was freckle's design (at least in the animated pilot) partially inspired by danny from Cats don't Dance because the resemblance is haunting me and i can't get it out of my head
I can see where you're coming from because...animated cats in the early 20th century.
I do love Cats Don't Dance, and it was one of a multitude of talking-animal animated features I watched on repeat in my youth, so its aesthetic probably factors into the way I draw things in general, but it's not where Freckle came from in any sort of direct way. Maybe that's more apparent if I put them side by side.
Danny's a squash and stretch sort of design, in classic cartoon fashion. Very shapes. Some apparent influence from ~1940s era cartoons, the likes of which WB produced.
And here are some of my early concept drawings of Freckle (from the Essentials art book). More or less a caricature of my cat, Calvin, with some gangster movie flair.
And here's Freckle's model sheet for the animated pilot. It's basically an animate-able translation of his comic design that emerged from a lot of back-and-forth between the crew character designers, the director, and me. It's also a rather more 'solid form' sensibility than the extremely elastic animation in Cats Don't Dance.
The long awaited Blu-Ray release of the classic animated film “Cats Don’t Dance” is coming to Blu-Ray September 26th, 2023. The special features will include some classic Warner Bros., cartoons. However there is no “Making-of” included in the special features. Which fans were hoping for.
Also if you're wondering, then no! I tried to inplant anger on a young Preston Northwest! Yeah I tried to draw Preston Northwest (referencing myself with a picture in journal 3) but failed.