A “Warm” Cup of Coffee

If I had to choose one Hanna-Barbera animator as my favorite, it would probably be George Nicholas (sorry, Lah!). Despite the budget being far too low, George would always bring out the most energy in his scenes (again, sorry, Lah). 

One of the best examples I could find is from Lullabye Bye Bear, a Yogi Bear cartoon animated solely by Nicholas. The impact is what makes this little bit of animation so great to me. 

So far, the animation’s pretty tame. Yogi opens his mouth (in a very odd fashion) to drink what he thinks is warm coffee.

Something appears to be coming out from the pot. It seems like something solid!

WHAM! The frozen coffee falls out of the pot and crashes into Yogi’s face. Really funny drawing

The smears here are just as great. It helps show the power of the impact from the frozen coffee. 

And finally, the result. 

For those of you curious, here’s the scene in motion:

This is definitely one of my favorite scenes by George. Such energy, such timing, it’s an overall great scene.