Archive | reviews RSS feed for this section

It’s All About Him: Duck Dodgers In ATTACK OF THE DRONES

31 Jan
Daffy addressing his robot copies in Attack Of The Drones

Daffy as "Duck Dodgers" addresses his...uh, "troops" in ATTACK OF THE DRONES

After a brief hiatus to accommodate the Freeze Frame Friday feature (and to give your tired blogger a badly needed rest) we resume our look at Larry Doyle’s 2003 Looney Tunes.

Review by Rachel Newstead

DUCK DODGERS IN ATTACK OF THE DRONES
Copyright year 2003 (unreleased)

Director: Rich Moore
In short: What’s worse than one Duck Dodgers? Try 100….with lasers

Like just about any other fan in the known universe, I love Duck Dodgers In The 24th 1/2 Century. I love it from the first scene to the last, from the wonderfully wonky “1930s space opera meets Salvador Dali” designs of Maurice Noble, to Marvin Martian’s Acme ray guns, to the “disintegrating pistol” gag (“Well, whaddaya know, it disintegrated….”). Nothing could come close to it, and indeed, nothing ever has. Even the men behind the original, Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese, couldn’t re-ignite the spark, though they certainly tried. I’ve spent much of the last thirty years trying to wipe Duck Dodgers and the Return Of The 24th 1/2 Century from my memory.

The Duck Dodgers TV series was…adequate, most of the time. If one pretended the classic 1953 “Duck Dodgers” never existed and judged the latter version on its own merits, it could be quite entertaining. That, essentially, is the attitude I had to take when it came time to review Larry Doyle’s take on the “Dodgers” universe, Attack Of The Drones. With the proper mindset in place, I found myself enjoying it more than I ever thought I would.

(more…)

A Magic Book “Spells” Trouble For Wile E. in THE WHIZZARD OF OW

28 Jan

The Whizzard Of Ow

copyright year 2003 (unreleased)

Director: Bret Haaland

In short: Don’t tamper with sinister forces you don’t understand–especially if you’re Wile E. Coyote…

Review by Rachel Newstead

In this installment of my ongoing series on the Larry Doyle Looney Tunes, I take a look at the one of the six that perhaps comes closest to the spirit of the original: the Road Runner cartoon The Whizzard Of Ow. As you’ll see as we work our way down the list, however, it turns out to be faint praise…

After using such varied–yet unsuccessful–means as a dehydrated boulders, Burmese tiger traps, an Acme Batman suit, and even performance-enhancing drugs (leg-muscle vitamins, to be exact) through the years,  it makes perfect sense that in the era of Harry Potter, Wile E. Coyote would resort to the one thing he hasn’t tried in his quest to catch the elusive Road Runner.

Namely, magic.

Therein lies the premise of the first–and best–cartoon of our Unseen Six, The Whizzard Of Ow.

Two things become apparent immediately. Well, make that three. First is the background design: it lacks Maurice Noble’s elegant stylization, and Robert Gribbroek’s varied color palette, but it’s certainly better-looking visually than the McKimson and Larriva shorts had been. The various cacti and mesas are rendered with highlights, and have some dimension. The background artists were obviously going for an early-fifties look here, but as this was done at Rough Draft Studios, I couldn’t help but think this landscape could double as an alien planet for Fry, Bender and Leela. (Rough Draft worked on Futurama, as well as The Simpsons Movie).

(more…)

Because Somebody Had To Do It: The Larry Doyle Looney Tunes

28 Jan
Duck Dodgers argues with alien in Attack Of The Drones

Duck Dodgers is back (again?) in "Attack Of The Drones" (yes, that's a Klingon behind him)

by Rachel Newstead

My ol’ southern granddaddy had a saying: expect the worst. Then, when it doesn’t happen, you’re pleasantly surprised….

So when I took on the unenviable task of reviewing the reviled, unreleased 2003 Larry Doyle Looney Tunes, my expectations couldn’t be much lower. Steeling myself for exposure to the alleged blood-congealing, stomach-liquefying animated plague produced by Mr. Doyle, I was not only surprised, but almost disappointed to find that most of them were at least watchable. [Note:  "Almost disappointed" because I revel in true, Ed Wood-level badness. It's practically a Zen experience.--R.] Some, dare I say, even approached “good”. (I can almost see the lynch mobs forming as I write this–just try defending these within 500 miles of the nearest Looney Tunes geek. You’ll really need Obama’s health plan).

I admit my obsession with these “Unseen Six”, as I’ve come to call the cartoons, might seem a little strange to most of you, but it shouldn’t be surprising to those who know me. Of all the creative endeavors ever conceived, nothing intrigues me as much as those that might have been. I like the Larry Doyle Looney Tunes for the same reason I’m fascinated with Scott Joplin’s lost musical scores, Walt Disney’s aborted feature projects, and the first two pilots for “All In The Family.” They’re a glimpse into what might have happened had the creative process taken a slight detour, producing an “alternate-universe” version of the movies, TV shows and music we know.

(more…)

The Best Thing Since Trash Day: The Flintstones and “The Hot Piano” (1961)

29 Aug

Review by Rachel Newstead

The Flintstones: “The Hot Piano”

Season 1, Episode 19

Original Airdate Feb. 3, 1961

Directors: Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera

Writer: Mike Maltese

In Short: Stuck for an anniversary present for Wilma, Fred learns a valuable lesson in economics–don’t buy a piano out of the back of a van. Especially if the seller is a guy named “88 Fingers Louie…”

With any great TV show–even some that weren’t so great–one episode is often enough to make a viewer into a fan forever.

For Trekkies, it’s “City On The Edge Of Forever”–or perhaps “Space Seed” (the episode that introduced us to Khan, Captain Kirk’s greatest nemesis.) For “I Love Lucy” fans, it might be the “Vitameatavegamin” episode, or the one in which she finds herself submerged in a vat of grapes.

For fans of Hanna-Barbera’s The Flintstones, however, it’s usually this episode: “The Hot Piano,” from the show’s often brilliant (though critically panned) first season. It certainly was for me.

Looking at the show’s 166 episodes today can seem a bit like watching two different series. There’s the caustic adult sitcom of its first couple of seasons, “inspired” by The Honeymooners but more a sendup of every TV comedy ever known–I Love Lucy, Donna Reed and Ozzie and Harriet turned sideways and transported to the Stone Age.

(more…)

My Travels With Chuck

14 Aug

Foreword from Rachel:

Welcome, one and all, to our new “sister site” to the Orphan Toons blog, the title of which comes from Kevin. (And inspired by that coolest of cool “cats”, Cecil The Sea Sick Serpent’s beatnik friend Go Man Van Gogh). We’ll be launching this new venture, however, with a look at a cat of the more literal kind, the unnamed feline of Chuck Jones’ Fin ‘N’ Catty (1943). My editorial comments will be interspersed throughout.

By Kevin Wollenweber

Well, while sitting back and checking out a VHS sampler of favorite cartoons I had created from my laserdisk collection, I was reminded of how much I liked some of the earliest Chuck Jones directions at Warner Brothers, when his “style” started to take hold and his inspiration began to be felt by other animators in his unit–especially the one shots that did not feature any specific characters.

Chuck Jones’ cats are especially funny, as evidenced by the inclusion of “THE ARISTO-CAT” on the fourth LOONEY TUNES GOLDEN COLLECTION set on DVD. A title that was omitted, no doubt, for inclusion in a later volume of LOONEY TUNES and MERRIE MELODIES under a different banner in later years, is a toon called “FIN ‘N’ CATTY”.

(more…)

Newer Entries →

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.