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579,084 | 583,640 | 182,576 | 4 | Occasionally has something funny , but largely derivative and rarely clever | I will say this for Family Guy-it's better than American Dad-but so is almost everything else ! The animation is marginal , most of the jokes are stale and predictable , the material that's become the staple humor wasn't always funny even when they started ( the jokes about Meg weren't funny in the first season and they haven't improved with age ) . I know this has been said by many others , but it's true-this show is a pale carbon copy of The Simpsons , just as American Dad is a 20th-generation mimeograph of Family Guy . The fundamental difference between The Simpsons and Family Guy is that the characters on The Simpsons do things that step out of the stereotyped behavior expected of their characters-as an example , Homer will do something thoughtful and tender , Bart will be compassionate , etc . Family Guy doesn't do this , for the most part . Peter is always a dolt , Meg is always treated as a doormat , etc . There's no soul to Family Guy . It's like a third-rate silent slapstick comedy with only a pie in the face for a laugh . It has moments , but they get buried under all the dross and slag . |
579,609 | 583,640 | 103,104 | 4 | Tina Bockrath aside , it's not that interesting | This movie is leaden , slow , dull , labored , obvious to the extreme , poorly scripted and tedious . Were it not for the fact that Tina Bockrath is in this abuse of celluloid , it would be absolutely worthless , and even with her , it's still awful ! Granted , Tina Bockrath is not a terribly good actress . But she is one of the prettiest ladies to ever grace the pages of Mr . Hefner's publication . On her appearance , this error in cinema gets a four ( and I'm being generous at that ) |
578,917 | 583,640 | 9,105 | 4 | Consider this a dry run for parts of King Kong and it becomes worthwhile | This short hasn't aged well-and I don't simply mean film stock aging either . The plot , the script and the idea are now creaky . Given that Willis O'Brien was part of the technical crew on King Kong some 15 years later , the stop-motion work in the last fourth or so of the film is really training for what he did on that film . It has a certain historic significance , but little else . Not even as a charming , if dusty curio . For ardent film buffs only , with the above caveats . |
578,896 | 583,640 | 63,577 | 4 | Even Speedy can't save this disaster ! | A great many Warner Brothers cartoon fans consider the cartoons produced in the mid to late 1960s to be lousy beyond description as a class . While I don't tend to agree with that blanket judgment ( or with most blanket judgments , come to that ) , I feel that , for this one particularly , lousy is an understatement . If someone argues there is a worse effort out there , I'd have to seriously disagree . Everything about this one screams , " Garbage " and at the top of its lungs . Every complaint ( most legitimate , some not ) that is made about the later cartoons as a class is here-bad music , horrid backgrounds , no imagination , lousy writing , bad animation ( even for limited animation ) - everything about this one makes it the nadir of Warner Brothers animation . Not even ridicule can make this one sufficiently entertaining to make it worth watching more than once and only that if you are a hardcore Warner Brothers completeist . Watching it will temporarily lower your IQ 20 points . You have been warned . |
579,466 | 583,640 | 26,726 | 4 | If I judged this solely on the look of the cartoon , I'd give it decent marks-but one cannot live on animation and backgrounds alone . | This is a beautiful bore of a cartoon . The story would have bored me to tears when I was five . Visually , it's very nice , with striking backgrounds and nice color . It's this type of cartoon that led an animator who worked for Van Beuren to do a comic strip modeled after the head of the studio and call it " Van Boring " . There will be minimal spoilers , but there will be spoilers of the action ( the " plot " , such as it is , was spoiled before I was born ) : Molly is friends with the butterflies and she watches a show put on by the butterflies . The nicest bit in the picture is a very cute lighting " effect " during the show . It's beautifully drawn and animated . Had the short been along these lines all the way through , the cartoon would be much better . It didn't last very long . There is introduced a " villain " - a butterfly collector , who basically scoops up butterflies and sings a song which makes the songs Raffi sings sound like arias . It's clearly targeted at children , but Fred Rogers proved that children deserved better than this drivel and that they could appreciated it as well . Molly . of course , saves the day and proves that the butterfly collector is as bright as a two watt bulb in the process . Thankfully , the closing scene is , in many ways , beautiful in terms of both animation and color . It took the bad taste out of my mouth . If you like good animation and the visually artistic side of cartoons , this is worth watching . |
578,788 | 583,640 | 59,322 | 5 | Why was this cartoon made ? | While I've seen worse , I kept thinking that this cartoon would have no reason to exist save for the fact that Warner Brothers had a contractual obligation to supply a certain number of shorts to movie theaters , so they fiddled around with film stock , yawned and sent this one out on an unsuspecting and somewhat indifferent world . While my view of the later Warner output is more charitable than others feel is warranted , a few miss the mark for me . This is one . Worth watching once . Recommended for completists . |
579,024 | 583,640 | 152,030 | 5 | Disappointing cartoon , to say the least . | This cartoon has its moments , but most of them are the ones found in the old Fleischer Studios footage that comprises about seven minutes out of the running length , but less than half of the original cartoon . The original most of this was cribbed from is infinitely better than the framing material and the re-looped dialogue can't begin to equal the original . I find the new animation irritating at best . Watch the source cartoon instead . This is a waste of time and is just sad by the inevitable ( unavoidable , really ) comparison of the Fleischer Studios work to that of the later Famous Studios Paramount efforts . Others may find this worthwhile , but I certainly don't . |
579,964 | 583,640 | 23,832 | 5 | Bosko is pretty much an extra in his own cartoon | This is , at best , an average short which has a few good moments , but is mostly a rather dull and flat affair . It's kind of predictable in spots , yet it's not sufficiently interesting to overcome that deficiency all that often . As I want to discuss some details , this is a spoiler warning : For the first three minutes or so of this one , Bosko doesn't really have much to do and is only seen briefly playing a musical instrument . Instead , the bulk of the time is spent following a lamb and its interactions with a couple of insects . Except for some of the animation of the insects , this part of the short is even less interesting than it sounds . There's a repeated gag that was interesting the first time , but boring in repetition . The best part of the short involves another of Bosko's conversions of other items into " musical " instruments , here taking a beehive and some branches and fashioning a set of " bagpipes " . A sleeping Bruno , with some little animals acting as stops , snores into a log with holes in it and creates a tune to accompany Bosko . This was rather clever . Then ( oh , joy ! ) we have the " pleasure " of watching Bosko eat a sandwich , the same way he's eaten sandwiches in at least two other shorts . It wasn't that interesting the first time they did that bit . The final part of the short has a wolf trapping the lamb which was the focus of the first part of the short and taking it to a cave . Bosko and Bruno track it to the cave and a major fight takes place ( off-screen , inside the cave ) with a very predictable outcome and a gag repeated from other Bosko shorts . While this isn't all that memorable , I do hope it is released on a Looney Tunes Golden Collection in the future . Worth watching at least once . |
579,625 | 583,640 | 95,506 | 5 | One joke that is beaten into the ground by the time this ends . | When this begins , it's amusing , particularly if you know the ad campaign this lampoons . But the problem is , the premise isn't strong enough to support the length of the cartoon . It's a joke with one punchline repeated far too often and after a while , it becomes tedious , at least it did to me . The first one and a-half minutes are quite funny and then it becomes repetitive and the idea just isn't clever enough in and of itself to sustain itself over the rest . Still , worth watching once . |
579,230 | 583,640 | 262,480 | 5 | This one just didn't work for me . | This one did not impress me very much . I don't care for the Beat movement at all , the animation was marginal at best , the POINT was so obvious that I felt that the writer / director was beating me over the head with it most of a very short film and this just didn't work for me on any level . If your tastes run to Beat poetry and polemics , you may enjoy this one . You are thus warned : for me , here there be boredom . It can be found on Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation , Vol 4 , I believe . |
579,829 | 583,640 | 21,612 | 5 | A Sing-Along where the animation seems perfunctory and irrelevant | The Sing-Along cartoons were often almost cheaters in that large segments of the running time were simply song lyrics running across the screen with a cue ( usually a bouncing ball ) pacing the audience as it sang along . They were quite popular for a number of years . The animation ranged from forgettable to excellent . This one is eminently forgettable . The only novelty involved is that Betty Boop , who at that point had been drawn as dog-like in all her previous appearances , has a feline appearance and is being courted by a would-be feline Lothario . This slender bit of novelty cannot save this from banality . The song isn't even all that memorable . Later Betty Boops would use more energetic , jazzy songs and stick more in the memory . For completeists . |
579,467 | 583,640 | 151,608 | 5 | Only a studio like Van Beuren could have developed a series like Molly Moo Cow | This short was one of a series of shorts starring Molly Moo Cow . They were done toward the end of the Van Beuren studios existence and are uneven , ranging from just okay to awful . But Van Beuren's output was generally in those ranges . It was probably the weakest studio regularly producing short animation in what is commonly considered " the Golden Age " for the animated short . Only the Iwerks studio comes close to them in the race for last place ( actually , that's not very fair to Iwerks ) . I want to discuss some details , so this is a spoiler warning : Molly Moo Cow washes to shore on an island , the one occupied by Robinson Crusoe . Much of the short is Crusoe extolling the virtues of the solitary life , Molly trying to ingratiate herself to Crusoe and Crusoe trying to get rid of her . He finally succeeds-just before cannibals come ashore , capture Crusoe and dump him in a pot . From the time they grab him Crusoe is yelling for help ( from whom is unclear , given that he wants the island to himself ) . Molly hears his cries for help and turns around to try and save him ( given the fact that he repeatedly shot at her earlier , she has a most generous nature ) . She manages to drive the cannibals off before Crusoe becomes the main course and Crusoe reluctantly agrees to let her stay ( such gratitude ! ) but asks Molly what they can do to make things work . Molly dons black-face and Crusoe immediately exclaims , " Friday ! " . Thus all ends well-at least until Crusoe decides the fare on the island is bland and decides a hamburger would hit the spot . For Van Beuren completeists or cartoon collectors like me ! |
579,245 | 583,640 | 30,300 | 5 | This one will never air , but it isn't all that good in any case . | I suspect that even if there weren't stereotypes and caricatures that would be viewed as unacceptable today , this one probably wouldn't air today because it simply isn't all that funny . It starts off okay , but then we meet the " hero " , who's about as stupid as they come ( I've seen better heads on a glass of root beer ) and it goes downhill from his entrance on . This one just doesn't work for some reason . Of interest only to die-hard Warner Brothers fans and rare cartoon enthusiasts . Otherwise , skip this altogether . |
579,461 | 583,640 | 150,232 | 5 | A pretty much standard formula Mighty Mouse notable primarily for the dog guarding the sheep | This short is a fairly predictable short , with the only really notable aspect being the appearance of one of the two dogs who act as foils for Heckle and Jeckle as the shepherd ! Though there really isn't much to spoil , I will be discussing some detail , so here's a spoiler warning : This is pretty much " The Boy Who Cried Wolf " , only this is the " Sheep Who Cried Wolf " in this case . Five young sheep tended by a dog are going out to graze and one , a troublemaker , throws a tomato at the dog . Not satisfied , he repeatedly warns of a wolf and-well you can guess the rest . A wolf comes along and catches the bad little sheep . His brothers plead for Mighty Mouse to come save him , which ( of course ) Mighty Mouse does . The wolf , not able to stand up with Mighty Mouse , calls on other wolves for help ( notice that he didn't call them when there was a flock ripe for the picking , though ) and eventually all are bested by a caped mouse small enough to fit in one of their paws . What will the boys at the union hall say at Wolf Local # 342 ? Enjoyable for kids , but nothing terribly inventive here . Worth watching once . |
578,962 | 583,640 | 148,455 | 5 | Well drawn and animated but trite and uninteresting . | There's a funny thing about this cartoon-not that it's funny ( it really isn't ) but the characters all tend to look familiar . The teacher is the character Iwerks used as everything from a landlady to Flip's wife ( ! ) in Flip the Frog , the kids all resemble each other like a B-grade horror flick ( Village of the Damned Stepford Children perhaps ? ) and apart from good technical aspects , it would bore a five year old inside thirty seconds . Like some actresses I won't name-all looks and no substance . Worth a look or two , but don't expect much . Iwerks was just playing out the string here . For completists only . |
579,828 | 583,640 | 150,451 | 5 | The ending's cute , but there's nothing special here | Famous Studios had been a by-the-numbers studio for years by the time this was made in 1960 . They made cartoons designed almost solely geared towards the tastes and attention spans of young children . The backgrounds and animation were basic and rather bland ( nice colors , though ) and plots were simple . This cartoon concerns a very henpecked husband who buys a robot with the idea that it will simplify his life-an old plot done more successfully in one way or another by virtually every studio . The cartoon is rather bland and quite predictable , though the ending is quite cute . Famous Studios created some memorable characters , like Casper and Baby Huey , but this was a one-shot . Memorable only because of the ending . For children under seven , it probably works better . Recommended for that audience . |
579,363 | 583,640 | 62,166 | 5 | By this point , they were mostly going through the motions . | This cartoon is nothing special-routine and average at best . Not too bad for the period , but that's not saying much . By 1967 , it was fairly obvious that the only thing expected from the animation department was the production of enough material to fulfill contractual obligations . Speedy is a high point and although Daffy still isn't a natural foil for Speedy , they actually have a logical reason for him to be chasing " the fastest mouse in all Mexico " for a change . Mediocre backgrounds and lame , canned music didn't help . For absolute completeists and Speedy fans . |
578,799 | 583,640 | 141,866 | 5 | Very short on animation and basically just following the cue for the lyrics of the song . | You may enjoy this one more than I did , particularly if you are a fan of the original version of Karaoke-the old time sing along that used to be a staple of the night out at the movies decades ago . Though there isn't much to spoil , this is a spoiler warning : The animation at the beginning is perfunctory and if you sneeze at the beginning , you'll all but miss it completely . It's a brief bit with Koko the Clown leading an orchestra in playing the song " Sweet Adeline " , which is a beautiful melody with incredibly saddening and melancholy lyrics . That's basically all there is to this one-a little animation later on in the song , but there really isn't much animation and thus this is of limited appeal to anyone interested in animation , which includes me . Worth listening to once . |
579,487 | 583,640 | 152,768 | 5 | As you watch this , you may ask yourself , " Is this trip really necessary ? " | This isn't the worst Famous Studios Popeye short , not by a long shot . Far worse came several years down the road , when the staff seemed to stop really even trying to be even mildly entertaining . The problem with this one is that it isn't very funny-or much fun either . In spite of the three best voice actors the primary characters had in the series-Beck , Questal and the great Jack Mercer-the script and story are flat , the backgrounds not bad , but nothing to write home about , no real life in the gags , nothing memorable about the short to make it worth watching twice . Not bad enough to poke fun at , really . It's just there , nothing more . Any cartoon with Jack Mercer doing Popeye can't be all bad and this one has moments-but too few . I just wish it was funny . For completeists only . |
579,968 | 583,640 | 22,710 | 5 | Except for a running gag featuring an eagle in the last part of the short , this one is pretty unmemorable . | There's not much to this short apart from one running gag and a few sight gags . You get a general feeling about the whole , but very little stands out and makes a lasting impression . I will discuss one or two things here , so this is a spoiler warning : The cartoon has some cute gags in the first couple of minutes , with the marching band and what looks like a moose doubling as a turnstile . Intercut in here are scenes of Bosko being tortured under the guise of being given a " massage " ( ouch ! ) . The football game is really not very interesting in and of itself . There are one or two good gags and some horrible puns that pop up . Most of the funny stuff is off the field antics ( a reporter pounding away at his typewriter until the typewriter pounds back , a face appearing in the crowd watching the game in obvious disapproval , etc . ) . Toward the end , they periodically cut away to an eagle perched upon a flagpole . This running bit is far more interesting than the rest of the short and the ending is quite good . I won't spoil it here . Though this cartoon is not all that special , I hope it is released on a Looney Tunes Golden Collection at some point . Worth watching once . |
578,972 | 583,640 | 22,707 | 5 | Bosko and Bruno as hobos in an average short where not much happens | This is , at best , an average short in the Bosko series . It isn't awful , but it isn't memorable for much , either , as there isn't a great deal going on here . Here there be mild spoilers : Bosko is seen in the beginning carrying what was called a " bindlestiff " , or a stick with a bundle on the end , tied in a piece of cloth which contains basically all your belongings . Bosko is a hobo , a tramp , " gentleman at liberty " and he's joined by his dog , Bruno . They're walking along a railroad track when a train comes along . That's basically it as far as plot goes-they're either running from an oncoming train or riding on top of a runaway train . There are a few gags in other areas ( Bruno battles a flea near the beginning of the short , for example ) but the short basically has the pair placed in danger in one way or another because of trains or parts of trains . The animation is very nice in spots , but at least two sequences is clearly the same drawings used repeatedly to show the same action more than once . This would probably be a more interesting short if there were a bit more variation to the bits , but there isn't , so it is what it is-a fairly basic and somewhat predictable cartoon . I still would like for it to appear on a future Looney Tunes Golden Collection . Worth seeing at least once . |
578,974 | 583,640 | 22,679 | 5 | Not much to this particular short , which is limited , even for a Bosko | Though there are a few nice bits in here , there really isn't much substance to this one overall . It's just an average short , with little to interest or bore the general viewer . If you really like Bosko , you'll enjoy it enormously . There will be spoilers from here on out : This short can basically be summed up as follows : See Bosko . See Bruno . See Bosko skate . See Bruno repeat a gag three times and eventually fall through a hole in the ice . See the foregoing take up almost half the cartoon . See Bruno find a baby . See Bosko and Bruno take the very loud baby home and try to make it happy . See Bruno sit on a stove . See baby laugh uproariously . See Bosko play the piano and sing . See baby dance and Bosko and baby sing in " scat " style . See Bosko have an accident and wind up with a fishbowl as headgear . See very mean baby laugh . Iris out . Not the greatest Bosko or the worst Bosko . This short is just " okay " . I do hope , however , that this ultimately does get released on a Looney Tunes Golden Collection in the future . Worth watching at least once . |
579,621 | 583,640 | 251,027 | 5 | Good animation , but the concept is tedious and grating here | The Hubleys used a technique a number of times where the simply recorded their children at play and then constructed the animation around whatever they did and said . Often , this worked out fairly well , Moonbird and Windy Day , for example . Here it did not work . The short is well animated , but the dialogue here becomes tedious and grating after a bit . Perhaps if it had been shorter , it would have worked better . Not one of their best . The more you like the Hubleys , the greater latitude you give them in cases like this . Still moderately interesting . Worth watching for the animation . |
578,865 | 583,640 | 23,413 | 5 | This one would have been better if they'd dropped the live-action and the sing along and added more animation , but it wouldn't have been a Screen Song then , now would it ? | The songs that Rudy Vallee sings in this are not terribly well known almost 70 years later . This is understandable , because there isn't anything special or memorable about them . The cartoon is first-rate , but the rest is a boring waste of time . There is a cute interaction between Betty Boop and Rudy Vallee , but the rest is a total loss except for the animation . In print and available on a tape worth getting for everything else on it but this . Watch the animation here , but when the ball starts bouncing , watch only if you are suffering insomnia , as this will cure you of that fairly swiftly . For Betty Boop / Fleischer diehards . |
579,786 | 583,640 | 151,951 | 6 | The title character is aptly named and , to me , thoroughly unappealing | Not a bad cartoon , but one of two ( starring the same character ) that I don't like much . Good use of limited animation , but Pete Hothead is a most unlikable character , which is the point , I suppose . For UPA completeists , though others might not find the character so irritating . Think Donald Duck without feathers and clearer speech . |
579,462 | 583,640 | 153,944 | 6 | Out of Terrytoons , by Longfellow ( with a happier ending ) | This short is mostly memorable for the narration , which is primarily taken from the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem it's entitled after . It takes the poem , adapts it in spots to incorporate plot changes and to allow for Mighty Mouse to be included in the ending . I want to discuss some details here , so here there be spoilers : The short opens with a sea voyage , a ship's captain taking his daughter to sea and getting caught in a raging storm . The use of Longfellow's poem as the narration is an interesting conceit , thought the best part is where the animation has little to do with the narrative , such as an octopus setting up a dinner " table " for eight , including several sharks . At one point , you see mice leaving the ship , using doughnuts as flotation devices . Mighty Mouse comes in at the end in a rather different manner-some of the mice wash ashore at a lighthouse and Mighty Mouse is the lighthouse keeper and spots the ship . He saves the ship , captain and crew of one and his daughter . There are some nice visual bits and this is a fairly good short , at least so far as the series is concerned . Worth watching , if you can track it down . |
578,929 | 583,640 | 152,006 | 6 | Starts out well , but the one gag premise isn't substantial enough to keep this all that entertaining | There's basically one joke here-this lion is hungry ! Unfortunately , when the bulk of the gags bounce off of a single premise , there's a danger that they'll fall flat after a while and that's largely what happens here . I will be talking about some of the gags , so consider this a mild spoiler warning : When we meet the lion , he's hungry-he basically says so to the audience . We see him try twice to catch a meal , with very unsuccessful results . The second attempt is with a porcupine ( ouch ) ! He then hears a voice on a radio ( the radio actually has a mouth and talks ) which promises three meals a day if you go to their zoo . We see a hunter who bears a slight resemblance ( visually and vocally ) to Jerry Colonna , a popular character actor and radio personality , who was frequently caricatured in cartoons . The lion goes to take a physical and meets a skunk who tearfully says that they rejected him . The physical is perfunctory and punctuated by the lion begging the hunter for a meal . Even at the zoo , no one feeds him . The crowd of animals tells him , " You'll be sorry ! " , as he arrives and the crowd outside his cage heckles him . He finally rebels and escapes , thus starting a chase sequence sprinkled with food jokes . The lion is ultimately recaptured and caged again . The short ends on a high note , as the conclusion is funny , if a bit predictable to anyone who's watched many cartoons . Not a bad cartoon , just not as good as it could have been . This is on at least one inexpensive compilation DVD . Worth watching . |
579,877 | 583,640 | 26,310 | 6 | Cute , if somewhat trite , little short . | This is a cute ( almost too cute ) little cartoon with only a few Fleischer touches and some reasonably good visuals . Catchy title tune , sung by an elephant , naturally . If you like the early Betty Boops , this one will leave you cold for the most part . But it is a pretty cartoon and is well worth watching , at least once . On the Somewhere In Dreamland DVD set , which is in print and available . You won't regret buying this one ! Recommended for kids and fans . |
579,961 | 583,640 | 23,835 | 6 | See Bosko . See Bosko build a robot . | This short is reasonably decent , even if it basically copies a trend among other studios which did similar shorts based on the same premise and springing from roughly the same inspirational source . It was the last Bosko done for Warner Brothers , as Harman and Ising left there to go to MGM , where they used the character occasionally and drastically redesigned him , but that's another story . I want to talk about some of the gags , so this is a spoiler warning : In the 1930s , there was a movement called " Technocracy " , whose proponents believed that technology was the salvation of mankind . A number of shorts made use of the theory as a jumping-off point for the basic inspiration , including this one . The short begins with Honey doing housecleaning chores , specifically cleaning a window . Bosko makes the mistake of showing up ( he also takes Honey's flowers from the front yard to " give " them to Honey . Bruno , being far wiser , stays outside . Honey is delighted to see Bosko , telling him ( in a rhyming couplet , no less ) that he's going to help her with the dishes , which he finds terribly amusing . The scene dissolves to find Bosko and Honey-you guessed it-doing the dishes . Bosko , incapable of acting seriously , " shuffles " the stacks of plates together and tries dancing his way to the cabinets with a huge stack of dishes . The predictable disaster happens and Honey chews him out , but Bosko sees a headline about robots and decides to build one to do his work for him . So he rapidly builds a robot out of items he just happens to find laying around and builds his own " mechanical man " . He starts it up and it promptly goes berserk ! This is where most of the really visually interesting gags come from in the short . The animation on the robot is very good and watching it crash through Honey's house taking out door after door ( with Bosko trapped between two of them ) is quite effective . Honey briefly stops the rampage by spraying perfume on the robot , which then starts prancing around and tearing off sheets from a roll of bathroom tissue . This stops when it sees Bosko and it goes after him again . Honey then sticks a record player ( with a copy of " Mary Had a Little Lamb " on the turntable ) into the robot and it calms down again-until the record sticks and it goes nuts again . It chases Honey and Bosko out the front door , startling Bruno , who runs after them when the robot shocks him . Bosko ends the chase ( and the short ) when he hurls a bomb into the robot's mouth and blows it up . This has some very nice animation and is a nice finish to the series at Warner Brothers . I hope that it winds up on a future Looney Tunes Golden Collection . Recommended . |
579,966 | 583,640 | 23,829 | 6 | Even as a little dutch boy , Bosko is still Bosko . | This is ( good and bad ) a typical Bosko short-it isn't all that special , but it isn't horrible either . I will be discussing some details , so this is a minor spoiler warning : If you've seen many Bosko shorts , you'll recognize quite a bit that's familiar here in this one , for all that it's set in Holland . With a few obvious changes ( the buildings-even down to an out-house ! ) are windmills and the shoes are either ice skates or clogs , this is basically Bosko gone Dutch . He and Honey still dance ( in clogs ) and they still sing . One of the cutest gags is a little duckling stopping to run to an out-house . That should give you an idea of the type of humor in this one . The gags are fairly predictable , with a central plot point basically copied from an earlier short , only this time , instead of Bruno trying repeatedly to avoid going through a hole in the ice and eventually failing to avoid hitting the water , it's two versions of Wilber skating and going into the water instead . The first time Bosko rescues them from the water is fairly interesting and the timing is very good on the whole bit . But this is a Bosko cartoon and things repeat , so they wind up back in trouble , this time on a piece of ice and the rescue the second time at least earns points for creativity , even if it is rather abrupt and most strange . I would like to see this released on a Looney Tunes Golden Collection in the future . It's worth seeing at least once . |
578,784 | 583,640 | 62,983 | 6 | Larry Storch is the best thing in this one . | This is not a terribly imaginative or interesting cartoon , with flat characterizations , marginal animation and a repetitive story . Larry Storch breathes some life into this with his voice work , but he's the only thing much worth the effort in this one . Unless you're a real fan , pass on this one . |
579,444 | 583,640 | 56,545 | 6 | This would have been helped greatly by less Ludwig and more music . | This cartoon was nominated for an Oscar and the only reason that I can see is because it was released by Disney . It's at least 2-5 minutes too long , has not nearly enough music and too much Ludwig von Drake ( a character I normally like , but here , for some reason , he's like fingernails on a chalkboard ) . Disney's done much better work in the same vein , like Toot , Whistle , Plunk and Boom . Here , Drake's commentary is unfunny and excessive . Disney runs this during Vault Disney occasionally-not too often , though . Has it's moments . Probably worth seeing if you like Disney . |
579,659 | 583,640 | 118,747 | 6 | Not even nearly as good as the first one as a movie , but , oh that music ! | As far as the movie goes , it is pretty lame . The main problem is obvious-Dan Ackroyd and John Goodman don't have the comic timing or rapport that Ackroyd and Belushi did . Not even close . But when yu look at the musicians involved-the Blues Brothers Band , Aretha Franklin , James Brown , the line-up that fills out the Louisiana Gator Boys , Jonny Lang , so many others I probably overlook , that's worth it alone . Buy the CD if it's available . As a movie , it would probably serve better if the negative were cut up and used for guita picks ( except for most of the musical numbers ) . Music-10 , movie-0 |
579,387 | 583,640 | 56,483 | 6 | Without a doubt , the most unremarkable Bugs Bunny ever made | This is by no means a bad cartoon . It is just not a terribly notable or interesting one either . Apart from the fact that Sam is a royal chef ( ! ) , there isn't much terribly novel here . The gags are well-worn and the tread is coming off . Nothing really creative , unless the reference to the German dish " hassenpfeffer " counts . That's cute . Recommended for completeists |
579,499 | 583,640 | 63,433 | 6 | I found the camel most annoying ! | This is a marginal short partially salvaged by an interesting ending . There will be mild spoilers in the portion which follows : The Pink Pather is looking for artifacts and / or jewels in Egypt . He goes to buy a camel , but has little money and has to settle for a small camel that behaves as if it were a dog . The old saying truly holds here-he got what he paid for , which wasn't much . In spots , it reminds me all too much of the horse in Pinto Pink and other shorts The little camel causes the Pink Panther no end of trouble and gets chased away more than once here . There are a couple of interesting gags involving water in one way or another , with the strange sight of a camel guzzling a canteen being the most unusual . The Pink Panther has a few experiences with explosives here and finally manages to get into a crypt-one with a warning of a curse on anyone who enters . He grabs a large gem and begins running , only to periodically change into things-a rat , a lizard , etc . Not the greatest short , but it's only six minutes long and it does have a few moments which make it worth watching . It's on the Pink Panther Classic Cartoon Collection , which is well worth getting . |
579,504 | 583,640 | 63,434 | 6 | most of the funny bits don't involve the Pink Panther | This short is very hit and miss , at least for me . The Pink Panther isn't even terribly important to this one and most of the good bits don't even involve him . I want to discuss this , so there are spoilers below : Entirely too much of this cartoon feels like a retread of Pinto Pink , as the gags center around the Pink Panther's attempts to ride the same obnoxious horse , with pretty much the same results . It's basically filler , as the best parts center around the cartoon's variation on the little guy who shows up in a lot of the Pink Panther cartoons . Here , he has darker hair and is the evil knight , who grabs the princess and rides off to do whatever nefarious things evil knights do with captured princesses . He comes to regret this , as she eventually turns the tables on him and he's the one yelling for help . Sadly , every time this section starts getting interesting , they cut back to the futile attempts of the Pink Panther to ride his horse . Here , it's just painfully unfunny . I can't quite figure out why , but here , it just gets very annoying quickly . When the Pink Panther finally gives up and gets a fire-breathing dragon , things pick up considerably , but by then the short is practically over . Personally , I would have enjoyed a different ending from the one that was done . I would have like to have seen the princess deck the Pink Panther , go off back to the castle on the dragon and then have her chase her father ( the king ) , the Pink Panther and the evil Knight with the fire-breathing dragon hot on their tails . Now that would have been hilarious ! This short is on the Pink Panther Classic Cartoon Collection , which is well worth having . This cartoon is worth seeing once as a curiosity . |
579,502 | 583,640 | 63,431 | 6 | The hospital is no place to be sick . ! | This short takes place in my least favorite locale-a hospital . That makes the gags a bit more pointed for me and makes it a bit less funny in spots . Because I want to discuss specifics gags , here there be spoilers : The Pink Panther winds up getting hurt and ends up in the hospital with the world's most obnoxious room mate . I'd force-feed this guy prunes and hide his call button . The Pink Panther then winds up being subjected to the tender " mercies " of the hospital staff . He learns the downside of switching patient charts , inattentive nurses taking your blood pressure and the problems which come from full-body casts . He's the victim of an insane hospital bed and becomes a pin-cushion , in what is an old standard gag in animation . It had whiskers twenty years before this short was made . The ending is one I don't care for-I personally would have switched it around and had the Pink Panther emerge the one with the last laugh . This short is available on the Pink Panther Classic Cartoon Collection and is probably worth seeing once , though the collection itself is excellent . Recommended for completists . |
579,194 | 583,640 | 21,689 | 6 | This short is okay , but nothing special | I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time discussing this short in detail , as I want to discuss the character in general and his place in the history of the studio and in animation history . I will , however , discuss some details here from this specific short , so there are minor spoilers : This cartoon is cute and has some good visual bits , but it isn't anything earthshaking . It's inherently limited by the main character-Bosko . There are some very good gags in the beginning with Bosko's phone working frantically to try and wake him up ( along with help from his alarm clock and the ending gag is funny , but it doesn't really do much overall . That's because Bosko isn't all that interesting . One of his " big " scenes features him exaggeratedly eating a sandwich ( I guess somebody really liked that visual , because it's used in at least one other Bosko short , down to practically the last detail ) . At this point , Warner Brothers hadn't been doing their own animation for long and it was , at best , no better than third , behind Disney and Fleischer . Lantz may also have been ahead of them at this stage . Granted , those studios had all been doing animation longer . But they were doing significantly better work . For example , at roughly the same time that Bosko's Holiday was done , Fleischer did Bimbo's Initiation , which is considerably better , though the irony is , Bimbo fared no better than Bosko did , for basically the same reason-not much personality for him either . What Bimbo's Initiation has that Bosko's Holiday sorely lacks is better gags and much better pacing and timing ( the fact that Betty Boop is in Bimbo's Initiation didn't hurt ) . Bosko didn't last at Warner Brothers very long-he left with the parting of ways between Harman-Ising and Leon Schlesinger . He was briefly resurrected in altered form at MGM . Though he pales in comparison to the characters later developed at Warner Brothers , he was the first " star " for the studio's animation department and there is some justice to the argument that he paved the way for what later happened at Warner Brothers . Friz Freleng , for one , had an extensive early involvement animating Bosko shorts and later became one of the key directors for Warner Brothers . Bosko certainly did well enough that Warner Brothers kept making animated shorts . He was never the strongest character , but he got the ball rolling . This is a decent short and well worth watching . |
578,977 | 583,640 | 21,688 | 6 | Bosko goes hunting for a fox and brings home a dog . | An average Bosko short notable for basically one thing-Bosko's dog Bruno comes onto the scene . The short is largely unmemorable otherwise . I will discuss this in a little detail , but not much , so this is a mini-spoiler warning : When it comes to fox hunting , my sympathies are wholly with the fox , so the fact that the fox more or less makes the hunters look silly doesn't disturb me in the least . Bosko is Bosko , so he does one or two odd things with ( and to ) his horse . He and the horse wind up in the mud , courtesy of the fox . Enter Bruno , who tries to help Bosko catch the fox . There are some fun gags with Bruno and a nice bit where Bosko winds up becoming quarry rather than hunter . The ending may be the best gag in the whole short . This is a decent enough cartoon , though it isn't anything special . Hopefully , it will wind up on a future Looney Tunes Golden Collection . Worth watching at least once . |
578,855 | 583,640 | 32,933 | 6 | So-so Porky Pig short . with Porky not doing much-the focus is on a cat | This is a black and white Porky Pig short which doesn't really have a whole lot to do with Porky himself . As I want to talk a bit about the cartoon and some of the gags , this is a spoiler warning : This short has Porky Pig as the proprietor of a pet store which specializes in selling fish . It opens , though , with a cat following a mouse , with the intent of having lunch . Failing ( rather unceremoniously ) at accomplishing that , the camera then switches to the store and we see Porky break out in song while a bunch of rather marginal fish-related sight gags go by , the best of which involves some electric eels . Then the noon whistle blows and Porky goes out to lunch , placing a sign on the door . The cat , perhaps in the mood for some sushi , seizes the opportunity and goes into the store ( turning around Porky's sign , which then reads , " in to lunch " instead . The bulk of the remainder of the short is the cat attempting to get a free meal and the efforts of the various fish to ruin his appetite for him . Again , the best bit involves the electric eels , though there are very nicely animated sequences involving an oyster , some flying fish and a mussel which figure prominently . While some of the bits are inventive and very funny , a lot of this is just a bit off the mark . The timing seems to be a bit off of a lot of the jokes here , or maybe I just didn't find it funny . The closing gag , where the cat sees the mouse again and goes after it when denied a fish dinner is fairly nice and a good way to close what is a very uneven short . This is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection , Volume 4 and the collection itself is marvelous . This short is certainly worth a look at least once . Worth watching . |
579,751 | 583,640 | 21,590 | 6 | Bosko shows his love for nature but nature ( for the most part ) does not reciprocate | This cartoon is a largely routine and exceedingly forgettable short . There are one or two fairly decent bits that I'll likely discuss , so consider this your spoiler warning : This short is set in the great outdoors , with Bosko going fishing . Bosko decides that he can't put the worm on the hook and use it for bait , so he lets it go-whereupon it's spied by a bird and nearly become food rather than freed . The chase scene between bird and worm is a good deal more interesting than most of Bosko's bits . Bosko pets a fish he catches , which spits in his eye for his efforts . Bosko wanders around and various critters dance and do little bits . There's a particularly nice bit with some frogs and one with a spider and Bosko is involved here and there . The climax of the short has Bosko attacked by insects which bomb him and cause him to jump into a fountain for cover . I found myself cheering on the bugs . Not really a bad cartoon , but there were much more interesting Bosko shorts than this one . You can tell it's early in the game for Warner Brothers animation . They were way behind Disney and Fliescher and Lantz were also much better at this point . Worth seeing once . |
579,657 | 583,640 | 46,008 | 6 | Visually stunning , but whoever wrote the narration had absolutely no shame ! | This documentary won a very deserved Oscar for Documentry Feature . The cinematography and visuals are beautiful . But some of the narration is atrocious . The narrator isn't the problem-not much , anyway . I am thankful for the ' mute ' button when I watch this . I know scorpions have a public relations problem anyway , but what happens to them here is over the top . See it for the visuals and keep the remote handy . Recommended ( except for the narration . ) |
579,574 | 583,640 | 146,868 | 6 | Fascinating , unusual short from Iwerks . | While Iwerks was a technical genius in many respects , his strong suit was not plotting or scripting and it seems as though he couldn't care less about any aspect that wasn't visual . Thus , the series of shorts based on tall tales , fables and legends provided ready-made stories that worked to varying degrees . Here , in the short , " The Headless Horseman " , except for the score and some sound effects and laughter , this is a visual cartoon-there is little to no dialog here . There are some suitably creepy visual effects at times , but the cartoon is average at best . Cannot even compare to the later adaptation done by Disney of the same Washington Irving story . Has its moments , but doesn't hold up too well . Worth watching , but Iwerks did better and the Cinecolor process was occasionally jarring . Recommended for Iwerks fans . |
579,193 | 583,640 | 22,506 | 6 | Bosko makes music in the " forest primeval " | This short is a fairly interesting early Bosko , with a lot of the typical types of gags found in these shorts . I will discuss some specifics from this cartoon , so this is a spoiler warning : Bosko starts out with the intention of chopping down a tree , but decides instead to spare it when a lot of baby trees plead with him and he plays a harmonica and the small trees dance , the first of several musical interludes ( most of them on the unusual side , which happens a lot in Bosko shorts ) . Bosko turns several small trees into strings and plays a tune on them . Not to be outdone , an old tree makes like Isaac Stern and his playing is so lovely , a goodly number of tree start crying ( particularly a " weeping willow " - the character design here is exceptionally nice , by the way ) . The strangest musical gag involves two mice forming a phonograph and playing a " record " while a tree dances . There really are some nice bits , although the short tends to wander a bit . One of the more interesting Bosko shorts and well worth a look if you get the opportunity . |
579,050 | 583,640 | 20,018 | 6 | A dated curio that is not without its ' charms , but of somewhat limited interest and appeal . | This film has been of interest to me for some time now , for a number of reasons . I finally managed to get a copy and saw it yesterday . I now understand why it is not currently generally available-it is dated , of , at best , average quality , not without charm or appeal , to be sure , but the interst here is for a relatively small audience . Not a bad film , by any means , just not terribly engaging . I will say that a knowledge of Spanish greatly enhanced my own enjoyment of this film , as two or three very good lines were delivered in Spanish . I have now seen three of the five Academy Award Picture nominees in their entirety ( and am unlikely to ever see one , The Patriot , as it is reportedly a " lost " film ) and part of Alibi . I now understand how Broadway Melody won that year . Of the choices I've seen , it is clearly the best of an average lot . The Patriot may well be better , but I'm unlikely to ever be able to judge that point . I enjoyed the film , warts and all , but it is rather dated . But , for my money , any movie that gives the leading man the nickname , " El Conejito " ( Little Rabbit ) can't be too bad . Worth watching . Recommended to old film buffs and film historians . |
579,667 | 583,640 | 22,405 | 6 | Foxy's swan song , memorable mainly for the title song and little else | This is the third of the three Foxy cartoons , an obnoxiously , relentlessly cheerful short that probably hastened the retirement of the lead character . Notable for the title tune and for Friz Freleng serving as an animator , this is a curio more than anything else . A few cute bits , but not terribly special or memorable in and of itself . Worth watching and recommended if you really like old black and white animation . |
579,265 | 583,640 | 35,646 | 6 | Marginal short which serves as a launching pad for some great characters | This cartoon tries , but it just misses the mark . Something about it simply doesn't quite gel , which is a shame . It has some good moments , but the whole is less than the sum of its parts . Because I want to discuss a few details , this is a spoiler warning : The short starts out promisingly enough , with the pampered cat of a rich dowager making the life of the butler , Meadows , an unhappy one . First , the cat squirts grapefruit juice in his eye and then causes him to slip on a bar of soap , each time laughing hysterically . So Meadows quits . The cat panics and begins searching for food and reads that cats are supposed to eat mice . He and Hubie ( Hubie is a mouse ) spot one another simultaneously and both are terrified . Hubie realizes the cat is frightened and learns that the cat doesn't know what a mouse looks like , so he introduces his pal Bert ( another mouse ) and then clues Bert in on their new " friend's " ignorance . They then convince him that a bulldog is actually a very large mouse . The cat tries to eat the bulldog , in what is probably the best visual scene in the short . Immediately after this scene , the short falls apart , probably because the cat then sees pictures of a mouse and a bulldog and realizes he's been tricked . At this point , the funniest premise in the short ( a cat who doesn't recognize either mice or dogs ) is removed as a plot device and nothing tangible is left to carry the rest of the short . for a good example of a much better use of the same characters where this mistake wasn't made and the short is infinitely the better because the funniest concept wasn't abruptly yanked away , watch Cheese Chasers , done eight years later . The ending to this short partially salvages the cartoon , but it could have been so much better than it finally turned out . Still , it is worth seeing for the characters . This short is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection , Volume 4 , which is highly recommended . |
579,107 | 583,640 | 148,040 | 6 | Some very effective and rather creepy sight gags are all that save this short . | This is Flip at his sleepwalking best . For all of Ub Iwerks ' obvious technical expertise , his studio , in a bare five years was the birthplace of two of the most tedious , uninteresting continuing characters ever to grace the screen ( up until Pauly Shore and " Dice " Clay came along ) in Flip the Frog and Willie Whopper . All the entertainment value here lies with ABF ( Anything But Flip ) . There are some truly excellent and very creepy scenes that are worth the price of admission and the technical aspects are first-rate , including the music , but that's almost a given . This one nearly sinks under the frog's sophorific performance . A side note : the history of animation is filled with little things which led to big things , like Tex Avery's quarrel with Leon Schlesinger that ended up with Avery at MGM and fantastic things coming about as a result . Iwerks left Disney to start his studio and Carl Stallings left with him . After Iwerks studio folded , Stallings went on to Warner Brothers and the rest is history . Although it could be argued that Stallings might have gone there anyway , it most certainly wouldn't have been under the same timing and circumstances and he would have had different experiences . Stallings may well have not left Disney in the 1930s and Warner Brothers cartoons would never have been the same . Make Flip and Willie worthwhile just for that . Not a bad cartoon , but it could have been better . Glad it saw print . Recommended for Stallings fans . |
579,509 | 583,640 | 58,445 | 6 | Pancho Vanilla robs the bank and Speedy gets the money back-that's the " plot " of this one | This short was one of the earliest ones produced by Depatie-Freleng under its agreement with Warner Brothers-I think it may be the first one . Because I want to discuss some of the details , this is a spoiler warning : Pancho Vanilla , a bandit , comes into town to rob the bank and Speedy decides to get the money back . He interrupts Vanilla counting his stolen coins and breaks his concentration , scattering the coins . Speedy races by him , grabs a coin and races out , leaving Vanilla to shoot himself in the foot . It gets no better for Vanilla , who has no more luck catching Speedy than anyone else has had . The bulk of this short is Speedy racing in to take a coin and Vanilla's schemes to stop him doing more damage to their perpetrator than to Speedy . The results are violent and predictable . The final scene is the best part of the short , so I won't spoil it here . The gags all have a very familiar feel to them and the situation really seems forced . Sylvester really is the best and most logical adversary in Speedy cartoons , though the situation makes more sense here than the Speedy and Daffy shorts usually do . This short is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection , Volume 4 and is worth seeing . The Collection itself is marvelous and comes highly recommended . |
579,169 | 583,640 | 161,707 | 6 | A short starring the Van Beuren team called Tom and Jerry . | This short stars a Mutt and Jeff-like pair named Tom and Jerry , who came and disappeared before the more famous pair debuted for MGM somewhat later . This is one of their shorts-not one of their best , but also not one of their worst either . Because I want to discuss this with some details , this is a spoiler warning : This short starts out with the duo in an airplane and shows a bird being pulled into the propeller and coming out as the in-flight meal . The bird had a last posthumous laugh , however , because the plane goes into a nosedive almost immediately afterward . The tall one jumps out with a parachute , but he has a rougher landing than the short one who rode the plane down . They start walking , only to be trailed by a horse . A bit later , they spot a " Wanted " poster offering a $1000 reward for a bad guy , who just happens to be behind that very tree ! They manage to trick him , pull his hat down over him and ride off on the horse ( though why they didn't just grab him and take him in for the reward is a question for the scriptwriter to answer ) . Tom and Jerry wind up in a saloon in a little town , where there are drinking gags and musical interludes , with Tom and Jerry playing a tune . The bad guy makes an unusual entrance and robs the patrons of the saloon . Riding after the bad guy during a funny chase scene , the little one finally ropes him . knocks him out and takes him back to town to collect the reward-which he promptly leaves outside with his taller partner , who puts it down . The bad guy comes to and switches bags , taking the reward . The tall one , with the encouragement of the horse , takes the bag he thinks has the reward and rides off , leaving the bad guy free to escape . The tall one double-crosses the horse , thinking to make himself even richer . The ending is cute and I won't spoil it here . This short is on the DVD Attack of the ' 30s Characters and is well worth seeing , as is the whole DVD . Recommended . |
579,812 | 583,640 | 81,280 | 6 | For fans of Paul Simon's music and Blair Brown | This movie is an okay time-killer , particularly if you like Paul Simon's music and / or you are a fan of Blair Brown . Sam and Dave , the B-52s and Lovin ' Spoonful don't hurt either . Joan Hackett does a good job in her role . At the risk of sounding heretical , while I aways admired Paul Simon's songs , I have always thought Art Garfunkel has a better voice . One Trick Pony proves that Art's a better actor as well . Average at best . |
578,968 | 583,640 | 20,798 | 6 | For me , a most annoying cartoon ! ( Rant ahead ) | This cartoon almost neatly encapsulates a large part of the problem Iwerks studio had in their work : there is an absolute and almost total disregard for anything not involved with the technical part of animation and backgrounds . Plotting and story are afterthoughts at best ! I don't consider the next commentary to be a spoiler , but it is a rant and thus I will put a space here and you may skip if you choose . This is essentially half a cartoon-just when it starts to get interesting , the plug is pulled and a patch-up ending takes place , probably because the cartoon was long enough for release ! I'd have much preferred that they shorten the setup a couple of minutes and done that two minutes so that the latter part of the cartoon , which strikes me as much more intriguing , was a little stronger . Instead , the best part of the short is just that-short ! Say what you will about Disney-the Mouse got the story down as well as doing beautiful visual work . So did the Fleischers , for the most part . Excellent animation with some beautiful bits and an intriguing premise ultimately wasted . Worth watching , but could have been so much better . A frustrating cartoon . |
579,807 | 583,640 | 150,755 | 6 | Only thing noteworthy about this is some stereotypes that would make some people's heads implode ! | This is a marginal Willie Whopper short that is largely forgettable , save for about a minute and a half or so at the start that features Boy Scout stereotypes of a mostly ( though not exclusively ) racial nature . Given that the short is nearly seventy years old , a bit of perspective is necessary here . I wouldn't show this without an explanation to children under 13 , but I wouldn't bury it either . Its biggest problem is a boring lifelessness . Okay cartoon , but a historical curio . For Iwerks fans and fans of classic animation . |
579,762 | 583,640 | 20,829 | 6 | Notable only as a formative Betty Boop cartoon | While Fleischer cartoons are generally well-animated and thus worth watching from that standpoint , the only real point of interest is the comparatively brief look at Betty Boop-version 1 . 0 . Originally , Betty Boop was conceived as a dog and gradually evolved into the Betty Boop most recognizable today . There isn't much to say about the short itself , as it's nothing terribly special . The gags are occasionally cute , but it isn't especially memorable for anything other than Betty . I've had waiters this bad before , however . Dizzy Dishes is on Betty Boop-The Definitive Collection , an excellent compilation . Maybe Popeye will receive similar treatment on DVD sometime before the heat-death of the universe . For completeists only . |
579,377 | 583,640 | 82,509 | 6 | The soundtrack and animation are the best parts of a wildly uneven , episodic movie | To say this movie is uneven is putting it mildly . Tied together very loosely by a framing sequence that provides what little plot there is , this is a series of episodes , some of which are great ( the WWII bomber ) to very good ( Harry Canyon ) to just there ( too much of the rest of the movie ) . To any Steely Dan fans out there who may read this , the following for the few who don't already know : Donald Fagen has a song on the soundtrack , for the Harry Canyon section . The artwork is in the style of the magazine this is named after . That and the soundtrack make it worthwhile , plus two to four of the segments , depending on personal tastes . |
579,195 | 583,640 | 22,584 | 6 | The highlight of this one isn't Bosko , but a mouse | This is a rather marginal short-not terrible , but not very memorable for the most part either . I will discuss some scenes from this short , so what follows contains spoilers : Two of the most disturbing words to be combined in a sentence are " Bosko yodeling " ( I shudder at the memory . He's no great shakes at yodeling and he's clearly a very sore loser-just ask the owl who outdoes him here about his sportsmanship . Sadly , Honey joins Bosko in yodeling but ( mercifully ) it doesn't last long . The short then diverges into two story lines-Bosko and Honey at play , with Honey naturally getting into danger so that Bosko has to rescue her and a mouse deciding to brush up on his golf game by playing a few " holes " on a piece of Swiss cheese . This is far more entertaining than the other track and I almost wish they'd just made the last part of the cartoon about the mouse alone , as the peril and the rescue are hardly novel ideas and are all too predictable . At least a mouse putting a pea around on a wedge of cheese is different . This short does have some nice visual gags and a few good moments , so it is worth seeing at least once . |
579,952 | 583,640 | 27,468 | 6 | Visually nice , but not terribly memorable | This Disney short is well-executed visually ( as you might expect from Disney in the 1930s ) but isn't really all that memorable or impressive for all that . I'm frankly somewhat puzzled at its nomination for an Academy Award and more puzzled that it won . Perhaps it was more impressive in 1936 than it is today . It isn't a bad cartoon-there just isn't anything exceptional about it that struck me other than the visuals . It runs from time to time on the Ink and Paint Club . |
579,198 | 583,640 | 22,528 | 6 | Average short with a few decent gags and some cute bits | This short is mildly amusing , with a main premise which has been done more or less in other shorts , in some cases to far better success . I want to discuss one or two scenes to some degree , so consider this a spoiler alert : Bosko starts out as a hot dog vendor and this actually is probably the best part of the short . His hot dogs dance on the grill and don't seem to be the slightest bit concerned that their ultimate purpose is to be eaten ! One is bought by a dog who is recognized by his intended lunch and realizes that said edible is his " Sonny Boy " and they wind up walking off together to the music of the song " Sonny Boy " . The short unfortunately gets quite uneven from here as Bosko takes far too long to secretly retrieve a mechanical horse from its hiding place in order to enter it into a horse race . There's the requisite bad guy who resorts to trickery and cheating to try and get rid of Bosko and his " horse " and some cute and occasionally interesting visuals , but the ending is a bit too trite and obvious for my tastes . It could have been better , but for an early Bosko , it isn't too bad . Worth seeing at least once if you have the opportunity . |
579,818 | 583,640 | 109,758 | 6 | An OK movie nowhere near as good ( or bad ) as it's defenders or detractors think | This is a movie that is okay and has a decent performance by Delaney and Ackroyd and the best role O'Donnell has had yet . There are those who hate this film and some who love it . Since it contains neither Pauly Shore nor Adam Sandler and not a trace of Bo Derek or Pia Zadora , it can't be as bad as so many think . It may not be Olivier doing Hamlet , but it beats Shatner playing Othello . Recommended for Dana Delaney and Rosie fans with the obligatory Hector Elizando appearance though he's done much better elsewhere . |
579,846 | 583,640 | 150,869 | 6 | One of the Sing Along series Paramount / Famous Pictures did | As cartoons go , these are average , with some being good and some being poor . They tend to be very formulaic in nature . I will be discussing some details , so technically this is a spoiler warning ( though I'm not spoiling much ) : This particular short is a pretty basic example of a Sing Along cartoon . They start out with about three and a half minutes of gags , mostly sight gags , built around a central theme ( here , it's Indians ) , then a character does a song intro and tells the audience to sing along and " just follow the bouncing ball " . The next roughly two minutes or so has a bouncing ball tracking the song lyrics in time with a chorale singing of whatever song is highlighted - " My Pony Boy " here - with the second verse and chorus having some rudimentary animation in addition to the bouncing ball . When the singing ends , there's a tail end to the cartoon that's usually one lengthy bit between one and two minutes long . In this one , there's the obligatory gag about the " Cleveland Indians " , with a bunch of Indians in baseball uniforms and Big Chief " Rain-In-the-Face " shows up-that's another standard joke . There are a few decent gags here , but most of it would have been trite and repetitive even back in 1949 . The singing bits are the best part of this one . It has a few moments and is worth seeing , but it's just an average cartoon and is most decidedly full of stereotypical humor . |
579,197 | 583,640 | 20,699 | 6 | Bosko goes down to the farm in an okay , if unspectacular short . | This is the fourth Bosko short and it has some engaging moments . Since I'll be discussing in a bit of detail one or two scenes , consider this a spoiler warning : Bosko continues to get music out of fairly atypical places , such as a horse's tail played like a violin and a pitchfork played like a guitar or banjo . Like most early Bosko shorts , this is very musical in nature and has one extended and fairly amusing bit centering around three pigs who take turns drinking from a bottle ( the " Booze " of the title ) and lurching around . First , two small pigs find the bottle and sample the contents and then a larger pig commandeers the bottle and takes a few liberal swigs before tossing the bottle . The bottle then comes into the possession of Bosko , who himself partakes of its contents and staggers over to join the pigs to join them in a spontaneous ( and off-key ) rendition of " Sweet Adeline " . A low-rent barbershop quartet . There's one brief gag that's possibly a bit unsettling with an ear of corn making an unscheduled ( and no doubt unexpected ) reappearance , but it's really rather mild by today's standards . Entertaining , if rather pedestrian in tone and substance , it would definitely be worth watching at least once . |
579,969 | 583,640 | 22,712 | 6 | Bosko should have stayed in bed ! | This is an average short for the Bosko series , in spite of the presence of Wilber , an obnoxious little brat who recurs from time to time in various Bosko shorts . Since I want to discuss some details from this short , let this serve as a spoiler warning : The short opens with Honey trying to teach Wilber to play the violin . He's ' playing ' " In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree " - mangling it is probably closer to being an accurate description . Wilber is particularly obnoxious here and Honey decides to call up Bosko , who is sleeping , so his dog Bruno answers the phone and then wakes up Bosko so he can talk to Honey on the phone . She invites Bosko over . The best part of the short is Bosko riding over to Honey with Bruno following . The different events which take place on the bike ride are ultimately most of the highlights of the short , so I won't spoil them here . When Bosko gets to Honey's , he hears Wilber's scratchy attempt on violin and then pulls out a saxophone ( watch this scene closely ) and plays the same notes better than Wilber can manage . Honey then comes out and she and Bosko do a number , Bosko playing and Honey singing , until Wilber douses Bosko with a tub full of water . Then comes a sudden shift-the last part of the short is the " date " in the title . It's a picnic , which is essentially rained out . Though there are some decent gags in the last minute and a half or so of the short , it feels almost tacked on in order to justify the title . It's largely anticlimactic and not terribly interesting . I hope this is eventually released on a future Looney Tunes Golden Collection . Worth watching . |
578,966 | 583,640 | 121,771 | 6 | Willie Whopper YAWN | After Flip the Frog had proven to be less than what Iwerks ( and more fatally , MGM ) hoped for from a cartoon series , Iwerks turned to Willie Whopper and tried to make him a star . Trouble was , Willie is even duller and less fascinating than Flip ! The basic premise was part of the problem : Willie is a little boy who tells lies-not just garden variety fibs , but big lies , or " whoppers " , a slang term for outlandish falsehoods . Only Willie's lies aren't too entertaining for the most part . Visuals are beautiful in this one , for example , but the story is underwhelming , to put it mildly . To be honest , the main problem with the Iwerks stars is that they are often the least interesting parts of the cartoons . A serious and often fatal flaw in trying to establish a series focused on a primary recurring character . Worth watching for the animation . Recommended on that basis . |
579,464 | 583,640 | 152,597 | 6 | Two mice , a bull , a bad guy and a train | This short is rather limited , even for a Mighty Mouse . Though there isn't much that can be spoiled , I will be discussing some details , so here's a spoiler warning : Mighty Mouse and Pearl Pureheart spend over half the short tied to opposite ends of a bull . The bull is running around on a train track . A train engine is chasing the bull . That paragraph basically describes the action in much of this short , though there is a little bit more-Pearl's father strikes oil . . It has some interesting gags in here and it is entertaining for the most part , but after Mighty Mouse breaks loose , things pick up a bit . The best bit is where Mighty Mouse uses the bull to " bat " away various train engines sent against him by Oil Can Harry . Kids will likely enjoy this and it is engaging in spots . Worth watching once . |
579,535 | 583,640 | 149,200 | 6 | A later entry in the Heckle and Jeckle series with a few funny gags | This is a short that came out toward the end of the Heckle and Jeckle series . I will be discussing details , so there will be spoilers : Heckle and Jeckle are stunt men who have been told to administer a screen test for one Flint Locke , a cowboy actor who says that he can do his own stunts . They decide to try and make him look bad and / or scare him off , so they set up " scenes " which would make his insurance provider faint dead away-a train wreck , a jump off a cliff and my favorite-an Indian fight which ends up with Locke looking like a cross between a porcupine and a turkey . Locke has more swings taken at him than a piñata at a birthday party ! The end result is that they actually make him look good in the eyes of their boss and they get fired anyway . The fade out shows them taking turns kicking each other . Good cartoon , though it's nothing particularly special . Worth watching . |
579,725 | 583,640 | 120,885 | 6 | An OK film that could have and probably should have been great | I watched this film after real-life events overtook and passed its thematic content and went into it expecting good things given Barry Levinson Directed and with that cast ! But apart from a stellar performance from DeNiro and a good one from Dustin Hoffman , nothing seemed to click . The supporting cast is more or less wasted and portions of the film are so over the top that the movie lurches from satire to farce and back again . I saw the ending from a mile away . The worst sin is that , for me . none of this was for one second credible . Although outsde events may have had something to do with my reaction , the principal problem was that the opponent isn't even near to being a threat to us on their best day ! I buy the conspiracy theory , but I don't think even H . L . Mencken would think the American public capable of swallowing this and he once said , " No one has ever gone broke underestimating the American public . " While a good movie , it could have been so much better . sigh |
579,558 | 583,640 | 23,374 | 6 | Chiefly of interest because it's the only film that Ethel , John and Lionel Barrymore made together | This is a reasonably decent movie , well acted ( particularly by Lionel , who practically chews the scenery as Rasputin ) and the sets and costumes are fairly nice . But the main selling point is that this is the only time the three Barrymores - Ethel , John and Lionel did a movie together . It's a good movie but could have been much better . |
579,463 | 583,640 | 153,862 | 7 | Who knew the West was settled by mice ? | This early Mighty Mouse short is actually pretty good , at least by Terrytoon standards . The formula was already fairly well established by this point and this short follows the formula for the early shorts in the series . Since I want to discuss some details , this is a spoiler warning : The short opens with a war dance performed by a tribe of cats in full regalia . Their chief hears wagon wheels and we later see a wagon train rolling along . Naturally , the occupants are mice , the cats go on the attack and the wagon train is besieged . There's a particularly nice and somewhat novel touch to the wagon train's defense which I won't spoil here . This being a western , the cavalry comes riding to the " rescue " and we see , in quick succession , George Armstrong Custer , Daniel Boone , " Stonewall " Jackson and " Buffalo Bill " ride forth with no success . It's reasonably well handled , but it's basically all setup for the ultimate arrival of Mighty Mouse . The cats don't have a chance . The rest of the short is fairly predictable , but some of the bits are very good . It's a fairly good short , particularly for an early Mighty Mouse . Hopefully , it will be released some day . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,494 | 583,640 | 105,089 | 7 | Well-done , if obviously biased , and thought-provoking . | First it must be stated that it is quite apparent that those involved in the production of this documentary have an agenda and that makes the documentary somewhat obviously biased . It also must be noted that , no matter what the reasons were for the invasion , the people of Panama are certainly no better ( or worse ) for the change in government and worse off because of the invasion . Whether Noriega was involved in drug-trafficking or not ( I would tend to think most governments with large-scale drug production areas within their borders probably are , and Noriega is no exception ) , getting rid of Noriega was like shhoting a flea with a Howitzer : noisy , messy , expensive and ultimately futile overkill . A good piece of work so long as you understand that there is an agenda here . I suspect that if you put the governmental story on one side and this on the other , the truth would be somewhere between them , but closer to the documentary than the government . |
579,986 | 583,640 | 66,107 | 7 | Average short in the brief series , but well worth watching and now in print | The Ant and the Aardvark was a brief series of 17 shorts which was done in the late 1960s to early 1970s . The animation was limited and they were basically similar in nature-Aardvark is hungry , Aardvark chases Ant , Aardvark experiences grievous bodily injury . Basically Friz Freleng's version of the Roadrunner and the Coyote , except with hilarious dialog , as voiced by John Byner . There will be spoilers ahead : In this one , the Ant is a lodge brother attending a meeting of his chapter of the brotherhood , complete with his own little fez . On his way home , he sees the Aardvark , who , as usual has designs of a culinary nature towards the Ant and the chase is on once again . This short has a relatively novel premise-when in trouble , a lodge brother may call on other lodge brothers for help , which the Ant does , to his advantage and to the Aardvark's misery . Most of the time , the help is in the form of an elephant , but other lodge brothers get into the act , including a Tarzan wannabe . It's a cute idea and it's effectively handled . The ending is very good , with the Aardvark finally joining the lodge himself and showing up when the Ant gives a test call to make sure his lodge brothers are still available . The short ends with the Ant running and the Aardvark trying to sell him on the " virtue " of lodge brothers becoming much closer . This short has been released , along with all the others , on a single DVD which is in print as of this writing . It is well worth seeing . Recommended . |
579,545 | 583,640 | 33,037 | 7 | Average patriotic short , this does have some moments | This short , nominated for an Academy Award , is not a stellar piece of work . The script is average , acting too obvious in spots and there is at least one character who irritates so glaringly that it's clear that the audience is supposed to dislike him . Still , this is somewhat interesting , given that its production values technically are first-rate . Hardly exceptional , but worth watching at least once . Turner Classic Movies runs this as filler and almost invariably airs it during their " 31 Days of Oscar " every March . Not too bad . |
579,863 | 583,640 | 54,477 | 7 | An average cartoon using an old device or two to satirize modern life | This cartoon , which has some funny moments , but isn't really terribly novel , uses an old gag about finding an old reel of film that it purports shows " life as it was " , way back whenever . The narrator is a spoof on Dave Garroway , a television personality back in the 1950s and 1960s . If memory serves , he was one of the first , if not the first , to host the " Today " show . What follows are a number of gags ( lots of sight gags ) and a very loose plot , the kind of thing Tex Avery did to better effect twenty years and more earlier . The ending is telegraphed rather obviously . Okay , but nothing special . |
579,510 | 583,640 | 54,467 | 7 | Comedy , thy name is vivisection ! | This short once again matches Speedy Gonzales against Sylvester , with Sylvester once again coming out the worse in the end-rather painfully at times ! As I want to discuss the short in at least a little detail , this is a spoiler warning : Sylvester is guarding the mice being held in an experimental laboratory and one of the opening scenes reads like the clichéd scenes in a jail house picture , complete with a mouse playing mournfully on harmonica-one half expects a little mouse dressed in priestly vestments consoling the next poor soul scheduled to walk the last mile . They wonder why no one on their village is trying to rescue them . Meanwhile , back in their village , their friends and family are looking over a list of the names of the missing ( try and read the names-there's quite a few gags in there ) and debating what to do when a little senorita mouse says that she can get Speedy Gonzales to come all the way down to rescue them . She calls him long distance and says she wants to see him and he runs from point A to point B while she's still on the line . He agrees to rescue their loved ones . He begins by telling Sylvester what he's going to do and then proceeds to do just that-start rescuing the mice , while Sylvester tries unsuccessfully to stop him . The middle of the short is Speedy rescuing mice while painful things happen to Sylvester , the highlights ( at least for the audience ) include Sylvester being pulled through a knot-hole and losing all his fur and a boulder hammering Sylvester into the ground . There's also the old standby gimmick of Speedy ( with an entire " trainload " of mice-and one straggler on a hand-car ) going in Sylvester's mouth and popping out of his tail . Speedy rescues their loved ones and gets his reward , which is a kiss from the lovely senorita mouse , with wild results ! This short is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection , Volume 4 and is well worth seeing . Recommended . |
579,805 | 583,640 | 147,615 | 7 | Very pretty short , but done more effectively before . | This is Iwerks just biding time until closing down . A typically beautiful short , but it was nothing special or original . Tom Thumb was old hat by the time this was released , so something a bit different than the garden variety adaptation is needed to make this worthwhile . This was not what the studio did well , to put it kindly . So you have the average cartoon from Iwerks-competent , well animated and lovely , but not too special . Worth watching for all that . Recommended . |
578,786 | 583,640 | 140,862 | 7 | Likable enough , I suppose , but without the magic of the black and white silents . | Although this is a decent enough cartoon , the later , color , shorts done by Van Beuren studios lack the magic and charm of the black and white silents done almost 15-20 years earlier . The studio did the best they could , but production values and a lack of cohesion make these curios rather than gems . Worth watching . Recommended to fans and for kids . |
579,419 | 583,640 | 39,043 | 7 | Something of a historical curiousity now , interesting but dated . | This documentary , nominated for an Academy Award , is a look back in time at the traffic problems in and around Los Angeles circa 1946 . Interesting but qute dated , it does show that Los Angeles had problems with traffic flows even 55 years ago . Turner Classic Movies runs this occasionally and invariably runs it in March as part of its " 31 Days of Oscar " programming . Worth watching . |
579,788 | 583,640 | 152,028 | 7 | Okay , but nothing special about this one . | This one is proof that nobody does great work all the time . UPA did wonderful work most of the time . But everyone can have an off day . Though this is cute in spots , it's not a terribly good ( or bad ) cartoon . It's just there most of the time , with a marginally interesting , ultimately silly plot . Worth watching once . For UPA fans . |
578,806 | 583,640 | 26,358 | 7 | Decent short directed by Jack King , a mostly forgotten figure in Warner Brothers animation history | This short was directed by Jack King , who has been overshadowed by the bright lights cast by later directors , such as Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett , as well as contemporaneous ones , like Friz Freleng and the incomparable Tex Avery . It's perhaps appropriate that King directed many of the Buddy cartoons ( though the fact that he did so many shorts with the dullest character the studio ever created may be a chief reason King is largely forgotten these days ) . The characters used in this short are all but forgotten themselves . As I want to discuss the short , this is a spoiler warning : The three main characters in this made their debut in the short , I Haven't Got a Hat , as classmates in grade school , with Ham and Ex , the two dogs , singing the title tune . Animation being what it is , Beans is now their " Uncle " ( despite the fact that they are dogs and Beans is a cat-that must lead to so entertaining family reunions ) . Beans is a firefighter and is called on to watch over the two pups , a duty he's given ample cause to regret accepting almost immediately . There is very little that's as destructive as an animated child bent on mischief and Beans has charge of two at the same time . They get into almost everything-a helmet , a pair of boots , a fire hose-with rather predictable and at times funny results . They even trigger a false alarm which sends the station crew out on a run to fight a non-existent fire . For this they are sent upstairs to take a nap , which is the last thing which interests them . They escalate their games until they actually drive a ladder truck through a station wall . Some nice sight gags highlight their ride and they eventually drive right back to the station , run up the stairs ( in full sight of Beans ) and pretend to be asleep . Beans buys the act and starts to leave when one throws a boot at him and they both start to sing and play , at which point he finally punishes them with a spanking . Decent , though average . Worth seeing if you get the opportunity . Recommended . |
578,903 | 583,640 | 41,772 | 7 | Not one of Disney's best , but I have a soft spot for this short | This is an average short , nothing special , but Tucson AZ is often referred to as The Old Pueblo , so I have a soft spot , likely one in my head , for this short . Not terribly novel or creative , with some amusing moments . Excellent cactus work though . Worth watching . |
578,770 | 583,640 | 32,603 | 7 | Has its moments , but this is my least favorite Tex Avery cartoon . | This cartoon is really atypical of Tex Avery in that entirely too many of the gags are either verbal or sight gags that require verbal assistance to make any sense of at all-a surefire killer for a sight gag . The pacing-largely unavoidable here-is too slow and a few gags just aren't that funny . At least one dies completely . There are moments here , but Avery did this type of short more successfully with other cartoons ( such as A Gander At Mother Goose ) and , while I still don't think he did any really bad cartoons , this is as close as he came to doing one . Recommended for die-hard Avery fans , who'll watch anything he did ( like me ) . |
579,460 | 583,640 | 149,611 | 7 | Another mini-musical from Terrytoons | This is another short where much of the dialog is sung , as in an opera . This one is slightly different than the typical musical Mighty Mouse shorts ( but only slightly ) . Because I will be discussing some details , this is your spoiler warning : In this short , Aladdin is a mouse with all the riches one mouse could want and a beautiful daughter who is unhappy ( so unhappy she literally cries like a baby ) . Nothing can comfort her-she wants Mighty Mouse ! A cat ( basically Oil Can Harry in a turban ) plots to make her his and tricks her into meeting him . He steals Aladdin's lamp and makes off with the girl , Mighty Mouse pops up , does battle with various creatures conjured up from the lamp , thrashes the scoundrel and saves the day-and the girl . This is basically a melodrama in " Arabian Nights " costuming . The girl Mighty Mouse saves looks different from Pearl Pureheart , but the basic story is the same . Enjoyable , though certainly not extraordinary . Worth watching . |
578,938 | 583,640 | 23,836 | 7 | Entertaining in spots , though wildly uneven | This short has a very good beginning , bogs down a bit in the middle and has an enjoyable ending . Since I will be discussing details , this is a spoiler warning : Bosko is the host / organist of a movie house . He leads the audience in a singalong and at the end pulls two knobs on the organ-one sounds like a duck call and the other pulls out on a chain and you hear a flushing sound ! Next is what has got to be the dullest spoof of a newsreel that I have ever seen in any cartoon I've ever watched-the gag title was very apt : the spoof title was " Out-of-Tone News " and the sole truly memorable bit was where caricatures of the Four Marx Brothers were chasing after a dog with nets . Sadder still is a ( thankfully ) very brief parody of Laurel and Hardy which was painfully unfunny . This middle part drags badly . Then comes the " feature " and the cartoon gets interesting . It's a melodrama , with Honey as the star . She's shown riding a bicycle to the tune of " Bicycle Built For Two " . She's followed by a return of the Marx Brothers on a four-seater . The typical melodrama villain is also on a bike ( I think-it's difficult to say for certain ) and he grabs Honey and rides off with her . They wind up on a train and Honey is calling frantically for help . Bosko is growing more agitated watching this and finally shouts , " I'll save you , Honey ! " and jumps into and through the screen ! This is an enjoyable and entertaining short . I hope it ultimately sees release on a future volume of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection series . Recommended . |
579,965 | 583,640 | 23,834 | 7 | The parts are better than the sum , but there are some nice bits here | This short is worth watching for some nice parts , though the cartoon as a whole is just okay , for reasons I will go into below . Consider this a spoiler warning : The beginning basically makes it fairly clear that much of what follows is a dream sequence , as Bosko is in a rocking chair reading tales of yore about when knighthood was in flower and then falls asleep to a song on the radio and we see him in armor ( armor which turns out to have more personality and energy than Bosko himself does ) coming up to King Arthur's castle . There's a nice bit that may or may not be an allusion to Joe E . Brown ( big mouth and all ) and Bosko does a riff on Cab Calloway when greeting the Knights of the Round Table , who include , interestingly enough , caricatures of the Four Marx Brothers ! There's a song , of course , and Bosko tap dances ( along with several suits of armor ) and this allows for some very good bits . The short may have been better had they stuck to this " plot " , but they chose instead to have the requisite bad guy fancy Honey and make off with her ( why so many bad guys try to do this is a mystery , as Honey's " appeal " is on a par with Olive Oyl's ) which sets up the chase and action sequences , the best part of which is Bosko's armor , with two wonderful gags I won't spoil here . The fight to rescue Honey doesn't go well for Bosko , who is fortunate that it's all been a dream . The real ending has Bosko destroy a suit of armor , sing a few lines of a song , jump into bed , pull the sheets up and the bed lifts back up into the wall , where the audience sees a chamberpot which was under the bed . I hope this makes it onto a future Looney Tunes Golden Collection , as there aren't too many shorts which feature caricatures of the Four Marx Brothers . Well worth watching . |
579,967 | 583,640 | 23,833 | 7 | This short is probably better than I found it to be , because I can't look at it fresh | This is actually probably a very good short , but I can't help but view it with a bit of a " ho hum " attitude for reasons I'll discuss below . There will be spoilers : Bosko is getting ready for a race as Honey reads the papers about the race . While this is a nice short and it looks very good visually in a number of spots , I can't muster the enthusiasm for it that it probably deserves , because I've seen the basic premise executed much more effectively in other shorts ( most notably in Porky's Road Race ) by Warner Brothers and by Fleischer Studios in a Betty Boop short , the title of which escapes me at the moment . So while there are some nice gags , like Bosko " tuning " his car with the aid of a piano and later on his changing of a flat by first using a cat as a make-shift jack , unzipping the tire and swapping out inner-tubes , too many of the gags are similar to other gags I've seen in other shorts , where they were more effectively done . I like this cartoon very much in any case and think it most definitely deserves to have an audience . I hope it comes out on a future Looney Tunes Golden Collection . Recommended . |
579,962 | 583,640 | 23,831 | 7 | Very musical short , even for a Bosko | While Bosko shorts were frequently very musically oriented ( often having Bosko " make " music in unusual ways , with animals and inanimate objects like stepping stones as " instruments " ) , this one is particularly musical in nature . It's actually a fairly interesting short with some very enjoyable and rather quirky gags . I will discuss some details , so this is a spoiler warning : The short opens with Bosko half running , half skipping through a field , pulling petals from a flower and singing " She Loves Me , She Loves Me Not " . Bruno is running after him ( though , strangely enough , Bruno vanishes when Bosko reaches Honey's place ) . The action cuts to Honey's before Bosko gets there , with Honey humming and dusting , which she does thoroughly , down to dusting a fish ! At one point , she does a Mae West impersonation . Bosko shows up and Honey points out a painting of the The Three Musketeers , at which point Bosko pulls out an umbrella and brandishes it like a sword . As Honey sings , " You Might Be a Soldier " , the scene dissolves into a fight with Bosko dressed as a musketeer crossing swords with several adversaries . After vanquishing them , he goes to a pub to meet up with the Three Musketeers ( Athos , Amos and Andy ) and they break out in a song about themselves . There are some very nice gags in this sequence , a couple involving mice and one involving drinking . Then Honey enters , modestly announcing , " Here I am , you lucky people ! " and begins dancing to yet another tune . She attracts the attention of the requisite bad guy , who grabs her . Bosko comes over to defend her and there's a sword fight . Lots of visual gags ( at one point the villain's sword goes from being a rapier to being a cutlass ) in the fight scene , with Bosko eventually coming out the victor . The ending pair of lines are the set up and punchline for an old vaudeville comedy routine . I hope this eventually winds up on one of the Looney Tunes Golden Collections at some point . Recommended . |
579,023 | 583,640 | 152,037 | 7 | Unusual " cheater " redeemed by a good ending . | This is the first of three rather atypical " cheater " cartoons , which use footage from three Popeyes produced in the 1930s by Fleischer Brothers Studios but frame the footage with roughly two or three minutes of new animation done by Famous Studios ! As there is less distance in time between this pairing ( Aladdin and his Magic Lamp was the third Popeye " special " , done in 1938 , while this short was one in 1949 ) and , at the time , Famous Studios still had some spark of creativity , the gap between old and new material was not as notable , although the sheer magic of Popeye Meets Sinbad the Sailor makes Big Bad Sinbad slightly better than Popeye's Premiere . This one works better as a unit , though , with the framing material of better quality and with a fairly decent plot . The ending is certainly the most imaginative of the three . By the early 1950s , Famous Studios was going through the motions and it really shows . I think that this cartoon marks the beginning of the end , at least for Popeye . For completeists and major Popeye fans only . |
579,530 | 583,640 | 24,050 | 7 | Decent early Cubby the Bear short | This is a Van Beuren studio release . Van Beuren was more or less the basement as far as studios go . With Disney occupying the penthouse at this point in time and really only Lantz and Fliescher providing any real competition ( Warner Brothers and MGM really hadn't hit their stride yet ) . Even Terrytoons wasn't quite as bad ( yet ) as Van Beuren got . I want to discuss some details here , so consider this a spoiler warning : Cubby is a gaucho in this one . His horse actually displays more personality than he does in this one . Cubby goes into a cantina and there follow most of the standard barroom jokes found in cartoons in the 1930s . Bad guys come along and Cubby and his girlfriend wind up being chased , of course . There are some decent visuals here and an interesting bit with Cubby's horse and a tree he's trying to use to stop a runaway coach . But , overall , the whole is a bit less than the sum of its parts . It's a good cartoon-for a Van Beuren , anyway . The ending is a rather disappointing cheat , in my opinion , but the short is worth seeing in any case . |
579,890 | 583,640 | 41,938 | 7 | This has got to be one of the most unfortunate cats of all time ! | This short is reasonably entertaining and the cat in this one ( if I'm not mistaken ) is the same one featured in Early To Bet . He needs a good medical plan or he needs to retire , because he's singularly unlucky . Because I want to discuss some of the details , this is a spoiler warning : You have a situation which you think would be ideal for a cat-the swallows are returning to San Juan Capistrano-Meals on Wings , as it were . But even with the assistance of radar , this cat hasn't got a prayer-one bird beats him at almost every turn . Instead of dining on a swallow , this poor soul gets a jack-in-the-box and a painted metal figurine , with disastrous and painful consequences ( for the cat-for the bird and the audience , it's hysterical ) . Even when he finally manages to trap the swallow on a piece of flypaper , he still can't catch a break , because then all the other swallows show up to save the first one and bomb the cat with light bulbs and tacks before they pick him up and carry him up to drop him from on high . So he turns to drinking instead . This short is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection , Volume 4 and is well worth watching . It and the Collection are recommended . |
579,474 | 583,640 | 30,520 | 7 | Interesting , but flawed , as the series was overall | The problems with taking a known source material from one medium and attempting to translate it to another are manifold . Aside from a built-in fan base for the original work ready to pounce with sometimes malicious glee on the adaptation and tear it to shreds with flensing knives , there is the definite prospect that the adaptation doesn't work well between the differing media . From static media to active media ( i . e . , print to film ) the transition requirements are challenging , to say the least . As far as animation goes , Betty Boop and Popeye made the leap successfully and Der Captain and the Kids did not , in part for the same reasons : the Fleischer Studio seemed to understand the source material better than MGM did Der Captain and the Kids , for one thing . But more importantly , Betty Boop and Popeye are more dynamic personalities with greater room to grow in the new medium , while Der Captain and the Kids had characters that were less dynamic and more stereotypical and thus gave the animators and writers less to work with . Ironically , the best proof of this comes from the pre-Code and post-Code changes in Betty Boop . As Betty's personality and trademarks were slowly erased to make her tamer and come in line with the Code , the shorts became more mediocre . Der Captain and the Kids , without that much to work with to begin with ( ethnic characters tend to become one-note quickly unless the writers and directors have an excellent feel for the material ) , forced the studio to resort to other means and materials to make shorts work , as the main characters were limited . The fatal error was focusing all too much on Der Captain , the character who works least well on screen , being more one-dimensional to start with . The horse , Smokey , is a more fully developed character than anyone else in the short and far more interesting than Der Captain , who is more caricature than character and gets what little character he has from Billy Bletcher's voice work . Good , but far from great , short with a few moments . Worth watching , but nothing special . |
579,885 | 583,640 | 30,503 | 7 | Notable chiefly for being Chuck Jones's directorial debut-cute , but not compelling | This is a very cute cartoon , but not an especially interesting short on its own merits . The chief point of interest here is as the very first cartoon which Chuck Jones directed . As I will mention some details , there will be mild spoilers : The basic premise of this short is that the regular night watchman , a full-grown cat , is sick and can't make his rounds and so the task falls to his young son . To say that the mice are less than concerned about the new night watchman would be an understatement . They're bigger , meaner and tougher than the little cat and bully him mercilessly . This turn of events means that they have pretty much got free run of the kitchen for most of the short . There are a few cute food-related sight gags , but the short is a bit flatter and less energetic than you would expect , though , to be fair , if you look at it without comparing it to later work by Jones , it comes off looking a good deal better . The ending is all rather predictable , though fun to watch for the most part . This isn't a bad short , it just pales in comparison to the work which would come later , though it does make clear that Jones was interested in the cute and sentimental from the beginning . This was probably the genesis of the Sniffles shorts done a bit later . This short is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection , Volume 4 and is worth a look . The Collection , as with the previous three volumes , is most highly recommended . |
579,359 | 583,640 | 59,254 | 7 | Has a few moments , but nothing special . | I suspect that this one could easily have been titled , " Hey , we got a contract that calls for so many cartoons , that's why ! " without too much trouble . By this point , they were basically just doing whatever they could to meet quota . This isn't that bad a cartoon , it's just that the early stuff is so much better , it suffers by comparison . They did quite a few worse , as well as some that were very good . Worth watching at least once . Formulaic but okay . Sort of recommended . |
578,846 | 583,640 | 35,148 | 7 | One of a series of sports-related Goofy shorts | This was part of a series of shorts , some very good and others , like this one ( yawn ) not as effective . While it's an interesting idea , there isn't a great deal of energy to this one ( yawn ) and it just sort of sleepwalks along ( yawn ) to the end . If I keep writing this much longer , I'll fall asleep at the keyboard , so you'll have to excuse me . It is worth watching for the animation , though . |
579,163 | 583,640 | 151,893 | 7 | Early Woody Woodpecker | This short , also available on a great many public domain tapes under the alternate title of Pantry Panic , is proof that the difference between predator and prey is a matter of who is the hungriest . Entertaining but unexceptional . Fairly easy to find . Worth watching . Recommended if you like Woody . |
579,329 | 583,640 | 30,589 | 7 | Visually impressive in spots , if way too cute for its own good in others . | This is an interesting take on the perils of smoking ( done some 65 years ago ) and is a very nice cartoon , particularly some of the visual sequences . But the cartoon is entirely too precious in spots for its own good . It isn't a bad cartoon , but the dichotomy of cute one moment and eerie the next is far too great a gulf for this short to work very well . Roger Corman pulled it off in some of his features simply by shooting for humor rather than sugary sweet , as they do here . Worth watching , though . Recommended to fans of the MGM Harman / Ising days . |
579,858 | 583,640 | 153,618 | 7 | Has its moments , but just an okay cartoon . | This short is funny and entertaining and is thus worth watching , but really isn't one of the studio's crowning glories . But then , the Lantz studios turned out almost 600 cartoons for theatrical release in roughly 50 years , so not everything could be a jewel . Worth watching , particularly for fans of Woody . Recommended . |
579,840 | 583,640 | 39,338 | 7 | While a good cartoon , this is not one of the better ones | The fact that this was nominated for an Oscar puzzles me somewhat , as it wasn't one of the better Tom and Jerry cartoons . It wasn't even the best one that year ( Invisible Mouse was much better ) . The ending , which is creative , makes this worth watching , but that's the most memorable part of the short . |
578,945 | 583,640 | 32,794 | 7 | While a decent cartoon , it probably shouldn't have won the Oscar . | This cartoon is done reasonably well , is enjoyable enough and worth seeing , but , although I can understand why it won ( monumentally cute with well-drawn backgrounds and the closest thing to a Disney style short that was nominated ) , I don't think it should have . It's competition included the very first Tom and Jerry and a Bugs Bunny directed by Tex Avery . The Tom and Jerry should have won hands down . The Milky Way has some nice touches , but the other two were more interesting and more novel for the time . Oh , well . The Academy has got more right than wrong in Animated Short over the years . This one shows on The Cartoon Network from time to time . |
579,830 | 583,640 | 21,701 | 7 | Average cartoon saved by a very good ending . | This is a very early , formative , Betty Boop and Bimbo . Though it's fairly clear that Bimbo was the character the Fleischers were trying to build a series around initially , it's equally obvious that Betty Boop is a much more effective and engaging character than he could ever be . Bimbo really isn't that interesting , even in support . Though there are some nice gags here ( the type of gags the Fleischers did so well and that became the trademarks of the studio , more or less ) , the cartoon isn't that memorable in and of itself until the ending . It's a good thing that another actress did the voicework here , because her voice suits the song at the end better than Mae Questel's would have . The ending is worth sitting through the rest of the short . Part of the Definitive Collection . Worth watching . |
578,960 | 583,640 | 26,499 | 7 | Great visuals , charming ( if dated ) sight gags and jokes . | This is a very cute cartoon that allows Iwerks to make full use of his color system . Charming , if by now overly familiar , sight gags and beautiful detail work make this an entertaining effort from the studio . The colors hold up very well almost 70 years later and match up with Disney for the most part rather favorably . Good to have in print and available . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,511 | 583,640 | 54,720 | 7 | Sylvester is particularly unfortunate in this short | This short has Sylvester once again trying to catch Speedy , this time in order to prevent him stealing cheese from the store he's protecting . In reality , it's Sylvester himself who needs protection-from himself and Speedy ! As I want to discuss this short in some detail , this is a spoiler warning : The short opens with two mice sleeping in a sardine can . As Jose and Manuel wake up , they begin to ponder where breakfast is coming from , each in turn trying to suggest something , only to have the other shoot the idea down before they even finish . This bit has a beautiful finish , with the two saying ( in unison ) " How about . . . ? " and then simultaneously saying " No ! " They then spot a " Cheese party " being thrown by Mayor Raton , but they are tossed out by the Mayor himself . So they watch from the wall instead . Catastrophe strikes when the " Cheese Committee " comes in looking rather battered and they tell the mayor there's no cheese because there's a new cat . Manuel and Jose offer to summon Speedy to get the cheese-for a favor , to which the mayor agrees . This starts a very bad day for Sylvester . First , Sylvester tries to stop Speedt by simply blocking him , only to have Speedy run under him so fast that it strips him of fur and leaves the words , " Speedy was here ! " spelled out on Sylvester's stomach with what's left of his fur . Adding insult to injury , Speedy does the same thing on his way out , across his behind , this time spelling , " Also Here ! " . Sylvester then tries to lay a series of traps , all of which backfire , including spreading tacks , trying to use a cannon and filling a room with mousetraps . This last is particularly ill-conceived , as Sylvester winds up cornered by his own traps and Speedy then tosses in a ping pong ball to trigger a massive chain reaction . The only one with regrets after any of this is Sylvester . Speedy gets enough cheese to save the fiesta , is given a medal by the grateful mayor and Jose and Manuel get " jobs " as the official " Cheese Inspectors " . Speedy , however , gets the last laugh , as he's been appointed " Chick Inspector " and is last seen with a pretty senorita mouse at his side and a rather large grin ! This short is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection , Volume 4 and is well worth seeing . Recommended . |
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