Rating: 6/7

Most of Bob Clampett’s black-and-white cartoons rank among the all-time best of the artform, but that wasn’t enough. He had to reinvent himself upon acquiring Tex Avery’s unit (While his former unit under Norman McCabe went on to create a few decent moments in a soup of self-parody). There’s scarcely anymore comic-strip-inspired imagery, surrealism, or genre-parodies. All of Clampett’s cartoons from now on focus on tightly-crafted stories with a heavy emphasis on action and only the most necessary dialogue. In other words, it’s easy to see how much an influence this was on John K., but the 1941-46 cartoons from Bob Clampett are full of as much entertainment as Spumco Ren and Stimpy, even more in some cases.

The focus is almost entirely on the characters, the situations they’re put through, and their reactions, which are coordinated with so much attention to detail you have to admire the sequencing of their movements and pay attention for things you’ve never noticed (Example: The last time I watched this I was amazed by the various things Elmer did in assessing the danger of the grizzly bear…After hitting him on the head with the shotgun, which only bends it in the shape of the bear’s head, he actually puts the gun back around the grizzly’s head to make sure that really happened, then gently sets it down before running for his life).

Anyway, this is set up by Elmer’s trip to Jellostone National Park where he sets up camp near Bugs’ rabbit hole. I’ve noticed that people complain about Clampett making Bugs ‘pro-active’, but honestly the material in here is just too darn good to make that an issue with me (Even though I did complain about it in Elmer’s Pet Rabbit - But Bugs was ungrateful to Elmer’s kindness in there while in this one he’s cool, calm, and collected, so it’s possible to get into his uncaring mischief). There are no visual gags in a Tex Avery sense or even ones styled after his b&w cartoons. The motions all technically obey the laws of physics only they’re hyperactive and seem to come from deep within the characters’ personalities instead of a feeling of "We can do this ‘cuz it’s animated".

Not every gag has to be hyperactive, either. Most of the time you just have to focus on Elmer’s sheer stupidity as Bugs tricks him into thinking it’s night, or into walking off the cliff, and Bugs has some very creative ways of taunting Elmer as well. Another highlight is when Bugs puffs himself up to Elmer’s size and mocks his laughter. Of course I should mention the genius with which the setting is established: The title and credits lay over a mountain background that scrolls through until we see Elmer’s car interrupting the relaxed mountain music with a conga!

The only reason I don’t rate this even higher, is that both Bob Clampett’s later cartoons and A Wild Hare are even better (The sequencing and interaction in their debut is more fleshed-out), though I have to say this unit did a banged-up job of expanding on Bugs’ relationship with Elmer.

Rating: 6/7

A Dr. Seuss book is brought to life 20 years before Chuck Jones’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but while Grinch has become part and parcel of our culture, I’ve never even seen Horton until getting the Golden Age boxsets. One thing that strikes me thinking back is how closely I always pay attention to the story even though there’s a lack of immediately funny gags. There are gags in here, of course, it’s just that they’re subverted to the story, and it works. The gags are seamlessly worked into each plot development, like when Horton gets frustrated with his sneezing and ties his trunk in a knot, only to find even that doesn’t work.

The animation is also marvelous. Horton’s movement in his first scene is so graceful, with what seems to be two separate stomp cycles going at once for either end of his body, that it sets the tone for the rest of the film. It’s rare for an animated film to have a hypnotizing riff of motion that isn’t a character, so the scene where Horton sails over the ocean, ridiculously hanging over the boat’s edge, is a real treat with the wavy water gushing up and down in a rhythmic pattern. Another highlight is Maisie deeply grimacing at the conclusion.

Like the Chuck Jones classic, scenes from the book are embellished with WB-style treatments that keep the Dr. Seuss charm (I hate that word but I’ll use it anyway) intact. Horton’s commitment to sit on the egg no matter what happens provides many touching moments.

Rating: 5/7

My first Bob Clampett cartoon was part of some tape accompanied by Tale of Two Kitties, that Little Lulu cartoon where she plays hooky, and a Felix cartoon, I think it’s called Pirate Gold. The tape was included with some game called “Watch and Win”, the object of which I don’t remember even vaguely. You might think I’d have a soft spot for it, but not so, especially on the day when I watch this right before Buckaroo Bugs on the same LD side.

As with even the crummier Clampett cartoons, a few unique gags are lying in wait. However, these gags just spring out of nowhere without much of a build-up. The whole thing just feels like a relatively lazy effort.

Now, the few gags that make this thing worth watching happen to come at the very end, where Bugs sings “Low Prairie” (I guess that’s what it’s called) with a laid-back stride after burying Elmer Fudd. The side panning to the angry Fudd who just rose out of the dirt off-camera is very nice. And of course there’s the ending where Fudd rips a gold-tooth out of one of the character’s mouth (guess who). During their scuffle we get to see a super-fast blurry bit of spiraling animation by Sid Sutherland.

A couple of lesser but still okay gags consist of Bugs singing along with Fudd whilst wearing a cattle skull, and Fudd’s occasional commentary to the audience (“Say, there’s something awfully screwy going on around here!”). I’m not too fond of the non-exploding dynamite gag, however. Apart from being really obvious, none of the extra trimmings required for the gag to have impact are present. It’s nothing but Elmer cowering at a cactus as Bugs holds the defective dynamite and abrasively shouts “BAM”. Like-wise, I'm left cold by Bugs booing Elmer in the cattle skull. Abrasive yelps do not a good gag make (unless we're speaking of Tom and Jerry).

I’ll give it this: The film is incredibly speedy. Even the sections where Bugs and Elmer just run around without anything interesting going on earn my forgiveness by getting out of my face before too long. Hard to believe this thing is seven minutes.

WW feels more like a platonic imitation of a good comedy routine than the real thing. Nonetheless, it's worth watching every so often.

Rating:

Rating:

Rating: 6/7

At this early stage in Clampett’s color period, it becomes clear that every cartoon is going to somehow stand on its own, fill an obscure niche, and make itself memorable in every possible way.

Rod Scribner gets his first animation credit for Clampett here. Not as many memorable tricks in his backpack than he pulled out in Tale of Two Kitties. But his style is still in full bloom, taking Sid Sutherland’s blur effect and adding on crystal clear, speedy motions for the characters’ complex movements. If your laserdisc or VHS player has slow-motion (which mine don’t), please watch the scene where the buzzard flies over the desert and around the mountains and count how many crazy motions Scribner put him through. Then give me the number.

The buzzard that antagonizes Bugs here is actually named Beaky, although his mom refers to him as “Killer”. According to The Warner Bros. Cartoons, Beaky is based on Mortimer Snerd, who I ain’t never heard of. I assume most of the minor characters the cartoonists used were caricatures of celebrities or characters from other media, while the recurring ones (Bugs, Elmer, Daffy, et. al) were derived of their own screwed-up views. Beaky’s mom has a funny Italian accent (think, “whatsamattawityou” and “shaddappayouface”) and a head-strong attitude. As for Bugs, he’s playing off his foe’s slow-mindedness with his zany antics as usual.

The main draw here is what Clampett does best: Pitting two characters against each other on a two-dimensional plane. The conflict between Bugs and the buzzard escalates into various wacky actions and monologues whirling around each other. Like for example the bird’s dumb laughter underpinning his apologetic babbling after interrupting Bugs’ shower.

Another fine scene is the initial confrontation between the two. Who can resist the angle which Bugs and the Buzzard are shown at, the nonchalant smile on Bugs’ face as he’s turned to the Buzzard, and the Buzzard’s dumbarse stuttering complete with a momentary outburst where his face cuddles up to Bugs’ head. The curving of his neck combined with the movement of his mouth play off that angle very nicely.

But that pales in comparison to the scene where Bugs gets stuck in the ground near the bones of a dead cattle. Once again, great angle, and a very thoughtful-sized close-up helps concentrate on the animation of Bugs feeling around the bones. A great gag topped off with bumpy intonations in his wailing and laughing.

Another great piece of Scribner animation is the scene that features Bugs and the Vulture’s scuffle near a cactus. Admire all the twist and twirls as Bugs and Beaky go from wrestling to dancing. It’s so fast and yet so meticulous I can hardly describe it. Could you maybe record it in slo-mo and send it to me?

One last observation: The desert environment is used in an interesting manner. You get to survey the whole terrain through Beaky before the real action begins, and the landscape serves as a catalyst for some of the gags as the bunny and bird screw around in the sand.

Rating:

Rating: 6/7

First Looney Tune made in color (This is the point where LT and MM are interchangeable, shee-it, the copy in circulation has a blue ribbon title card so it’s mislabeled a Merrie Melodie anyway), and worthy of the new format. However, it’s also a chase cartoon, and while it has plenty of outstanding features you’re not gonna find anywhere else (Like every Bob Clampett cartoon, pretty much), chase cartoons feel too much like something to fall back on (Look at how much chasing there actually is in most of the highly-rated films on this site).

However, while the second half drops the ball, the first half has some original ideas – a streetwise, hopeless romantic tap dancing across the fence in the moonlight, walking past a dog house and into a short, hilarious chase that literally begins with the dog leaping off frame and zapping the next one on the screen. It’s one of the most striking cuts in a cartoon ever. There are other sophisticated perspectives like the silhouettes of the cat and dog running behind the curtain and the overhead perspective of the fire escape as they zoom up it.

The other big deal here is the handling of the cat, who postures as a ladies’ man performing a song-and-dance number with funny visual metaphors – Love the cold shoulder and the high heels for cat feet – only to become more honest about his loser nature at the end. Comparing him with Sylvester, you can see the cat’s design is still caught in standard “bulby” mode while Sylvester is detailed with contrasts such as red cheeks over a white face and football-shaped head. The Hep-Cat is great for one cartoon, but the WB crew wisely kept him in one cartoon and focused on designs like Sylvester.

After some scenes where the dog, despite his dumb disposition, shrewdly plays off the cat’s lusting for women, the whole thing becomes a chase interrupted by some funny gags, though still with amazing ‘gotta-see-how-it-unfolds’ choreography as only Bob Clampett could do.

Rating: 7/7

It might throw some people off that I’ve given this the highest overall rating while knocking What’s Opera Doc?, Great Piggy Bank Robbery, and Book Revue down a peg. After all, those cartoons had a special charm to elevate them as classics; this one is just a film about two cats trying to catch a bird. ToTK doesn’t contain any gimmick that screams “LOOK AT ME I’M SO GREAT I AM CLASSIC” (TM John McFerrin 2001), but it gets the best score for the same reasons Man’s Best Friend can compete with Stimpy’s Invention and a seemingly unknown Chuck Jones cartoon (My Favorite Duck) can stomp What’s Opera Doc: Everything works and the film does not lag at any point, and even if there aren’t any crazy ambitions or attention-grabbing gimmicks, every idea feels brand spanking fresh after all these years and has been developed into nothing less than cartoon nirvana.

To say ToTK cleverly alternates its style of gag build-ups and deliveries is like saying Ub Iwerks was a talented animator. I try not to brand around the word ‘perfect’ too often, but the opening scene of the two cats fighting behind the fence and moving out in view for their argument over who’s gonna get the bird is absolute cartoon perfection, and the rest of the story doesn’t diminish a bit. The shaky animation of the cats moving behind the fence is a visual treat, and their clashing voices create an intriguing cacophony that hints at their personalities for the cartoon. This all balloons into an incredible frenzy once they get out from behind the fence. Catstello’s personality influxes and self-contradictions would be enough gag material for one cartoon, but they instead they were used as a vehicle which crashes into more intriguing gags.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and heap some praise on the handling of Babbit and Catstello. Warner Bros. cartoons aren’t really known for their brilliant satire, but many of them feature Simpson-esque parodies of famous people and situations, only they’re situations few people living today would probably be familiar with. Even if you’ve never seen any film with Abbot and Costello in it, their cartoon counterparts are the most worthwhile use of a celebrity’s personality in a WB cartoon ever. I’ve never seen another cartoon where a borrowed personality wasn’t used for just one throwaway gag or, if it was the focus of the whole story, riding the coattails of the real thing. Bob Clampett may well have invented Babbit and Catstello out of the dust of the earth, because he makes these two his own and their characterizations are among the best he’s ever done.

It’s hard to tell if they’re the real star, or if that’s the bird they chase after. To use someone else’s description, this bird is a pink, naked, sadistic psychopath who often amuses the audience with words of sarcastic empathy after he inflicts great pain and suffering on his pursuers. You might know him as Tweety. The voice is there, and so is the “I tawt I taw a puddy tat” catch phrase, but he’s so different from what Friz Freleng made him into several years later. Friz’s version of Tweety has his own charms, but this is the superior Tweety bird if you ask me.

Not that it matters which bird is being used so much as how he’s being used. Lengthy scenes of the fat bumbling cat going to catch the bird are well-balanced with scenes where he gets some…constructive criticism from his skinny, jerk-headed friend. Just seeing them together at the end of the cartoon somehow makes their encounters between bird chases worthwhile, if only because it’s always fun to see two buddies reconciling at the end despite their differences. But in addition to the cats playing the perfect foils for each other, the fat one plays off the Tweety bird so well you’re left wondering which conflict is the main one.

And yeah, there are the actual gags that result during the Tweety scenes. Getting dynamite stuffed into one’s scuba helmet and running vertically through the air away from an anvil might not sound funny on paper, but all the events leading up to each payoff are strung so delicately that even on the tenth dozen viewing you’ll laugh just thinking about what’ll happen next, and might even laugh just watching something that’s supposed to be build-up. Take the scene where Catstello bounces up and down: Thanks largely to the timing, the many abuses he takes bouncing in-front-of Tweety come off as genial and not unremarkable attempts at slapstick. (Incidentally, this is the first cartoon to use anvils, not that it’s great for that fact alone, but it’s worthy of notice.)

Don’t forget all the little extras. It wasn’t enough to simply crush Catstello beneath the anvil – He had to sink the entire earth’s crust down underground with him. The Tweety bird doesn’t just stare blankly while letting go of the rope so the fat cat can fall to his death – He’s throwing birdseed into his mouth while doing it, the callous bastard. Just when you think a gag can’t get any more elaborate, there’s yet another visual event thrown in to enhance the proceedings (like Babbit slapping Catstello near the end, or Babbit’s gardening coming off the heels of Catstello’s fall). This conforms to what I read about Bob Clampett a long time ago, how he’s always looking to squeeze in that extra gag, and I totally believe it.

There seems to be a little bit of everything in here – creative visual gags, elaborate characterization, superb voice-acting, shifting of moods (how it goes from the loud slapstick of the two cats to the quiet cat-and-mouse game between the cat and Tweety to the utter chaos at the end), and fluid, crisp animation that holds it all together. Haven’t mentioned that yet, did I? Rod Scribner’s animation is fast, intricate, alternates between smooth and jagged, and just plain makes you want to watch some of the stuff in slow-motion, like Tweety’s rumbling nest or Catstello’s gorilla walk or the ground sinking.

If you held a gun to my head and forced me to proclaim my favorite Clampett cartoon, this would be it, and that might also go for favorite cartoon of all time (of course there’s Stimpy’s Invention, but that one cheats a little by having a "deep" storyline). ToTK should be easy enough to find on some download site, so get it now.

Rating: 7/7

In a perfect world, I wouldn't have to rant about this, so let's get it out of the way: Coal Black is no more racist than any other WB cartoon. (Well, not to blacks anyway - the "Japs Free" marquee isn't very classy). Coal Black is the animated version of a blues song. So White and Pwince Chawmin' can be found in some form or other in a Robert Johnson lyric. They are tasteful, and are no more offensive than the stuttering Porky Pig or redneck Elmer Fudd. The only reason this is not on the air today is that some programmer would be scared stiff of a letter from the ADL. No one with even a little intelligence walks around thinking, "Gee that sure is a racist cartoon. We'd better make sure nobody ever sees it!" Kee-ripes, Bob Clampett even said his black friends were okay with it (On the Beany and Cecil DVD).

This is the peak of Bob Clampett's storytelling, his Stimpy's Invention if you will. His love for the film oozes out of every maniacal frame. It's his most special cartoon of all and considering how special the others were, that's saying something. Not only is it an irreverent reading of Disney's Snow White, it's a jazz opera about lots of protagonists competing over So White's affection (The film was going to be called So White and De Sebben Dwarfs, but the name was changed for obvious legal reasons). And as much as I enjoy and respect the Disney film, this reductionist version gives me more entertainment in just seven minutes. It tells the story of So White abbreviating as many scenes as possible and transposing the main story points in new and unexpected ways.

Take Snow White singing outside the Queen's castle while the queen asks the mirror who's fairest, which leads her to summoning the hunter to kill Snow White. The Coal Black versions of these events are so inspired, so ridiculous, and so raunchy I can't give 'em away, except the queen asks for something totally different from the mirror, her motivation for killing Snow White is altered beyond belief, and what she summons to do the job ain't no single hunter but a rowdy pack of trigger-happy hitmen. It's often startling how a major event in the Disney film is so abridged. Her interaction with the forest animals is reduced to a single quick gag that leads her to meeting the Dwarves.

Speaking of the Dwarves, they are not developed in detail like they were by Disney, but collectively they are a cluster of animated orgasm. Each new scene literally throws them into some wild action, be it marching to 'You're In the Army Now' with their weight rocking around or hopping all over each other. They move like gelatin on grease, jiggling and bouncing and sliding from one shot to another. Even so they are individualized in a couple of places with size comparisons and scampy grins, particularly on the Dopey-like one. The Pwince is a sleazy gambler in a zoot suit and his first appearence where his feet flap all around the frame is one of the best one-frame choreographing jobs ever. The Queen is notable for her displays of blind indignation as well as giddiness when it comes to wrecking So White's life. And you'll never guess what, she does the same high-reaching laugh Ren does in Stimpy's Invention, only shorter.

It's not all Disney satire, of course. There are WWII references like gags about hoarding sugar, rubber, and wheat that are worked into the Queen's decadent lifestyle and even if no historical events are directly hinted at, it's clear the Dwarves are ready to take on some Nazis in their alternate career. Some of the best scenes come from their use of jeeps and cannons. Although I usually hate jingoistic references the way the American flag was worked in at the end is a killer bit of effects animation, and way to go working the military into a kissing joke.

As I said before, underneath all the satire and things is a jazz opera. A swinging jazz score underpins every scene, trumpet and saxophone solos that were probably played by Louis the XIV - I mean Louis Armstrong - are everywhere, and every action by the characters has some dancing and singing worked in it. The dialogue is actually song lyrics that rhyme. I hardly need to point out that every action is timed perfectly to the music, which is true of most cartoons from the era anyhow, but the way the music becomes an integral part of the story is unique to Coal Black, making it appear to be the characters' motivation instead of mere background.

All this can add up to one thing: Coal Black is the slap-happiest, most hyper cartoon I've ever seen. Some of the ideas have been used elsewhere but never in this configuration and with so many delicately coordinated motions crammed in every scene its many facets are developed to the fullest. Somebody else could have casted the seven dwarves as soldiers and made a whole cartoon out of it but Clampett made it only a small, though ingenious part of a big picture with many great parts. Coal Black is simply one of the highest points in animation and you owe it to yourself to seek it out if not the other "Censored 11", of which it is a member.

Rating: 7/7

How to make a seven minute cartoon feel like one minute...Tortoise Wins By a Hare is not a just a series of gags or scenes but one distraction on top of another, be it a quick monologue, a sudden bit of twisted animation (like Bugs slapping the tortoise into a spiral), two actions in rapid succession divided by a cut shifting the angle and characters' position to a radical degree, a vocal quip along the lines of "Time's a-wastin' speedy", or a sound effect making itself known when the voice-acting and animation freezes, each layering over the last to create the choreographing job to end them all...

Comparisons to Tortoise Beats Hare are inevitable since it has a similar plot and even sets itself up with clips from that picture. But somewhat meaningless, because TWBAH is lightyears above in cinematography, with events like the cut dividing Bugs running into the wall and getting hammered into oblivion skipping over the gangsters jumping Bugs and going straight to the necessary footage. But still, you know it happened.

Rating: 6/7

The number of idiosyncratic personalities in each Clampett cartoon far exceeds that of some directors’ whole careers (how many times did Chuck Jones pit Bugs Bunny against essentially the same surely brute?). So does the number of inventive chase sequences and gag-stringing. And so does character development – You’d hardly notice that Mr. Meek starts out…well, meek and turns into a bloodthirsty psychopath, all because of his evil wife whom we never see. Poor guy. Daffy is still Daffy, Clampett’s superior version of the Duck. Still heckling and harassing, but still a guy I’d want to hang around with. It’s cool they came up with so many straight-men to play off Daffy’s zaniness.

All the chases, cuts, animated blurs, and shots of Daffy flinging around being loud and silly make my head spin. Every scene here is a standout scene, and only the slight pauses between gags (or the slight pauses in wacky chase scenes) aren’t worth mentioning. All the good ideas are only complemented by more good ideas, like a shift in the position of Daffy’s head or prancing near the edge of the frame during an elaborate gag build-up.

The first is an overhead view starting at Mr. Meek’s mailbox which pans over to the man dragging his axe on the ground. A rotoscoped shot leads to a sideview of him and his opening commentary. Even if it isn’t as fluid as Robert McKimson, Phil Monroe’s animation of his head and arms accentuates how small a guy he is for wielding that huge axe.

You might not expect him to actually hit Daffy, but you’d never expect the duck to dodge the axe and follow up with the gag he does. And when Robert Clampett runs out of room for gags, he makes room where there should be none, as Daffy enacts another confrontational gag by vibrating his head like a tuning fork before running off.

The next gag and best in the cartoon is the hay gag, where Daffy fakes his death. But not in the way Bugs would, simply by lying on the ground and pretending to choke. Daffy instead makes a big goofy spectacle, and I can only imagine the pain-staking lengths they went to plan out the animation for this sequence. From the Meek-man chasing Daffy into the hay to Daffy addressing the audience to Daffy running with his head cut-off, they’ve hacked out a lot of angles and cuts to support the drawn-out animation.

The remainder of the cartoon is mostly Daffy and Mr. Meek confronting or running from each other in some way. One gag or another, each one generally fitting the descriptions found in these first two paragraphs, just slithers out like it was nothing. Most of the gags are gratuitous in comparison to everything else, but hey, isn’t entertainment gratuitous on the whole?

Despite all the praise, I can’t give this a higher score, because the cartoon doesn’t seem to have a point besides aimless demonstration of how zany Daffy can get. I don’t mean the cartoon has to have some high purpose, but all it is really is a premise and an excuse to throw in lots of silliness. Good though the gags are, they don’t play off the setting (as well as altering the setting to set up even more great gags) like Kitty Kornered or Buckaroo Bugs would. Nor does it have any instant classic scenes like the death sequence in Gets the Boid or the varied development of Wabbit Twouble. This one relies mostly on chase scenes (with a few interlude gags) and there’s only so many of those I can take. And besides, Draftee Daffy is ten times better :)

Rating: 6/7

Bob Clampett's second entry in the Censored 11 has elements from two of his best cartoons, Coal Black and Porky in Wackyland. In fact it reuses the pan with the swinging rabbit and a couple of shots reuse Porky's animation with the Fats Waller fellow, not that I mind terribly. He's not out hunting dodo birds but the excuse that got him there is equally bizzare, specifically some horn blower blasts him "out of this world". It doesn't even look like he was dreaming, instead he literally floats up and floats back down with a bunch of big trumpets blaring behind him. It's one of the more interesting visual experiments around.

At the beginning he's strutting around singing, and comes across two buildings, a mission and a night club. I love how the first shot of the club shows all the dancing silhouettes through the window, contrasting it with the slow animation of the Jehovah's witnesses (or whoever they are) singing Good Friday hymns outside the mission. Fats the cat loses no time dashing in the club and playing all available instruments while one...s w i n g i n g c a t after another including a turkey cadaver does his...j i b e.

The "Wackyland" reprise has a few new sequences that are more in-line with WWII, like a giant Hitler-thing getting kicked by a silly-looking Stalin doing a Russian dance (Which he could never do BECAUSE HE'S NOT RUSSIAN! Stalin is from Georgia, the state that borders Alabama! He was also one of the greatest socialists of our time. His theories on agriculture are still used by...anyway I don't feel like talking about politics now so let's skip it). The Wackyland scenes that are reused have street slang in place of the critter's crazy sounds and the best new gag is a giant Twizzler mouth teasing the Fats cat.

At the end, said cat goes through the expected personality twist. Frankly an experience like that would make me even more swingin'.

Rating: 7/7

What amazes me most about Corny Concerto is how Bob Clampett created a cartoon nirvana masterpiece out of nothing – none of the material in here would sound funny on paper (bar the gag closing the “Tales from the Vienna Wood” segment) yet the presentation makes all the difference. For comparison look at Chuck Jones’ The Dover Boys - it’s more innovative, and it has some of the most immediately striking gags ever – like the grey-haired guy’s floppy walk cycle, made into a running gag that resolves itself in a hilarious fashion by making this odd character the focus of the plot.

Now that cartoon is one of my favorites, but that sort of material is more sure-fire. I don’t mean to say just anybody can do a cartoon as good as The Dover Boys, but if you’re even a little competent you should be able to handle a running gag like that one (if you can think of it in the first place). It’s far out enough and takes time to build itself throughout the cartoon so when the results come you should laugh your ass off. The material for A Corny Concerto is different – it’s tried and true, and therefore less shocking. In the hands of a director with less artistic scope this would have been just another hunting cartoon, or just another cartoon about some ducks (I can see the plot of “The Blue Danube” being used in a Terrytoons toon, only in a boring manner).

A Corny Concerto is a compendium of every cartoon cliché up to that time, and Bob Clampett handles it with gusto. The presentation is all that matters – for a bunch of obvious gags these are some of the most well-timed, strikingly-animated, beautifully dressed up obvious gags I’ve ever seen. As for how this presentation goes, A Corny Concerto is really two shorter cartoons joined together, both of them very different but united by the fact that they only have music, and are introduced by Elmer Fudd. It’s a parody of Fantasia, though the only link is the conductor stepping up to the stage.

Instead of, say, redoing the Disney picture in a shorter format with absolute irreverence (like Coal Black), Clampett instead redoes tried-and-true WB conventions…with absolute irreverence. This meta-commentary pokes fun at the style its director helped originate, a style which once gave the phrase “Nothing is sacred” a meaning.

The first segment, “Tales From the Vienna Wood”, has a plot you’re all familiar with – Bugs being hunted. Not by Elmer, since he’s the one introducing the cartoons, but by Porky Pig. I may be looking for significance where there’s none but Porky did hunt the prototype Bugs Bunny in his first appearance, so this might be coming full circle and even if it isn’t, it’s kinda neat to think about. I could see someone thinking it strange that Porky is hunting Bugs, but these cartoon characters are merely actors who can take on any sort of role, and even though Porky isn’t stuttering here, his determination and lack of maliciousness is perfectly in character.

In fact, Porky’s first action is proof that this cartoon is a self-mockery, by holding up a sign that says, “I’m hunting that ?@#!% Wabbit”. I didn’t get the expletive right but you get the idea. That plus the follow up shot of his dog’s reaction turns the standard hunting set-up on its side. And that’s the only gag I’m willing to give away. Tons of mayhem ensues between Bugs, Porky, and the dog, and several ingenious gags are abruptly built-up and shot off faster than you can say Tex Avery. Each gag is unafraid to pull out any prop or action necessary to proceed, yet for all the supposed wackiness everything that goes on shows self-restraint. Nothing is too outlandish here, yet it’s all done in the most energetic, enthusiastic, and intricate way possible. These gags are all physically plausible, but the characters’ personalities bring them to life (Bugs commits several of his most sarcastic actions ever here). It ends with, simply put, one of the best gags in a cartoon ever – startling, maniacal, weird, and non-sequitur (probably the only gag with unconventional material, although it does contain at least one oft-used idea). I won’t spoil it for you but a reel of rejected animation from Goodnight Elmer would score at least a 12 if the footage with this gag were contained somewhere within.

Now we get to the second cartoon, “The Blue Danube”, which is also the title of a very boring Harman and Ising MGM cartoon I have on a compilation tape. But the sequence with that title here is a winner – I rarely laugh at it as much as TftVW but if you don’t judge cartoons based solely on how hard you laugh it’s no problem. This one has a small Daffy-lookalike (though the characterization is too different to be Daffy; still, it’s a nice touch) who saves the life of a swan family that rejects him. Expect a slight tug at the heartstrings, but it’s not disgustingly sentimental. The gags involving the duck’s half-hearted attempts to fit in are subtle and cute in their innocence – such as his quacking along with the swans, which leads to all of them crashing into each other and the mother swan looking him square in the eye and leaving a hand print on his butt. I can still remember how this one goes in my head (it employs Clampett’s great trick of “implying movement” between the camera shots) and the cutting gives me a feeling of abrupt motion.

The best part though is when the duck actually has to rescue his adopted siblings from the vulture. This sequence is most breathtaking with the duck blazing through the air gritting his teeth and turning into a visual metaphor for his fury. Just to give you an idea how fast he’s going there’s a dark, sparse background with two trees hugging each other as he flies past. The death of the vulture is handled with equal fervor, using stiff, sudden motions combined with abrupt cutting. And the vulture’s state as an angel further confirms this being an over-the-top parody on the Warner Bros. slapstick. Appreciating the slower sections of “Blue Danube” took some time for me, and I probably wouldn’t think as highly of it if it were a stand-alone cartoon, but as a counterpoint to the frenzied TftVW it can’t be beat.

I probably don’t have to tell you that the action is perfectly is sync with the music, to the point where the music is a part of the action as much as anything (read the review of Rhapsody in Rivets on Friz Freleng’s page for more thoughts on this). But I should tell you about the animation. There have been lots of cartoons with exceptionally great animation before and after this one but frame for frame, I’d be hard-pressed to find another cartoon with animation as rubbery and fluid. It’s not only fun to watch, it’s also an additional character – the animation of the props (like the bush Bugs uses for hiding or the TNT drum) add to the sly, mischievous, and slightly sadistic atmosphere with their giddy, rubbery textures. And heck, pay special close attention to the Elmer sequences book-ending both cartoons, you will want to memorize every frame of his various parts playing off each other (look how he rolls up his sleeves!) and his clothes falling off. The backgrounds are also worth mentioning, esp. in TftVW with all these dark and light contrasts in the forest setting with textures that really enhance the effect of the animation. It’s also worth noting that the character designs are a little weird, including Bugs, who looks more mischievous, innocent and detached than ever before or again.

So there’s your quintessential Toon Nirvana. It falls short of being my favorite Clampett cartoon (that’s still A Tale of Two Kitties) but the many good features pile higher and higher until I have no choice but to award it the highest score.

Rating: 5/7

Bugs is just sitting on the lawn of an airforce base, reading a book about Gremlin plane sabotage (ah, the sign of a classic short comedy plot, a set-up whose absurdity is barely noticable) when in comes a Gremlin to do just that, leading to all kinds of harassment.

No deep story here, it's an excuse to have Bugs flail wildly and do all kinds of zany voices. Bugs lets himself get pushed around a lot, often leading to a stupor, but he seems to have faith he'll come out in the end, a far cry from other cartoons where he's the cool, wise-cracking befuddler or the arrogant, short-tempered loser. This role is peppered with a few self-depricating animations (the jazz-drum heart thumping and the jackass morph), and the ending implies it was all in good fun as though an arrangement were worked out between Bugs and the Gremlin.

Most of the actions aren't as inspired so much as the animation and voice-acting that brings them to life. Bugs sliding through the plane on bananas, his head sticking into the camera for a split second, running up against the wall, or tying his ears in a knot all exhibit the fluid, unhinged exposition of his giddy, delirious, panicky, and angry moods. Many of the gags are vechicles for favored Clampett dialogue like "Ah ee oh eh ah" and "I'm only thwee-and-a-half years old", the former as well as "What am I doing!?" using that great Mel Blanc shout that seems to glide over your brain.

The Gremlin is a strikingly original design...meek, croaking voice and occasional tendency to fake compassion and shout celebrity names in Bugs' ear offsetting his destructiveness and cruelty dressed up in a nerdy squint dotting a purple crainium with yellow horns. Be nice if he was saved for a better cartoon but this makes him stand out more.

Rating: 6/7

I never thought the premise of having a flea invade a dog was inspired. All the same, the flourishes of the flea's equipment bending as he takes it out of the bag (...shut-up) and the dog's quick asides make this more watchable than most cartoons involving fleas. In fact, just before the expected cut to the next scene arrives they gotta cram in one last little flourish, like the flea running to the shelter or Elmer sticking his head out of the water. Elmer's role in this makes it possibly his best solo cartoon (though the spotlight is on the dog) and he reads the a Looney Tunes comic that actually recreates the artwork of the classic cartoons (...).

The flea singing "Food around the corner" gets on my nerves (and is stuck in my head as I type this) but I am pretty impressed by how they cram in all these little different motions. Check out the flea ice-skating or making a sandwich - it's like the animation just has to interrupt the cartoon and get all this hyperactiveness out of its system before moving on. And if you ever intend to make these things yourself pay attention to how direct and rhythmic Elmer's "Scwatching Schwatching" thweat ends up.

Rating: 5/7

Cheater cartoons became a staple near the end of the theatrical era, wrapping clips of older films in framing sequences that were usually a bore to watch. However, the first cheater from WB has as much effort as a regular short in certain areas, notably story development and character animation. Bugs pulls out one of his best performances ever, shooting the breeze with and impersonating celebrities (And coming off as a real personality instead of a caricature robot), displaying his outgoing nature, arrogance, and good humor in full force (When the audience throws fruit at him, he dresses up like a Caribbean dancer), and drawing lots of attention to himself in a nicely-angled, shadowy orange-toned stage.

Visit to Anthony is the only cartoon I know of that gives the impression of a real person interacting with cartoon characters even though its entirely animated. This is the only cartoon I know of where animated sequences and live action footage not only trade camera time, they interact with each other. I still get the feeling that Bugs is strutting his stuff in-front-of a live action audience even though his sequences are entirely animated (And it was possible to put an animated Bugs in a live-action setting by this time; Max Fleischer already did it).

If I rate this a little low, it’s because there’s a lot of squirm factor. The first minute or so is a collection of stock footage of Hollywood people doing Hollywood stuff, and while the narration is a bit amusing, it’s something I don’t really care to sit through. Then Bugs shows a clip from Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt of all things – Why not A Wild Hare? – to demo his acting ability. It’s a crafty way to work a clip into the story, but I’m not keen on sitting through it as opposed to watching the whole cartoon. What makes this great are the original scenes of Bugs, and they’re only half the cartoon.