If you ask most people to name a Chilly Willy cartoon, the chances are that if they even know any, or only know one, there’s a pretty good chance that it’ll be this one; even if they can only identify it by its director.

After MGM closed it animation department down, leaving numerous animators and three historic directors without any work; Tex Avery went back to working for the studio he started in, the only difference is that this time he was a renown director, not a lowly cel washer. Although he would only make four cartoons for Lantz, the famed director would make a lasting impression on the studio; especially were the development of Chilly Willy was concerned. A penguin bearing Chilly WIlly’s name had previously appeared in the cartoon of the same title (something which seemed to be a theme for Lantz’s characters ‘first’ solo shorts). That short had not seen much success, but Walter Lantz still wanted to use the penguin character. He asked a reluctant Avery to try and use the character; who then redesigned the bird to make him cuter and more appealing, putting him up against a polar bear in a battle of wits to grab some fresh tuna fish.

Like Droopy in his cartoons, Chilly doesn’t really do a great deal, with most of the gags coming from the reactions of the bear to the butt-biting guard dog. Though saying that the penguin does take a more active role in making sure that the dog comes to wake up in front of the increasingly hapless and flustered bear.

Tex Avery was a master of milking every last gag out of a simple concept and this is such a concept. It’s filled with enough lunacy and sheer kinetic energy in it’s seven minutes to keep the audience entertained, if not test them mentally. In many ways it is probably Walter Lantz Productions best cartoon, but with two veterans of Warner Bros. in the credits: Avery and Maltese, one could say that there wasn’t much else it could be.