The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, a Flying Squirrel, and a Talking Moose

by Keith Scott

Overview

The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show featured some of the wittiest, most inspired, and relentlessly hilarious animation ever created. The legendary Jay Ward and Bill Scott produced the gleeful wonder and cumulative joy that transcended the crude drawings and occasionally muddy sound. Jay Ward was the magnificent visionary, the outrageous showman, while Bill Scott was the genial, brilliant head writer, coproducer, and all-purpose creative whirlwind. With exclusive interviews, original scripts, artwork, story notes, letters and memos, Keith Scott has written the definitive history of Jay Ward Productions.

The Moose That Roared tells the story of a rare and magical relationship between two artists wildly, exuberantly ahead of their time, and a fascinating account of the struggle to bring their vision of bad puns and talking animals to unforgettable life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312283834
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/20/2001
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.94(d)

About the Author

Keith Scott is a veteran voice artist and animation historian who, beginning in his late teens, became friends with his childhood idols Jay Ward and Bill Scott. He has worked extensively in animation and radio as an expert voice mimic. He narrated Disney's live action movie based on the Jay Ward creation George of the Jungle, and starred as the voice of Bullwinkle J. Moose for Universal Pictures' 2000 motion picture.

Editorial Reviews

His enthusiasm is as infectious as that of his subjects.” —New York Times Book Review

“Rocky and Bullwinkle aficionados rejoice: here's a ripsnorting celebration of the cartoon characters and their humon creators.... Thoroughly researched and brightly written, this is a fine tribute to the famed moose and squirrel duo and their creators.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Rocky and Bullwinkle aficionados, rejoice: here's a ripsnorting celebration of the cartoon characters and their human creators. A voice actor who works mostly in Australia, Scott has been an ardent admirer of Bullwinkle T. Moose and Rocky Squirrel since childhood—the kind of fan who pestered the cartoon's production company until it finally gave in and allowed him access to the key players, led by Jay Ward and Bill Scott. (He also got to do his beloved moose's voice in the forthcoming Rocky and Bullwinkle movie.) His history of the series, written over many years, is full of anecdotes about the team's improbable success with their sarcastic parody of Cold War-era politics, a pun- and double entendre-riddled send-up of "intrigues, spies and history" that first aired in 1959 and enjoyed a cult following for years to come. Born from the ashes of an earlier ("pretty primitive") cartoon series called Crusader Rabbit, Rocky and His Friends (those friends being, of course, the likes of Dudley Do-right, Sherman and Peabody, Boris and Natasha), the show was startlingly fresh, even downright subversive. Its corporate sponsors, chief among them the food-production giant General Mills, didn't quite know what to make of the proceedings and raised frequent objections to matters of content (demanding, for instance, that the word "darn" be removed from a script on the grounds that its use would inspire young viewers to take up swearing). Ward and company, however, generally prevailed, and they inspired others to raise the kiddie-show bar. Their enduring work, writes Scott, reminds us "of a time when the sole purpose of cartoons was laughter—not tie-ins withunprepossessingplush toys, or the dictums of network censors concerned with cutting jokes and substituting tedious ‘new age' relevance." Thoroughly researched and brightly written, this is fine tribute to the famed moose and squirrel duo and their creators.

Kirkus Reviews