Dr. Grob's Animation Review

Casanova Cat

May 24, 2013 in ★★★★★, MGM films, Tom & Jerry films | Tags: 1951, blackface gag, Casanova cat, Hanna & Barbera, love, Meathead, rivals, Tom & Jerry, Toodles | Leave a comment

Directors: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera
Release Date: January 6, 1951
Stars: Tom & Jerry, Meathead, Toodles
Rating: ★★★★★
Review:

In ‘Casanova Cat’ Tom is visitingToodles, who has inherited a million dollars and who now lives in a classy apartment downtown.

Tom brings Jerry along as a present, who is forced to dance with a blackface on a hot plate, a scene which is probably censored on many copies. The annoyed Jerry invites alley cat Meathead, too, and a feud starts between the two rivaling cats. However, in the end it’s Jerry who’s the lucky one, driving off with Toodles into the distance and kissing her.

‘Casanova Cat’ doesn’t cover any new grounds, but it combines the themes of earlier romance cartoons ‘Puss ‘n’ Toots’ (1942) and ‘Springtime for Thomas’ (1946) with great and remarkably fresh results.

Watch ‘Casanova Cat’ yourself and tell me what you think:

This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 55
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Cueball Cat
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Jerry and the Goldfish

The Framed Cat

May 22, 2013 in ★★★★, MGM films, Tom & Jerry films | Tags: bone, Hanna & Barbera, magnet, Spike, The Framed Cat, Tom & Jerry | Leave a comment

Directors: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera
Release Date: October 21, 1950
Stars: Tom & Jerry, Spike
Rating: ★★★★
Review:

Tom frames Jerry for eating a chicken leg only to eat the chicken leg himself.

Jerry revenges himself on Tom by repeatedly framing him for stealing Spike’s bone. The cartoon ends with a wonderfully elaborate magnet gag, repeatedly tying Tom unwillingly to Spike’s bone.

Even though it’s not among Tom & Jerry’s most memorable entries, ‘The Framed Cat’ is a fun cartoon. It’s one of those rare cartoons in which Tom speaks a little. It’s also noteworthy for its backgrounds, which are more stylized than usual.

Watch ‘The Framed Cat’ yourself and tell me what you think:

This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 53
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Tom and Jerry in the Hollywood Bowl
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Cueball Cat

Tom and Jerry in the Hollywood Bowl

May 20, 2013 in ★★★★★, MGM films, Tom & Jerry films | Tags: 1950, concert, concert cartoon, conductor, Fledermaus, Hanna & Barbera, Hollywood Bowl, Johann Strauss, Tom & Jerry, Tom and Jerry in the Hollywood Bowl | Leave a comment

Directors: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera
Release Date: September 16, 1950
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★★★★★
Review:

Only a year after Chuck Jones’ Bugs Bunny cartoon ‘Long-Haired Hare‘ the Hollywood Bowl is visited by cartoon characters again in ‘Tom and Jerry in The Hollywood Bowl’.

This short is Tom & Jerry’s second concert cartoon (the first being ‘The Cat Concerto‘ from 1947). This time Tom is a conductor, conducting an orchestra of cats in Johann Strauss Jr.’s overture to ‘Die Fledermaus’. Jerry wants to conduct, too, but Tom doesn’t allow him. This leads to a battle between the two with a great finale in which Jerry makes the complete orchestra disappear, so Tom has to play all the instruments himself. Jerry, who conducts him shares the applause with an exhausted Tom, before the cat vanishes into a hole, too.

During the complete cartoon the feud between the two conductors is perfectly timed to the music. ‘Tom and Jerry in the Hollywood Bowl’ is not as good as ‘The Cat Concerto’, but still very funny. Its only drawback are the designs on Tom and Jerry, which both look poorer than usual, looking forward to the leaner designs of their later cartoons.

Watch ‘Tom and Jerry in the Hollywood Bowl’ yourself and tell me what you think:

This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 52
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Safety Second
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: The Framed Cat

Room and Bird

May 17, 2013 in ★★★, Merrie Melodies, Sylvester cartoons, Tweety cartoons, Warner Brothers films | Tags: 1951, bulldog, corridor, Eugene Poddany, Friz Freleng, Granny, hotel, pet inspector, Room and Bird, Tweety & Sylvester | Leave a comment

Director: Friz Freleng
Release Date: June 2, 1951
Stars: Tweety & Sylvester, Granny
Rating: ★★★
Review:

Granny sneaks Tweety into a hotel where no pets are allowed.

Another old lady sneaks Sylvester in, who inhabits the room next to Tweety. Like in ‘All a bir-r-r-d‘ Sylvester encounters a vicious bulldog, too. The cartoon contains a classic corridor-with-doors-gag, but the cartoon’s greatest joy is its great twist on the chase routine, provided by a pet inspector who at times interrupts the chase of the three animals.

‘Room and bird’ is the first of four 1951 Warner Brothers cartoons featuring music by Eugene Poddany instead of Carl Stalling.

Watch ‘Room and Bird’ yourself and tell me what you think:

http://kidstube.com/video/19879/Sylvester–Tweety-in-Room-and-Bird-1951

All a Bir-r-r-d

May 15, 2013 in ★, Looney Tunes, Sylvester cartoons, Tweety cartoons, Warner Brothers films | Tags: 1951, Friz Freleng, Room and Bird, train, Tweety & Sylvester | Leave a comment

Director: Friz Freleng
Release Date: June 2, 1951
Stars: Tweety & Sylvester
Rating: ★
Review:

‘All a Bir-r-r-d’ is Tweety and Sylvester’s fourth cartoon and in this short their chase takes place in the baggage wagon of a train. Sylvester’s pursuit is extra hindered by a train conductor and a vicious bulldog.

‘All Abir-r-rd’ is a rather formulaic chase cartoon, and in no way among Tweety & Sylvester’s best. It is noteworthy however, for introducing Tweety’s theme song, sung, off course, by Tweety himself.

Watch ‘All a Bir-r-r-d’ yourself and tell me what you think:

http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon_video/4332-All_A_Bir-r-r-d.html

Bad ol’ Putty Tat

May 13, 2013 in ★★★, Merrie Melodies, Sylvester cartoons, Tweety cartoons, Warner Brothers films | Tags: 1949, Bad ol' Putty Tat, Friz Freleng, Tweety & Sylvester | Leave a comment

Director: Friz Freleng
Release Date: July 23, 1949
Stars: Tweety & Sylvester
Rating: ★★★
Review:

‘Bad Ol’ Putty Tat’ is only the third of the Tweety and Sylvester shorts, but it already feels routine.

The short opens with Tweety’s birdhouse all wrapped in barbed wire and a wrecked Sylvester sitting below, thinking how to reach the bird. Friz Freleng and his team waste no time and immediately start with Sylvester’s attempts in blackout gags involving a fake female bird and a badminton game.

In this short Sylvester does manage to swallow Tweety, but the little bird takes control of his head, steering the cat like a train into a stone wall.

Watch ‘Bad ol’ Putty Tat’ yourself and tell me what you think:

http://www.supercartoons.net/cartoon/708/bad-ol-putty-tat.html

Lion Down

May 10, 2013 in ★★★, Goofy shorts, Walt Disney films | Tags: 1951, Goofy, hammock, Jack Kinney, Lion Down, mountain lion | Leave a comment

Director: Jack Kinney
Release Date: January 5, 1951
Stars: Goofy
Rating: ★★★
Review:

In this short Goofy inhabits a house on the top floor of a large apartment block. He needs an extra tree for his hammock, so he fetches one from a forest nearby. Unfortunately, he’s visited by the tree’s former owner, the mountain lion from the Donald Duck short ‘Lion Around’ (1950), and together they fight over the hammock.

The gag routine is laid out well, involving many ringings of doorbells and falls from great heights, resulting in an extraordinarily long falling sequence. However, the comedy is hampered by irritating vocal sounds by both Goofy and the mountain lion, and by a slightly sloppy timing. This is too bad, for a possibly very funny cartoon now only becomes average.

In 1952 the mountain lion would reappear again in the Goofy short ‘Father’s Lion’.

Watch ‘Lion Down’ yourself and tell me what you think:

Hold That Pose

May 8, 2013 in ★★★★★, Goofy shorts, Walt Disney films | Tags: 1950, bear, funfair, Goofy, Hold That Pose, Jack Kinney, photography | 1 comment

Director: Jack Kinney
Release Date: November 30, 1950
Stars: Goofy
Rating: ★★★★★
Review:

This cartoon starts with the opening shot of a tired Goofy dragging himself into his own home from ‘Goofy Gymnastics‘ from the previous year.

This time, however, the voice over advises Goofy to get a hobby, for example photography. This leads to several great photography gags, especially when Goofy tries to make pictures of a bear, which results in a long, fast and gag-packed chase sequence involving a funfair. It also reuses a gag involving a cab from ‘Baseball Bugs‘ (1946), showing Jack Kinney’s interest in the gag language of Disney’s rivals.

‘Hold that pose’ is one of Goofy’s funniest shorts, and certainly one of his best cartoons of the fifties.

Watch ‘Hold That Pose’ yourself and tell me what you think:

Motor Mania

May 6, 2013 in ★★★★★ ♕, Goofy shorts, Walt Disney films | Tags: 1950, cars, driving, Goofy, Jack Kinney, Motor Mania, traffic | Leave a comment

Director: Jack Kinney
Release Date: June 30, 1950
Stars: Goofy
Rating: ★★★★★ ♕
Review:

In this cartoon a particularly civilized type of Goofy, an “average man” called Mr. Walker, changes into a Mr. Hyde-like wildman called Mr. Wheeler, once he sits behind the wheel of his car.

‘Motor Mania’ is the only Goofy cartoon in which our hero is depicted as an unsympathetic and even evil character. But by now Goofy has lost all his former persona. He has changed into a random citizen, so it works very well.

‘Motor Mania’ forms another step in the evolution of Goofy into the American everyman. By now Goofy had replaced Donald Duck as representative of the American citizen. Donald Duck had been the average citizen in the forties, but the last few years his role had been diminished, evolving into a straight man for the antics of Chip ‘n Dale, the little bee and such. Jack Kinney’s Goofy took over, cumulating in the typical fifties everyman, George Geef, in ‘Cold War’ from the next year.

‘Motor mania’ is a quite disturbing film about road manners, it even becomes nightmarish when we watch cars bark at a helpless pedestrian. It is as moralistic as it is funny. And it remains somehow strikingly relevant today, making it an original classic within the Goofy series.

Watch ‘Motor Mania’ yourself and tell me what you think:

Goofy Gymnastics

May 3, 2013 in ★★★½, Goofy shorts, Walt Disney films | Tags: 1949, Goofy, Goofy Gymnastics, gym, home trainer, Jack Kinney, sports | Leave a comment

Director: Jack Kinney
Release Date: September 23, 1949
Stars: Goofy
Rating: ★★★½
Review:

In this short Goofy orders some home training devices to improve his condition. All his attempts fail, of course, sometimes in surprisingly long and elaborate gags, involving great situation comedy. It’s this cartoon Roger Rabbit watches in ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ from 1988.

Together with the previous ‘Tennis Racquet‘, Goofy Gymnastics’ is a transitional Goofy cartoon: it’s the first cartoon showing the restyled Goofy as an average American citizen. Unlike ‘Tennis Racquet’, however, there’s only one Goofy in this cartoon, who even sings his own theme song ‘The world owes me a living’ again. ‘Goofy Gymnastics’ marks the last time we see Goofy in his original hat, which he only puts on after changing into his gym costume. It’s also the last of the Goofy sports cartoons. The next year, the same tired Goofy gets the advise to get a hobby, in ‘Hold That Pose‘.

Like the earlier great sports cartoons it uses a posh voice over, who’s completely out of tune with Goofy’s antics with his home training gear. The action is a bit slow, however, and the animators make no attempts to synchronize their character’s lip movements with the now obligate Goofy vocalizations.

Watch ‘Goofy Gymnastics’ yourself and tell me what you think:

Dr. Grob's Animation Review

Casanova Cat

The Framed Cat

Tom and Jerry in the Hollywood Bowl

Room and Bird

All a Bir-r-r-d

Bad ol’ Putty Tat

Lion Down

Hold That Pose

Motor Mania

Goofy Gymnastics

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