Having watched beautifully made, brilliantly executed, sensitively acted, cosmically claustrophobic and mega-dark international noirs at the 18th Noir City Film Festival, this cinephile is now ready for some LAUGHS!
Happy to hear that there shall be, officially released on February 18 and now available for pre-order, a new Blu-ray of comedy gems created by Tex Avery, A.K.A. The King Of Cartoons.
Nobody could deliver belly laughs in mass quantities quite like Tex!
Soon after joining the Warner Brothers cartoon studio in 1935, Tex brought the animated cartoon business out of the post-Production Code of 1934 enforcement (and Disney envy) doldrums.
Tex, previously an animator for Walter Lantz' studio, immediately overturned the paradigm at Leon Schlesinger's studio by introducing a different, fast and imaginative brand of cartoon humor. His crew (Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Virgil Ross and Sid Sutherland) set up shop a bit away from the main WB animation studio in a place called Termite Terrace and set to work making funny cartoons.
The Looney Tunes made in Termite Terrace gleefully broke the fourth and fifth walls and acknowledged to the moviegoing audience that "this is a cartoon!"
In this new breed of rowdy Looney Tunes, it was not merely okay but a mission to make cartoons that were not just cute like the Silly Symphonies/Happy Harmonies but actually funny.
Avery subsequently created Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny, with enthusiastic contributions from animators Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett.
This new Blu-ray concentrates on the films Tex made after leaving WB and joining the MGM cartoon studio, where he would create a host of original and indelible characters there, led by the phlegmatic Droopy Dog, whose trademark line was "you know what - I'm happy, or "you know what - that makes me MAD!"
Every one of Avery's characters and cartoons utterly baffled MGM cartoon producer
Tops, both back in WW2 and now, would be the 1943 Red Hot Riding Hood, still the short subject to earn the most rentals ever, especially to a humor-and-pulchritude starved G.I. audience.
Had Tex a percentage of the profits from the "Red" cartoons, he'd have retired a gazillionaire.
The lineup of cartoons on this Blu-ray is as follows:
Red Hot Riding Hood – 1943
Who Killed Who – 1943
What’s Buzzin’ Buzzard – 1943
Dumb-Hounded – 1943
Batty Baseball – 1944
Screwball Squirrel – 1944
Big Heel-Watha – 1944
The Screwy Truant – 1945
The Hick Chick – 1946
Lonesome Lenny – 1946
Hound Hunters – 1947
Red Hot Rangers – 1947
Bad Luck Blackie – 1949
Wags to Riches – 1949
The Garden Gopher – 1950
The Peachy Cobbler – 1950
The Chump Champ – 1950
Symphony in Slang – 1951
Daredevil Droopy – 1951
Tex Avery's Screwball Classics (volume 1) can be ordered here. We at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog sincerely hope that this collection sells like hotcakes served with rich creamery butter and genuine maple syrup at the MGM commissary and compels Warner Archive to release a volume 2 which will include the aforementioned Swing Shift Cinderella and other hilarious Tex Avery MGM cartoons not on volume 1. Classic comedy fans - you know what to do!
Tex Avery's Screwball Classics volume 1 and the also to be officially released on February 18 (and now available for pre-order), Douglas MacLean Collection DVD comprising two features starring the dapper and popular light comedian of the 1920's will tide film humor aficionados over at least for a bit.
Well, they will more than do for a couple of months until the official release of the Harry Langdon Hal Roach talkies DVD set by Sprocket Vault Classic Films in April.
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