 3/27.

I will be back tomorrow for a Sunday surprise—I think you’ll really like it…