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Director: Jack Hannah
Release Date: November 25, 1949
Stars: Donald Duck, The Bee
Rating: ★★
Review:
After his move into the Donald Duck series three months earlier in ‘Honey Harvester’, the bee returns. This time as a classical music lover competing with Donald over the radio.
While the bee wants to listen to classical music, Donald wants to listen to a world series baseball match.
The most inspired gags involve Donald and the bee reenacting the match in Donald’s garden. But the bee is hardly a funnier character than Bootle Beetle, and the cartoon never comes off: the violence remains restrained, the bee remains cute. Donald is reduced to a simply annoying character, a bully who is rightly ‘sent to the showers’.
Watch ‘Slide, Donald, Slide’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Donald Duck cartoon No. 81
To the previous Donald Duck cartoon: The Greener Yard
To the next Donald Duck cartoon: Toy Tinkers
Director: Friz Freleng
Release Date: February 2, 1946
Stars: Bugs Bunny
Rating: ★★★★★
Review:
It seems an almost certain loss for the age-old Tea-Totallers, who get plastered by the tough team of the Gas-House Gorillas…
Bugs Bunny, who’s watching the game, wearing an innocent straw head, boasts that he can beat the Gas-House Gorillas single-handed, so he gets himself a game. Playing in every position he manages to win the ball game in this wild and hilariously funny cartoon, which is noteworthy for its great dialogue, excellent animation, and superb timing. Especially when Bugs Bunny starts batting, the gags role in in a remarkably fast tempo.
Highlight among the many gags may be Bugs’s constant jabbering. Some of it was copied by Jones in ‘Rabbit Punch‘ (1948). ‘Baseball Bugs’ reuses several gags from the Woody Woodpecker cartoon ‘The Screwball’ (1942), but with much better results, making it a classic, where ‘The Screwball’ was not. If the short has one flaw, it’s that it’s over before you know it, with the end coming all too soon.
Notice the advert for ‘Michael Maltese, Ace Dick’ in Bugs Bunny’s first scene.
Watch ‘Baseball Bugs’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Baseball Bugs’ is available on the DVD set ‘Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 1’
This is Bugs Bunny cartoon No. 35
To the previous Bugs Bunny cartoon: Hare Tonic
To the next Bugs Bunny cartoon: Hare Remover
Director: Jack Kinney
Release Date: September 4, 1942
Stars: Goofy
Rating: ★★★
Review:
‘How to Play Baseball’ is the third of Goofy’s sport cartoons, and the first with a title beginning with ‘How to’ (following the ‘How to Ride a Horse’ sequence in ‘The Reluctant Dragon‘ (1941).
The short forms the next and final step in Goofy’s evolution after the duplication of Goofies in the previous cartoon, ‘The Art of Self Defense‘: now multiple Goofies are together the stars of the cartoon. The character remains unique in the cartoon canon in this ability to duplicate himself and remain Goofy throughout, nonetheless.
The short has a highly entertaining way to explain baseball, ending with an exciting finale of the World championship. The gags come fast and plenty, depicting a lot of nonsense. Nevertheless, the cartoon is not only funny, it’s also surprisingly educational.
In the years following ‘How to Play Baseball’ baseball would return to the animated screen in the Woody Woodpecker cartoon ‘The Screwball’ (1943) and in the Bugs Bunny cartoon ‘Baseball Bugs‘ (1944).
Watch ‘How To Play Baseball’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Goofy cartoon No. 6
To the previous Goofy cartoon: The Art of Self Defence
To the next Goofy cartoon: The Olympic Champ
Dr. Grob's Animation Review 