Strangerataru

The Looney Year: A Review of all 1000+ Classic Looney Tunes (1929-1969) in one Year By StrangerAtaru With Appearances by...Friends. 4/19/24: 313: The Fighting 69 1/2th Director: Friz Freleng Released: 1/18/41 It was 1941: Europe had been devastated by the Blitz and the Nazis were grasping the continent tighter and tighter in their control; while Japan was fighting China and had greater aspirations for conquest throughout Asia and the Pacific. Yet back in the States...we have ants parodying the first World War over a picnic lunch. Yeah...as a reminder, outside Canada (who had great loyalties to the British and thus were already fighting on their side in what felt like a losing battle in Europe), the Western Hemisphere had no connection to all the fighting and, until December, had zero interest or desire to enter into this massive global conflict; so to have a short that parodies war yet keeps it to the first World War (the short is actually named after a World War I film made by WB

The Looney Year: A Review of all 1000+ Classic Looney Tunes (1929-1969) in one Year By StrangerAtaru With Appearances by...Friends. 4/18/24: 309: The Timid Toreador Directors: Bob Clampett and Norm McCabe Released: 12/21/40 With a lot of issues that Bob Clampett suddenly had around this point in some short production, another director was briefly needed to be able to help him out for the time being. In this case, this and the next Porky shorts will be technically directed not by Clampett but by an animator named Norman McCabe (or just "Norm McCabe" as we'll call him) He was born in England, lived in Washington state where he drew cards for film theater lobbies, and when that dried up went down to LA to get into animation, working under Frank Tashlin and later Bob Clampett. McCabe will eventually get a bit more to do later, but it is interesting to see him in his first small run while helping out his fellow director. As for the short, it's essentially Clampett and McCabe's

The Looney Year: A Review of all 1000+ Classic Looney Tunes (1929-1969) in one Year By StrangerAtaru With Appearances by...Friends. 4/17/24: 305: Wacky Wildlife Director: Tex Avery Released: 11/9/40 "Hello Tom." "Hello Bob." Nah, not as funny. And there's a sheep in this short and everything. As much as I generally like many of the Tex Avery blackout shorts, there's such a thing as "too much of a good thing". I can't say if he's in a rut or just this is all he wants but...this is literally yet another of these this year focusing on animal life, despite how we literally had "Cross-Country Detours" earlier this year. And most of these aren't that funny for once: the snake hypnotizing the bird has a rather pointless punchline, same with the bird talk sequence and the camel and termite ones have been done to death as well (and the packrat bit...seriously, I know the cartoon comments on the issue but it was just...long and unneeded). There are still a few funny gags as well: we get

The Looney Year: A Review of all 1000+ Classic Looney Tunes (1929-1969) in one Year By StrangerAtaru With Appearances by...Friends. 4/16/24: 301: Holiday Highlights Director: Tex Avery Released: 10/12/40 Another blackout gag short from Tex, this time about the holidays of the year. And while this one has some really memorable gags this time (the Mother's Day one basically is just how mom and I communicate on Mother's Day perfectly I admit; and I do like the goofiness of the Valentines one and the "leap year" gag and the Thanksgiving turkey), one big problem I have with this short is that it feels like it just wants to repeat the same gags over and over in different variance as opposed to just good timing once. We get two gags about the New Years at the start and end, two involving holiday icons flying in the sky advertising (a witch for a sale on Halloween and Santa for Christmas with ice cream), and an Arbor Day joke and the final punchline about...dogs love of trees. (it's

The Looney Year: A Review of all 1000+ Classic Looney Tunes (1929-1969) in one Year By StrangerAtaru With Appearances by...Friends. 4/15/24: 297: Ceiling Hero Director: Tex Avery Released: 8/24/40 Considering the mastery of this sort of 'blackout short' that Tex has at this point (so much so that it's surprising he would do a story-driven one like "A Wild Hare"), it almost feels like he's close to what he'd be doing later with similar shorts over at MGM once that time comes in just picking a subject and making jokes about it for the entire short. This time, it's aviation; and we get some really funny bits, including "giant wheels" on a really tiny plane for the sake of safety, a rocket that basically just blows up into an advertisement, and one point where a plane is being tested forcing the pilot to escape from it...only to lead to the classic "Next Time, Take the Train" gag (I wish they would but that's just me). There are two "mini-plots" amidst all the gags: one is about a