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579,568 | 583,640 | 53,956 | 8 | This short , done by Disney , this was an Oscar nominee | This short , which technically was not listed as part of the True-Life Adventures series , but has the look and feel of those shorts and features , was nominated for an Academy Award and was extremely well shot . because I want to cover this in some detail , this is a spoiler warning : This short covers some of the wildlife ( predominently birds ) on four islands-the Galapagos , Guadelupe , Falklands and an island in the Midway chain . While touching very briefly on the turtles of Galapagos and a bit more in-depth on two varieties of iguana and a species of crab , the documentary focuses primarily on birds , including several species of penguin on at least two of the islands , cormorants , frigate birds and the albatross . I found the sections on the various penguins fascinating , because penguins are typically thought of as belonging to colder climates than you would find around the Galapagos or the Falklands . There's just something about penguins that interests me , I guess . There's at least one moment of tragedy shown , which is to be expected in one of these Disney releases . For anyone who's seen many of the Disney wildlife productions , the usual flourishes are here-they show albatrosses , which are also known as goony birds , trying to land after a flight and mainly crashing . They also show a few aborted takeoffs , adding sound effects ( screeching brakes ) at least once , presumably for comic effect . The thing about these shorts is that , even after the passage of decades ( more than 45 years in this case ) the quality of the camera-work is still exceptional and can hold its own . Say what you like about Disney , but they did excellent work from a technical standpoint and were clearly ahead of the curve-which is understandable , as they were frequently creating the technology which pushed the curve forward . This short can be found on Volume 2 of the True-Life Adventures DVD sets issued under the Disney Legacy label and the DVDs are most absolutely recommended . |
579,268 | 583,640 | 34,611 | 8 | The manic Daffy makes life miserable for an occasional minor character named Conrad | For all that it's entitled as " Conrad the Sailor " , this is a Daffy Duck short-Conrad is just a rather unfortunate foil for Daffy in this one . As I want to discuss some of the cartoon , this is a spoiler warning : The cartoon opens up with a rather jolly Conrad swabbing the deck and singing ( as only Pinto Colvig can ) " Shoving Right Off For Home Again " , though some needling from Daffy turns his mood rather sour . Daffy being Daffy , he proceeds to take great delight in harassing Conrad ( who had a small part in Porky's Cafe and was in a few shorts all told , including this one-eh , it's a living ) . He swaps a paint bucket for the bucket of water Conrad is using and then points out the resulting mess by impugning Conrad's abilities . Before long , the chase is on . Most of the rest of the short features Conrad trying to catch Daffy , with rather painfully funny results , though the chase is intermittently interrupted by the running gag , which is Conrad's Commanding Officer moving across his path , causing Conrad to come to attention and salute him . The biggest ( and best ) gag in the short has Daffy climbing into one of the deck guns , belatedly noticing it is loaded-with a wryly tossed off , " Big bullet " remark from the duck-and his attempts to first elude , then ride and finally elude again , the shell when the gun is fired by Conrad . There are some really nice visual gags in this section , which finishes with a hilarious ending . This short is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection , Volume 4 and is well worth seeing . Recommended . |
579,850 | 583,640 | 35,202 | 9 | Best viewed in the original black and white version | I've seen both the original black and white version and the later , colorized , version and the shadings in the original version look much nicer than they do in the colorized one . I will discuss some details , so consider this a spoiler warning : The cartoon starts off with Porky singing , " Start the Day Right " while Conrad the Cat is flipping pancakes . Porky spends much of the cartoon waiting on one rather odd little man who has some very strange orders . At one point , he orders a sandwich with everything on it but the kitchen sink and , after Porky has taken his order and leaves , the little guy says , " Hold the onions ! " , which is a semi-regular gag in Warner Brothers shorts . Some very nice visual gags surround the preparation of the little man's orders , like a very " Rube Goldberg " type of device to prepare poached eggs on toast and a fairly predictable but still funny aftereffect when the little man eats his sandwich . A sub-plot involving Conrad and an ant he manages to cook inside a pancake kind of slows the momentum down , but it's mildly amusing . There's a beautiful end to this , which has a great bit with Porky in the last scene-look at him very closely as the camera pans up at the end , as it's hilarious ! Excellent short which I hope to see on a future Looney Tunes Golden Collection ( actually , I want to see everything wind up on the Golden Collection series at some point ) . Most recommended . |
579,057 | 583,640 | 30,592 | 9 | Jack Mercer made Popeye funnier | The character of Popeye was entertaining enough early on in the Fleischer Studios days , when William Costello was doing vocal duties . But the real spark that made Popeye special was when Jack Mercer took over . Mercer started as part of the animation team and then became the voice of Popeye . The choice of Mercer was perfect , because Mercer basically created Popeye's personality , particularly with the mutterings and under the breath asides Popeye would make that were usually funnier than the principal dialogue . Plumbing Is a " Pipe " is an excellent example of this aspect of the Popeye shorts voiced by Mercer . Listen for Mercer's remarks throughout the final four or five minutes of this one . That , and the fact that Wimpy is a " plumber " , are hilarious and make this worth tracking down . Most recommended . |
579,997 | 583,640 | 30,602 | 9 | Excellent short rarely seen these days | This is an excellent cartoon with a great score that is not aired on television these days because 1 ) it has the temerity to be in black and white and 2 ) Porky imitates Cab Calloway at one point and that's considered offensive , or so some think , anyway . That's a shame , because there's a beautiful caricature of Paul Whiteman as well and it's just a great short all around . Well worth the effort to track down . Highly recommended . |
579,233 | 583,640 | 110,688 | 9 | Bizarre even by Plympton's standards | Bill Plympton's work is , even at its tamest , exceptionally strange and odd . It would be fair to call him animation's David Lynch , save that even Lynch isn't this weird ! This short is even more the oddity than normal , even for Plympton . The most accurate description is to say it defies description . This grows on you after a bit-nose hair as anti-hero , an unusual scenario indeed . Plympton is an acqured taste , to be sure , but this one is recommended for the adventurous . I found it on Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation Vol , 4 . Worth watching . |
579,219 | 583,640 | 110,684 | 9 | One of Paul Newman's best and one of Jessica Tandy's last performances . | As far as the film is concerned , it's a nice , charming nugget of gold that might possibly be overlooked . That would be a mistake . Paul Newman does a fine performance ( although I'd go watch Paul Newman read the Uniform Code of Military Justice ) but it is an ensemble film and the performances of just about the entire cast fairly dance off one another , particularly the principal players . Jessica Tandy , in one of her last performances , gives a magnificent effort and the interplay between she and Newman is perfect . Bruce Willis plays Newman's foil , part friend , part rival and Melanie Griffith gives one of the best performances of her career . I suspect that making this movie was probably as much fun as watching it was and is . See it for the performances , but the script is also excellent . Well worth your time . Very much Recommended . |
579,608 | 583,640 | 19,574 | 9 | A morality play that is still quite powerful today | This movie , which is part silent and part talkie , is a tale of one man's disintegration , his actions which help to destroy an entire culture and his growing horror at what he has helped to bring about . The movie is still quite effective even now , more than 70 years later , largely because its concerns have probably been part and parcel with humanity's existence since we stopped being nomads and started building cities-greed , the struggle for control , the individual penchant for being your own worst enemy at times . A most memorable and compelling film , the cinematography is beautiful ( it justifiably won an Oscar ) and the film is one you will remember for a long while . |
579,012 | 583,640 | 43,980 | 9 | One of the better of the UPA releases , it obviously influenced at least one later Disney short | Rooty Toot Toot is one of the best of a very good run of cartoons from the UPA studios . A stylized take on Frankie and Johnny , it has a great jazz score and uses its limited animation to great effect . Excellent blend of music and visuals , it clearly had influence on at least one Disney short , Toot , Plunk , Whistle , Boom . The cartoon isn't the best UPA did ( Unicorn In the Garden was ) but it's real close . You can find it on one of the Columbia Classics series of tapes . Highly recommended . |
578,886 | 583,640 | 99,073 | 9 | Excellent ensemble cast and worthy script make this a must-see | This film has much to recommend it-set design , cinematography and so on - but what makes it truly shine is a marvelous script and an ensemble cast that almost uniformly turn in excellent work . The characters live and breathe and fair jump off the screen at the audience . You come to care about them , even the ones you don't like . It's an entrancing , riveting journey through the 20th century as it was lived by one family . Don't miss this one . You'll laugh , you'll cry , you'll even be nice to that cousin you can't stand or your daughter's current boyfriend , who you swear is from Pluto ! Most exceedingly highly recommended ! ! ! |
579,677 | 583,640 | 218,003 | 9 | All too close to reality , unfortunately | This short is another example of the excellent work done by the National Film Board of Canada . The sad fact is , this is only fictional on the surface points . All too many species are disappearing unnecessarily and have been for some time . This makes that point deftly . Well worth hunting down and locating . Recommended . |
579,912 | 583,640 | 78,168 | 9 | Very good ( although a somewhat loose ) adaptation of the story with incredible detail in the Claymation | This short ( actually close to 30 minutes in length ) was nominated for an Academy Award and deserved to be . The attention to detail is high , which is typical of a Will Vinton project . Narrated by Will Geer ( a perfect choce , by the way ) , the story is adapted rather loosely in spots , but it's a marvelous piece of work and I'm glad it's apparently still in-print . A worthy effort well worth seeing . Most recommended . |
579,473 | 583,640 | 140,864 | 9 | Proof that Private Snafu's long suit is not intelligence ! | Another episode in the saga of Private Snafu-the dimmest bulb in the Army . This Rhodes scholar is more dangerous to his own unit than he is to the enemy ! Entertaining series of training films done during World War II . Here Snafu comes agonizingly close repeatedly to well-deserved destruction , only to be saved by the good fortune the universe seems to extend all too often to idiots . Hilarious ending which is quite apropos . The sad thing is there probably were Private Snafus in real life . I know people who make Snafu seem like Einstein ! Well worth watching . Most recommended . |
579,886 | 583,640 | 41,779 | 9 | Some of the funniest dialog in a Warner's short can be found here | This is a very funny short and very dialog-centered , with visual gags relatively scarce . The verbal gags are beautiful , for the most part . Because I want to discuss some details , this is a spoiler warning : We see all kinds of signs in the beginning that strongly prohibit poaching anything ( including eggs ) on the King's property and then we see Bugs try and pick a carrot from the Royal Garden , only to trigger an alarm attached to the carrot itself . He's then caught , " crimson-fisted " by the Sheriff of Nottingham and manages to fool him and get away when we come up on the running gag-a gargantuan Little John showing up to declaim , " Don't you worry , never fear-Robin Hood will soon be here ! " , only no sight of Robin Hood is to be seen . The sheriff catches up to Bugs , only to be given a high-pressure sales pitch which has him buying a piece of royal ground ( rather than lose it to " a couple from Kansas City " . The sheriff starts building a house , until it dawns on him what he's doing . His slow burn is probably the best visual bit in the short . Bugs drops into Little John's arms for an installment of the running gag and escapes the sheriff by introducing the two men to one another over and over again and then sneaking off . It's a funny bit . The best gag in the short , hands down , is Bugs tricking the sheriff into thinking that Bugs is the King . Bugs announces that the sheriff is to be knighted for his service to the crown . With each " title " granted the sheriff , Bugs belts him on the head with an imposing scepter which progressively becomes more and more dented with each blow . The " titles " include Baron of Munchausen , Essence of Myrrh , Milk of Magnesia and Quarter of Ten . Bugs then observes of the sheriff that he's " Got lots of stamina ! " and at the end , the sheriff thanks his " Majesty " . While the sheriff is singing " London Bridge " , Bugs elaborately ( and rapidly ) bakes and frosts a cake-so that the sheriff has something to fall face-first into when he finally collapses . Once again , we see the running gag , to which Bugs launches an inspired rant , about " helping the needy and the oppressed " and " skipping through Sherwood Forest " , when Robin Hood finally shows in a beautiful close which I won't spoil here . This short is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection , Volume 4 and is well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,384 | 583,640 | 43,952 | 9 | This is one of the best pairings of Yosemite Sam and Bugs | This is an extremely funny short , from Bugs crooning to a carrot to his closing line , which is marvelous . Sam has some limitations as a foil for Bugs generally , but here the situation is perfect and the character is used to best advantage . Wonderful cartoon . Good to see it's available . Well worth watching . Highly recommended . |
579,685 | 583,640 | 43,964 | 9 | An Orson Welles finger-exercise and quite a good one , as well | This short , nominated for an Academy Award , was adapted from a ghost story Welles once heard and was filmed during a financially-enforced sabbatical during the filming of Othello . It is remarkably moody and quite creepily atmospheric . It is essentially a finger-exercise for Welles , but it is a comment on Welles ( and , sadly , on other directors ) that his finger-exercises are more interesting and worthwhile than some director's magnum opus . Glad to see it's available . Recommended . |
579,601 | 583,640 | 95,737 | 9 | This is a SPOILER WARNING ! ! ! I can't review this one without details . Sorry . | I've debated reviewing this one because I generally don't like to discuss significant details , instead preferring to go into atmosphere and general discussion . But this cartoon has one pint that I have to discuss directly , and since there is no plot outline , it can be considered a spoiler . You are forewarned . The cartoon is principally given over to Daffy as nightclub performer to an audience straight out of Universal , for the most part : Dracula , Frankenstein and others . Spraying his throat with Eau de Torme ( yes , Mel Torme ) , Daffy , voiced by Torme , sings , " Monsters Lead Such Interesting Lives " . An otherwise unremarkable cartoon is made noteworthy by the voice of the Velvet Fog ! The idea still enchants me some twelve years later ! It's also why I gave it a nine rather than the seven it would have had otherwise . Mel Torme , I salute you ! |
579,371 | 583,640 | 36,933 | 9 | Probably the best of the sports cartoons Disney has made . | This short , nominated for an Oscar , is likely the best of the sports cartoons Disney did ( most of them centered around the lithe , atheletic and graceful Goofy ) and is a classic , although Tex Avery was there ahead of them , with Screwball Football in 1939 . Tex more than holds his own , but How To Pay Football is hilarious and yet another in a long line of works with which Disney can be justifiably proud . This airs on the Ink and Paint Club periodically . Recommended . |
579,446 | 583,640 | 33,138 | 9 | Oscar winning two-reel short that's quite good | his two-reel short won an Oscar in 1940 and is a fairly good look at Teddy Roosevelt and reasonably historically accurate , for Hollywood . Sidney Blackmer actually looks like TR ( thanks to a good makeup job ) and it suffers only sligtly from melodramatic excess . The performances are for the most part good and it's a good example of an all but lost form-the 20 minute short film . Turner Classic Movies runs this occasionally as filler and it generally runs as part of their " 31 Days of Oscar " feature in March . Recommended . |
579,820 | 583,640 | 54,429 | 9 | Holds up well despite the passage of time | This short , done under the auspices of the National Film Board of Canada , holds up quite well in an area that can date in an instant . The animation effects are exceptional and my only real problem was with the narrator who came perilously close to becoming a cure for insomnia . Very well done , it was nominated for an Oscar for Documentary Short . Recommended , with the caveat that later information renders some of this less useful on technical points . |
579,679 | 583,640 | 45,626 | 9 | Christopher Crumpet is a very unusual little boy-to say the least ! ( Spoiler warning ) | SPOILER WARNING ! This short , nominated for an Academy Award , concerns a little boy who , when he doesn't get his way , is a bit more creative than most children . No breath holder or pouty face is he , oh no . He turns into a chicken . His poor suffering parents are at a loss as to how to handle this and the consequences are funny and far-reaching . Well worth looking for and recommended . |
579,366 | 583,640 | 33,171 | 9 | A most frenetic , energetic and unusual cartoon ! | This is an extremely odd cartoon to describe . The premise is that a harmonica playing quartet essentially destroys a general store by virtue of rather energetic playing of their instruments . The sight of the poor shopkeeper as he watches his livelihood disintegrate ( despite his best efforts at damage control ) before his very eyes is both comic and a bit sad at the same time . The running gag features a rather wizened old bird in Confederate gray popping up and trying to choose the next song on the program by force of his own fife-playing . He's clearly single-minded and carries a grudge a long time ( no doubt against Yankees ) . Hilarious , particularly the running gag . Well worth tracking down . Recommended . |
578,948 | 583,640 | 38,969 | 9 | A very effective blend of live-action and animation that is sadly unavailable in the US . | I saw this on one of it's re-releases when I was very young and it has stayed with me . It is one of Disney's best efforts and I'd love to see it again . Unfortunately , Disney is loathe to offend anyone and it therefore seems that this film will be consigned to the vaults because Disney is unwilling to risk any heat . It's too bad , because the film teachs tolerance among other lessons . Recommended , if you can see it at all . |
579,185 | 583,640 | 149,688 | 9 | Be careful what you ask for-you just might get it ! | This short is a remake of a Fleischer Studios effort , the title of which escapes me at the moment , and is impressive enough that it can hold its own against the earlier cartoon , not often the case with Famous Studio work . Lots of sight gags , but the voice work is excellent . Beck was the best of the voices for Bluto over the years and Mercer and Questal were always marvelous . Bluto and Popeye fight over Olive and , as usual , Popeye wins-or does he ? You decide . Well worth tracking down . Recommended . |
579,824 | 583,640 | 200,282 | 9 | Starts charmingly enough and suddenly turns much more serious | Mild spoilers This cartoon begins , engagingly enough , at breakfast . Using animals instead of people as characters reminds viewers of those cute , lovable cartoons of yesteryear . Right . Life is what happens while you're making plans and sometimes life throws a curve or two-and sometimes , life throws the baseball bat at your head . Such is the case here , in a short which starts with a morning straight out of Norman Rockwell that veers into Bosch all too quickly for the primary characters . Memorable , with images that will stick around for quite a while . I'll never see eggs , bacon or produce quite the same way again . Nominated for an Academy Award and produced by the National Film Board of Canada . Recommended . |
578,995 | 583,640 | 45,778 | 9 | Football was possibly the most popular sport for cartoonists to parody . | For the majority of the major studios , sports were a frequent source of fun . Disney did a whole series of sports related shorts featuring Goofy . Baseball and football were the most frequent subjects and offhand I think football was slightly more often the target . There were two or three Disney ( of course , there were also the Casey at the Bat shorts ) , several Popeyes and a fair number of others . While this isn't the best football cartoon or my favorite , I'd call it the most creative one I've seen . A beautifully executed idea , funny and inventive . Jack Kinney was an excellent and far too overlooked director . Hopefully this will make a Disney Treasures DVD collection at some point . Well worth looking for . Recommended . |
579,433 | 583,640 | 54,387 | 9 | The special effects are still remarkable after more than 40 years ! | This is a very well-done adaptation of the H . G . Wells novella , with an Oscar for the special effects that are still impressive more than 40 years later . Good performances by an ensemble cast and a good script also help . One interesting side note : character actor Whit Bissell was in both the 1960 version here and the version done for television in 1978 , playing essentially the same part with two different character names ! Recommended . |
579,508 | 583,640 | 62,996 | 9 | The Pink Panther enlists-with obvious consequences ! | This is an exceptionally funny short where the Pink Panther does for the Army and his Sargeant ( " The Little White Guy " ) what Gomer Pyle did for the Marines and Sargeant Carter . I'm going to go into some detail in this comment , so this is your spoiler warning : The scene is set when the Pink Panther sees a recruiting poster and decides to join the Army . At boot camp , enter " The little White Guy " as a basic training instructor . He takes one look at our stalwart hero and hands him a broom instead of a rifle , which was a wise decision . The Pink Panther makes for a less than exemplary soldier . Before long , the Sargeant decides that he wants to get rid of the worst recruit he has and tries a number of different ways-land-mines , a grenade , an obstacle course , et cetera-which all naturally backfire on him without so much as breaking one of the Panther's toenails . The funniest part of the short revolves around the camp mascot , a large , rather ill-tempered ( though not without cause ) bulldog which takes a pronounced dislike to the Sargeant . The funniest gag , hands down , mostly takes place off-screen . The obstacle course the Sargeant sets up for the Pink Panther to run is shown briefly in all its painful and potentially deadly glory . The pistol he fires as a signal to the Panther to start running unfortunately happens to be pointed at the dog when he pulls the trigger . The little guy runs headlong into the course , while the dog ( sensibly ) stops . The sound effects used to indicate the run through various obstacles are perfect and hysterically funny . This is repeated , of course , when he comes out at the other side only to have the bulldog " greet " him and he runs back the way he came . The close of the cartoon has the Pink Panther winding up shipped to the Navy and coming back in Navy whites and the Sargeant deciding that a change of scenery ( and branches of service ) is an excellent idea . This short is on the Pink Panther Classic Cartoon Collection and is well worth watching . Most recommended . |
579,958 | 583,640 | 26,162 | 9 | Beautiful artwork and backgrounds , if occasionally too cute for words . | This cartoon's use of color and background detail is excellent . Sometimes , the story and the action is just too cute for my tastes , but it more than makes up for this visually . The dragon is great ! Nominated for an Academy Award for Animated Short , this runs on Cartoon Network occasionally and , when TCM does its annual " Salute to the Oscars " in March , this has been used as filler between features in years past as have other shorts , both animated and live-action . Recommended . |
579,468 | 583,640 | 151,819 | 9 | This short is one of the better " Sing-a-Longs " done by Famous Studios | Fleischer Studios did a regular series of shorts with a mix of live-action and animation with featured " sing-alongs " , where the audience would sing along with a musical performance . The lyrics would appear on the screen and a guide would pace the audience in time to the music . When Paramount switched their animated shorts to an in-house production studio ( called " Famous Studios " ) , one of the things they kept , at lest for a time , was these types of shorts , which followed the same type of format , but were entirely animated and used a " Bouncing Ball " as the cue . This short is one of the better ones they did . As I will discuss a little of the detail in this one , this is a spoiler warning : The cartoon opens up with a farmer going out to his barn and setting up a music stand to conduct an animal symphony orchestra . There follow brief snatches of familiar tunes with animated gags more or less tied to the music . For example , a mouse playing a trombone is playing " Three Blind Mice " , while a cat tries to catch the mouse by using a violin bow . In another bit , three lambs sing " Mary Had a Little Lamb " while a pig tries to play a stovepipe as if it were a tuba . These bits are very clever and the timing on the bits is very good . Then , the farmer talks to the audience , inviting them to sing along to " Old Macdonald Had a Farm " . The sing-along takes almost half of the short's running time , but there's some nice animation as background in spots . The short finishes up with a short animated sequence , as was typical for the Famous Studios series and this is almost the highlight of the cartoon , as the farmer is in a tuxedo and the various animals form a Conga line and sing until the end of the short . This is available on at least one low priced DVD that I know of and shouldn't be that hard to locate . Well worth watching . |
578,908 | 583,640 | 24,006 | 9 | Disney's first take on Noah | This short was Disney's first visit to Noah-it was followed up 26 years later by Noah's Ark . Of the two , this one is much closer to the typical Disney animated short and this one is very good . The other is more unusual in style and format , but both are fairly successful in what they try to do . Good to see this in-print . Beautifully executed . Recommended . |
579,068 | 583,640 | 151,871 | 9 | Lantz , like Disney and other studios , made music the starting point for a series of cartoons | This short was one of a series of shorts Walter Lantz made which were built around either a musical piece or a musical style , with classical and jazz predominating . Here , a very familiar piece of classical music was used to show the " workings " of an orchestra . I plan on discussing some details , so there will be spoilers : In a fairly rare short featuring Wally Walrus without Woody Woodpecker around to give him problems ( I can't think of another one at the moment , so this may be the only one ) Wally conducts an orchestra in a performance of " The William Tell Overture " . Much of the orchestra appears to be either dozing or disinterested , even while they're playing ! There are various sight gags having to do with rather odd playing styles and with musicians startled from slumber . Some are actually playing while they're asleep . Then comes a " dramatic " effect-a stagehand actually creates the conditions of a thunderstorm in the concert hall . Lightning strikes one horn player with a nice visual gag as the payoff , various musicians take shelter from the rain in different ( usually very humorous ) ways and the climax comes when the stagehand pulls the plug ( literally ) to drain the water out . You now see musicians drying out their instruments and sheet music . The end of the short comes , rather incongruously , when a horse is struck by a musical instrument and a rather indignant horsefly comes out and starts annoying Wally Walrus . Wally's efforts to get the horsefly result in the destruction of the performance and the orchestra . Excellent use of classical music to time the movement of animation . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,069 | 583,640 | 50,534 | 9 | Splendid use of stop-motion animation and live action | This short is an extremely effective use of the stop-motion technique of animation blended with live action footage about a very determined chair and a young man who wants nothing more than to sit and read . I personally negotiated a deal with my chairs : if they perform some basic function , they can remain . If not , they either pay rent like I do or they leave . So far , it seems to be an equitable and acceptable arrangement for all concerned . Most recommended . |
579,136 | 583,640 | 52,722 | 9 | Leprechauns , a Sidhe ( Banshee ) and Sean Connery with an Irish brogue ! What more could you want ? | This is a charming film with warmth , tenderness , tragedy , love , drama , betrayal and nobility all rolled into one and seasoned with humor . Albert Sharpe , who plays the lead , is a character actor whose face wll probably be familiar to movie fans . Sean Connery with an Irish brogue is worth the price of admission alone , but the story's entertaining , the performances good and the special effects are very good indeed . Recommended . |
578,959 | 583,640 | 26,135 | 9 | One of the more satisfying shorts Iwerks made . | This one works-at least for me , it worked . One of the most unusual singing quartets you'll ever see . Some exceptional backgrounds and very good animation here and also fairly well-developed characters ( not usually a hallmark of Iwerks studio ) make this an entertaining short . The farmer looks a bit like Al Falfa from Terrytoons , but character design wasn't a long suit for the studio either . They tended to draw things pretty much the same over and over . They may have had five or six basic variations on kids and used them interchangeably . The animals come off better than the humans do . Very good cartoon , an example of what Iwerks could do and if they'd done work like this more often , who knows what might have happened . Well worth watching . Good to see in print and on DVD . Recommended . |
579,079 | 583,640 | 50,449 | 9 | In a war between Speedy and the other male mice for the affections of all the senorita mice , the loser is Sylvester ! | I can't really discuss this cartoon without including at least some details , so consider yourself warned as to spoilers : The male mice in a small village have something of a problem-his name is Speedy Gonzales . Every little senorita mouse is far more interested in the dashing Speedy than they are in anyone else . In a brilliant display of vigor and young mouse-hood , they decide the solution to their problems is by arranging for someone else to do their dirty work - " El gringo pussycat " , for instance . So they make it look like Speedy's insulted Sylvester and the chase is on . As you might expect , Sylvester gets the worst of Speedy and things don't end terribly well from his point of view . Pairing Sylvester and Speedy up in a cartoon is an obvious and effective teaming , when you think about it a bit . It does have the same obvious limitation the Sylvester versus Tweety shorts have-you know from the outset that no one will be lunch , even if one character does consider the other a part of their basic food groups . The reason these shorts work ( when they do ) is because of the gags involved and the background material . You hear a character singing a couple of lines of " La Cucaracha " ( which are particularly funny if you understand Spanish ) , or you see the physical results of Sylvester trying to catch Speedy and it doesn't matter that Sylvester has a better chance of hitting the lottery than does of catching his prey du jour . This is available on Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol . 3 and is most definitely worth getting . I recommend the Collection without reservation . Highly recommended . |
579,666 | 583,640 | 45,697 | 9 | One of the most interesting and humorous concepts developed by Chuck Jones | Chuck Jones , in addition to both working with solidly established stars such as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck and doing one-shot cartoons like Martian Through Georgia , did some thematic groupings of short using continuing characters in a small number of cartoons . Ralph and Sam , a sheepdog and wolf , were one of these . The series is one of the better ones as far as I'm concerned . The concept of protector versus predator as a 9 to 5 job just amuses me no end . This particular short isn't the best of the lot ( there were seven all told and I believe this was the first of them ) but all of them are quite fun and are well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,881 | 583,640 | 43,839 | 9 | As with all the True Life Adventures , the camera work here is simply fantastic , particularly the time lapse sequences | This short , which won an Academy Award for Live-Action Short , is one of the most fascinating things that Disney has ever released . It follows one particular natural area for an entire year , from one spring through to the next . Because I want to discuss some details , this is a spoiler warning : The short begins by explaining that " nature's Half-acre " can be found anywhere , including your own backyard . It then focuses in on the life cycle for one particular " half-acre " , with a predominant emphasis on birds and insects , with a couple of reptiles given a brief introduction . As always , the photography is breathtaking and the narration , though still occasionally to precious , is excellent . There's only one gimmicky sequence and they don't seem to have played around with the footage , but simply inserted musical scoring to something they caught on film , in an attempt to inject a comical note . There might be a good reason to add some levity , because the overall point which is reinforced repeatedly in this one is that , in nature , most , if not all , creatures are on someone's dinner menu and predator can quickly become prey . Birds eat insects to survive , insects eat insects to survive , plants eat insects to survive and the list goes on . What matters to nature is that species continue and that the natural life cycle also continues . There's a great deal of focus on death here , with caterpillars being kept in check because there are birds which thrive on them , spiders who thrive on flies and bees , chameleons who eat just about any kind of insects-almost everything is vulnerable . But there's also an emphasis on the " life " part of " the life cycle " , with scenes of flowers in bloom and the emergence of a butterfly from its chrysalis . A lot of this is shown through the use of time lapse photography , where something which may actually take hours or even days to happen can be shown in seconds or minutes . There are some exceptional sequences here . This is one of Disney's best . This is available on Volume 4 of the True Life Adventures Series , which made up the first wave of the new Disney Legacy series of DVD releases . I recommend all four of the titles . |
579,810 | 583,640 | 147,568 | 9 | Excellent short , just beautiful and it has a ( gasp ! ) PLOT ! ! ! | Alright , so it isn't a terribly complex plot-but it is more of a plot than Iwerks usually had for its cartoons . This one features the same Old Man Winter as did the short Jack Frost , another cartoon from the same studio . Backgrounds and animation are incredible , but then those always tended to be hallmarks of the studio . They'd be more notable in their absence . Plots were not so frequent in appearance-Ub Iwerks didn't have much interest in anything that didn't require animation by way of a pencil or paint . Which was unfortunate , because that was a major reason why the shorts weren't more popular with audiences . Incidentally , Iwerks did a series of thematically similar shorts for Disney in the early 1930s as part of the Silly Symphonies on each of the four seasons , as well as one entitled Night . This series has five of the most beautifully animated shorts I've ever seen . I wish they were in print , but the Iwerks studio short is on DVD . Well worth getting . Highly recommended . |
579,074 | 583,640 | 41,891 | 9 | Extremely well-conceived and executed animated short on public health programs | Although somewhat dated in a few details , much of what this details regarding public health and safety , such as inoculation versus disease and the need for good sanitation is still of importance today . I saw this in Cartoon Network on a special ToonHeads featuring rarely seen or little-known animation . This won an Oscar for Documentary Short ( actually , it tied with another short ) and was well deserving of its award . The animation is superb and worth watching . It was also quite disturbing to learn that , apparently , a bare fifty years ago the infant mortality rate in the United States was as high as it was . Five of every 100 births . While we have made progress , we can still make a good deal more . Most recommended . |
579,894 | 583,640 | 112,691 | 9 | Yet another episode in the saga of Wallace and Gromit | This short , which won an Academy Award , is the one I enjoy slightly less of the first three , which makes it only great ! A sheep named Shaun steals the show here . Wallace is marginally more lively in this one . All in all , well worth seeking out and fairly easy to get . Highly recommended . |
579,269 | 583,640 | 50,442 | 9 | Every time I see this one , I wonder if Art Carney ever saw this one . | This cartoon has Spike and Tyke of Tom and Jerry fame , without said cat or mouse . Sort of giving the supporting players a shot at the brass ring , as it were . Their problem child here is a dog clearly modeled after the pre-eminent second banana , the Ed Norton character from the show The Honeymooners . I half expect the words , " Ralphie boy " to glide through the air , a punch line in search of a set up ( or vice versa ) . A great short , with gags aplenty . Good script and great voicework by Butler highlight this one . Well worth looking out for . Most recommended . |
579,277 | 583,640 | 33,266 | 9 | Popeye creates his own nightmare here , but solves the mess in the end . | In this one , Popeye " teaches " Olive how to drive . I'm curious as to who taught Popeye , as he neglects to impart Important Rule # 1 : Pay attention to the road when navigating any vehicle anywhere . It isn't that Olive is totally inattentive . She's just not attentive to minor trivialities-like steering or the traffic around her . The title here shouldn't be " Wimmin Hadn't Oughta Drive " but rather , " Don't Let Olive Oyl Have Control Over Anything More Complex To Operate Than a Toothpick " . Though I must confess that Popeye is no great mental heavyweight either , as he permits Olive behind the wheel in the first place ! Great sight gags make this loads of fun . Jack Mercer was as great as always and the ending is fittingly apropos . Worth seeking out and most recommended . |
579,955 | 583,640 | 23,948 | 9 | One of many movies done after Grand Hotel with all-star ensemble casts , but unlike most of the others , this one works ! | In the wake of the success of Grand Hotel , there were a number of attempts to duplicate its formula . Where this one succeeds admirably , others failed . Much of the credit goes to the cast and the script . Jean Harlow is wonderful , as are Wallace Beery and the Barrymores ( who , unless I'm mistaken , never have a scene together ) and most of the others are very good . The Academy totally ignored this one , for whatever reason . I hope most people don't make the same mistake they did . It has at least one classic exchange between Harlow and Marie Dresser regarding Harlow's recounting of a book she'd read . Dresser's reaction and rejoinder are delightfully done and delivered . You'll laugh , you'll cry , you'll enjoy . Most heartily recommended ! |
579,326 | 583,640 | 41,858 | 9 | Very good Droopy cartoon | This short is a very good Tex Avery Droopy . Droopy is the cartoon " Everyman " who somehow manages to come out on top whatever the odds are or the forces arrayed against him . Tex Avery's principal continuing character while at MGM , I wouldn't be at all surprised if Droopy was the character appearing in the most Tex Avery shorts of any continuing character Avery ever worked with . Given the characters he worked with at Warner Brothers , that's saying something ! Good to see that it's in print . Well worth seeing . Recommended , particularly for Lina Romay sigh |
579,291 | 583,640 | 30,566 | 9 | One of my favorite Tex Avery shorts . | This is one of my favorite Tex Avery cartoons . It's Tex in full stride and typical of his Warner Brothers work . It even has Tex doing voice work ( appropriately , because he was a big man ) as a walrus . There are celebrity caricatures sprinkled here and there , but the music is what sets this apart . Just a bit of trivia : Warner's caricatured many famous stars , most of whom didn't seem to mind terribly , at least not out loud . But Bing Crosby did mind and once apparently talked of suing . I doubt he would have . Likely , he would have lost and he would have come off looking more than a bit foolish . Great cartoon and a very rapid-fire , almost manic delivery . The closing line is a scream ! Most definitely worth tracking down and watching . Most recommended , particularly for anyone who likes Avery or swing / jazz ( and we do mean you ! ) . |
578,831 | 583,640 | 112,661 | 9 | How Courage the Cowardly Dog started | This short was made for the Cartoon Network as a part of their Cartoon Cartoon series , aired in theaters and was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Short . The rules have been changed to preclude nominees from being part of a series or conceived originally for television from being eligible . I personally think this is an excellent short and while I understand the logic behind the rules change , I consider it a shame nonetheless . The success of this short led to a series called Courage the Cowardly Dog , one of the better series in a line-up of series that is widely variable as to quality ( some of it quite good , all too much of it poor indeed ) and is well worth watching . Cartoon Network still shows it occasionally . Recommended . |
578,893 | 583,640 | 213,898 | 9 | Will Vinton Studios stretches its muscles a bit . | While Will Vinton and the studio carrying his name are best known for Claymation ( a term coined and either copyrighted or service marked by Vinton , but also a good general description of the animation style ) , the studio and / or Vinton does occasionally produce works directed by others in other styles . The Creation is an excellent example . Mr . Resistor is yet another . Using stop-motion , this is a much more serious piece than the typical Vinton release , though there are some humorous touches . Anyone looking for a pile of giggles is apt to be disappointed . But the short is engaging , the animation is top-notch and the production values are up to the usual high standards . As Vinton was shown the door ( abruptly and rather unceremoniously ) earlier this year , by the partner who recently acquired a larger interest in the studio , also this year , it's highly unlikely that much effort will be expended on less profitable things such as short animation , which is sad , because you can test out ideas and techniques in short films first , without the financial risks inherent in features . Part of the reason Disney was so financially successful early on was the success they had in training crews on shorts and learning what worked ( and didn't ) an the smaller ( comparatively cheaper ) projects . I hope I'm wrong , because animated shorts are an art form in and of themselves and the Will Vinton Studios were very good at them . Recommended . |
579,533 | 583,640 | 147,901 | 9 | The most musically-oriented Heckle and Jeckle I've seen | This short has Heckle and Jeckle running a diner . Since I want to discuss some details , there will be spoilers : While there have been other Heckle and Jeckle shorts which have featured songs ( such as Hair Cut-ups and House Busters ) , they really weren't what you would call musical cartoons . This one is a little different . At one point , Heckle and Jeckle " conduct " an " orchestra " composed of some of their customers , who " play " their utensils and even their food ! The sounds that issue forth are tonal more than strictly musical , but a distinct tune can be heard . There are other nice bits in here , like a customer who has a bit more difficulty with an order of Mexican " jumping beans " than he probably expected when he ordered them . In the midst of all this , two robbers come upon the diner and expect it to be easy pickings-not terribly bright , these two . There's a particularly entertaining bit which uses a dishwasher as a weapon toward the end of this cartoon , the culmination of Heckle and Jeckle's defense of their property . The short closes as it opens-with Jeckle singing the opening line of a song - " Come to our diner , let us fill your platter . We guarantee that when you leave , you'll be a whole lot fatter ! " Very good short and well worth the effort to find . Recommended . |
579,702 | 583,640 | 113,138 | 9 | Quite funny , as well as a bit wistful and bittersweet . | Given the nature of its premise and the country of origin being Russia , it's a fairly logical guess that the title is a reference to Yuri Gagarin , the Russian cosmonaut who became the first man to climb into a glorified tin can and be shot into orbit around the Earth . This is a very cute , often funny and sometimes poignant cartoon about getting what you wish for . That it doesn't always turn out as you wish it to is the ironic twist here . This can be found on one of the Spike and Mike Festival of Animation compilations and is well worth looking for . Highly recommended . |
579,936 | 583,640 | 37,181 | 9 | One of the funniest Donald Duck shorts Disney made . | This short is clever and very funny , as it follows Donald through the process of building and flying a plane he makes entirely from plastic ! I ask you , how secure would you feel riding in a plane made of plastic constructed and piloted by a very impatient and short-tempered duck . Parachutes , anyone ? Sadly , this is not in print . It does occasionally air on The Ink and Paint Club and is well worth tracking down . Recommended . |
579,165 | 583,640 | 149,807 | 9 | Very good later Woody Woodpecker | This short is one of the better ones that the Lantz studios produced in the 1960s . There are echoes reminiscent of Tex Avery's short Sh-h-h here , but this one has an energy and charm all its own . I feel extremely sorry for the poor guy here . The ending is perfect ! This one is worth tracking down . Most recommended . |
579,550 | 583,640 | 26,529 | 9 | After 65 years , this film is still all too timely | This film deals with the Irish rebellion in the 1920s and more specifically one man's life after he informs on a friend for the bounty on his head and the subsequent consequences . Watching the film , I got the feeling that you could take the script and with just some minor updates , do it again and it , sadly , would still fit contemporary events . But te remake wouldn't be nearly as good . A magnificent performance by Victor McLaglen ( for which he deservedly got an Oscar ) and a fine ensemble cast that includes most , if not all the actors with brogues in Hollywood at the time , most of them recognizable character actors either established at the time or just starting out . A very good film well worth watching . Highly recommended . |
579,131 | 583,640 | 41,587 | 9 | Excellent cast , but an even better script | You have here a situation that is rarer than you might imagine-a top-notch cast with an even better script . This is a delightful film with fine performances all around and some of the best dialogue ! Strangely , none of the cast were nominated for their work here , although three were nominated for other performances in other films they did that year . The script deservedly won an Oscar as did the director . This is a joy to watch and the voice-over narration is perfectly handled throughout . Highly recommended ! |
579,789 | 583,640 | 149,779 | 9 | Cute , well executed short about a ballet school | This cartoon is a humorous and rather charming look at a ballet school , rather overeager management and its harried but able instructress . Well animated and with an engaging story , the ending is quite appropriate and hilarious . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,232 | 583,640 | 262,421 | 9 | Tim Burton , eat your heart out ! | On the whole , I actually think that Tim Burton would find this one amusing if it ever crossed his field of vision . I think James Whale would probably have loved it too . Not your typical Christmas cartoon , by any means . Sentimentalist that I am , I like to think that when Frannie grew up , she got an appropriate job , like working for an HMO or something like that . Macabre little short with a heart ( pulsing madly in a jar , no doubt ) of at least bronze , if not gold . It's on Spike and Mike's Festival of Animation , Vol 3 , I think . Well worth watching , this one gets an " A " for sheer chutzpah alone . Recommended . |
579,379 | 583,640 | 21,664 | 9 | Very strange short with a small part for an early take on Betty Boop . | This is a BImbo cartoon and quite an odd one it is too . Betty Boop makes a relatively brief appearance towards the latter half of the short and at the end and her look is slighly different in this early short . Exceedingly strange things happen throughout to say the least ! Great fun but definitely an acquired taste . In print and available . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,488 | 583,640 | 45,863 | 9 | Some days , it just doesn't pay to get up in the morning . | Poor Barney ( in more than one sense , at that ) , he goes to a great deal of trouble to find a treasure , only to run into a gopher that makes his life miserable ( the Marquise de Gopher , perhaps ) and thus we are treated to a raft of sight gags almost painful to watch executed with obvious glee ( I wonder if the scriptwriter disliked Barney ) for everyone but the victim . The ending of this one reminds me of a quote attributed to Charles Beaumont regarding success in Hollywood that it's " like climbing up a mountain of ( fertilizer ) to pick a rose growing on top , only to discover when you've reached your goal that you've lost your sense of smell . " To say that poor Barney is the butt of a cruel joke from the universe is an understatement . You can almost hear the rimshot at the end . One of the better late Barney Bear shorts , which didn't always work , because the second set featured a " nice " Barney without the offsetting gruffness that made the first incarnation entertaining . Well worth watching . Most recommended . |
579,119 | 583,640 | 26,569 | 9 | The Old Woman Who Lived in the Shoe-Fleischer style ! | Like Disney , the Fleischers took fairy tales and adapted them for cartoons . But the Fleischers added their own twists to these cartoons . They weren't Disney , never could be and their weakest work is when they tried to out-mouse the Mouse . The highlight here is a great rendition of the song , " Mama Don't ' Low " as essayed by Smiley Burnette , a character actor most associated with westerns , principally as Gene Autrey's sidekick . His voice is almost unmistakeable and the energy of the cartoon , which starts slowly , picks up considerably once he starts singing . Visually nice with a few other moments , notably the ending . This short can be found on the Somewhere In Dreamland DVD compilation in a separate section as one of four shorts considered too poor in condition to fully restore . While not as beautiful as the restored shorts , it is most certainly watchable . Well worth seeing . Recommended . |
579,293 | 583,640 | 47,981 | 9 | Time-honored and well-tested conceit . | Tex Avery used a plot device here that he used in several cartoons : A character or characters want to avoid being heard by another character . Another character does their level best to cause them to disturb the character , setting the stage for his much-beloved sight gags fired rapidly at the audience . Cartoons are an artform and animated shorts have differing limitations and requirements from longer works . Conventions , plot devices and gimmicks have been developed over the years . Tex Avery developed and / or refined many of these over the years and is , in my view , the most seminal creative force in the history of the animated short . He was an extraordinary artist . This is a funny , engaging , delightful short with a hysterical ending and one of his better efforts . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,610 | 583,640 | 120,684 | 9 | An excellent , if somewhat flawed , look at the life and work of James Whale | I've always been fascinated by James Whale , if for no other reason than the fact that , in one career , he directed Frankenstein and The Invisible Man on one hand and also directed the 1936 version of Showboat and The Great Garrick ! That kind of dichotomy is not something you see every day . All four films are at least very good and two are exceptional . Gods and Monsters is very much a film about people and Ian McKellen does his best work that I've seen to date . But Lynn Redgrave's performance is even better and probably her best ever . Make no mistake , this is McKellen's film . Aided by an excellent script and with most of the performances top-notch , McKellen delivers a fine portayal of Whale . Brenden Fraser is the one somewhat of a clinker here . He has his moments , but for the most part , he is barely adequate and at times isn't terribly believable . Had he done a better job , Gods and Monsters could have been in the Best Picture race instead of The Thin Red Line . But even at that , this is well worth your time . |
579,162 | 583,640 | 146,967 | 9 | Woody's first appearance , but it's an Andy Panda short . | Happens all the time-a seasoned pro gives a young unknown a break and it makes the unknown a star ! Woody went on to eclipse Andy Panda in popularity and was the top draw for Lantz studios in the years that followed . But the two always had a cordial , if somewhat bizarre , friendship , appearing in a number of shorts together . They were often seen vacationing together in their off-screen time , unlike well-known rivals at two other major studios and retired together with their families somewhere in California . Great short that's lots of fun . Well worth tracking down . Highly recommended . |
579,694 | 583,640 | 112,958 | 9 | Visually striking short with a rather old premise | This short , deservedly nominated for an Academy Award , shows off what CGI can do to far better effect than using them to save money on large crowd scenes in epics ever will ( or can ) . Here there be mild spoilers : Having characters arguing with the person who created them is an old idea . But most ideas are old and have been , probably since the days of Shakespeare . This animated short acquits itself quite well in that regard . But the delight here is the visuals . This short is ten years old . As far as computer animation is concerned , that's dinosaur time . It's still visually impressive now . This is included on the Canadian DVD release Ryan Special Edition and , to judge by the running time listed , is probably on the US release coming out August 2nd . The DVD is worth it for Ryan alone . To have the end as well is icing on the cake . Recommended . |
578,992 | 583,640 | 136,337 | 9 | Excellent silent mix of live-action and animation . | This is along the same lines as the Alice shorts Disney did in the 1920s , only the star isn't the live-action little girl but Ko-Ko the Clown , the first animated star Fleischer Studios had . Here , Ko-Ko has a series of adventures with a little girl who shrinks in size and goes with Ko-ko . Very well-executed and the ending is rather charming . At this point in time ( up until The Skeleton Dance ) , it could easily be argued that the Fleischers were Disney's equal and in some ways , his superiors . They were certainly the principal competition until Warner Brothers and , later , MGM leapfrogged ahead of them and Fleischer Studios lost some steam . The Production Code and tunnel vision on their part played significant roles in their slow disintegration . But when they were hitting on all cylinders , they achieved great things . Well worth finding . Most recommended . |
578,797 | 583,640 | 41,661 | 9 | Hubie and Bert doing what they do best-causing no end of trouble | This cartoon short , an Oscar nominee , features Hubie and Bert ( " Yeah , yeah , sure , sure " ) tormenting poor Claude for the first time . Poor Clude didn't fare terribly well in any of his cartoons , either with Hubie and Bert or in other cartoons , but this is by far the most devastatingly funny appearance by any of them . You really get to feel quite sorry for poor Claude after a while here . He just happens to be in the way here . He doesn't do anything to deserve this nightmare . He's simply there . Recommended . |
579,628 | 583,640 | 97,532 | 9 | Bizarre , quirky , outlandish animation-in other words , a Bill Plympton cartoon | Bill Plympton is an acquired taste , one I have acquired . This short is outrageous , strange and at times unnerving , to say the least . Which is pretty much the norm for his work . This is an excellent , if somewhat bizarre , short , although those who harbor the mistaken notion that animation is strictly for children are likely to run screaming from the room before the first minute has run in the one ! Well worth finding . Recommended with the caveats expressed above . |
579,009 | 583,640 | 46,005 | 9 | The best of Tex Avery's cartoons giving human characteristics to inanimate objects | This cartoon was nominated for an Oscar , which is welcome although a bit puzzling , as this is a prototypical Tex Avery cartoon-take something ordinary , twist it in some odd or extraordinary way and fire sight gags at the audience for the bulk of the cartoon . Avery often gave inanimate objects human traits , as he does here and this is a marvelous cartoon , but he did at least a dozen that were as good or better that weren't nominated . Which proves that the Academy Awards process is as much chance as anything else . This shows on Cartoon Network often . Recommended |
579,175 | 583,640 | 149,963 | 9 | One of the best Tex Avery cartoons that Avery didn't make . | This short was made at the Walter Lantz studio during Tex Avery's brief stint as a director there and though he wasn't involved , his influence is seen throughout . As I want to discuss some of the details , this is a spoiler warning : This is a story told in flashback ( for the most part ) and is about two dogs , John and Mary , who start out at the bottom of the list in vaudeville ( I suspect the idea of making them dogs was a deliberate joke , as the dog act on the vaudeville circuit was normally placed at the end of the show , to clear the theater out for the next performance ) and gradually rise to the top and play the Palace , doing the same act throughout . John is then foolish enough to walk out on Mary for another woman , who's just using him until he's out of money . John then tries to go back to Mary , only to find she's a successful solo act . He tries a solo and bombs , tries again to contact Mary repeatedly , with no luck and decides to jump off a bridge , which is where we find him at the start of the short . Near the beginning , on the stage backdrop in a vaudeville house John and Mary perform in , one of the ads touts " Avery's Liver Tonic " , which is appropriate , because Tex Avery's stylistic fingerprints are all through this short . The gags recall several shorts Avery made while he was at MGM , most specifically his Symphony In Slang . The narration even sounds the same ! Now that I think of it , the principal female character in Symphony In Slang is named Mary , though I don't recall if the narrator is named John . It's a very funny cartoon . The ending of this short is mixed , for my tastes . I would have ended the short about ten or fifteen seconds sooner ! I won't spoil the gag here . This short was released on one of the Columbia House Woody Woodpecker and Friends DVDs and is well worth watching . Most recommended . |
578,820 | 583,640 | 37,339 | 9 | Porky's sole Oscar nod and it took a battle of crooning fowl to get it for him ! | This cartoon , nominated for Oscar , was Porky's only shot at the gold . It's a marvelous cartoon and parodies Sinatra and Crosby , among others . Watch particularly the audition , when Porky is trying out singers to get his hens laying eggs again . The guys at Termite Terrace loved parodies , not only actors , but singers as well . The auditionees are all parodies . It's a scream and great fun figuring out who's who . Reportedly , Bing Crosby hated it when he was parodied in cartoons . How Frank Sinatra felt about it , I have no idea . Recommended . |
578,987 | 583,640 | 32,507 | 9 | More talky than normal for Tex Avery , but it's largely successful . | This is a cartoon that was made in a format Tex Avery wasn't always successful with-a series of loosely connected blackouts , which are little comic set-pieces . Avery didn't always do these well because each distinct piece had its own setup , joke and punchline , usually requiring more dialogue and a slower pace than Avery liked to use . This one works better than others he did because the gags are funnier and there are some sight gags here that have Avery written all over them ( in Humpty Dumpty and Jack Be Nimble particularly ) and the pacing is a little better . As I said , this type didn't really suit Avery very well . One sub-class of this type Avery did have success with , though , and it was the travelogue cartoons , I suspect because they were parodies of the often mind-numbingly bland and sophorific travelogues that were popular in the 1930s and 1940s , thus making them sitting ducks for the antic lunacy that was Avery's long suit . Decent , but not up to his better work . Worth watching once . Recommended for Tex Avery die-hard fans ( like me ) . |
578,932 | 583,640 | 151,664 | 9 | A fun and lively cartoon that I find very entertaining . | Through most of the mid to late 1940s , Paramount's Famous Studios did some fairly good work . Sometime in the 1950s , they kind of seemed to surrender to a rising tide of mediocrity and just turned out shorts virtually indistinguishable from each other and started strip mining the old Fliescher Studios shorts for ideas ( particularly the Popeye shorts ) . But in the 1940s , they actually did some really nice work . This short is a case in point . Because I want to talk about the short in some detail , this is a spoiler warning : This is a short focusing on a sheep named Blackie . It starts out with three lambs dancing to a jazzed up version of " Mary Had a Little Lamb " until a wolf comes along ( the characterization of the wolf and the voice all seem very familiar , but I can't quite place them ) . The wolf grabs two of them , but they get away and all three run for help to their Uncle Blackie . There's a really nice bit surrounding the sack the wolf tried to trap the lambs in that I won't spoil here . Uncle Blackie manages to get rid of the wolf in a creative ( and likely painful ) way . The lambs , of course , don't learn anything and wind up in trouble again when the wolf pretends to be " Little Boy Blue " blowing his jiving horn . The wolf lures them back to his place only to have Blackie save them at the last instant . There follows the longest section of the short , where the wolf goes after Blackie himself , with predictable ( but hilarious ) results . There are elaborate bits involving a magnifying glass and Blackie tending a bar and serving the wolf a " mint julep " made of hot sauce . Some really funny stuff in this part of the cartoon . Finally , the wolf manages to get lucky and actually catches Blackie . Not being the shiniest pebble in the pond , the wolf allows Blackie to trick him and get away , leading to the final gag and a very funny close to the short . You can find this short on the occasional VHS cassette or DVD . It's definitely worth tracking down . Most recommended . |
579,831 | 583,640 | 52,389 | 9 | Beautifully shot , watch this for the visually glorious surroundings and try to ignore the occasionally silly narraion | This documentary is one of the best ever produced by Disney and has both the strengths and weaknesses of most Disney documentaries-excellent visually and technically but with narration that is all too frequently vapid , silly and boring , with the added difficulty that the narrator's droning monotone almost puts me to sleep . The visuals more than make up for any shortcomings . Recommended . |
579,295 | 583,640 | 30,129 | 9 | The changing of Egghead | This short is , so far as I'm aware , the first ( and only ) time Egghead is called Elmer . The similarities between the two are peripheral but notable : style of dress , a lack of hair , etc . At some point , Egghead stopped appearing and Elmer started getting paired off with Bugs and Daffy instead . Was it a deliberate decision ? Possibly . Egghead was a useful , but limited , character . It makes sense that Egghead morphed into Elmer . This cartoon is a hilarious collection of bits strung together within a framing device loose enough to permit the gags but tangible enough to have a story , something which allowed Avery full rein while giving enough to the audience that they could follow along for the ride . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,523 | 583,640 | 69,947 | 9 | Books often don't translae to film too well , but an excellent job was done here | This is an excellent adaptation of a very good novel by Frederic Forsythe . All too often , novels are poorly adapted to film , for various reasons . This is one of the better examples of how things can work but don't . The plot is discernably that of Forsythe's book ( the author has not always been fortunate in that regard < shudder ! > ) and the suspense carries through the film . Edwrd Fox is marvelous as The Jackal , the rest of the cast largely do an excellent job , script and score are great and other production values are qite good . Cyril Cusack has a fairly small part but is excellent and so is Derek Jacobi in a small role . Highly recommended . |
579,590 | 583,640 | 43,480 | 9 | Droopy gives Spike a bad case of double vision | This short is an energetic little cartoon that introduces a twin brother of Droopy's for the first ( and only ) time to hilarious , if predictable effect . Good effort that makes Droopy a more interesting character . Well worth watching , even if it isn't one of Avery's best . Recommended . |
579,806 | 583,640 | 146,848 | 9 | Ub Iwerks closed his studio with a bang ! | At least one source lists this short as the last release from Iwerks studio . If that's so , then their swan song was a most impressive finale . The sad thing is , this cartoon is better than the overwhelming majority of the shorts that preceded it , but likely got booked in far fewer theaters , because by that time there was no major studio distribution contract . A beautiful cartoon that's inventive , entertaining and has a cast of characters capable of engaging audiences and sustaining at least a short series , particularly a little wisecracking twerp who has more life and wit in an eyebrow than Flip the Frog and Willie Whopper combined ever did or probably could have . A good script helps out here too . What could have been . Ah , well-that's life . Perhaps it's just as well , as Ub Iwerks eventually wound up back with Disney , where he could work on the technical aspects of animation , virtually to his heart's content . Excellent cartoon , very much worth seeing . Highly recommended . |
579,368 | 583,640 | 41,326 | 9 | Talk about self-fulfilling prophecies ! | This cartoon ( the title is a play on the film title " Each Dawn I Die " ) is one of the better Elmer Fudd solos the did . It concerns a rather foolish rooster , the hazards of jumping to conclusions and the danger of inattention . The narration is excellent , visual gags are here in abundance and the payoff is a scream for everyone but John Rooster . It's usually a good idea to be aware of your surroundings . A delightful little short . Well worth looking for . Recommended . |
578,994 | 583,640 | 20,041 | 9 | Ah , the pre-Code cartoons , he waxed nostalgically . | Prior to the creation of the Hays Office ( named for Will Hays , the first official censor , who left Washington just ahead of the posse , having been part of the Harding administration , the most corrupt administration pre-1968 ) and the installation of the Code in the early 1930s by these paragons of virtue , films were more free-wheeling and cartoons were no exception . The Mickey of this timeframe was closer to Dennis the Menace than the Mouse he came to be just a few years hence . In some ways , this Mickey was more interesting and more fun . Music was almost always large part of cartoons in general and in the early days of sound , was hugely important just as something of a novelty . Excellent score here and hilarious almost from first frame to last . Well worth tracking down . Most recommended . |
579,450 | 583,640 | 43,517 | 9 | One of the better shorts with Bugs and Yosemite Sam | This is a very engaging and humorous short with Bugs engaged in a battle of wits with Yosemite Sam . Sam makes an ideal foe for Bugs , as his temper lends itself to all manner of situations . Elmer makes a good foil , as it makes sense why a hunter would want to shoot a rabbit , but Sam opens up many more possibilities . Interestingly , one of the more effectively utilized characters in the more recent shorts made in the 1990s is Sam . Here the action centers around a property dispute and sight gags and verbal wordplay are both in abundance and a great time is had by all . Good to see it's available . Well worth watching . Most recommended . |
578,937 | 583,640 | 150,096 | 9 | This was made early in the Paramount Famous Studio's existence , when they were still funny ! | This short was a marked contrast to much of the later output of the Famous Studios for Paramount , which was hackneyed and trite in comparison . Famous Studio was a pale successor to the Fliescher Studio and couldn't even come close to the " Big Three " - Disney , Warner Brothers and MGM-but this cartoon is actually clever , creative and funny . I want to discuss it in a little detail , so there will be spoilers below : Herman is a mouse and wants cheese-he wants it badly . The only problem is , there is a cat and that cat is best friends with the dog . The upshot is , Herman has to get past both of them to get cheese . His success in this effort can be measured by the fact that he hasn't eaten in 29 days ! He decides that his only chance is to make the dog and cat enemies , so that they'll wipe each other out , leaving him a clear and uncontested path to the refrigerator . He tries this by rather crude methods and it briefly looks like he'll succeed , but the cat and dog tumble to his schemes and trick him ( the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry and all that ) . They fake a final , mutually fatal , battle and Herman strolls to the refrigerator , only to find he's been tricked . The last part of the short is fairly good and I won't spoil it here , but it is in keeping with the overall mood of the short . Warmer Brothers did similar work and did it better , but this is a very good short , particularly when measured against the later work of the same studio just a few years later . Well worth tracking down and not that hard to find . Most recommended . |
579,633 | 583,640 | 64,612 | 9 | An exceptionally fine film with a great script and fine cast | This film , nominated for an Oscar , was eligible the same year as the film Z , otherwise it might have won for Foreign Language Film . The script is fantastic , the cast does superbly and the direction is as good or better than either . The principal female roles are very well-executed . The male lead is a dithering , uncertain fellow who can't seem to make up his mind about breakfast , much less anything more complicated . It's difficult to feel any great sympathy for him and I think this was intentional . Highly Recommended . |
579,296 | 583,640 | 43,419 | 9 | The archetype Tex Avery cartoon . | Tex Avery loved sight gags piled on top of one another , coming fast and furiously at the viewer . This short is simply one long string of sight gags in a battle of wits between a dog ( usually named Spike , but not to be confused with the Spike found in Tom and Jerry cartoons with some frequency . Same name , different dog ) and a rooster with a Type A personality . Great cartoon , but the unrelenting and unbroken chain of sight gags begins to wear on you . They almost come too fast . It's still great fun and a wonderful cartoon . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,865 | 583,640 | 45,062 | 9 | Daffy really should quit while he's behind | This is the middle cartoon of the three ( between Rabbit Fire and Duck ! Rabbit , Duck ! ) and is the weakest of the three , while still being quite funny . It simply depends on one gag for too much of the action . Still a good cartoon . I feel a definite sympathy for Daffy in this one , which is rare for me . Daffy is so clearly overmatched that it almost becomes painful to watch at times . Good cartoon in an excellent series . Recommended . |
579,713 | 583,640 | 35,790 | 9 | Excellent footage with an unnecessary , tacked-on , prologue | This Oscar-winning documentary features some spectacular battle footage and is generally well-done , except for the Hollywood hokum grafted onto the beginning , for who knows what reason . It's ridiculous and boring . just ignore it and watch the documentary . The documentary , sans lead-in , is recommended highly . |
579,940 | 583,640 | 24,380 | 9 | A bit dated , but holds up well after seventy years . | While the cartoon does have a dated feel to it in spots , the animation is excellent ( a Disney strength during the 1930s ) and it still largely works for the most part , although probably not as well for the age group raised on jump-cut , fast-pace edits and Matrix style special effects . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,214 | 583,640 | 93,779 | 9 | A satiric comedy with humor and sadness , dark with the light . | This film is an intelligent , sardonic send up of several genres that pokes fun ( affectionately ) at fairy tales , swashbucklers , love stories and basic conventions of film . One of my favorite scenes is where Inigo Montoya first confronts his quarry after years of searching . His adversary does the unexpected-and what most villains in real life WOULD do under the same circumstances , with hilarious results in the scene . Basil Rathbone probably whirled in his grave ! Not by any means Citizen Kane ( we already have one of those , anyway ) but a champ in its weight class , with a perfect score , a fine script and good performances . Far more true to the flavor of the original fairy tales that it spoofs than even the best of Disney's takes . I loved it the first time I saw it and love it more now . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,943 | 583,640 | 51,044 | 9 | An Oscar nominee and entertaining because of Speedy's two amigos , Pablo and Fernando | Speedy Gonzales was essentially a one-note character ( kind of like the Roadrunner ) so the quality of a Speedy cartoon is largely dependent on the surrounding characters and situations they get themselves into rather than Speedy himself . The two mice Speedy is rescuing frequently , Pablo and Fernando are excellent characters . The songs they sing in this are very funny and the situations that arise from their actins are what makes the cartoon . Not easy to find and rarely aired on Cartoon Network , but well worth digging up and Recommended . |
579,817 | 583,640 | 29,995 | 9 | Excellent cast , script in a tale of ethics vs . ease | This film features an excellent cast , ably led by Robert Donat in a performance that is superior to his marvelous performance one year later in Goodbye , Mr . Chips . As a young doctor , he begins with the highest intentions , gradually becoming cynical and disillusioned . He decides it's better to have money than scruples , with predictable results . Outstanding work as well by Rex Harrison and Rosiland Russell and a very good script . Most recommended . |
579,237 | 583,640 | 152,357 | 9 | Cartoons as propaganda during wartime . | This sort of cartoon was made during World War II by most , if not all , the studios as a form of propaganda . The major studios were turning out training films for the military , doing live-action propaganda and the animation departments did their share of work in that vein as well . Some had merely passing references and others , like this short , were all-out propaganda . These wartime propaganda cartoons are all too rarely seen because they often contain images that are now not considered acceptable . While I can understand the desire to not show these to children , they were never actually aimed at children in the first place . They deserve to be seen and remembered as part of our history . This one is just as well animated as the rest of the Paramount Famous Studios cartoons and is fascinating to watch . An excellent cartoon and one of the few times Popeye and Bluto worked together . Well worth seeking out and getting . Recommended . |
579,870 | 583,640 | 43,354 | 9 | Very funny entry in a very good series of cartoons from Warner Brothers | This cartoon was part of the " Goofy Gophers " series of cartoons and is one of the better ones . It features two of the most laughably , almost painfully polite , characters ever seen . Although Disney's " Chip ' n ' Dale " preceded them and are probably better-known , I personally like The Goofy Gophers much better because I find their manner far more appealing . Such impeccable Manners and refined behavior in the types of situations in which these two find themselves . Although sight-gags are plentiful , the dialogue is hilarious . Well worth your time . Recommended |
579,648 | 583,640 | 301,693 | 9 | The penultimate short from an artist who is already missed | Faith Hubley produced animated shorts with her husband John right up until his death in 1977 and continued producing and directing a short a year up until she died in December 2001 . This was her next-to-last one and has aired on the Sundance Channel . Even the more commercial work they did to help pay the bills has a special quality to it and I've yet to see anything that wasn't interesting to watch in some area , even the one or two I didn't care for . They had one Oscar winner I haven't seen and dearly wish I could ( Herb Alpert and the Tiajuana Brass Double Feature ) and I hope her last short airs on Sundance or some other location as I'd love to see it sometime , Recommended . |
579,145 | 583,640 | 60,843 | 9 | An enjoyable cartoon with a great closing scene | This cartoon is one of the better Clouseau cartoons . Clouseau and his sidekick are in pursuit of a mystery man , chasing him over a great many different terrains , in different weather conditions and usually with rather painful and visually comic end results for their efforts . The final scene , in which Clouseau learns the identity of his quarry , the reasons for the chase and comes away with a measure of payback , is hilarious ! Recommended . |
578,926 | 583,640 | 62,467 | 9 | Alan Arkin and Audrey Hepburn make this worth seeing , although the film is really quite good in other respects also | Audrey Hepburn was nominated for an Oscar and how Alan Arkin missed out on one for Supporting Actor I'll never understand . The performances carry the film , although there is a very good supporting cast , afairly decent script and production values are good . The performances by epburn and Arkin raise the film from average to excellent . Recommended |
579,646 | 583,640 | 93,832 | 9 | Deep down , do all things , great and small , dream ? | The folks at Pixar do a wonderful job here . While this isn't their best short , it is definitely a fine one and the hero here is a surprising one : a little red bike , an inanimate Walter Mitty ! I got caught up in this short . Pixar really should re-release their collection of their short films . The short work they do is all at least interesting and most of it is magnificent ! Well worth hunting up and most highly recommended . |
578,988 | 583,640 | 33,693 | 9 | Seeing this in the original black and white is best . | While I have not seen a colorized version of this , I understand one does exist . But I hope never to see a colorized version of this , as I would never want to see The Skeleton Dance colorized and for the same reason : the cartoons make excellent use of shadows , light and dark contrasts and visuals which would be severely weakened or destroyed outright by the use of color . The spooky atmosphere of this cartoon makes black and white a perfect fit and Tex Avery and his team use this remarkably well . This excellent , if under-rated and somewhat unjustly overlooked , short deserves more attention than it seems to have gotten . While cartoons like The Skeleton Dance have clearly set the bar high for cartoons that venture into the spooky corners , cartoons like The Haunted Mouse deserve notice . This is a Tex Avery cartoon and as such is very funny , as well as technically interesting , if hardly novel by 1941 . Well worth watching , in black and white . Recommended . |
579,656 | 583,640 | 60,834 | 9 | Very good but typical Pink Panther cartoon | This cartoon was nominated for a Academy Award . It's a fairly good cartoon , although it is quite similar to The Pink Phink in conception , tone and execution . Not really a terribly novel cartoon by any means , but great fun and very entertaining . Recommended . |
579,058 | 583,640 | 29,969 | 9 | The best of the whole series , with a hilarious ending ! | This is just about the only genuinely funny Captain and the Kids cartoon they made . A few were reasonably good , if not terribly memorable . But this one deserves to be seen and remembered . I suspect that the fact that , despite the title , The Captain makes but a cameo appearance has something to do with its success . The focus here is on the pirate John , a much more interesting character . John's attempts to make amends for his thoughtless actions are the bulk of the cartoon . The caroling scene is beautiful ! ! ! Suffice it to say that I've never quite heard " Hang Up the Holly in the Window " in the same way before and it will always remind me of this cartoon whenever I hear it in the future ! Painful , but effective ! Well worth tracking down . Most recommended . |
578,795 | 583,640 | 41,446 | 9 | A mouse named Jerry as the " Mama " to a baby woodpecker ! How charming ! | This Tom and Jerry , nominated for an Oscar , concerns an egg , Jerry mouse and the joys and headaches of unexpected " motherhood " for a very surprised mouse when the egg hatches into a baby woodpecker . Tom gets involved and typical sight gags ( most rather painful to Tom from the looks of things ) abound with great rapidity , resulting in an enjoyable time for all , except for Tom , of course . Recommended . |
579,994 | 583,640 | 51,008 | 9 | Too bad none of the shorts in this series seem to be in print | This series of shorts was brief ( seven in total ) , but it's one of Chuck Jones ' best concepts and , sadly , not a single one appears to be in print at present , which is a pity , because they are hilarious . Sam and Ralph are an interesting combination and the idea that forms the core to these is great ! The ending to this one is particularly good . The ending to the last of the shorts ( Woolen Under Where ) is the best of them all , but this one's is a very close second . Cartoon Network runs the Sam and Ralph shorts fairly often , but they really should be in print . Well worth watching . Recommended . |
579,436 | 583,640 | 43,381 | 9 | One of a series of cartoons describing the future of a particular aspect of everyday life | Tex Avery did a series of cartoons describing the future-here he describes what the " Car of Tomorrow " might look like-in typical Tex Avery fashion , it is the starting point for some sight gags galore fired rapidly , one after another . There is some verbal humor in the narration , including one joke reminiscent of Death Race 2000 ! The best of the " Tomorrow " series , it's an often hysterically funny short . Runs on Cartoon Network fairly often . Recommended . |
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