Animated Shorts Hall of Fame

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I don't think we are talking about the same thing because i don't think i've ever seen Rose outside of the flashbacks and videotapes. I do remember the person that Steven helped who had powers similar to Pearl and the gang but i haven't watched it consistently enough to find out what that was all about.

You have to remember that i've only watched it with my nephew sporadically so there's large gaps i've not seen.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé


Donald's Golf Game

Who needs Anger Management when you got Donald Duck? The Poster Child for anyone, anywhere who just needs to blow a gasket, God Bless 'im!
And that was the point of watching Donald - to see him blow a gasket. Perhaps that's why they brought in the three nephews; Huey, Luey & Duey to, not just light the fire, but to make sure there was a surefire explosion when Donald finally lost it. And that was always the payoff. In fact, I was really hoping for an all out tantrum when things get smashed and Donald goes utterly and completely ape *****. But Donald was Donald and his nephews were their usual diabolical selves, so it was pretty cool all the same.

Don't think I've ever seen this one, so thanks Clazor for that!
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Captain Hareblower



Man, i honestly hadn't seen this in a decade at least. Really love the set-up here; one thing about Bugs is that you never need to explain how he ends up anywhere but i love that he comes out of a box of carrots here; enforcing the idea that he saw a box of carrots and jumped into it only noticing he was at sea when he heard a commotion: the crew abandoning the ship haha. Damn, Yosemite Sam is the best Bugs enemy, Daffy is great too but he's equally as great in other roles with or without Bugs and Elmer Fudd is just in alot of amazing cartoons they are often great despite him with a few obvious exceptions. But Sam is just so fun, he's so lively and you often feel for him in the brief second before he is hurt by whatever Bugs throws at him; he's not as dumb as Elmer but he often comes across more idiotic because he is so hyper and un-subtle, love watching him. My favourite part here was Sam getting ate by the fish; as i said i hadn't seen this in ages so that caught me off guard and i was already laughing at the absurdity of him swimming with a lit bomb. The suspended pillar got a big lol from me to; it's one of those where you know what is coming but the absurdity of it is funny anyway. Wasn't crazy about the last minute but whatever it was funny overall, good choice Clazor!



A Tale of Two Kitties



Wasn't aware this was in the public domain until now. As i said earlier the reason i restarted this was because i was going through Bob Clampett's work recently well this wasn't one i watched and i forgot it was even him; Ed sent me a PM saying it was from Tex Avery and i just believed him haha . Will have to change that in the nominations part. You got Little Rural Riding Hood right at least . While it's not one of my favourites from him it is still very good, it's funny and well animated but i think the voice acting might be my favourite thing about it actually. The voice Mel uses for Catsello is one everyone has heard before it's basically a higher pictched exaggerated Bugs voice but i love it and Tedd Pierce does a good job as Babbit too. This is Tweety Pie's first appearance, he is actually flesh coloured instead of yellow and his eyes are weirdly droopy though which is a bit jarring at first but he has a similar character to the later well known Tweety and Mel uses the same voice he always does for him. I think my favourite part is when Catsello is falling through the air towards the pitchfork he's scrambline about in mid-air and it looks hilarious.

Good nom Ed . I'm half way through already haha.



Let the night air cool you off
Donald's Golf Game



Donald's nephews are buttholes, man.

This is a pretty solid cartoon that does what a lot of similar cartoons do, they use some smaller characters to torture a bigger character who gets furious. It's almost always amusing, even if it is very formulaic. It's crazy how bad the animation got in the 60s, 70s, and 80s when you compare how good it was in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. This was no exception, everything was smooth. I don't know if it will really stand out at the end of this hall of fame, but there is nothing wrong with this short at all.



Nothing good comes from staying with normal people
Hair-raising Hare (Chuck Jones, 1946)

I love these intro cards. Often these are the best pieces of animation in the whole short. This one in particular, as the eyes and hands reach out of the darkness, it gives a glimpse of what's to come, while making it more dramatic and scarier than the short could allow itself to be.

I've got to agree with Ed on the matter of Jones' backgrounds. He puts alot of focus on them, keeping them interesting where a shallow background with some flat trees could've sufficed to set the scene for a seven minute short. As a matter of fact, more effort seems to have gone into the background animation than what they spent on the characters. Compareing Bugs' level of animation to what's behind him, he's the one who's of a lower quality. Now, I understand that he's supposed to move and act, which takes considerable time and money to animate (especially if you try to keep a high standard), so keeping his artstyle more simplistic is a matter of practicality and cost. I just thought about it while I watched it and thought I'd bring it up.

As for the humor, I've allways been more partial to the physical comedy rather than the verbal one. When Bugs realizes he's headed for a hole in the ground while being chased, he reacts by hitting the breakes and comes to a stop hanging over the holes. He then toe-walks backwards while praying. This is more fun for me than the following monster manicure. Same with the picture gags and the steampowered jousting rig. Both trumps the fourth wall-breaking verbal jokes in the middle and end.

Speaking of the end, the very finisher as Bugs for the third time tries to exit stage right and the robot rabbit shows up. "Well, so it mechanical!" That one made me smirk.

Overall a strong beginning. Good nom, GBG!

P.S.
I did see the piggybank robbery too tonight, but it's getting late and I gotta get up in six hours, so that one'll have to wait until tomorrow.
D.S
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Why not just kill them? I'll do it! I'll run up to Paris - bam, bam, bam, bam. I'm back before week's end. We spend the treasure. How is this a bad plan?



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
A Tale of Two Kitties


Ed sent me a PM saying it was from Tex Avery and i just believed him haha . Will have to change that in the nominations part. You got Little Rural Riding Hood right at least .

Good nom Ed . I'm half way through already haha.
Ain't I da idgit!
When I read that I seriously had to backtrack and look it up -- I coulda SWORE I saw it originally in a list of Avery cartoons trying to locate a Droopy and Wolf cartoon with no luck. Oh well, my bad
And THANKS Camo
Donald's Golf Game


Donald's nephews are buttholes, man.
Yeah, pretty much. Good write up!

Great write up Clazor on Hair-raising Hare!



Women will be your undoing, Pépé


Transylvania 6-5000


Another fun lil cartoon by Chuck Jones with some very cool backdrops and Bugs being completely oblivious to where and what he's burrowed his way into. The highlight to this is the whole "Hocus Pocus, Abracadabra," scenario that fills in the final third of this cartoon.
One thing to note is: just by comparing GB's two shorts you can see a HUGE difference in content from the 40's to the 60's. The latter focusing specifically on entertaining children with the 40's having a more wide range and slipping in more (for the lack of a better term) racy content.
I remember as a kid and young teen checking out the years on any given Looney Tune cartoon on TV and hoping for an early fifties or the, more rare, late 40's and thinking the 60's ones as a little too saccharine for me. Still funny and I'd still watch 'em though.

Haven't seen this since my early twenties, thanks GB!



Women will be your undoing, Pépé


The Cat Concerto

That Jerry, ALWAYS gotta butt in and steal the spotlight! Get 'em, Tom!!
Don't think I've seen this since I was a kid and it reminded me a lot of the, even older, Merrie Melodies where everything was done to music. Or rather, the animation was centered around the music itself. Cartoons such as this, Corny Concerto and Rhapsody Rabbit and others, centered around bringing the music to a visual genre. Taking the previous generation and cranking it up a level.
We get to see this as Tom, a wonderfully arrogant pianist who's playing interrupts a sleeping Jerry on the striking keys inside the piano and the mean-spirited slapstick ensues while the playing never stops.

Great lil nom, Camo!



Nothing good comes from staying with normal people
The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (Bob Clampett, 1946)


I loved the way he walked. Just the scene where he follows the footprints, magnifying glass in hand, head to the ground (and the visual gag of lifting up the footprint was nice, too). His legs seemed to rotate as if it was attached to an internal wheel rather than a hip bone. Very nicely animated. And it seems with this more wacky Daffy comes a new set of more absurdist actions. I've seen the Looney Tunes explode and turn to ash heeps, seen them flattened to pancakes, have parts of their anatomy re-arranged due to shot-gun blasts. I don't think I've ever seen them deconstruct and have the pieces slither back together again. Usually in a situation like that (body pile-up), I'd expect the attackers to take a step back and find Daffy gone, only to reapear in the rafters or poping out of one of their pockets or something. Not slither through them and pull out a tommy gun!

As for the most striking animation, it's again the still images, though this time it's the images of the different antagonists, my favourites being Neon Noodle and Pickle Puss. The visuals over all where very nice in this, from the beautiful sunset sky Daffy runs past in the beginning to the execution of the visual gags with the phones (french telephone, long distance). The wresteling match with Neon Noodle was my favourite gag, and I'm very curious about the criminals that didn't get an introduction (knight with a candy cane?)

Real nice nom, hope the rest will hold to this standard. Very nice, Camo!



Women will be your undoing, Pépé


King Size Canary

This is one of those that always come up you come across any collection of Tex Avery displaying the way he not only went into the absurd, but just kept on going. They way the characters continued to grow and grow and grow and. . . till they just run outta the stuff, good night folks!
Another signature of Avery's is the name on the fridge: Coldernell which some may remember from the shorts in Who Shot Roger Rabbit when they gave a tip of the hat with a stove that read: Hotternell.

Great nom, Jirraffe



Women will be your undoing, Pépé


Little Rural Riding Hood

Now, you can almost call this part of a trilogy; with two others with nearly the same premise/characters. Cinderella Swing Shift and, one that came d@mn close to taking this one's place if I had found it first, Red Hot Riding Hood.
All featuring a horny wolf, a knockout red head and madcap antics throughout.
In this particular one you get a kind of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde when the City Wolf invites his Country Cousin to the city to meet Red and his reaction(s) are legendary and have been copied and redone countless times since.
This and the others I mentioned are definitely not for the kids as is shown from the opening line of the country/rural riding hood pulling out a large jug, claiming she's bringing sustenance to her grandma and the imminent chase by the country wolf who "loves" girls. A great vehicle of Avery's and how he loved going outside the norm is shown during that chase when the original two doors flip about the wall, ceiling and floor and open up new portals.
The only better chase can be seen in Red Hot when Grandma is hot on Wolfie's trail.

D@mn good nom, Ed!


awww, thank you, glad you enjoyed it!




Ballot Box Bunny



This is another one i've not seen in ages. Really glad people avoided the obvious ones like What's Opera Doc?, i loved the Looney Tunes hall of fame but my one criticism would be that most of the noms (including my own) were the really overplayed ones so i'm happy that some slightly under the radar ones like this have turned up. Also glad that there's so much Yosemite Sam this time as i said earlier he's probably my favourite Bugs villain. I think Clampett and Frelengs work goes a bit underseen compared to Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng and this is a solid one. It's a very funny short there's only two jokes that don't work for me; the Bugs as a baby one and the exploding cigar one the latter has been done so many times and it there's nothing different about it here, you feel there's gonna be some subversion and the guy just punches him, it's a bit lifeless. The rest are solid; i really love the Teddy Roosevelt parody, the ants one; although i'm gonna be a bit of an armchair comedian here and say i think the joke would've been funnier if we didn't see Bugs putting the dynamite into the watermelon and instead we saw him looking annoyed at the ants then it cuts back to Sam scooping stuff into the bag and we see him scooping dynamite in which Bugs has placed offscreen, just my opinion though the joke worked fine as it was. Love the ending joke, it's probably my favourite part actually.

Good choice Nope. I usually prefer Big House Bunny to this so i'm looking forward to it to see if that's still the case.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
speaking of,



Big House Bunny

If he's not burrowing into trouble he puts himself into it and this one is no different. Trying to escape the hunters, Bugs escapes INTO prison where prison guard Sam tries to keep him there.
There are a couple of good running gags in this and Sam, per usual, goes through hell trying to heavy hand Bugs. One scene, after being chewed out by the Warden, Sam grumbles "I hate that guy," just made me crack up.

Thanks Nope for nominating this!



The Cat Concerto



It's funny how much i hate Hanna-Barbera (the studio) when i think William Hanna and Joe Barbera were great and their run on Tom and Jerry for the most part was fantastic; it was never as good after them. It's such a shame that the studio named after them was responsible for the hideous, lazy, reused animation of the 70s and 80s. Anyway i picked this because i guessed (correctly) that Disney and especially Looney Tunes would get picked alot more and i think Tom and Jerry were a very important part of the golden age of american cartoons; i had two others in mind (The Little Orphan and The Truce Hurts) but i went with this since it is always one of the first that comes to mind when i think of Tom and Jerry. The best thing about this is easily the animation which in my opinion is absolutely fantastic; it's extremely impressive because it's not one with Tom chasing Jerry giving alot of room to work with it's all set in the one location but the actual movement is fantastic; just the animation on the keys or toms fingers; Jerry speeding about, etc. It's a joy to watch. I also really like how it (the music as well as the actual cartoon) starts off slow and as we go on it gets more and more manic. My favourite part is easily when Tom places Jerry inbetween two keys and starts playing really fast, with Jerry getting erratically tossed about, i honestly think the animation in this cartoon could go toe to toe with some of Avery, Clampett, Jones, etcs best stuff. Love the look of Tom at the end exhausted.

Anyway, i know this isn't the most obvious choice for something like this; it's not really joke-driven and it has a lot less slapstick for a Tom and Jerry cartoon but in my opinion the animation is outstanding and to me the more you see these cartoons the jokes get less funny but the animation always holds up so hope some of you enjoy it.



Hair-Raising Hare



Out of all the noms (not including tat's since i had never seen those) Transylvania 6-5000 was the one i hadn't seen in the longest and sadly it didn't hold up for me, but this one absolutely did great choice gbg . This is such a random thing to point out but i just want to say that everytime i've watched this cartoon i've found the idea that Bugs somehow knew he was being watched hilarious, he's presumably sleeping in that hole in his pyjamas (which is a great look haha) miles away from the evil scientists building and he just knows he's being watched for some reason haha (i get that it comes full-circle with the audience ending but i just find that idea hilarious). Also another thing, what on earth was Bugs packing he didn't bring any luggage? . I love all the faces Bugs makes during this both when he sees the bunny-bot and when Grossemar is behind him; it's really freaky, glitchy animation in the actual face changes which i love. There's another quick animation thing that's similar which i've always loved; Bugs opens the door then he swerves his legs outside the door while the rest of his body and head stays in the same position they were in when he opened the door, haha awesome. One thing i love about the start of the chase is that Grossemar is not as dumb as he looks; he's smarter than Sam and Elmer usually are, Bugs first few tricks like the lampshade and the don't go up there it's dark completely fail when against most of his usual villains those would have been round one to Bugs. Truthfully the nail salon was the only part where he lost because he was dumb the rest were because Bugs was too fast or too cunning to fall for his traps. My favourite part is probably the knight part, it's just such a where the hell did Bugs get that moment haha.

Anyway great choice gbg, it's a lot of fun. Just four left for me think i'll finish them over the weekend probably two tomorrow and two on Sunday.