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579,691 | 583,640 | 30,314 | 8 | Reminiscent of the old Warner Brothers " college " musicals of the 1930s | This is a cute , rather charming musical short patterned after things like Along Flirtation Walk and Varsity Show . The lead character , Johnny , might as well have " Dick Powell " stenciled on his forehead and the professor reminds me of Kay Kyser . The music is infectious and entertaining , even if the plot is as thin as a piece of gauze . Come to think of it , the plots of those old musicals this is patterned after are pretty much just as thin and this is much shorter than those were ! Warner Brothers made a fair number of these musical cartoons , because the animation department had access to the entire musical catalog for the studio and the studio big-wigs saw the shorts as a way to remind people of Warner Brothers features and music ( sheet music was popular and the sheet music for songs made a pretty for all involved in the loop-composers , film studio , etc . ) by keeping songs fresh in the public's memory . This is on Looney Tunes Golden Collection , Vol . 2 and is well worth seeing . Recommended . |
579,833 | 583,640 | 39,263 | 8 | The best of the Chip ' n Dale series , But I still prefer The Goofy Gophers | This short , nominated for an Oscar in 1947 , is probably the best Chip ' n Dale cartoon done . It helps that Donald Duck is the antagonist , giving the cartoon personality the title characters largely lack . The Warner Brothers creation of The Goofy Gophers is far more lively and entertaining for me . Worth watching |
579,518 | 583,640 | 37,319 | 8 | If seeing Elmer playing Cupid and shooting Daffy with suction cup-tipped arrows is your idea of fun , this is the cartoon for you-and you need to get out more ! | This is a very funny cartoon , pitting two of the Looney Tunes stars against each other in a somewhat unusual battle of wills . Because I want to discuss some of the details of this short , this is a spoiler warning : The opening shows a very cherubic-looking Elmer Fudd , flitting around and shooting animals with arrows to make them fall in love . All goes well ( at least from " Cupid's " perspective ) until he comes face to face with Daffy Duck , who launches into a particularly inspired rant about his life before and after his last encounter with the arrow-aiming menace to an orderly society , which he feels ruined a carefree single life . He closes by punctuating his point , using Elmer himself to do so . Obviously , at this point , the gauntlet has been flung down . Elmer shoots Daffy and Daffy starts chasing after a very unsettled hen . Said hen is married , to a large and very disturbed rooster , who pointedly wants to know why Daffy is after HIS wife . Daffy explains to the rooster and his " charming Mrs . " that his behavior is the fault of that " stupid Cupid " , explains that he's also a family man-complete with a carload of his brood as evidence and generally grovels shamelessly ( which is infinitely better than picking up your beak from the floor after a jealous rooster punches you into next Thursday ) until the rooster allows that it might just all be an innocent misunderstanding . The rooster lets Daffy go and Daffy goes out gratefully-only to be shot by Elmer again and interpose himself between rooster and hen in the midst of their reconciliation . The visual scene here is marvelous and Daffy is in trouble again ! This short is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection , Volume 4 and is well worth seeing-and so are all four of the Looney Tunes Golden Collections which have been released thus far . I truly hope that all of the remaining Warner Brothers shorts eventually find a home on future Golden Collections . Recommended . |
579,709 | 583,640 | 34,925 | 8 | Cute , well animated cartoon . | This short , nominated for an Academy Award , is a very cute ( almost too cute in spots ) , very well animated cartoon . Given its title , an excellent use of music is to be expected and that's precisely what you have-the animation and score going hand in glove smoothly , like a single unit , a strength of the Lantz studio in particular , although they were hardly alone . All of the major studios did the same , but Lantz and Warner Brothers were probably the best at matching music and animation rhythms . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,852 | 583,640 | 41,618 | 8 | Second short done by UPA for Columbia and the second Academy Award nomination for UPA ! | In the late 1940s , Columbia decided to farm out the production of their animated shorts and UPA offered to do them . Columbia had visions of just continuing along the same lines as before and do cartoons heavily weighted towards the standard talking anthropomorphic animals and made it clear they wanted the Fox and Crow characters to continue . UPA really didn't want to just do the same old thing , but needed the contract , so the first two shorts they made were Fox and Crow , but both were atypical of the series Columbia had done previously . This is the second ( and last ) Fox and Crow UPA made and both are very good . The third short UPA made proved so popular ( and more lucrative for Columbia ) that they saw the light and gave UPA their head and let them do pretty much what they wanted , as long as it made a profit . The third cartoon ? Ragtime Bear , which featured the first appearance of one Quincy Magoo and the rest , as they say , is history . Magic Fluke is a funny , well animated marvel and worth watching . Recommended . |
578,912 | 583,640 | 12,985 | 8 | Technically fascinating short starring Koko the Clown | Fliescher Studios ( or more accurately , Max Fliescher ) created a number of memorable characters , with Popeye and / or Betty Boop the most well-known these days . Come to that , Popeye isn't theirs , but that of a comic strip artist named Segar . But I digress . For my money , in many ways , the best and most memorable of their stars was Koko the Clown . He was the first continuing character they had , starting out in the silents as a lead in shorts like this one and getting a second chance in sound cartoons as a secondary character in quite a few Betty Boop shorts . Koko was a fascinating character tailor-made for silents , as the clown persona was perfect for the surreal nature of the early Fliescher shorts . Bubbles is a very good example of the early efforts . Nothing else is even remotely similar to an early Fliescher cartoon . Bubbles is a relatively simple story with great visual imagery and holds up well some 80 years later . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,027 | 583,640 | 18,150 | 8 | Early Disney , with Oswald the Rabbit | No doubt , some people believe Walt Disney started with a certain mouse and , in one sense , they'd be right-Disney started working more or less as an independent in 1928 and Plane Crazy , the first Mickey , was his first effort . But Disney actually did shorts for a number of years under contract , until Charles Mintz basically offered Disney a deal he had to refuse , that Mintz probably intended he refuse from the beginning . The character of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was the principal character and series Disney was doing for his contract with Mintz , but Disney didn't hold the rights to Oswald and lost him when the deal didn't renew . Had the deal renewed , while Mickey would likely have developed anyway , the attention would have continued to be with Waldo and Disney would have taken a different road . Of such things is history made . Exit rabbit enter mouse . As for this cartoon , it's a very good early Disney silent . Fairly good sight gags and good imagination from the animators to make the short funny even with no sound and the inherent limitations ( and advantages ) that lack caused . Good fun and you could see glimpses of the Disney touch . Well worth seeing . Recommended for animation fans . |
579,086 | 583,640 | 234,588 | 8 | Bizarre , episodic and somewhat uneven short , but hilarious in spots and worth watching | Rejected is a short composed of short bits that are basically animated " blackout " gags that sometimes leave you rolling on the floor and occasionally will have you blinking and scratching your head . The ending plays with the concept that an animated film is only as stable as its animator's mind and is probably the best section of the short . Inexplicably , the Cartoon Network contracted for the US broadcast rights , sat on it for roughly a year before putting it on their schedule and then yanked it shortly before the scheduled airing with no real explanation . I wonder if anyone at Cartoon Network even saw the short before they bought the broadcast rights . I saw the short as part of The Animation Show and also got the DVD release that Bitter Films put together . There's supposed to be another DVD release later this year containing all of Hertzfeldt's shorts , including Rejected . The short is most definitely worth seeing , though it is most definitely for adults more than children . Recommended . |
579,254 | 583,640 | 47,353 | 8 | Cute cartoon , but the original source story is better | While this cartoon , nominated for an Oscar , is a good adaptation of a classic short story with the same title and is very cute and worth seeing , the source material ( Butler's story ) is simply marvelous and should also be read . Disney did a good job in adaptation , given their track record for adaptations . Worth watching , this runs periodically on The Ink and Paint Club on the Disney Channel . |
579,760 | 583,640 | 32,033 | 8 | A very good Avery short which is now available on DV | I don't think Tex Avery directed a bad cartoon . While this one isn't one of my absolute favorites , it's still a very good cartoon ( which basically makes it a cartoon that a lot of directors would be pleased to have considered as one of their best ) . I want to discuss some of the specific details here , so here there be spoilers : The title strikes me as a play on the movie title Angels With Dirty Faces , the main caricature is one of Edward G . Robinson and the short is a very good send-up of the gangster movies that were popular in the 1930s . But it's clearly a Tex Avery short first and foremost . When a police officer is shown in silhouette appearing to strike someone and saying , " Take that you rat ! And that ! And that ! " and the picture becomes clear that he's actually throwing cheese to a rat sitting on a stool , that's an Avery moment . Then the officer says , " That's all you get-I need the rest for my lunch ! " and the rat begins to throw a tantrum and cry ! This short is full of those types of gags , from beginning to end , though they don't quite come quite as fast and furious as they would later on in his career . Call it a formative Avery-he was beginning to find his style a bit more around this time . Throughout the cartoon , he takes various conventions of film in general and the gangster genre in particular and turns them on their ear . Newspaper headlines spin in with headlines which are usually funny while ostensibly advancing the " plot " , a movie theater patron who came in in the middle of the picture tries to get up and leave , only to be ordered back to his seat by " Killer " and then informs the police what the " Killer " has planned because he's already seen the ending ! The final newspaper headline and closing gags are priceless ! This short is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection , Vol . 3 and is well worth getting . Recommended . |
579,459 | 583,640 | 152,483 | 8 | Could you possibly make any more noise ? | This is an excellent short featuring the hapless Wally Walrus butting heads with the manic Woody Woodpecker . Since I want to discuss details here , this is your spoiler warning : Wally is going to bed at just about the same time that Woody is waking up-Wally is a day sleeper and Woody is a night sleeper . Thus , Wally wants quiet while Woody is up and about-which is like asking for snow in Death Valley for the Fourth of July ! Most unlikely in the extreme . Woody is awoken by a cuckoo clock figurine splashing water on him . He decides he's going to mow his lawn and so sets off down the hallway pushing his mower and singing an aria at the top of his lungs . Understandably , this gets Wally's attention and he grabs Woody and asks him the question I used in my subject line . Woody proceeds to show him that he can , indeed , make far more noise than he had been and the battle is joined . Woody begins mowing his lawn and Wally has a bit of bad luck with a hand grenade . Woody gathers up his cuttings and proceeds to build a bonfire , the smoke from which infiltrates Wally's bedroom in various way , with predictable ( and comic ) results . Finally the smoke starts coming out various parts of Wally's bed-frame , making it sound for all the world like a pipe organ . Eventually , the little redheaded noisemaker must go off to sleep and that's when Wally gets even in the funniest part of the short , so I won't spoil that here . This was released on DVD at least once , so it may be located with some effort . Highly recommended . |
578,906 | 583,640 | 20,053 | 8 | Mickey was a somewhat different character in his early days | This is one of the early Mickey shorts and Mickey has a bit more of an edge to his personality in these early shorts than does the mouse most people would readily recognize as Mickey . The backgrounds and other things in the scenes are different too , such as the hot dogs Mickey sells . Very good and entertaining short , this runs on Ink and Paint Club and may wind up on DVD in the not too distant future . Well worth seeking out . Recommended . |
579,160 | 583,640 | 152,458 | 8 | Wally Walrus makes a good foil for Woody . | Of the various characters Woody has run-ins with , Wally Walrus is probably the best foil for him , as the funniest situations arise when Woody makes a pest of himself for whatever reason and Wally is the perfect character for such antics . The personality lends itself well to a good slow burn . One of the better shorts with Wally and fairly typical . Well worth hunting up to watch . Recommended . |
579,273 | 583,640 | 56,932 | 8 | Excellent Speedy short . | With this Speedy cartoon , almost everything just clicks . This is one of the better ones made in the 1960s . Sylvester is an excellent choice as a foil for Speedy and Speedy , who is really kind of bland when you think about it a bit , actually is kind of interesting in this one . Though the best Speedys have an ancillary character that makes the cartoon special ( like Slowpoke Rodriguez , for example ) this one is good enough without one to be memorable . But if Daffy were the adversary , it would have died of boredom inside of the first three minutes , tops . Worth the time to track down . Recommended . |
578,828 | 583,640 | 111,201 | 8 | The more obvious attractions aside , watch this for the Australian flora and fauna as well as Tara Fitzgerald's performance . | While much has been made of the three models appearances in this film ( particularly Elle MacPherson ) , it's actually reasonably good , although Kate Fischer's socialist - with - a - chip - on - her - shoulder gets tiresome quickly . The scenery ( Australian flora and fauna , of course . Whatever did you think I meant ? ) is beautiful and is really featured to advantage . But you should see this for Tara Fitzgerald's performance . Hugh Grant is OK , Sam Neill seems bored with it all , but Tara Fitzgerald as Grant's oh-so-proper wife steals the show ! She's marvelous ! ! Recommended . |
579,637 | 583,640 | 53,080 | 8 | Good use of limited-animation , but the dialogue becomes tedious after a while . | This cartoon deservedly won an Oscar for Animated Short in 1959 . It came about in an intriguing way-John and Faith Hubley taped their two sons at play and structured the animation around the conversation between the two . Fascinating though this is ( and the animation is excellent ) , toward the lattr part of the short , the dialogue starte to become tedious and distracting , at least to me . This technique would be used again to quite good effect in later shorts . Still an excellent short and most recommended . |
579,573 | 583,640 | 22,423 | 8 | Visually excellent and reminiscent of Skeleton Dance . | This is a very good cartoon in many respects , but it's virtually impossible to avoid comparing it to Skeleton Dance , which is a shame , because this cartoon is lessened in the comparison ( almost anything would be-Skeleton Dance was the first Silly Symphonies and is one of the great animated works of all time ) . Part of the problem is the " star " of the short-all too often , Flip the Frog has all the charm and personality of wet mulch . Here , he's principally a prop , a target for sight gags . The short would have been better served with no Flip , no dialog and more sight gags , but then the similarities to Skeleton Dance would be even more pronounced . Besides , Iwerks was trying to develop a recurring character , like Disney had with Mickey . Without Flip , the cartoon wouldn't exist . Still , making Flip more interesting ( as they were able to do in other shorts ) would have differentiated it from Skeleton Dance more and thus made it an even better short . Visually a treat in any case , even with Flip's blandness as the trick here . Well worth watching , glad it's in print and most recommended . Happy Hallowe'en ! |
578,957 | 583,640 | 35,812 | 8 | Typical early Woody Woodpecker short | This short , nominated for an Academy Award , is pretty much standard for an early Woody-put Woody in a normal locale ( as here , a circus / carnival ) , introduce a nemesis and watch the manic antics of your star drive them to distraction . Good , but the personality of Woody is still a bit too one-note at this point . Worth tracking down . Recommended . |
579,430 | 583,640 | 45,100 | 8 | This cartoon has the distinction of being the first from the NFBC nominated for an Oscar | This short is the first to be nominated for Cartoon Short for the Oscar that was produced by the National Film Board of Canada . Fairly funny and well-done ( I doubt I'll ever see one produced by the NFBC that's actively bad ) , it has a certain charm , but is really not terribly significant otherwise . Worth Watching . |
579,398 | 583,640 | 30,196 | 8 | Donald as scoutmaster ; his usualcharming , genial self ! | In this short , nominated for an Oscar , Donald is the Scout leader of a troop consisting of his nephews , Huey , Dewey and Louey . As is typically the case , Donld is affable , good-natured , even-tempered and thoroughly prepared . Cartoondom's most prominent case of coronary thrombosis in waiting , its ' poster child for hypertension , is in rare form . The boys are better equipped than he is for what happens on their hike . The end of the short is hilarious . This runs from time to time on The Ink and Paint Club and is well worth watching . |
579,911 | 583,640 | 30,201 | 8 | Good , but not great , short about Father Damian | This short , nominated for an Academy Award , is a look at the true story of a Belgian priest who went to tend to lepers in Hawaii and contracted the disease himself . At least one film has been made about Father Damien and it's a fascinating story . Thi short is good , if a bit melodramatic at times and the narration is sometimes a bit droning . Turner Classic Movies runs this between movies regularly and almost invariably runs it in March as part of their " 31 Days of Oscar " feature . Worth watching . |
579,281 | 583,640 | 25,807 | 8 | Some great visuals and a few really funny sight gags make this worth watching . | This is a really funny early Popeye , with some really excellent visual effects . Swee ' Pea is making life most unhappy for all concerned-himself , Popeye and all the poor souls Popeye silences in order for the little noisemaker to stay asleep ( a consummation devoutly to be wished ) and thus to be silent . Costello is okay as Popeye here , though he never really did very well in my view . I'm not sure he understood the character terribly well . All in all , a fairly good cartoon largely consisting of sight gags of a fairly violent nature . Good early effort and worth seeing . Recommended . |
579,225 | 583,640 | 22,430 | 8 | Interesting film that points up the need to sometimes face temporary personal risk in return for the greater good | This film , an early William Wellman , has an important message , particularly today . It posits the notion that sometimes there are things more important than your own personal safty or well-being . The film , which has Walter Huston as the lead , is stolen by the performance of " Chic " Sales as Grampa . He's the most completely drawn character in the film and a joy to watch . You'll recognize some familiar faces if you watch many movies from the ' 20's and ' 30's . Wel worh your time to watch if you get the opportunity . Recommended . |
579,238 | 583,640 | 152,556 | 8 | Popeye fights a Nazi submarine ; guess who wins . | This short , one of a handful done by Paramount Famous Studios in black and white , is fairly effective propaganda and uses the black and white to best advantage with shadows and shadings . While the overall value of even a rowboat full of spinach versus , say , munitions , to Britain at that time and place is an open question , Popeye's patriotic fervor is not . An excellent use of Popeye for the war effort . Well worth tracking down . Recommended . |
579,873 | 583,640 | 152,557 | 8 | An early example of a good Paramount Popeye " cheater " | This is one of the early color Popeye shorts done by Paramount and is a " cheater " - a cartoon made that uses footage taken from an earlier short in order to save time and / or money . Give the shortages in mateial and manpower ( WWII was still going on ) , it was probably done to save both . Although the clips are taken from two of the three color two-reelers done by Fleischer Studios , they are short and the surrounding new material is good enough that it can hold its own with the clips . Later cheaters done by Paramount don't fare as well . Very good cartoon . The ending is a bit trite , but it's still worth watching . Recommended . |
578,848 | 583,640 | 39,623 | 8 | Mickey and Minnie go steppin ' out | This short is by no means a classic , but it is entertaining and has a cute and ( for me ) an offbeat ending . Sight gags for the most part , this is amusing , if light , occasionally popping up on The Ink and Paint Club . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,660 | 583,640 | 47,275 | 8 | One of my personal favorite Tom and Jerry cartoons | Granted , this is not an exceptional Tom and Jerry . I just happen to like it a great deal . It's a cute , exceptionally violent ( and therefore standard ) Tom and Jerry . The little mouse who shows Tom and Jerry around Naples is an interesting ( and formidable ) character and it is a bit different from the average Tom and Jerry . Besides , how many times to you get to see Tom scolded by a mouse in Italian ? ! Recommended |
579,047 | 583,640 | 51,108 | 8 | Excellent musical cartoons | This is actually two cartoons inside a framing device and the two cartoons are basically animated songs . In fact , in my opinion , the song for Jamaica Daddy is more memorable than most of the Best Song nominees for the 1957 Oscars ! The cartoon is on one of the Columbia Classics Series although not listed on the box . The one in question also has Robin Hoodlum and The Tell-Tale Heart among others . The whole tape is excellent and Trees and Jamaica Daddy are delightful . |
579,154 | 583,640 | 74,256 | 8 | A cute and enjoyable movie-almost to cute | This is a very cute and enjoyable movie , quite possibly the only one in a very small sub-genre in the genre of gangster films-a musical gangster movie cast entirely with children . The cast is notable principally by the presence of Jodie Foster ( as a side note , this was released the same year as was Taxi Driver ! ) and Scott Baio , the musical score was done by Paul Wiliams ( who was nominated for an Oscar for his efforts here ) and the costumes are quite nice . One thing about the music : I've seen this several times and I still can't be sure if the cast is singing or if the singing is dubbed . I think it's dubbed , as the numbers are almost stiltedin nature . Still fun-just put your brain on neutral and enjoy . Well worth watching . |
578,867 | 583,640 | 24,354 | 8 | Good cartoon built around classical music | This short features Rubinoff , who was on the Eddie Cantor radio program , basically the equivalent of a cross between what Ed McMahon and Doc Severinson were for Johnny Carson . The animation is good , even if the storyline was a bit long in the tooth even in 1933 . Enjoyable for the sight gags . Well worth watching . In print and available . Recommended . |
579,632 | 583,640 | 25,840 | 8 | Very good display of trick shots in bowling by a master | This short was nominated for an Oscar as a novelty short . It's basically showing a very good bowler doing the trick shots he was well-known for at the time . Andy Varipapa was a professional bowler who made a decent living doing shows from town to town performing trick shots in front of audiences and this features some of his better ones . Pete Smith's narration is well-suited here . This runs on Turner Classic Movies periodically and almost always in March as filler between movies . Recommended . |
579,486 | 583,640 | 25,842 | 8 | Very good cartoon , even with William Costello as Popeye | The early Fleischer cartoons were visually superb for the most part . They were still more or less breaking in the Popeye series at this point and still just getting by with William Costello as the voice of Popeye . This one is a very good cartoon that would have been made better if the voice actor had given Popeye a bit more energy or life . The sight gags are great in this , but without visual action , Popeye voiced by Costello would have trouble convincing people to buy $5 . 00 bills for a dime , much less convincing young children to eat spinach . The kids make the short in any case . Good ending makes this worth watching . Recommended . |
578,888 | 583,640 | 41,262 | 8 | One of Tex Avery's most sight-gag oriented cartoons | This cartoon is almost entirely sight-gags and is about a cat willing to go to great lengths to have a bird join him-as dinner ! Only there's one minor inconvenience-a rather large , if somewhat dim , dog watching out for the bird's welfare . Delightfully funny and the ending is just perfect . Personally , I think the cat would have been better off ordering a pizza ! Most recommended . |
578,833 | 583,640 | 43,450 | 8 | Excellent example of a Tex Avery Droopy | This short is an excellent example of Tex Avery's handling of Droopy : Droopy is very quiet , passive and sedate ( almost sedated , actually ) as Spike tries to win a job competition through ways nefarious that never work out as intended . Droopy is just there to provide something to set up the sight gags . You still can't help but like him ( I can't , anyway ) because he's Everyman ( or should that be Everydog ? ) and he generally comes out on top . Good to see it's in print . Well worth seeing . Recommended . |
579,976 | 583,640 | 148,209 | 8 | The further adventures of Gerald McBoing Boing | Gerald McBoing Boing is probably the second most recognizable continuing character created by UPA , after Quincy Magoo . There were only four theatrical shorts made , but there was also a television series done , which is the likely reason there were only four theatrical shorts . While all are good , they're uneven , with this one being somewhat predictable in a sense , to anyone who saw the first cartoon , at any rate . Fascinating and fun to watch anyway , which is the point of making the shorts to begin with . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,790 | 583,640 | 150,123 | 8 | Enjoyable follow-up to Christopher Crumpet | Christopher Crumpet has the most remarkable imagination ! This is a very amusing and quite gentle little cartoon and is well-animated in the limited-animation style of the UPA studio . Not their best short , assuredly , but quite good in any case . Worth watching . Recommended . |
579,407 | 583,640 | 19,975 | 8 | Visually a very nice cartoon which has little in the way of a plot | Given that this is a short which was directed by Ub Iwerks and it's an early sound cartoon , it's hardly surprising that this is , first and foremost , a very visually oriented short . It has some excellent animation and some beautifully rendered creatures . Because I want to discuss the short a bit , this is a spoiler warning : The basic conceit here is simple : a rather comical rendering of Hell , at least for the most part . The beginning is very striking , with sequences showing a dragon and the three-headed dog out of Greek mythology , Cerberus , which shows up on two occasions . They are vividly shown and one of the highlights of the short . Then Satan and his imps start to throw a rather raucous celebration , which is a good showcase for the musical efforts of Carl Stallings , best known for his work for Warner Brothers on the Loony Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons . This is an enjoyable sequence , culminating in imps bringing Satan flaming hot " milk " from a dragon , which he drinks with gusto . As a " reward " for their efforts , Satan proceeds to feed one to one of the heads of Cerberus , with one head getting the imp , the second swallowing and the third licking its chops . Before he can feed a second imp to his hungry guard dog , the imp , perhaps not wishing to go the way of his comrade , suddenly recalls an urgent appointment elsewhere and takes off , with Satan in " hot " pursuit . The imp gets the last laugh by sending Satan tumbling off the end of a cliff . This short is available on the More Silly Symphonies set fro the Disney Treasures series of DVD releases which saw release in December 2006 and it and the DVD set are highly recommended . |
579,242 | 583,640 | 43,341 | 8 | Enjoyable cartoon , with Bruno the Bear the comic attraction | Bugs Bunny always works best when he has a suitably obnoxious opponent and he has one here in Bruno the Magnificent , a vain and egotistical bear who most definitely wants the spotlight all to himself . Enter our hero , stage left , and a series of standard sight gags and some good lines . I loved this cartoon growing up and I'm glad it's in print . Cute short that's worth looking for . Recommended . |
578,878 | 583,640 | 33,724 | 8 | Excellent example of a staple of the early animated shorts | This short is jammed with caricatures of notables-mostly actors and actresses , but J . Edgar Hoover is here too , as are Leopold Stowkowski and Sally Rand . Not only stars ( Gable , Garbo and Grant ) but character actors ( the almost mandatory Ned Sparks appearance is here ) as well . It was an excellent concept , tailor-made for the animators . Their audience would recognize the caricatures and get the jokes easily . This is one of the better ones . Most , if not all the animation studios did at least one or two such shorts . Well worth looking for . Most recommended . |
579,712 | 583,640 | 104,511 | 8 | Very bloody , equally funny , take on vampires and crime . | This is not something I would typically enjoy , but it was recommended to me by someone I trust , so I watched it and was happily surprised . Citizen Kane it isn't , but we already have one of those and not everything has to be Great Cinema anyway . This is a very bloody ( not my cup of tea , so to speak ) , very funny take on vampires and criminals . Good script , good performances , particularly from Parrilaud , Loggia and Don Rickles ( ! ) , playing a lawyers that even other lawyers would give a wide berth to in distaste . What happens to him is hilarious and proof that there can be justice , at least in films ! Watch for the scene with the ambulance attendant and for the blonde nurse in the hospital . Check out the credits for some familiar names . Don't expect Art here , just sit back and have some fun . Recommended . |
578,967 | 583,640 | 147,989 | 8 | Not for the easily offended or the permanently indignant . | There is a great deal about this short to potentially offend almost anyone . Racial stereotypes , drug humor , it isn't a kid's cartoon . It also features some fairly nightmarish images that border on the surreal . Good enough to transcend its star's lack of charisma . Iwerks cartoons are generally visually appealing and they usually managed to be spooky when that was intended . Very good short in a wildly uneven series . Worth watching , unless you have a thin skin . Recommended . |
579,212 | 583,640 | 93,886 | 8 | She wants a guy who looks like me and talks like you . | The line I quoted as the subject line fair rips my heart out every time I hear it in this film , because it is , sadly , all too true in real life . Leaving aside the somewhat improbable romantic outcome ( rarely outside of film does life work things out as it concludes here ) , there is much to recommend this film-the " duels " between Martin and several rather moronic clods , particularly the verbal one in the bar . As a side remark ( semi-spoiler-but only a small one ) : Martin's character has to come up with 20 more creative insulting remarks , but he actually does 25 instead . Not that I'm complaining , mind you , as it's one of the funniest scenes in this film , possibly of Martin's film career . Says a great deal about tolerance , vanity , our own inability to see what's right in front of us while searching for happiness and the value of dreams ( even small ones ) . Not a masterpiece , but a nice little movie in its own weight-class . I like it , for all its implausibility at the end . Recommended . |
579,671 | 583,640 | 25,641 | 8 | Good , though a trifle familiar , short from Disney | This short is an entertaining , very cute bit of animation . It uses a lot of bits used in other shorts , so it's all quite familiar even though I don't recall ever seeing this before . The animation is up to Disney's standards for the time and this is well worth the time to get and watch . Good to see it's in print . Recommended . |
579,567 | 583,640 | 24,547 | 8 | Entertaining early Warner Brothers short | This is an early Warner Brothers black and white , more charming than funny . It more or less did what the studio wanted-it showcased a song from their music library . Not much was expected from the early shorts . Because I want to talk a little about the short , this is a spoiler warning : A little orphan trudges " home " to a beaten up shack , hoping to find something from " Santy Claus " , only to be disappointed at finding nothing . But all is not lost , for who should come up to the door and burst into the title song ? That's right - " Santy Clause " , who , after doing most of the song , invites the orphan back to the North Pole for Christmas . There , we see the standard " toys come to life " , with at least one caricature , of Kate Smith . There are one or two scenes featuring ethnic humor . The close of the short has the orphan saving the day by putting out a Christmas tree fire . During the Depression , there were quite a few such orphans and such an ending would have been enjoyed by audiences of the day . This short is well worth seeing at least once . Recommended . |
579,172 | 583,640 | 152,343 | 8 | See Woody . See a motorcycle cop . See Woody slowly drive the motorcycle cop nuts . | This is an exceptionally manic and entertaining early Woody Woodpecker short , where the voices were done by Mel Blanc . Because I want to discuss some details , this is a spoiler warning : This short has a fairly basic plot-Woody is driving along and comes up on a motorcycle cop hiding and watching for " SPEEEEEDERS ! " . The voice will be familiar to anyone who has watched a few shorts from Warner Brothers , as Mel Blanc used the same voice for a giant in a Bugs Bunny short and one very similar for other rather dense characters . Woody being Woody , he has to mess with the poor cop . There's a speeding gag early on where Woody and his car become a colorful blur with no distinctive outline . The cop and Woody go back and forth about his speeding , with each one making a different and distinctive noise to represent speeding . Most of the rest of the cartoon is spent with the cop trying to catch Woody and the antics of our feathered lunatic in avoiding capture . Ultimately , the poor cop has a nervous breakdown and is hospitalized , where Woody renews his acquaintance with the unfortunate man and reminds him who he is by making his speeding noise once again . This short is available on one of the DVDs released by Columbia House , under an alternate title , Woody's Jalopy . It's well worth seeing . Recommended . |
579,328 | 583,640 | 39,475 | 8 | One of Tex Avery's George and Junior shorts and possibly the best of them . | Tex Avery only created a few continuing characters . This short features a team he developed , George and Junior , patterned after the lead characters in Of Mice and Men , which was a fairly frequent source for inspiration for not only Avery , but other cartoon directors as well . George and Junior aren't too funny in and of themselves , but rather they serve as foils and / or victims for situations and sight gags that are thrown at them . Characters weren't terribly important individually to Avery , what happened around and to them was . Thus , the closest he came to doing a popular character and using them over and over himself , was Droopy . Somewhat ironic , given his role at Warner Brothers in the early years in developing many of the mainstays of the animation department . This is a very good short and fortunately , it's in print . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,944 | 583,640 | 60,862 | 8 | Excellent action-western with a great ensemble cast | This film has a terrific script , a great cast that works well together ( particularly the four lead , Lancaster , Marvin , Ryan and the wonderful and much-underrated Woody Strode ) , excellent production values and fine direction . I don't personally care for too many action movies and can take or leave westerns , but this is a most engaging film . Most recommended . |
579,284 | 583,640 | 47,182 | 8 | Those who can , do ; those who can't , teach in cartoons . | If Jerry is moonlighting here , he'd best not count on keeping his teaching position unless he already has tenure ! Things don't run to form for Jerry as everything he tries to " teach " to " Tuffy " turns out badly for him ( some of it rather painfully so ) and in the end , the student is far more successful . I love the ending . which is 180 degrees opposite the typical Tom and Jerry ! Good sight gags , a fair number centering around The Mouse Formerly Known As Nibbles . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
578,904 | 583,640 | 45,269 | 8 | One of the few enjoyable Chip n ' Dale shorts | Chip n ' Dale are rather static and boring , to me and the Warner Brothers Goofy Gophers are much more entertaining , but they did do a few good shorts , of which this is one . I suspect this is because the rivalry here is realistic and the situation much more interesting . This one's well worth looking for . Recommended . |
579,082 | 583,640 | 41,444 | 8 | I have more fun than people ! | I couldn't resist including one of my favorite lines from an animated short as the subject line of this comment . Since I want to discuss one or two of the scenes in this in a little detail , be warned : Here may be spoilers . Bugs is minding his own business when Elmer arrives with less than gentle or friendly attentions , Bugs flees , with Elmer and his shotgun not far behind . One semi-running gag features Bugs and / or Elmer going around and over people seated in a movie theater row , all the while saying , " Pardon me-excuse me . " The funniest bit is when Bugs is dressed up as a little old lady and when Elmer realizes the little old lady is Bugs , he grabs him and Bugs yells for the usher and says , " This man is annoying me ! " . The usher then calls Elmer a " masher " and throws him bodily out of the theater ! My favorite scene is the one where Bugs utters the line I used as my subject line : Elmer is standing out in front of the doors of the screening room when Bugs turns on the " Intermission " light and the audience streams madly out , trampling Elmer under foot in the process . As the audience smokes in the lobby , Elmer picks himself up and brushes himself off-whereupon Bugs then changes the indicator to " Curtain " and the audience rushes madly back to their seats , running Elmer over again . The pattern repeats , each succeeding series coming more rapidly than the last and somewhere in the middle is when Bugs utters his line , as he is busy throwing the switch that leads the audience to stampede back and forth , with Elmer always underfoot by this point . It's a priceless bit , exquisitely timed . This short in available on Looney Tunes Golden Collection , Vol 3 and is well worth seeing . The Looney Tunes Golden Collections are themselves well worth purchasing . Recommended . |
579,562 | 583,640 | 461,847 | 8 | Intensely moving short with an ending which I'll never forget | This short is a deliberately paced character study , following an older , clearly independent and very stubborn man as he shuts down his farm . His daughter has prevailed upon her parents to move into a retirement home , likely more because she thinks they should rather than because it's the best move for them . No doubt she means well , but good intentions are paving material . Because I can't talk about this without giving some details , even obliquely , consider this a spoiler warning : The short opens with the old man , who says only what he has to ( to call him " taciturn " is putting it mildly ) finishing his meal as the phone rings . It's his daughter , checking on the planned trip to a retirement community her parents are making that weekend . Their farm is on an island and they are finally going to move from their home , go off the island into a home . The man's feelings are clear by his facial expressions and his reactions . He finishes talking to his daughter and goes about his day . Quickly , it becomes clear with each task that something is going on . The man's activities are focused and he is intent on a purpose . I got the impression that this single-mindedness was second nature to the man . To fix on a goal and push through until it's completed would be standard behavior for this fellow and we watch him complete each task he has set for himself , mentally checking each off before moving to the next on on his list . With each scene , as the short progresses , a comprehension of certain realities begins to dawn on the viewer , as pieces drop into place and you are slowly figuring out just precisely what the old man's plans are and the ending becomes clearer as the short slowly , methodically and inexorably reaches the climax . This is a beautifully rendered and very well-crafted cinematic dagger and the director pushes it frame by frame into the viewer's brain . It is included on a compilation DVD which holds eight of the ten shorts nominated for the Academy Award in the Animated Short and Live-Action Short categories in 2005 . The compilation is very good and it and this short are highly recommended . |
579,987 | 583,640 | 43,376 | 8 | A very funny and understandable cartoon | This is a very amusing and entertaining short , though I'm at a loss to understand some of the comments here regarding the behavior of the mouse toward Sylvester . They seem to be missing the point to the cartoon . There may be spoilers ahead , so consider this a spoiler warning : The cartoon begins with Sylvester realizing , belatedly , that he's been left inside when his pet humans have gone on a trip . The point of the cartoon is set up extremely well-the whole purpose here is to have Sylvester panic at the thought of being left alone , trapped inside and left to his own devices . The gags are extremely well executed and this is a hilarious cartoon . Sylvester ( like most of the Looney Tunes characters ) works best with a foil-the short wouldn't be half as funny if Sylvester was by himself , slowly losing his marbles . Enter the mouse , along with an obvious motivation for Sylvester to contend with the mouse within the context of the short . This isn't just the standard " cat chases mouse " plot . The mouse possesses something Sylvester desperately needs-a can opener . The point of the cartoon-Sylvester placed in a situation where he completely falls apart-is completely blown if Sylvester resolves his principle dilemma easily . It's also weakened without some tangible source of aggravation . Thus the mouse's refusal to give Sylvester the can opener . If Sylvester gets the can opener and resolves his difficulty , the tension is gone and the short has nowhere to go . If the mouse is kind-hearted , there goes the plot of the short . It would make very little sense to have the mouse play nice and give Sylvester the can opener anyway . Cats and mice are , at best , adversarial in nature and , at worst , natural enemies , which makes sense , much as Tweety and Sylvester have an adversarial relationship . Tweety does things to Sylvester as bad or worse than what happens to Sylvester here and Tweety is the hero in their shorts . While it may perhaps have been wiser to establish that there was no love lost between the two early on in the cartoon , that's beside the point . The focus here is completely on Sylvester . Though I can't prove it , it's my opinion that it was intended to make Sylvester a sympathetic character here-that's why Tweety isn't here . The mouse is in no way , shape or form a sympathetic character and makes Sylvester a sympathetic character , which is not something which happens as a general rule . The short is more enjoyable because of that comparatively rare change in sympathies . Excellent cartoon which can be found on the first Looney Tunes Golden Collection and is well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,757 | 583,640 | 33,672 | 8 | This " Grocery store comes to life " short uses relatively few caricatures or references to people or characters | While caricatures and / or references to entertainment industry people or things or even brands of products is usually a staple in shorts like this one , they aren't used in quantity here . Most of the individual gags are rather generic . As I'm going to give examples , there will be spoilers below : There are only three ( well , technically four-there's a quick one at the very end of the cartoon ) caricatures that I spotted , which is kind of low for this type of short , though one is a featured character with a fair amount of activity . They are Jack Benny ( as Jack Bunny ) , Leopold Stowkowski and the inimitable Ned Sparks ( as a crab on a can-chances are very good that , if a crab was involved in a Warner Brothers short in the 1930s-1940s , the caricature used would be Ned Sparks ) . There are also references to Billy Rose's Aquacade and a riff on a radio show character called " Henry Aldrich " ( Coming , mother ! ) , a play on Superman ( Superguy here ) and the villain is a take-off on " King Kong " . That's it for that kind of gag . The products themselves are mostly generic and the gags are more plays on basic items in unusual situations , such as turtles coming off of cans of soup to attack the villain as tanks , tomato soup cans doing " The can-can ' , gingerbread men who turn into paratroopers , using tissues for parachutes and so on . The gags are very good and it's an excellent example of a Bob Clampett cartoon . Clampett had hit his stride as a director by this point and while it isn't anywhere near his best work , it's nothing to sneeze at either . This short can be found on Looney Tunes Golden Collection , Vol . 3 , which is an excellent set that I highly recommend . This short itself is also recommended . |
578,824 | 583,640 | 98,260 | 8 | Try to see the longer , unedited version , though both are good . | This is an excellent film based on a scandal that brought down a British Prime Minister . John Hurt is great and most of the other performances are good as well . I've seen the full version as well as the slightly shorter release . Both are worth seeing , but the longer one is the better of the two , so if you have a choice , opt for the longer version . Either way , it's a good film . Recommended . |
579,188 | 583,640 | 80,663 | 8 | Though not as good as the first one , still enjoyable and with one of Daffy's best lines ever ! Semi-spoiler | In honor of the 34th anniversary of , " One small step for man , one giant leap for mankind " , I bring forth a comment on Duck Dodgers . Daffy matches wits ( ? ) with both Marvin the Martian and Gossamer and is found largely wanting . Porky virtually steals the show , but the best line is actually Daffy's . While fleeing as only Daffy can flee from certain dismemberment ( as well as duck feathers flying everywhere ) at the paws of Gossamer ( the large , hairy and very orange monster ) , Daffy comes upon Porky and first tries to bribe him with a meagre promotion and then , in the true fashion of cowards everywhere , declaims , " Back , underling ! How can I be a craven , crawling , cowardly poltroon with you in the way ? As a past President ( three times running-they caught me each time ) of the Cowards Guild , that line fair brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it issue forth from his yellow beak ( either that , or I have a rock in my shoe-I can never tell which ) but I digress . Not the best ever done , but I like it well enough . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,661 | 583,640 | 25,667 | 8 | The performance of the title song-by frogs , yet-is great ! | This is another of the shorts the animators at Warner Brothers made taking a song to use as a title and to build the animation around . The rendition of the title song as sung by frogs is priceless . Given the fact that they had access to the Warner Brothers song catalog and the studio saw the use of the material as a good investment , music was a key element in the animation department's work and also led to some wonderful shorts . Well worth seeking out . Recommended . |
579,529 | 583,640 | 33,773 | 8 | The background details are the best part of a very good " one shot " short | This is a black and white short from Warner Brothers . It's a " one shot " cartoon , meaning it wasn't part of a series . I don't know if there was ever any intention to use the firefly again , though I doubt there was-it seems like this was just done to give Chuck Jones and his crew an opportunity to experiment with perspective and they did so effectively . This is a gorgeous cartoon and a very exceptional use of black and white . I intend to discuss some details , so consider this a spoiler warning : There really isn't a " story " , as such . It's basically a firefly looking around in a human-sized enclosure-a tent , complete with sleeping human . My favorite parts were a bit with a twitching eyelid and the attempts of the fly to walk across a saltine cracker , which is particularly nice . The level of detail in this short is remarkable-it's just a very visually fascinating short . The man's wristwatch , which is gigantic to the firefly , is a nice example of the extent to which they went in designing the look of this short . It's just a beautiful cartoon . The one line of dialog is right at the end and very funny . I very much hope that this is ultimately released on a Looney Tunes Golden Collection in the near future , perhaps with a commentary . It's a marvelous piece of work . Most recommended . |
579,146 | 583,640 | 60,885 | 8 | A very good cartoon in an uneven series | The Clouseau series of cartoons was somewhat uneven , but most were at least decent and some were very good . Generally , if the villain or situation was well done and there was a balance between good dialogue and the sight gags , the cartoon worked better . Without an interesting opponent , it's just Clouseau the bumbler and that isn't enough to carry a cartoon . In Crab Louie and his nervous oyster henchman who breaks out in pearls , you have a good foil for Clouseau and the cartoon is very funny and worth watching . Recommended . |
578,854 | 583,640 | 27,891 | 8 | Porky in the Foreign Legion-scrubbing camels . | This short has Porky as a military man , with the job of scrubbing camels and not much else . Because I want to discuss this in a little detail , this is a spoiler warning : Porky Pig is a soldier in the Foreign Legion , though he isn't a terribly good one . He's given the assignment of scrubbing the Commandant's camel and the camel outwits him badly ! When the command is ordered out to track down and capture the dreaded Ali Mode , Porky is contemptuously left behind as a " camel scrubber " . Naturally , once the command rides out , where do Ali Mode and his men decide to attack ? If you said " The fort where Porky is " , you get a gold star for your paper . Ali Mode first tries to trick Porky and when that fails , starts issuing orders in Pig-Latin to his followers . What follows is a very well animated series of combat gags , including a few repeat gags ( one poor guy really needs to move away from his spot next to the well ) and culminating in the capture of Ali Mode by Porky and the camel , who work in tandem for once . The dialog coming from Ali Mode is hilarious ! The cartoon ends with Porky and the camel getting their well-earned reward . This short is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection , Volume 4 and is well worth having . Recommended . |
578,872 | 583,640 | 30,035 | 8 | Daffy does Hollywood | This short by Tex Avery lampoons Hollywood and the filmmaking process and does so quite well . Daffy wants to be an actor in the worst way , but can't manage that , so , by cutting and splicing clips from film archives , he " directs " his own movie . As a personal aside here , one of the saddest things here is that his " movie " is better than some of the product being turned out in recent time that has separated entirely too much of my money from my pockets with little benefit for me ! Hilarious gags abound here . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
578,922 | 583,640 | 53,120 | 8 | One of the most unusual , atypical Disney cartoons I've ever seen | This cartoon was nominated for an Oscar in 1959 . The animation style is stop-motion , almost a Puppetoon type of animation . This is the only cartoon from Disney that I recall ever seeing . It certainly is not your typical Disney cartoon . The music is all over the board-there's even some pretty good blues in here . Worth chasing down to see at least once . Runs infrequently on the Disney Channel during " Vault Disney " in the wee hours of the morning . |
579,517 | 583,640 | 30,020 | 8 | The funniest part of this short plays off of an old radio " feud " between two caricatures | This is a very funny short which gets virtually all its laughs by playing off the personality of W . C . Fields ( here represented in caricature as a pig names W . C . Squeals ) . The few gags which don't center around this central joke are relatively minor and mostly pale in comparison , though the new lyrics set to " The Blue Danube " are interesting . Because I want to discuss details , this is a spoiler warning : W . C . Fields was frequently used as a source for caricature because he was such a colorful character , both as part of his act ( that being a cantankerous and cynical horse thief and a fair man with the bottle ) and , to a significant degree , in reality ( he really was a heavy drinker ) . Even the title of the short is a double-edged play on words , as the cartoon features a figure-skating contest and cracked ice is frequently used in mixing drinks . Here , caricatured as a pig , named W . C . Squeals , he's seen a short time into the short , after some perfunctory gags which principally serve to set the atmosphere ( it's cold , animals are skating , etc . ) Squeals sees a crane fall through the ice and frantically calls for help . A St . Bernard shows up , rescues the bird and pours spirits into him , at which point Squeals develops a notable thirst and a need for " medicinal " help that only the keg can provide . Alas , the St . Bernard ignores his comically " heart-rending " appeals for the kindness of a stranger and Squeals decides that a feigned drowning and rescue is in order . The St . Bernard comes out , mixes a drink and then downs the toddy himself and leaves ( a bit unsteadily ) . So Squeals resorts to a complicated scheme , involving a magnet and a metal dish filled with dog bones . All through this sequence , Squeals is heckled from the audience by a disembodied voice patterned after Charlie McCarthy , Edgar Bergen's primary ventriloquist's dummy . Fields and Bergen were both prominent on radio for a good number of years and Fields and McCarthy carried on a " feud " for some time , where they would trade insults . The two caricatures here follow suit in trading the same types of insult . Audiences of the time were well familiar with the whole thing and it gave the animators a solid frame of reference which made the gags even funnier . Squeals tries to get the St . Bernard to chase the dish , but things don't go as planned and the magnet and a fair amount of alcohol wind up in the water , where the magnet winds up stuck on a fish who then gets drunk . The magnet attracts Squeals's ice skates and the fish lurches drunkenly under the ice , dragging Squeals into the middle of a figure-skating competition , which he wins . Squeals wastes no time in filling the cup he receives as his prize with the remaining alcohol from the dog's keg , all the while gloating to the McCarthy caricature in the audience-until the cup , with its precious cargo , comes into the grip of the magnet and starts careening across the ice , to the sounds of laughter from a very satisfied McCarthy . This short is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection , Volume 4 and is well worth seeing . Recommended . |
579,769 | 583,640 | 67,992 | 8 | On adaptations , the creative process and individual tastes . | While there will be a discussion of the film , this will mostly cover other points that bear on the creative process in general and Roald Dahl in particular and related observations . Abandon all hope ye who enter this comment . WWAtCF is a reasonably good film , with weak spots , to be sure , but Gene Wilder does a great job and delivers some rather acid lines . The script is decent , even good in spots . Not a great movie , but not future guitar picks either . Has more than a few moments . Enjoyable , but has somewhat sharp teeth in spots . End of film review . Now as to film adaptations of work done in other mediums . Gather ' round , children , as the next few points are moderately significant : One : a film and a book are different critters . They have different requirements , strengths and weaknesses and some of these are almost diametrically in opposition . Thus , an adaptation ( in either direction ) HAS to be different . Both can be good , bad or mediocre . But anyone expecting them to be the SAME is mistaken , as they can't be . Two : any work that is released into the wider world and is intended for an audience has two sensibilities involved-the creator ( s ) and the audience . Every person reading , hearing and / or viewing anything brings themselves to the table . You bring your own viewpoint into the equation . Who you are has a great deal to do with how you see things . Bear this in mind when reading anyone's opinions ( including mine ) . Most commentary says as much ( often more ) about the commentator as it does the purported subject . In other words , you see what you largely expect to see . Now , as to Roald Dahl : from all reports , Dahl was less than enthralled with the adaptation . I suspect that it's because Dahl's work had teeth to it , generally speaking , and the incisors here have been blunted and softened a bit . I read an interview a good many years ago and came away with the impression that Mr . Dahl thought much more highly of children than he did most adults , whom he viewed as incompetent at best and malign at worst , particularly most parents or surrogate parents . The core of this runs through his work . The hardest job anyone can have is that of parent , the entrance exam to become one is all too easy , the effects ( good and bad ) are far-reaching and too many people botch it up in spades . Watch Willie Wonka again or read Dahl's book . One other thing : when viewing , hearing or reading something , think about your reactions . Everyone has hot buttons . It might help if you can recognize what yours are . After all , it's only a movie , isn't it , now ? |
579,180 | 583,640 | 265,194 | 8 | Variations on a theme by Mouris and Mouris . | This short , arguably a sequel to Frank Film , certainly a companion effort to that remarkable film , is a much more playful and humorous turn than the first one was . Almost as visually arresting as Frank Film , this uses the same collage effects to have Caroline Mouris make a film about herself , but it quickly evolves into good-natured banter between Caroline and Frank , making this very funny to hear and intriguing to watch . Entertaining from start to finish . Credits at the end are done , like Frank Film , in voiceover . Well worth watching , I saw this on the Sundance Channel the other night . Recommended , but not your typical animated film . |
578,981 | 583,640 | 62,903 | 8 | Surreal , quite unusual and not at all typical of what Warner Brothers was doing at the time . | This is an animated short produced by an independent studio , not by Warner Brothers itself . Somehow , Warner Brothers acquired distribution rights to this odd little bit of film , which someone , told that it was , " a cartoon " ( and likely without even watching it first ) , just had it inserted in the studio's regular short animation package . What reaction theaters and audiences had when they expected a Warner Brothers cartoon and saw this instead , I can only imagine . This is 180 degrees opposite what the studio was turning out at the time . It would , however , have fit perfectly as a lead-in for Stanley Kubrick's 2001 : A Space Odyssey . At times , it becomes obvious and it's a bit of experimentation that doesn't work very well in spots , as it bogs down ( no small feat for a sex to seven minute short ) , but it can be visually arresting . IT is most definitely an acquired taste ! My tastes in animation cut across a pretty broad range and even I thought it a bit odd . Not for every taste , but worth a look . If your idea of animation begins and ends with Bugs and / or Mickey and the like , you may not like this . But if you like the Hubleys , Bill Plympton and some of the folks further out in left field , this may suit you quite well . Recommended with those caveats . |
579,626 | 583,640 | 95,901 | 8 | Unusual but effective piece of animation | This short is almost impossible to describe . It's a rather unusual and definitely an atypical form of animation . It throws you off at first , but it is oddly effective and is rather fascinating to watch when you get used to it after a bit . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,478 | 583,640 | 31,795 | 8 | One of the more successful Captain and the Kids shorts | One of the few Captain cartoons done in color , this was a parody of the travelogue shorts popular at the time . The narration is a large part of the success of this short . Funny , pointed and often sarcastic and / or irreverent , the narration is the funniest aspect of this particular cartoon , part of a series MGM did based on the comic strip featuring Der Captain and the Kids . The Captain is his typical bumbling , ill-mannered self , of course . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,754 | 583,640 | 50,942 | 8 | This is a good short in an excellent series | The Roadrunner shorts are an example of a " formula " series-a very well done " formula " . My comments about this short in particular will be a relatively small portion of this comment , because I want to talk a bit about the series itself . This short is actually fairly representative of the series and why it works so well and why the shorts are generally very good , even though they follow a formula . The viewer knows going in that certain things will ( or won't ) happen : The two primary characters , as a rule , do not speak . They will occasionally hold up signs , but they don't talk in these shorts-unless you stretch a point and call the Roadrunner's " Beep Beep " dialog . Each short shows ersatz Latin " names " for both characters . The ones for Wile E . Coyote usually revolve around hunger and the Roadrunner's usually revolve around speed and his edibility . No matter what happens to Wile E . in a scene , after fade out , in the next scene , he's fine and plotting again . His equipment generally comes from Acme . Here it's dehydrated boulders , among other things . His attempts to capture the Roadrunner ( at least in the theatrical releases ) always fail . They invariably end badly for the Coyote . Some attempts are very brief , lasting seconds , like a dehydrated boulder which expands almost instantly , crushing Wile E . Sometimes , Wile E . doesn't think his plots through to their logical conclusion , which invariably hurts him . In addition to these basics , there are things which occur in most of the shorts which are a large part of the success of the series , in spite of its predictability . The reactions by Wile E . make him an incredibly sympathetic character . There's a melancholy air about him that is conveyed by his facial expressions as his well-laid plans explode ( often literally ) in his face . There are a number of set situations which are made successful because of Wile E . ' s reactions . First , there's the " astonishment piece . Wile E . almost always gets very close to the Roadrunner ( usually in the first minute or two in a short ) and seems close to his goal , only to have the Roadrunner kick in an extra gear and leave him eating dust and gaping in surprise and astonishment . He then begins plotting out how to catch his prey . Then there's the occasional " relief which transmutes into horror " which happens when Wile E . either thinks he's been successful or thinks he's escaped disaster , only to discover that he's in deep trouble . There's a " puzzlement turning to horror " plot device which follows the same arc . There's the long and intricate trap that either fails to work or unfolds slowly which starts in the middle of a short which comes back later with spectacularly devastating consequences for its initiator . In this short , for example , a steamroller used to trick the Roadrunner into a trap has negative consequences for Wile E . later on . Most importantly , there is often a moment where a situation develops where Wile E . has advance knowledge that he is soon going to suffer something calamitous and very painful , with enough time for it to register that this really was a day he should not even have bothered waking up that morning . It is these situations where the animators knock one out of the park , as the expressions and body language shown in these moments almost always convey a mixture of resignation , sorrow and the dawning realization that he's failed-again-and must pay some cosmic penalty . It's a look of doom , sometimes accompanied by a sign which is both poignant and heartbreakingly funny . These moments make Wile E . a character the viewer can actually care about , because we all understand that sinking feeling in the pit of our stomachs we get when something goes WRONG and we're powerless to stop it , or even slow it down . A mix of persistent and dogged futility . This short is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection , Vol . 2 , along with a number of other Coyote and Roadrunner shorts . It and the Collection are well worth having . Recommended . |
579,668 | 583,640 | 22,231 | 8 | Foxy , we hardly knew ye . | Foxy's hour upon the stage was a brief one , perhaps three cartoons , for reasons both obvious and not so clear . The Foxy cartoons are entertaining enough , but not overly so . I suspect Foxy was a wee bit too much like a certain rodent for the studio's taste and comfort for him to continue on for very long . Rumors persist that Foxy left Warner Brothers and struck it rich wildcatting in the Texas oil fields , but this has not been confirmed . It is hoped that his life was a happy one once retired from the screen . Worth watching . Recommended for fans of black and white cartoons . |
578,842 | 583,640 | 39,838 | 8 | Enjoyable short , with the exasperation meter on Donald hitting the red zone for Daisy ! | This is an entertaining little short , nothing special but enjoyable . Donald , under the best of circumstances , is rarely charming and often a handful . Here , he's quite seriously irritating and irksome . It is truly a tribute to the patience of others that he is not under glass and coated with and orange glaze , surrounded by peas and carrots ! Many a Chinese restaurant should put " Peking " in front of him with the full treatment . Worth trying to find , Disney runs this on Quack Attack on Toon Disney and Ink and Paint Club on The Disney Channel . Recommended . |
579,781 | 583,640 | 150,308 | 8 | Quincy Magoo is at it again in this one | The title of this short is a play on the title of the feature film Destination Moon ( which itself has an animated sequence made by Walter Lantz and starring Woody Woodpecker ) and once again Magoo and his myopia take an adventure , hand in hand , off to the " Moon " . The life that man leads ! Excellent animation and great sight gags make this one worth finding . Most recommended . |
579,405 | 583,640 | 439,676 | 8 | Sad and quite disturbing look at what happened to a photo-journalist after he won a Pulitzer for a controversial photo | This short , nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Documentary Short , is a look back at the life and death of South African photo-journalist Kevin Carter , done some ten years after his suicide shortly after he won a Pulitzer Prize for a photo he took of a skeletal girl who was struggling to reach a feeding station , all the while being shadowed by a vulture . The photo is very stark and disconcerting . Controversy erupted when a great many people attacked him for not putting down his camera and personally getting her to the feeding station himself . After seeing this documentary , I can only say this : I wasn't in Kevin Carter's position . I do not know with any great certainty what I would have done in his position and I cannot condemn him for not forgetting his job , dropping his camera and helping the girl , because I don't know the circumstances . At the time , he was in an unstable area in the midst of a war . I do not know what was going on , I don't know how near the feeding station was ( if it was close enough for Carter to be expected to get her safely there , then do the same people who accuse Carter of failure to render aid also hold the staff at the feeding station equally guilty for not trying to have someone sweep the area to help starving people nearby reach the station ? After all , if it's safe enough for Carter to take the time to help the girl , is it not safe enough to patrol the area to help those in need as well ? ) and I cannot say for certain that he could have done anything to save the girl in any case . If nothing else , this documentary will haunt me because of something Kevin Carter's daughter said regarding her father's death . I will not repeat her remarks here , as they should be seen and heard directly . Very troubling piece and well worth seeing . Recommended . |
578,894 | 583,640 | 109,270 | 8 | Very good ( and very short ) little animated short well worth seeing . | This short won the BAFTA for Animated Short and was nominated for the Academy Award as well ( losing out to Bob's Birthday , if I'm not mistaken ) and was well deserving of both nominations , though I think two of the other BAFTA nominees were probably better than this and Monk and the Fish should have won . This is very brief ( about two minutes long or so ) , but it's awfully funny and Frank Gorshin still does an excellent Kirk Douglas impression . Well worth seeing and if I write much more , reading my comment will take longer than watching the short will . Recommended . |
579,228 | 583,640 | 117,887 | 8 | Hackneyed , cliched , trite-but somehow , it works and you can dance to itt | This movie is really , on the face of it , collection of well-worn characters , plot devices and cliched , old scenarios and it should really just sink to the bottom with only a gurgling sound or two . But , amazingly enough , it works just well enough to be worth watching . Most of the performances are at least good and some are very good . Liv Tyler does the best of the principal cast , but three of the supporting roles give it life and one of them all but steals the movie . Bill Cobb as a jazz musician and Rita Wilson ( Tom Hanks ' wife in real life ) as a waitress have very good parts and shine in their scenes . But Obba Babatunde as Lamarr , the hotel doorman is great and all but walks off with the movie . The music is very good all through the movie , with the title track getting an Oscar nomination . It's played throughout the movie and is infectious . It's got a beat and you can dance to it . I give it a 77 . |
578,879 | 583,640 | 22,147 | 8 | Good ( not great ) early Disney | This is the first Mickey Mouse short to actually be nominated for an Oscar , losing to Flowers and Trees . The real " mouse that roared " does nothing very special or elaborate in this cartoon . It's cute and enjoyable and I suppose it's representative of the black and white efforts which Disney was doing at the time . Probably more impressive in 1931 , it's still worth watching today . It runs on the INK AND PAINT CLUB on Disney Channel . Recommended . |
579,674 | 583,640 | 210,551 | 8 | Moody and unusual , somewhat morbid short | This is a somewhat atypical short ( if there is such a thing ) produce by the National Film Board of Canada . The title is a reference to the string game called Cat's Cradle and the short is a moody and evocative work . One of Driessen's better works , it should be better known than it is at this point . Well worth hunting up . Recommended . |
579,869 | 583,640 | 102,753 | 8 | A character study featuring fine performances by the leads | This film is essentially character-driven and features excellent performances throughout , particularly the four principals-Laura Dern , Diane Ladd , Robert Duvall and Lukas Haas . Ladd and Dern mother and daughter in real life ) give especially fine performances and deservedly received nominatins for the Academy Awards In the Actress and Supporting Actress categories . The film has a good script and is well done technically . But it is first and foremost an actor's movie and the acting carries the movie along . Well worth your time . Recommended . |
579,161 | 583,640 | 142,826 | 8 | If for no other reason , watch this for the music | I can readily understand why this one is not being broadcast . However , it should still be available regardless of the objectionable content . I still contend ( and likely will to my last breath ) that anyone over the age of 14 who allows their sensibilities to be damaged to any great degree by a cartoon has much more serious problems to contend with . Last time I looked , there were situations and realities in the world far more dangerous and harmful than drawings made on a series of cels more than 60 years ago . I don't like or agree with a lot of what I see here and elsewhere , but no cartoon ( or movie , song , book , et cetera ) can hurt me without my consent . That is something I choose , not a long dead producer . I save that concern for things that matter a bit more . The music in this short is excellent , as is often the case with shorts produced by Lantz . The material is a bit coarse in spots , but this is worth watching . Recommended . |
579,080 | 583,640 | 37,753 | 8 | Formative Tweety cartoon which has a great many funny bits , with a dog nearly stealing the show with one very funny bit . | This is a very early Tweety ( before he and Sylvester were paired together ) and Tweety's personality and physical appearance were still in the development stage . One of the cats chasing Tweety ( they are the " Gruesome Twosome " referenced in the title ) is a caricature of comedian Jimmy Durante . I want to discuss certain portions of the short , so there may be spoilers from this point : The early part of the short shows the two cats competing for the paw of a cute , though perhaps not terribly bright , female cat . At one point in this early section , when the two have temporarily taken each other out of the picture , a dog enters the frame and has a beautiful bit involving the female cat . It's the funniest gag in a fairly funny short . Eventually , the two cats are told that whichever one brings the object of their affections a bird can , in her words , " be my fella " . They'd have been better advised to have attempted to defuse a land-mine , because the early Tweety was a bit less sweet and " innocent " than he became . He has a flair for mayhem and gets extremely violent and vicious , as a bee and bulldog can attest ! The short closes with a very nice little turn quite fitting for the short . This short was released on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection , Vol . 3 and is well worth getting . I highly recommend the Golden Collections themselves , as they are of exceptional quality and well worth the cost ( at least the first three released so far have been-a fourth volume is scheduled for release in November 2006 ) . Recommended . |
579,102 | 583,640 | 148,472 | 8 | Flip has a unique style of milk delivery ! | Very funny sight gags and beautiful presentation overcome the limitations of Flip's almost non-existent personality . There is a pesky little kid who at moments seems like the evil twin of Dennis the Menace and in the end a happy ending ( well , I guess it depends on point of view as to happy or not ) . It's a wonder Flip has any customers left , though , as his delivery methods remind one of Cy Young . Visually stunning in spots , it's a good thing this is available on DVD . Well worth watching and recommended . |
579,113 | 583,640 | 57,126 | 8 | The last of the Bugs / Wile E . shorts | In this short , Bugs Bunny takes the place of the Road Runner because of an injury ( no doubt work-related , for which the Road Runner was probably on Worker's Compensation ) and Wile E . still has no more luck at chasing rabbits than he does Road Runners . More dialogue than the typical Road Runner short , but has lots of sight gags in any case . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,174 | 583,640 | 142,794 | 8 | Can you say , " The Ants and the Grasshopper " ? I knew you could ! | This short is a rather manic re-telling of the fable , " The Ant and the Grasshopper " , with Woody Woodpecker as the grasshopper . It's actually very well done , if slightly predictable . I want to discuss details , so this is a spoiler warning : Woody Woodpecker more or less has two modes of operation in this one-sleeping and eating . Early on , he's scolded by a busy little squirrel for not industriously getting things stored up for winter . But work is a four-letter word to Woody . We see alternating scenes of various creatures gathering and storing food or otherwise working ( beavers building lodges , etc . ) while Woody mostly occupies himself by eating their food and snoozing . One day , a little bird tries to get Woody to join the rest of the birds in flying south for the winter , but Woody comes up with excuses not to and slams the door in the little bird's face . While he's snoozing , the first snows hit and everyone else ducks in and settles down for a long winter . You see scenes of warm , cozy and well-stocked living quarters . Woody wakes up and decides it's time to eat again , only to be buried by the snow . He realizes that it's winter and runs to the cupboard , only to find it emptier than a politician's promise . He literally sees Starvation staring him in the face . He gets outside and makes the rounds of his neighbors , begging for food , only to find absolutely no sympathy . Each stop brings false hope which is shattered by an action appropriate to his earlier abuse of their efforts at working towards storing up for the cold . The beavers fix him a cake made of ice and he turns blue after eating it and freezes into a block of ice . Winter passes and with the coming of spring , the animals venture out to find Woody , frozen solid . They thaw him out and he immediately starts the same things over again-stealing food and acting crazy and there the cartoon ends . This short is on one of the Columbia House DVD releases and is well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,101 | 583,640 | 22,199 | 8 | This Flip the Frog short mostly hits on all cylinders . | This is a most entertaining , almost surreal , cartoon . The visual detail and movement are exceptional and the sight gags are great . The one thing that generally puzzles me about Flip cartoons is why animators had little difficulty giving just about everything else more personality than they were able to give to Flip-the putative star of the shorts ! Oh well , such is life-or the lack thereof . It's good to see this is on DVD . The output of the Iwerks studio was usually visually excellent and of sufficient interest to be worth watching . Recommended . |
579,495 | 583,640 | 33,373 | 8 | One of Barbara Stanwyck's best performances in a very funny film and role | This film ( remade in 1948 as a musical with Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo with the title , " A Song Is Born " ) is a hilarious vehicle for Barbara Stanwyck , who was nominated for Best Actress for her performance here . Anyone who has only seen Ms . Stanwyck in film noir such as " Double Indemnity " or in television's Big Valley should watch this or " Christmas In Connecticut " to see a fine comedic talent at work . She blows Gary Cooper off the screen ! Most Recommended . |
579,693 | 583,640 | 239,206 | 8 | There's nothing quite like a Paul Driessen animated short ! | Some animators have a very distinctive look or style to their work that makes them unmistakable with anyone else's work . Tex Avery is one-while early Tex Avery can sometimes be generic , mostly his work is quite recognizable . Paul Driessen is another animator whose style is immediately and clearly marked as his . Character design is one feature that is a dead giveaway to Driessen . This particular short , nominated for an Academy Award , is typically Driessen in approach , style , tone and substance . Darkly funny and occasionally unsettling , this has a few running gags and a sub-plot that ties the three separate story lines together rather effectively . Filled with tons of allusions to fairy tales and quite charming in a somewhat twisted sort of way . Not great Driessen , but very good nonetheless . Recommended . |
578,916 | 583,640 | 29,913 | 8 | Quite politically incorrect , with the irony being that the funniest bits have little to do with the stereotypes ! | This is an exceptionally funny cartoon , in spots , but it will never see print , for many reasons , not the least of which is the fact that it uses what are commonly referred to as " racial stereotypes " . Never mind the fact that the title character is for all practical purposes , Bluto with a headdress and no beard . There is a hilarious line by Popeye that makes no sense if you have no knowledge of an old-time radio show popular in the 1930s nd a visual gag that calls to mind the more surreal days when literally anything could happen in a Fleischer cartoon ! Very good short ! Catch it if you can ! Recommended . |
579,389 | 583,640 | 60,522 | 8 | I just love Audrey Hepburn ! ! ! | I cannot possibly be objective about Audrey Hepburn ! The movie also stars Peter O'Toole at his most charming and also has a delightful performance by Hugh Griffith as Audrey's father and a good performance by Eli Wallach . The script is quite witty and Hepburn and O'Toole work quite well together in this charming movie . Well worth watching . |
579,576 | 583,640 | 146,460 | 8 | Visually impressive , with excellent voice work by Billy Bletcher . | This is a visually impressive cartoon , which should be expected from an Iwerks cartoon . As plots go , this was actually a pretty intricate one for the Iwerks studio , with a great villain voiced by a Disney regular , Billy Bletcher , who did Pegleg Pete , among others . The funniest bit for me was the town's " alarm " system . The Pincushion Man is really the most interesting character in the short , but it does offer some entertaining moments and is genuinely tense and frightening in spots . Iwerks deserves more notice and credit for what he had a responsibility for at Disney . His stint running his own studio wasn't as successful as he would have hoped , but he did produce ( with an incredibly talented team , as a glance at the names of his employees will attest ) some very good shorts . Balloon Land is one of the best that the Iwerks Studio created . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
578,954 | 583,640 | 87,156 | 8 | Delightful short aimed at children that works very well for adults | This short was nominated for an Academy Award and deservedly so . The good doctor is a dentist . He also happens to be a mouse . The short revolves around how he manages to treat a fox's tooth without becoming the main course ! Good script and voice characterizations make this an enjoyable effort for not only children but adults as well . Worth the effort to track down . Recommended . |
579,942 | 583,640 | 50,802 | 8 | Good ( but not great ) Droopy cartoon that treads very familiar ground | This cartoon , while it has its moments and is very good , is really not that exceptional and really isn't much more than a redo of two earlier Droopy cartoons directed by Tex Avery ( Senor Droopy and Homesteader Droopy ) and while Michael Lah does a good job , why it was nominated for an Oscar is a trifle puzzling . There were certainly better cartoons in 1957 that weren't ( Touche and Go , Mucho Mouse and even Blackboard Jumble , another Droopy ) , so its nomination " is a puzzlement " , so to speak . Recommended . |
579,120 | 583,640 | 58,385 | 8 | The character of Henry Higgins is greatly misunderstood by many and so is the film . | I have read in a great many places ( including the IMDb ) that Henry Higgins is a misogynist . It has also been said that the film is a misogynist's fairy tale . Anyone saying this has clearly not watched this film too closely . First , Higgins is not a misogynist . A misogynist hates women . What Higgins is , in reality , is a misanthrope . A misanthrope basically dislikes and distrusts everyone ! Watch the film and you'll notice that Higgins treats everyone with the same disregard-Col . Pickering , Eliza's father , his own mother-everyone receives his rather cynical disdain . Some of the minor characters come off being treated worse than the principals do . It's simply more noticeable with Eliza because it's more frequent , it's newer with Eliza because the other principal characters have known Higgins longer and thus take it in stride . The myth that Higgins is a misogynist is perpetuated by the song , " Why Can't A Woman Be More Like a Man ? " . Second , it can hardly be called a misogynist's fairy tale . If that were the case , I doubt Alfred Doolittle would have cause to sing , " Get Me To the Church On Time " , as he'd hardly be getting married . His life is just as " ruined " as Eliza's by his encounters with Higgins , just as altered as her life has been . This is a great musical , a good movie and it was even better as the original play by Shaw . Well worth seeing . Recommended . |
579,018 | 583,640 | 43,073 | 8 | Not the best Mr . Magoo , but entetaining anyway | This cartoon , nominated for an Oscar , is reasonably good , but not one of the better of the series . Well worth watching , the series is more noted these days for the furor generated by people who consider it an insult to the blind and those whose sight is impaired . I'm disabled and it is my considered opinion that 1 ) way too many people are too thin-skinned 2 ) far too many people are entirely too concerned about either hurting someone's feelings or having their own feelings hurt and 3 ) anyone who feels offended by a CARTOON neds to get a life . End of sermon . The Mr . Magoo series is essentially a one-note affair that at its best is marvelously funny and is usually at least well worth watching . Trouble Indemnity has its moments and is a fairly good short on its own merits . |
579,110 | 583,640 | 29,708 | 8 | Early Tex Avery short that is infrequently seen these days | This short is a fairly typical Tex Avery short that is one of two spoofs he did of the book Uncle Tom's Cabin ( the other was Uncle Tom's Cabana for MGM ) and while this short really is rather innocuous and there isn't anything that bad here , it would probably offend some sensibilities and is consequently rarely seen in this day and age . Which is too bad , as it is a very good cartoon . Placed in context , it could probably be shown , but the reaction would be loud and immediate enough that it likely won't happen . Worth seeking out . Recommended . |
579,710 | 583,640 | 33,424 | 8 | The music is great , but this one will not be in general release or broadcast for quite a while . | This short , an Academy Award nominee , has great music , mostly the title tune , the animation is very good and it's a fairly decent effort . But most people will never see this , for understandable reasons . The cartoon is one large string of racial jokes and stereotypes from start to finish . If someone ever does a project to collect and release the music from the Lantz material , as was done with the Warner Brothers shorts , this is at the head of the list . Otherwise , you can forget about this one being made generally available anytime soon , if ever . Worth tracking down , but not for everyone . Recommended for the less easily disturbed . This one was over the top , folks . |
579,521 | 583,640 | 58,416 | 8 | Nudnik is a character created by Gene Deitch and is something of a curiosity | This short was nominated for an Academy Award . It can be found on Rembrandt Films Greatest Hits . Since it is amost impossible to talk about individual shorts , I'll remark on the Nudniks in general . They are quite short ( the ones I've seen are less than 30 seconds in length ) and the humor is visual in nature , showing Nudnik in some situation , generally mixing pathos with humor . Nudnik is someone of indeterminate age and gender with a life that runs none too smoothly . The Nudniks are recommended as a class , as describing individual shorts would be self-defeating . |
578,805 | 583,640 | 28,100 | 8 | Entertaining short from the 1930s with some very nice animation | This is a short starring some lesser-known characters , namely Beans and the duo of Ham and Ex . It's a mostly effective , though somewhat uneven , black and white cartoon directed by Jack King . As I want to discuss the short , there will be spoilers : The short starts off with Ham and Ex reading that their " Uncle " Beans is going exploring for " Haunted Treasure " , so they stow away on his plane and off they go . Beans spots a wreck and lands , to see a spooky bat fly off the side of the Phantom Ship . Naturally , Ham and EX jump out to surprise him just then , which scares him . They go on the ship and Ham and Ex see skeletons , get under a sheet and scare skeletons themselves . I would have liked it had this sub-plot continued , but the short diverges , with Beans finding two frozen pirates near a stove and , inexplicably , starts a fire in the stove . Following a train of thought to its practical and logical conclusion is clearly not his long suit . He finds the treasure and starts loading it on his plane , while the pirates thaw out and take a dim view of theft when they are the victims rather than the perpetrators . The chase being on , one pirate goes after Beans and the other goes after Ham and Ex . After some nice sequences in the chase scenes , Ham and Ex jump in the plane and take off , while Beans gets blown up with the ship , goes skyward and is caught in mid-air by Ham and Ex in the plane and our heroes exit , stage left . Very good early short from Warner Brothers . Well worth watching if you get the opportunity . Recommended . |
578,866 | 583,640 | 22,031 | 8 | Very early Betty Boop and a very earthy performance from Rudy Vallee | This short is actually part of the Screen Songs series that were done by Fleischer Studios as part of the once extremely popular sing-alongs that were part and parcel of a night out at the movies , long before television . Think of them as early forms of today's music videos . Listen to the song Rudy Vallee sings , in particular to the spoken jokes between choruses . Some of the may surprise you ! This is very early Betty Boop , so she doesn't look quite the same as she did later . This could accurately be described as a formative cartoon for Betty Boop . Well worth watching . In print and available . Recommended . |
579,975 | 583,640 | 148,317 | 8 | Ah , the wonders of technology ! | This is the next to last theatrical Gerald McBoing Boing short done by UPA , with this being the third of the four that the studio produced . It's a cute , clever cartoon , but the novelty factor is beginning to wear off and there's not enough other solid material to sustain extending the series . It's brought to a resolution of sorts here , as Gerald and his parents turn to science and technology for a communication breakthrough . Enjoyable and with enough moments to make it worth watching , even though it pales in comparison to the first one , Gerald McBoing Boing . There was also a television series that featured the character , as well as other material done specifically for television . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,649 | 583,640 | 252,379 | 8 | Commercially-contracted short I first saw in a high school geology class | This short was sponsored by either an oil company or mining operation to produce an educational short about geology . The Hubleys did a marvelous job . The veteran character actor Jack Warden is the voice of " Rocko " , our underground tour guide , explaining terms such as igneous and sedimentary to the audience . I first saw this in a high school geology class . It was included in The Cosmic Eye and is available on DVD and is worth the effort to get . Recommended . |
579,327 | 583,640 | 28,109 | 8 | Good cartoon with some funny bit , but not a gem | Even Tex Avery's lesser work is enjoyable and this short is a case in point . Avery was still feeling his way here and his style was still in its formative stages . Porky was still being developed as a character as well . Some good sight gags here . Not the best short I've seen , by any means , but I've seen worse . Worth looking for and recommended if you like Tex Avery . |
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