You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘race’ tag.
Director: Phil Mulloy
Release Date: 1995
Rating: ★★

‘Honour Thy Father and Thy Mother’ is the fourth entry in Phil Mulloy’s puzzling Ten Commandments series.
This short tells the story of Little Tucker, who is forced by his parents to run a county race, only to arrive last. This film takes place full of oil fields, and Mulloy not only uses his characteristic stark black and whites, but also some bright reds and yellows for a fire.
The short, narrated by Joel Cutrara, is rather simple and straightforward, and doesn’t really deliver its promise. Nevertheless, it contains a nice jazzy score by Dave King.
‘Honour Thy Father and Thy Mother’ is available on the BFI DVD ‘Phil Mulloy – Extreme Animation’
Director: Michael Lah
Release Date: April 4, 1958
Stars: Droopy, Butch (Spike)
Rating: ★★
Review:
In this Cinemascope cartoon ‘Daredevil Butch’ (Spike) and ‘Buzz Droopy’ race against each other in a car race.
As should be expected, Spike hardly plays fair, and the cartoon consists of several blackout gags in which Spike tries to stop Droopy from racing, including the classic paint-a-tunnel-on-a-wall gag.
The cartoon suffers from a bad sound design (especially Butch’s voice sounds like it was recorded in a toilet) and from an inconsistent story line, which does not build to a climax. Moreover, Lah’s timing is too relaxed for the race theme, and none of the gags really come off. All this unfortunately makes ‘Mutts About Racing’ one of the weakest of all Droopy films. Only the last one, ‘Droopy Leprechaun‘, would be worse…
Watch an excerpt from ‘Mutts About Racing’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Mutts About Racing’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Tex Avery’s Droopy – The Complete Theatrical Collection’
Director: Ikuo Ōishi
Release Date: 1939
Rating: ★★
Review:
‘Swim, Monkey, Swim’ tells about monkey, who learns to swim, and immediately joins a swimming contest.
The monkey wins by cheating, riding a ‘water imp’. In the end he succeeds in “cheating the others, but not his heart”.
‘Swim Monkey Swim’ is a primitive film, with the designs and animation looking like an Aesop Fable from the 1920s. Indeed, Ōishi was a Japanese animation pioneer, already making films in the 1910s. But if this film really was made 1939, it seems he had little learned since. The designs are nice and readable, but the film’s timing is too slow, rendering endless footage of the race. With its ten minutes the film is overlong and overstays its welcome.
Watch ‘Swim, Monkey, Swim’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Swim, Monkey, Swim’ is available on the DVD-box set ‘Japanese Anime Classic Collection’
Director: Dave Fleischer
Release Date: January 16, 1933
Stars: Betty Boop, Bimbo, Koko
Rating: ★★½
Review:
Betty, Bimbo and Koko are joining a car race. Betty Boop is late, because she has a cold, and when she arrives she sings a song about it. In the end she wins the car race by sneezing.
Although ‘Betty Boop’s Ker-Choo’ belongs to Betty Boop’s golden era, it’s unfortunately one of Betty’s more boring cartoons. In fact, the best gags are the silly ones with which the cartoon starts. Because she wears a driver’s costume, Betty is also less sexy than usual, and somehow it seems this cartoon that points to the design used one year later, when Betty Boop fell victim of the stricter Hays code.
Watch ‘Betty Boop’s Ker-Choo’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Betty Boop cartoon No. 9
To the previous Betty Boop cartoon: Betty Boop’s Museum
To the next Betty Boop cartoon: Betty Boop’s Crazy Inventions
‘Betty Boop’s Ker-Choo’ is available on the French DVD Box Set ‘Betty Boop Coffret Collector’
Director: Robert McKimson
Release Date: August 6, 1949
Stars: Bugs Bunny
Rating: ★★★
Review:
Bugs Bunny is at the dog races , where he falls in love with the mechanical bunny leading the dogs.
Bugs disposes of the dogs, having a hard time on number seven. But when he can finally kiss his sweetheart, the results are electrifying!
‘The Greyhounded Hare’ shows some of the flaws that were creeping into the McKimson cartoons around this time: there is a lot of excess animation, especially on Bugs Bunny; but worse, there is a surplus of dialogue, even though Bugs Bunny is the only talking character. Unfortunately, this leads to a cartoon in which the idea is sillier than its execution, despite a short Tex Averyan doubletake and another surprisingly Tex Averyan dynamite gag.
Watch ‘The Grey Hounded Hare’ yourself and tell me what you think:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x19d399_the-grey-hounded-hare_fun
This is Bugs Bunny cartoon No. 63
To the previous Bugs Bunny cartoon: Knights Must Fall
To the next Bugs Bunny cartoon: The Windblown Hare
Director: Hawley Pratt
Release Date: March 16, 1966
Stars: The Pink Panther
Rating: ★★½
Review:
In ‘Pink Pistons’ the Pink Panther buys a new car with anthropomorphic features, but after a race against an old lady he turns it back in again.
This cartoon has a great opening scene of the Pink Panther trying some new models. Unfortunately, the rest of the cartoon does not maintain that level.
Watch ‘Pink Pistons’ yourself and tell me what you think: