You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘★★★★’ category.
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
Director: Jack Kinney
Release Date: August 26, 1949
Stars: Goofy
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
After four years of working on feature films, Jack Kinney returns as a director of Goofy shorts to remain Goofy’s sole director until the series’ end in 1953.
Kinney’s first Goofy film in four years, ‘Tennis Racquet’ is a transitional film: together with the next Goofy short, ‘Goofy Gymnastics‘, it’s firmly rooted in the 1940′s Goofy tradition, being a sports cartoon, similar in content to ‘How to Play Football‘ (1944) and ‘Hockey Homicide‘ (1945). Moreover, in the first scene we hear one of the Goofy characters (the cartoon contains several of them) singing Goofy’s own theme song “the world owes me a living”, and in the end we can hear the typical Goofy yell, introduced in “The Art of Skiing” (1941). The short even features a slow motion gag, not seen since ‘How to swim‘ (1942). On the other hand, it can also be seen as the first entry of Goofy’s second series, for the character has been completely redesigned. The next year this new, redesigned Goofy would turn into Mr. Geef, the everyman.
Like ‘How to Play Football’ and ‘Hockey Homicide’, ‘Tennis Racquet’ has no educational value: the cartoon consists of one frantic tennis match between two Goofy characters. It’s a fast and funny cartoon, full of silly gags. The highlight may be the running gag of the stoic gardener, who enters the game at several points, undisturbed by the frantic action around him.
Watch ‘Tennis Racquet’ yourself and tell me what you think:
Director: Charles Nichols
Release Date: January 6, 1950
Stars: Pluto, Butch, Dinah
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
It seems that at the end of the Pluto series, the animators had found a new inspiration, for most of Pluto’s best cartoons were made in the series’ last two years. In fact, almost every Pluto cartoon from 1950/1951, Pluto’s last two screen years, is a winner.
‘Pluto’s Heart Throb’ is a good example. In this rather weird short both Butch an Pluto fall in love with Dinah (who we hadn’t seen since ‘In Dutch‘ from 1946). They’re acting like rivals, but they have to pretend to be friends when she’s looking. When Pluto saves Dinah from drowning, he gains her love and Butch makes a sad retreat.
Penned by Roy Williams, one of the most original of the Disney story men, this short is stuffed with silly ideas, starting with the silly little pink dog cupid, who makes Pluto and Dinah fall in love with each other. The animation is extremely flexible, with wonderful expressions on all three characters. The excellent silent comedy is further enhanced by a very lively score. In all, ‘Pluto’s Heart Throb’ is a great improvement on the earlier in-love-with-Dinah-cartoon: ‘Canine Casanova’ from 1945.
Watch ‘Pluto’s Heart Throb’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Pluto cartoon No. 33
To the previous Pluto cartoon: Sheep Dog
To the next Pluto cartoon: Pluto and the Gopher
Director: Chuck Jones
Release Date: March 11, 1950
Stars: Bugs Bunny
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
In ‘Homeless Hare’ Bugs’s home happens to be in a construction site.
When the excavator driver ignores Bugs’s pleas for leaving his home alone, Bugs nags him until the bully can’t take no more.
This film contains a gag of a half conscious Bugs walking at great heights without falling, a scene that is clearly borrowed from earlier shorts, like the Popeye cartoon ‘A Dream Walking’ from 1934 and the classic Disney short ‘Clock Cleaners’ from 1937. It also contains an elaborate final gag with a hot rivet, a type of gag Chuck Jones invented. It anticipates similar gags in the Roadrunner series and Jones’s Tom and Jerry films from the sixties. The Highlight of the cartoon, however, is a gag with the bully balancing on a plank with a bunch of bricks, which Bugs slowly withdraws…
Watch ‘Homeless Hare’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Bugs Bunny cartoon No. 70
To the previous Bugs Bunny cartoon: Mutiny on the Bunny
To the next Bugs Bunny cartoon: Big House Bunny
Director: Friz Freleng
Release Date: January 15, 1949
Stars: Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
This Bugs Bunny short starts with Elmer Fudd hunting our hero with a “wabbit detector”.
Like Freleng’s quite similar ‘Stage Door Cartoon‘ (1944), the action soon shifts into a theater, with wonderful comedy with Bugs’s and Elmer’s repeatedly passing past sitting people, continuously using the phrases ‘pardon me’ and ‘excuse me’ as a major highlight. Other great gags are Bugs’s playing with the intermission switch (which immediately causes the public to rush outside to smoke) and the finale, in which Bugs manages to get a blinded Elmer into a lion’s beak.
Despite the wonderful comedy, the film nevertheless fails to reach the heights of ‘Stage Door Cartoon’, falling short, due to some bad designs of Elmer and to a sense of routine.
Watch ‘Hare Do’ yourself and tell me what you think:
http://www.supercartoons.net/cartoon/748/hare-do.html
This is Bugs Bunny cartoon No. 56
To the previous Bugs Bunny cartoon: My Bunny Lies over the Sea
To the next Bugs Bunny cartoon: Mississippi Hare
Director: Robert McKimson
Release Date: October 9, 1948
Stars: Foghorn Leghorn, Henery Hawk
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
Henery Hawk’s cowardly dad forbids his little son to chase chickens, but Henery does it anyway.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t know what a chicken looks like, and he repeatedly ends up catching the barnyard dog, while the Foghorn Leghorn makes feeble attempts in convincing the little chicken hawk, that he‘s a chicken.
This premise is a great twist on the stories of the first two Henery Hawk/Foghorn Leghorn cartoons (‘Walky Talky Hawky’ from 1946 and ‘Crowing Pains’ from 1947). It’s clear from the title that by now Foghorn Leghorn had become the real star of the Henery Hawk cartoons, and deservedly so, because in his third appearance, this broad gesturing and talkative rooster is stealing the show.
At the same time, this is a transitional cartoon, in which the original looniness of McKimson’s first cartoons gradually makes way for a more dialogue-driven approach, as is perfectly illustrated by Foghorn Leghorn’s endless jabbering.
Watch ‘The Foghorn Leghorn’ yourself and tell me what you think:
Director: Robert McKimson
Release Date: August 7, 1950
Stars: Porky Pig, Daffy Duck
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
In ‘Boobs in the Woods’ Porky wants to paint in a forest, but he’s bothered by a particularly loony Daffy.
This cartoon is a typical example of Warren Foster-penned zaniness. Daffy makes no mistake about his zany character, which is similar to the one in the Foster/McKimson outings, like ‘Daffy Doodles’ (1946), ‘Daffy Duck Slept Here‘ (1948) and ‘Daffy Duck Hunt‘ (1949): in the opening scene he introduces himself in a loony song. ‘Boobs in the Woods’ is one of the last cartoons featuring this loony version of Daffy. Two months later Jones would introduce a different type in ‘The Scarlet Pumpernickel‘.
Apart from the excellent gags, ‘Boobs in the Woods’ is noteworthy for its extremely stylized and surprisingly flat backgrounds by Cornett Wood and Richard H. Thomas.
Watch ‘Boobs in the Woods’ yourself and tell me what you think:
Directors: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera
Release Date: April 30, 1949
Stars: Tom & Jerry, Nibbles
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
‘The Little Orphan’ can be summarized as ‘The Milky Waif’ (1946) at Thanksgiving.
Little Nibbles is sent over to Jerry as a Thanksgiving guest. They both patrol the dining table, dressed like pioneers, when Tom, dressed like an Indian, attacks them. He’s won over, however, and in the last shot they all share the dining table, but it is little Nibbles who eats the complete turkey, alone.
Apart from ‘The Milky Waif’, ‘The Little Orphan’ resembles ‘Yankee Doodle Mouse’ (1943). Both are holiday cartoons in which a battle is fought in a household setting. What makes ‘The Little Orphan’ so great is that Hanna and Barbera are able to play the complete pilgrims and Indians setting at a dinner table.
Watch ‘The Little Orphan’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 40
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Polka Dot Puss
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Hatch Up Your Troubles
Director: Charles Nichols
Release Date: November 4, 1949
Stars: Pluto, Bent-Tail & Bent-Tail junior
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
In this follow-up to ‘The Legend of Coyote Rock’ (1945), Pluto is a sheep dog bothered by two coyotes, Bent-Tail and his not too clever son (in his debut), who want to steal his sheep.
In the end Bent-tail finally succeeds in stealing one, but it turns out to be his own son in disguise.
Like ‘Pluto’s Sweater‘ of the same year, ‘Sheep Dog’ plays more on gags than on cuteness, which results in one of Pluto’s best cartoons. Especially the interplay between Bent-Tail and his son is a delight to watch. Indeed, the duo was successful enough to return the following year in the equally entertaining ‘Pests of the West’ and ‘Camp Dog’.
Watch ‘Sheep Dog’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Pluto cartoon No. 32
To the previous Pluto cartoon: Bubble Bee
To the next Pluto cartoon: Pluto’s Heart Throb
Director: Chuck Jones
Release Date: November 12, 1949
Stars: Pepe le Pew
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
‘For Scent-imental Reasons’ is the fourth Pepe Le Pew cartoon, and one of his best.
In this short a French perfume shop owner discovers Pepe le Pew in his shop and throws in his female cat to chase away our romantic skunk. Of course, she accidentally gets a white stripe on her back and she’s chased by the smelly Latin lover. But when Pepe accidentally falls into a barrel of blue paint, the tables are turned and he’s chased by the cat.
This short features an excellent scene of Pepe arguing with the cat through a glass window in silent pantomime.
Watch ‘For Scent-imental Reasons’ yourself and tell me what you think:
