Cartoon a Day: Bacall to Arms

Bacall to Arms
1946
Directed by Bob Campett (uncredited)
Available on: Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 5

This cartoon is a real treat! The premise is simple, a night out at the movies. Gags come from the newsreel, feature, and the antics of the audience. There are both black and white and color segments, and the character design and animation style varies throughout. It's interesting that the characters in the audience have the look of early generic Warner Brothers characters, but the characters in the movies, and the Avery-esque wolf have a different style altogether.

The newsreel segment features a story about the new technology of radar being used in the home. It ends up being used to detect an approaching mother-in-law, which brings to mind the mother-in-law jokes often used by Tex Avery in his shorts at MGM.

The feature film parodies "To Have and Have Not," so we are treated to some wonderful caricatures of Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart.

There just so happens to be a wolf in the audience who becomes quite...uh...enamored with the lovely Miss Bacall. The expression of his excitement, once again, draws to mind thoughts of Tex Avery. Avery had left Warner Brothers in 1941 and in 1943 brought "Red Hot Riding Hood" to the screen for MGM. It's hard to believe that Riding Hood didn't have an influence on this cartoon, but "Bacall to Arms" is still a fun short.

Cartoon a Day: The Beach Nut

The Beach Nut
1944
Directed by Shamus Culhane (as James Culhane)
Available on: Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection

This Woody Woodpecker short is mildly amusing, but not as laugh out loud funny as a Looney Tunes short. There is some great animation here, but not necessarily the stand-out gags.

Woody is an unusual character. At times he seems to be a clever troublemaker like Bugs Bunny, yet at other times he seems to be completely oblivious to what he's doing. Both versions seem to be present in this cartoon.

Wally Walrus makes his debut in this cartoon and he does make a good nemesis for Woody. Though there's a lot of anger in the character, you actually feel a bit sorry for the guy.

Movie Commercials to be allowed during Oscar Broadcast

I'm not a football fan, I watch the Super Bowl for the commercials. Now, the Academy Awards, that I take a great deal of interest in. But here's the thing, for ages the academy has not allowed any commercials for movies to air during the Oscar telecast. A stupid move in my opinion. All these years where they've been complaining that movie ticket sales keep going down, and on the night where you have the biggest world-wide audience of movie fans all watching the same thing on TV you don't show any movie commercials!?! Well, finally the ban has been lifted, though with some restrictions...such as no ads for prequels or sequels of any movie up for an award. So don't expect to see an ad for "Harold and Kumar Save Christmas" during this year's show.

Check out more about how the academy suddenly grew a brain here.

Note: I made up that movie title but if some Hollywood genius pitches that to a studio, I do expect a check.

Cartoon a Day: Here Today, Gone Tamale

Here Today, Gone Tamale

1959

Directed by Friz Freleng

Available on: Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 4

For a long time, Speedy Gonzales was a victim of political correctness taken to the extreme. Some claimed that he was a negative stereotype of Mexicans. Yet when he was pulled from the air by Cartoon Network, who had exclusive broadcast rights to his cartoons beginning in 1999, the fans cried out. They learned that Speedy is a hero to many Latin Americans. He's certainly always been a favorite of mine.

"Here Today, Gone Tamale" features a group of Mexican mice starving due to a cheese famine when a boat full of cheese rolls into port. Sylvester the cat guards the ship, so Speedy is called in to get the cheese. There are plenty of great gags here, though the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" ending is a bit disappointing and abrupt.

This is also another great example of beautiful Looney Tunes background art. Both the scenery of the port and layout of the ship use some very creative elements. Just check out the interesting depth of field used in the background of the above shot.

Though I've never thought that Sylvester quite gelled as a great nemesis for Speedy like he did with Tweety, this is still a fun offering from the fastest mouse in all Mexico.

Cartoon a Day: Water Babies

Water Babies
1935
Directed by Wilfred Jackson
Available on: Walt Disney Treasures - Silly Symphonies


And the award for most bare butts in a Disney movie goes to...you guessed it, the 1935 Silly Symphony "Water Babies."

"Water Babies" is a beautiful color cartoon that still shows some hints of the repetitious, looped style of early animation. However, there are some real advances on display here too, especially in some of the designs used in the boat sequence.


Like many of the Silly Symphonies, this isn't laugh-out-loud funny. It's more cutesy, Anne Geddes has nothing on Walt. A few of the sequences get a little busy, but that doesn't detract from enjoying some beautiful animation.

Cartoon a Day: Stop! Look! And Hasten!

Stop! Look! And Hasten!
1953
Directed by Chuck Jones
Available on: Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 2



My first selection for "A Cartoon a Day" is a classic Road Runner short, "Stop! Look! and Hasten!" This short definitely has a progression to it. Starting slowly with several long takes from the coyote and building to a quick succession of gags.

Of all the bits I think my favorite is the one where the Coyote uses a book called How to Build a Burmese Tiger Trap. Also great is a gag involving a retractable wall that doesn't work early in the film, but that pays off later as the film's closing gag.

Like many of the Road Runner series, this one features some beautiful background paintings and you can start to see hints of some of the unique design styles that would be used for elements such as rocks and bushes that would be taken to greater extremes later in the series.

It's hard to go wrong with a Road Runner short. This one is a favorite!

A Cartoon a Day

I realized recently that I don't laugh enough. It's not like I'm this terribly serious person all the time, but I sure could laugh more. And it's far too easy for me to let little things steal my joy. So, I'm setting out on a mission, hopefully I will be successful. Something that brings me joy and makes me laugh are classic animated shorts. I've got quite a collection of classic shorts now, thanks to the miracle of DVD, so I'm going to try to watch at least one animated film a day. And to try and keep up with it I'm going to blog the results. It'll be sort of like setting time aside each day for prayer and scripture reading, only those don't generally involve talking animals, explosions, or mail-order products from ACME.

Kidology U

This weekend I got to back to my "sweet home Chicago," to be a part of the 10th anniversary Kidology U conference. It was fun to be a part of this event for the first time, and to get to visit some family in the process. Karl Bastian and the gang and Kidology have a great passion for kids ministry and for equipping other children's pastors. Here's a few photo highlights.

My friend Alan Root took care of the praise and worship duties. You know that part in the Bible where it says to "always be joyful," Alan's got that verse nailed. He's one of the happiest guys I know.

Karl Bastian is the brain trust behind Kidology.org. Here he is during the opening session. His workshop that was to follow had a cooking theme, thus the outfit.

The first two days of the conference featured some intensive leadership labs. I can't think of anyone better suited for teaching those kind of classes than the man you see pictured above... Bro Jim Wideman!

A highlight of the conference for me was finally getting to see a Kidz Blitz event in person. It was slightly different than the real thing since it was pretty much an all adult Kidz Blitz, but it was still pretty wild. Above is Roger Fields, the man behind Kidz Blitz.

Here's Karl Bastian competing against his sister in the donut eating challenge at Kidz Blitz. You're supposed to eat the donut off the hook while blindfolded without it falling off. But, after starting, Roger Fields had Karl's sister remove her blindfold and take the donut off the hook...unknown to Karl.

Atlanta Puppet Festival...a few weeks late

I'm a few weeks behind on posting some pictures from my trip to Atlanta for the Puppet Ministry Festival there. Sorry on being late, here's a few pics...

One of my favorite clowns, Brenda Marshall (aka Flower) was one of our guests. Speaking of favorites, here she is doing one of my favorite ways to present a simple salvation message, the good ole Salvation Flash Cards.

When I first met Jason Bonilla he lived in Florida. When I first met Gene Cordova (above) he lived in Seattle. Both have taught at festival for us for many years, and now they are both apart of the same church in Tennessee. So they drove down to Atlanta together to teach at the festival. This is Gene with his vent buddy, Puppy.

Here's one of the most creative people I know, Ferrel Marr, teaching a class on blacklight puppetry.

Our host team, The M&M Puppeteers did a wonderful presentation that combined some flag choreography along with something cool that's been making the YouTube rounds lately called "Cardboard Testimonies." Like "Edward Scissorhands" they made me cry.

Go Animate!

I just came across a new website where you can make your own animated films. Goanimate.com has backgrounds, effects, and characters to choose from. The characters have very actions they can do. It's pretty cool.

This test is just what I was able to put together from the stuff that was available on the site, including "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred. Hey I had to have something to work with...

Eat-Mor-Chikin

Brothers and sisters, if you don't love Chick-Fil-A...well, God will deal with you on that someday. Hat tip to the Kidologist for pointing me to this fun little video about the joys of Chick-Fil-A. I actually made a hajj to the original Chick-Fil-A store in Atlanta a few years ago. It's called "The Dwarf House" and to the dismay of the cows you can actually get a hamburger there. I'm going to Atlanta later this week, maybe we'll have to do that again.

The National Association of W Haters

I just watched the movie "Vantage Point" tonight. No, I don't have a biblical application this time around. The movie was alright. Clearly it was trying to be a 90 minute version of "24." It's about a terrorist plot that involves an assassination attempt on the President, as seen from several different points of view. The President is played by William Hurt, and he's not playing George W. Bush. So I found it really weird that at the beginning of the film we see a group of protesters, one of which is holding a sign featuring a letter W in a circle with a slash across it. Now if the President in this movie has middle name that begins with W it's certainly not made known to the audience. So what does the letter W have to do with anything here?

This could be viewed as a goof, but I'm not so sure. It seems like it may be another example of the filmmakers injecting their own political views into the background of the film. It's not uncommon. Richard Donner, who is a fine director, does it all the time. His police stations wallpapered with anti-NRA posters in the Lethal Weapon films is especially notable.

You know, on "Sesame Street," way back when I was a kid, there was a segment that featured Bert as the leader of a club called The National Association of W Lovers. Perhaps this person in the movie is really from a rival group.