Hamateur Night: "It's A Killer... It's A Killer!"

Release date: 1/28/1939 (according to BCDb)

DVD-Blu-Ray Availability: NONE

You may view this cartoon HERE.

One of Avery's finest works of cartoon art, this film has an egalitarian approach to animated humor. Everyone has the same chance to sink or swim, to shine or nosedive.

It is a shame that this important and delightful cartoon has not been restored. All available prints look washed-out and VHS-y. Many WB cartoons suffer from this (or other) neglect, and I hope work will be done to make them look at least something like they did in their heyday.

It's a tribute to Hamateur Night that its comedy transcends its current state of disrepair. The neglect may be due to this cartoon's public domain status. That said, several PD Warners cartoons were restored for the now-defunct Golden Collection DVD series.

We iris in on an obvious-but-funny sign gag. The lack of bad puns reassures us that "Bugs" Hardaway is far away.

The Mice Will Play: A Jaunty, Peppy Non-Entity To End 1938

Release date: 12/31/1938 (according to BCDb)

DVD-Blu-Ray Availability: Jezebel (WHV DVD); Looney Tunes Mouse Chronicles (also WHV)

You may view this cartoon HERE.

My last post here displeased a number of animation people. So it goes. My goal here is to present my take on these often-overlooked cartoons in Tex Avery's career. How I view them will, of course, differ from how others see them. It's bound to cause friction, but that's the way it is.

I believe everyone can comfortably agree that The Mice Will Play, released on the last day of 1938, is not a major film in Avery's q.v. It is one of the last of its kind--an insincere "cutie" cartoon that unsteadily straddles front-office expectations and filmmakers' needs. Those factions tend to cancel each other out and produce compromised work.

The Leon Schlesinger cartoon studio is such a well-oiled, jaunty unit, in late 1938, that it can gloss over weaknesses with an affable, scrappy attitude. This doesn't make the lesser films any better, but it helps them go down easier.

This cartoon was shorn of its original credit sequence in 1949. The theme music for the titles was eight seconds of "Three Blind Mice."

Let the insignificance... begin!

When a cartoon begins with this shot, you know the next scene will be of a darkened interior, moving in multiplane fashion towards the film's alleged protagonist(s).

And, indeed, that's what occurs.

 Anonymous 1938 mice emerge from knothole.

 Lead mouse Johnny declares coast clear.