Sunday, April 1, 2018

Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats: Cleo (Part 2)

Cleo's second half. ^_^
(This is from the Heathcliff and the Catillac Short Trash Dance)

As touched upon in first segment of this tribute. The premise of the episode involved Riff Raff and Cleo auditioning to become part of  a Dance team. Both characters are amazing dancers but your eyes automatically go to Cleo when you watch them. Her long legs makes her leaps, spins, and aerobic dance style moves all the more impressive to watch. The competition unfortunately doesn't go too well because it turns out that the casting director auditioning them though is allergic to cats. The episode ends on a Happy note though with Riff Raff and Cleo performing in the Junk Yard in front of a sold out crowd. 

When I was capping this episode I noticed how much work that the 80's western animators were doing. I don't think that they were using computers to shortcut the animation process as much so each frame had to be assembled individually. Where anime tends to zoom in and pan up on frames at dramatic angles to save costs. Older style western animations drew a whole new frame for every slight shift in movement. This is particularly noticeable in a dance sequence like this where Cleo's feet adjust several times with every movement that she does. A turning motion required the animators to drew feet from several different angles. It really is a work of art and I have to tip my hat to the animators of this cartoon for putting it together.

-KSC

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