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Director: Robert McKimson
Release Date: March 26, 1949
Stars: Daffy Duck, Porky Pig
Rating: ★★★★★
Review:
With ‘Daffy Duck Hunt’ Robert McKimson returned to the subject of Daffy’s very first cartoon, ‘Porky’s Duck Hunt’ (1937).
Like in the original cartoon Porky Pig is hunting ducks, and Daffy in particular, to no avail. He’s now accompanied by a dog (a typical McKimson design). To trick Daffy, the dog convinces Daffy that he will be tortured if he doesn’t retrieve a duck, so Daffy allows the Dog to take him to Porky. Porky takes Daffy back home and puts him into a particularly cold fridge. From now on almost all the action takes place around the fridge in a wonderfully loony cartoon (penned by Warren Foster) full of wild gags and zany animation.
‘Daffy Duck Hunt’ is one of those Warren Foster/Robert McKimson cartoons that celebrate Daffy’s looniness perfectly. Highlight is a gag in which Daffy jumps out of the fridge in a Santa suit making Porky and the dog believe it’s Christmas. This gag is a nice and equally hilarious variation on a classic gag from Freleng’s ‘The Wabbit Who Came to Supper’ from 1942, in which Bugs Bunny made Elmer believe it’s new year’s day.
Watch ‘Daffy Duck Hunt’ yourself and tell me what you think:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3tb1w8
This is Porky Pig cartoon no. 125
To the previous Porky Pig cartoon: Paying the Piper
To the next Porky Pig cartoon: Curtain Raizor
This is Daffy Duck cartoon No. 49
To the previous Daffy Duck cartoon: Holiday for Drumsticks
To the next Daffy Duck cartoon: Boobs in the Woods
‘Daffy Duck Hunt’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume One’
Directors: James Algar, Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kinney
Release Date: October 5, 1949
Rating: ★★★½
Review:
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, told and sung by Bing Crosby, quite faithfully retells the story by Washington Irving.
The story tells us about the skinny schoolmaster Ichabod Crane who tries to court Katrina van Tassel, the most beautiful girl in town, while ignoring his rival Brom Bones. At Halloween Bones tells a spooky story about a headless horseman, scaring the schoolmaster to death. And when on the way home he really encounters a headless horseman, he’s never seen again…
The animation of Ichabod Crane and Katrina van Tassel both show how familiar the animators had become with the human figure. Ichabod Crane is an awkward, slender figure, but human, nonetheless. Katrina both has a sexy, graceful charm, as well as stylized moves, which make her a little abstract, like an all too beautiful woman can be in the hearts of men. Certainly, in the next feature, ‘Cinderella‘ (1950) the animators were confident enough to let human characters star a feature for the first time since ‘Pinocchio‘ (1940).
This film’s highlight, however, are the wonderful backgrounds, which were lacking in the first story, ‘The Wind in the Willows‘. In ‘The legend of Sleepy Hollow’ the backgrounds are stylized, with striking colors, and most of the times clearly inspired by Mary Blair. The background artists’ art reaches its peak in the stunning scary forest scene, an elaboration on the scary forest in ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ (1937). This climatic scene, in which Ichabod Crane is confronted with the headless horseman, makes effective use of expressionistic coloring, like the best parts in ‘Fantasia’ (1940) and ‘Bambi‘ (1942).
These positive aspects, however, cannot rescue this film, which is rather slow, and totally devoid of sympathetic characters. In the end one has to conclude that this second part of the feature, like the first, is not particularly interesting or memorable.
Watch ‘The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad’ yourself and tell me what you think:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x28oc6j_the-legend-of-sleepy-hollow-1949-cartoon_shortfilms
Directors: James Algar, Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kinney
Release Date: October 5, 1949
Rating: ★★★
Review:
‘The Wind in the Willows’ is the first of the two stories that make up the compilation feature ‘The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad‘.
This story had originally been conceived in 1938 as a possible feature film, before it was shelved in 1942. The 1949 version is clearly truncated, and it shows. This story tells only an episode from ‘The wind in the Willows’ starring the enthusiastic Toad, whose love for chariots and cars causes a lot of trouble for himself and his quiet, all too British friends Water rat, Mole and Badger. The story is quite unfaithful to the book, giving a large role to one Cyril the horse and containing both a long scene at the court and a long sequence in which our four friends try to steal a document from a gang of weasels.
Although the English feel is retained, this version of ‘The Wind in the Willows’ completely lacks the poetry so typical for the book. Sure, Toad’s intoxicating character has been transferred to the screen very well, but the characters beside him never really come off. Moreover, the story is told too unevenly to be either exciting or endearing, and the interplay between animals and humans remains unconvincing. The backgrounds are uninspired, especially when compared to those in ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow‘, except for those in the winter train sequence. The weasels, which are animated excellently with broad comedy, anticipate those in ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?‘ (1988).
Watch the trailer for ‘The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad’ is available on DVD
Directors: James Algar, Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kinney
Release Date: October 5, 1949
Rating: ★★★
Review:
The adventures of ‘Ichabod and Mr. Toad’ was the last of the Disney compilation features so typical of the 1940s.
Like ‘Fun and Fancy Free‘ (1947) it consists of only two stories, this time both drawn from literature. Both use a narrator, which gives the films a feeling of moving illustrations. Neither of the stories is particularly endearing: the story of Mr. Toad lacks the poetry of the original story, the story of Sleepy Hollow lacks speed. It would be a happy return to direct story telling (opposed to using voice overs) in ‘Cinderella‘, the next year.
The six directing animators of this feature all belong to the group of ‘nine old men’.
‘The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad’ consists of the following two episodes, which I will discuss in more detail elsewhere:
1. The Wind in the Willows
2. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Watch ‘The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad’ yourself and tell me what you think:
Director: Art Davis
Release Date: June 4, 1949
Stars: Bugs Bunny
Rating: ★★½
Review:
In the opening scene of ‘Bowery Bugs’ Bugs Bunny is a tour guide talking about Brooklyn Bridge and why Steve Brody (a historical character) jumped from it in 1886.
A flashback shows Steve Brody, pictured as a typical bully, being out of luck and looking for a rabbit foot as a lucky charm. He encounters Bugs who then drives Brody mad, making him jump from Brooklyn Bridge in the end.
‘Bowery Bugs’ was the only Bugs Bunny cartoon directed by Art Davis. He does a fair job, although the cartoon suffers from erratic timing. His designs on Bugs Bunny are very reminiscent of those by Robert McKimson.
Watch a clip from ‘Bowery Bugs’ yourself and tell me what you think:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QtQKj3p0mQ
This is Bugs Bunny cartoon No. 60
To the previous Bugs Bunny cartoon: High Diving Hare
To the next Bugs Bunny cartoon: Long-Haired Hare
Director: Robert McKimson
Release Date: April 9, 1949
Stars: Bugs Bunny
Rating: ★★★★★ ♕
Review:
To his nuisance Bugs Bunny discovers that rabbits (2 cts.) are less worth than foxes ($50) and bears ($75).
He mails himself to Washington, where the game commissioner (“I’m game”) explains to him that rabbits are harmless and therefore worthless for hunters. Bugs decides to be harmful to increase his value. And harmful indeed he gets!
A few of his hilarious actions include painting the obelisk at Washington like a barber’s pole, returning Manhattan to the Indians, cutting off Florida, and filling the grand canyon with sand. He manages to raise the prize on his head to a million dollars, but he ends in Alcatraz prison, too, wondering whether he has carried things too far…
‘Rebel Rabbit’ is full of the zany spirit of the early Warren Foster/Robert McKimson cartoons, and, together with ‘Easter Yeggs‘ (1947) and ‘Hillbilly Hare‘ from a year later, probably the best of all Robert McKimson Bugs Bunny cartoons.
This wonderfully zany cartoon features live army footage.
Watch an excerpt from ‘Rebel Rabbit’ yourself and tell me what you think:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnO5eMFzMRQ
This is Bugs Bunny cartoon No. 58
To the previous Bugs Bunny cartoon: Mississippi Hare
To the next Bugs Bunny cartoon: High Diving Hare
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:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnA2sn0HeFU
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: Friz Freleng
Release Date: September 2, 1949
Stars: Porky Pig
Rating: ★★★★½
Review:
‘Dough for the Do-Do’ is a remake of Bob Clampett’s ‘Porky in Wackyland‘ (1938) in color.
The cartoon is more than a recoloring, however. Porky is reanimated throughout, and several scenes are different from the original. Scenes that are omitted are the paperboy appearing on the title card, Porky showing us a picture of the dodo, and the cat-dog attacking itself. Two scenes are altered: the way the guide ‘leads’ Porky to the dodo, and the finale: in the original Porky dresses as a paperboy announcing that Porky has captured the dodo, in ‘Dough for the Do-Do’, Porky dresses like a do-do, making the bird itself think he has caught the last of the do-dos.
The most conspicious difference between ‘Dough for the Do-Do’ and ”Porky in Wackyland’, however, is found in the backgrounds: where the original had rather undefined, a little George Herriman-like backgrounds, the remake uses clearly Salvador Dalí-inspired settings, full of typical Dalí-rocks, sticks and eyes. The title card even shows Dalí’s melted watches, linking cartoon surrealism to high art surrealism. Dalí-inspired scenery would return two years later in the Porky Pig cartoon ‘Wearing of the Grin’ from 1951.
It is striking to see how different this cartoon is from its contemporaries. ‘Porky in Wackyland’ was a milestone in surrealism, a move forward in wackiness, an innovative cartoon stirring up the childish make-belief world of the 1930s cartoons. However, eleven years later its remake ‘Dough for the Do-do’ feels old-fashioned: its animation is crude, its characters are unrefined, and its zaniness seems to come from another era.
And it does: in the late 1940s, the wild surrealism of the early Warner Bros. cartoons had toned down. It survived in cartoon conventions, which always contained a twist of surrealism, but the outlandishness had disappeared. Now, more emphasis was played on character humor and dialogue, something the Warner Bros. studio excelled at with its numerous stars. Only at MGM and Walter Lantz some of the original zany vibe was retained, but at large the wild era of studio cartoons was clearly over.
Watch ‘Dough for the Do-Do’ yourself and tell me what you think:
http://www.220.ro/desene-animate/16-Porky-Dough-For-The-Do-Do-1949/mL0EVmznKK/
‘Dough for the Do-Do’ is available on the DVD set ‘Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 1’
This is Porky Pig cartoon no. 128
To the previous Porky Pig cartoon: Often an Orphan
To the next Porky Pig cartoon: Bye, Bye Bluebeard
Director: Art Davis
Release Date: February 12, 1949
Stars: Porky Pig
Rating: ★★½
Review:
In ‘Porky Chops’ a squirrel from Brooklyn is having a holiday in a forest where Porky is working as a lumberjack.
This outlandish idea creates a rather routinely conflict with loads of dialogue. The result is one of Art Davis’s weaker cartoons, particularly because of the squirrel’s rather unpleasant character. This makes it difficult to sympathize with either protagonist.
The cartoon shows an interesting mixture of styles: the squirrel looks vaguely like a Robert McKimson-character, while Porky is designed and animated in a toned-down Clampettian style.
Watch ‘Porky Chops’ yourself and tell me what you think:
http://www.supercartoons.net/cartoon/650/porky-chops.html#.URQKvKU9R8E
‘Porky Chops’ is available on the DVD set ‘Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 1’
This is Porky Pig cartoon no. 123
To the previous Porky Pig cartoon: Awful Orphan
To the next Porky Pig cartoon: Paying the Piper
Directors: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera
Release Date: October 22, 1949
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★★★★½
Review:
Jerry’s Diary’ is Tom and Jerry’s first compilation cartoon.
However, Hanna & Barbera even make this cheap form of cartoon making upper class: ‘Jerry’s Diary’ contains lots of original footage and has a surprisingly good story of its own. Only after 1’56 the compilation starts, to end one and a half minute before the cartoon ends itself.
In the encompassing story an anthropomorphized radio tells Tom that it’s ‘be kind to animals week’, so Tom is persuaded to give Jerry little gifts. He knocks on Jerry’s door, carrying flowers, a box of sweets and a pie. Jerry’s not in, however, and inside his home Tom discovers Jerry’s diary, which he can’t resist reading.
Enter the compilation, which features scenes from ‘Tee for Two’ (1945), ‘Mouse Trouble’ (1944), ‘Kitty Foiled‘ (1948) and ‘Yankee Doodle Mouse‘ (1943). Tom gets so annoyed reading this stuff that, when Jerry finally does show up, he throws the pie at him, smearing him against the wall and leaving the little mouse in complete bewilderment.
After this cartoon, four other compilations would follow, up to their very last year of theatrical cartoons, 1967. However, none of these would reach the high standard of ‘Jerry’s Diary’.
Watch an excerpt from ‘Jerry’s Diary’ yourself and tell me what you think:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd1TNjPuGvg
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 45
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Love That Pup
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Tennis Chumps
Directors: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera
Release Date: October 1, 1949
Stars: Tom & Jerry, Spike & Tyke
Rating: ★★★★★
Review:
Tom’s chases of Jerry disturb Spike’s son Tyke. If Tom is at it again, Spike “will tear him apart”. Needless to say, Jerry takes advantage of this situation.
‘Love that pup’ is one of the most hilarious Tom & Jerry cartoons. The gags come in fast and plenty, and Scott Bradley’s music is particularly inspired, perfectly matching the fast action. Highlight may be the running gag involving Tom rushing into several garden tools.
‘Love That Pup’ marks Tyke’s debut. He has no name, yet. But then again, even Spike is still called Butch in this cartoon. Spike and Tyke would become Tom and Jerry regulars in the fifties, even starring two films without the cat and the mouse in 1957.
Watch ‘Love That Pup’ yourself and tell me what you think:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3imryc
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 44
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: The Cat and the Mermouse
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Jerry’s Diary
Directors: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera
Release Date: September 13, 1949
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★★★★★
Review:
While chasing Jerry at the beach, Tom falls into the water, where he apparently gets unconscious.
Tom hallucinates he can breath underwater. At the bottom of the sea he encounters a mermouse, an evil swordfish and an even more evil octopus. Then he awakes, discovering thankfully that Jerry has rescued him and is reviving him.
Like the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon, ‘Heavenly Puss‘, ‘The Cat and the Mermouse’ is a dream cartoon, more relying on Tom and Jerry’s love for each other than on the hate-part of their relationship.
‘The Cat and the Mermouse’ is a very well executed cartoon. Tom’s underwater joy is wonderfully animated, and the underwater setting is pretty convincing. The mermouse is, of course, exactly like Jerry, and Hanna and Barbera succeed in transferring Tom & Jerry’s typical chase to an underwater setting.
Tom & Jerry would return to the sea in the Esther Williams feature ‘Dangerous When Wet’ (1953), where they, again, encounter a swordfish and an octopus.
Watch ‘The Cat and the Mermouse’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 43
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Heavenly Puss
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Love That Pup
Directors: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera
Release Date: July 9, 1949
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★★★★★ ♕
Review:
When, during a typical chase, Tom is crushed by a falling piano, he unexpectedly dies…
His spirit goes up to heaven on a gigantic golden escalator. But he’s not allowed to go with the heavenly express, because of what he has done to Jerry. Nevertheless, he’s allowed one hour back on earth to persuade Jerry to sign a forgiveness certificate. If he doesn’t make it, it will be hell for him.
After loads of struggle and cheating Tom finally succeeds, but it is too late and Tom falls into hell. Fortunately it’s all a dream, and when he wakes up Tom rushes to Jerry’s home kissing and hugging the completely bewildered mouse.
‘Heavenly Puss’ is one of the all-time best Tom & Jerry cartoons. It draws completely on the two characters and their well-established love/hate-relationship. The silent acting is particularly superb and Tom’s feeble attempts to convince Jerry against a ticking deadline are both hilarious and chilling. His agony is heartfelt and his pantomimed pleas are moving.
‘Heavenly Puss’ may cover familiar grounds (comparable cartoons include Disney’s ‘Pluto’s Judgement Day‘ from 1935, and Paramount’s ‘A Self-Made Mongrel’ from 1945), it’s execution is both brilliant and original and a great example of both silent comedy and character animation.
Watch ‘Heavenly Puss’ yourself and tell me what you think:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5vzdl1
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 42
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Hatch Up Your Troubles
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: The Cat and the Mermouse
Directors: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera
Release Date: May 14, 1949
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★★
Review:
An egg rolls into Jerry’s house where it hatches, revealing a tiny woodpecker.
The little woodpecker thinks Jerry is his mother and who destroys Jerry’s wooden household almost instantly. When Jerry sends the fledgling home, it encounters Tom and of course Jerry and the woodpecker team against him.
‘Hatch Up Your Troubles’ is one of those Jerry-teams-a-bird-cartoons that are more cute than that they are funny. It is only interesting for its experiments using oil in the backgrounds. It was re-shot in 1956 in Cinemascope as ‘The Egg and Jerry’, which used the same animation against new fifties style backgrounds.
Watch en excerpt from ‘Hatch up your Troubles’ yourself and tell me what you think:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S7Q2cRNO4M
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 41
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: The Little Orphan
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Heavenly Puss
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 feature a battle 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 an excerpt from ‘The Little Orphan’ yourself and tell me what you think:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mqwY11cKWU
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
Directors: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera
Release Date: February 26, 1949
Stars: Tom & Jerry, Mammy Two-Shoes
Rating: ★★★
Review:
Mammy orders Tom to go out, in the pouring rain, so Tom fakes a cold to be able to stay inside bullying Jerry.
But Jerry elaborates on the idea, drawing polka dots on Tom, making him think he’s really ill, so the mouse can put extreme treatments on the cat. When Tom finally discovers the truth, they both really get the measles.
‘Polka Dot Blues’ is a nice cartoon, albeit not among Tom & Jerry’s best. It contains some mild Tex Averyan takes, and a story line akin to the Donald Duck short ‘Donald’s Off Day’ (1944). Jerry’s ‘treatments’ form the highlight of the cartoon.
Watch an excerpt from ‘Polka Dot Puss’ yourself and tell me what you think:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MLJtCXGOis
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 39
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Mouse Cleaning
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: The Little Orphan
Director: Chuck Jones
Release Date: January 29, 1949
Stars: Porky Pig, Charlie Dog
Rating: ★★½
Review:
‘Awful Orphan’ is the second cartoon of five starring that delightfully annoying mutt, Charlie Dog.
In this short Charlie Dog sneaks into Porky’s apartment ‘disguised’ as a canary. He then tries to persuade an unwilling Porky Pig to let him stay as a pet. In the end Porky even forces him to stay, as a master with Porky being his dog.
‘Awful Orphan’ is hampered by Porky’s untypical behavior, being rather nasty at several points. The animation, however, is top notch, and full of excellent poses and smears. On Porky’s wall we can see a rather fauvist painting of two naked ladies, one of the smaller signs of Jones’ interest in more classical arts.
Watch ‘Awful Orphan’ yourself and tell me what you think:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6ecxen
‘Awful Orphan’ is available on the DVD set ‘Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 1’
This is Porky Pig cartoon no. 122
To the previous Porky Pig cartoon: Scaredy Cat
To the next Porky Pig cartoon: Porky Chops
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:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7d0E97YqnA
This is Pluto cartoon No. 32
To the previous Pluto cartoon: Bubble Bee
To the next Pluto cartoon: Pluto’s Heart Throb
Director: Charles Nichols
Release Date: June 24, 1949
Stars: Pluto, The Bee
Rating: ★★
Review:
While playing with a ball in a city park, Pluto encounters a bubblegum collecting bee, who, oddly enough, lives on his own in a wasp’s nest.
Pluto ruins the bee’s home and swallows all his bubblegum. The bee takes revenge of course, which leads to quite original, but remarkably unfunny gags with bubbles.
‘Bubble Bee’ is the only short in which Jack Hannah’s bee, introduced in ‘Inferior Decorator’ (1948), acts without Donald Duck.
Watch ‘Bubble Bee’ yourself and tell me what you think:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvA369KDLYg
This is Pluto cartoon No. 31
To the previous Pluto cartoon: Pluto’s Sweater
To the next Pluto cartoon: Sheep Dog
Director: Charles Nichols
Release Date: April 29, 1949
Stars: Figaro, Minnie Mouse, Pluto
Rating: ★★★★½
Review:
Minnie has knitted a sweater for a very unwilling Pluto, to much hilarity of Figaro and the neighboring dogs.
While trying to get rid of it, Pluto falls into the water, making the sweater shrink. Minnie is in all tears, when she discovers the sweater is ruined. But wait! This tiny sweater perfectly fits the equally unwilling Figaro! So, Pluto has the last laugh.
This cartoon was to be Figaro’s sixth and last cartoon appearance. It’s undoubtedly one of the funniest Pluto films, if not hilarious. The best part is the long scene in which Pluto tries to get the sweater off. Like in the best Donald Duck cartoons this leads to nonsensical antics with the inanimate object, which deforms almost beyond recognition.
The short’s opening shot is also noteworthy: the film opens with the viewer looking straight into Pluto’s eyes, an effect that goes all the way back to ‘The Skeleton Dance‘ (1929).
Watch ‘Pluto’s Sweater’ yourself and tell me what you think:
http://www.toontube.com/video/2746/Plutos-Sweater-1949
This is Pluto cartoon No. 30
To the previous Pluto cartoon: Pluto’s Surprise Package
To the next Pluto cartoon: Bubble Bee
Dr. Grob's Animation Review 