The Great Oscar Baiter

More often than not, I try to make sure I rewatch each film in our Year in Shorts before I cover them. There have been some scattered exceptions here and there, but for the most part I think the only way to give a film the best possible shake is to have it fresh in my mind as I write about it. This is especially important for some of the less memorable films, as I really only have a vague impression to go off of. Unfortunately, sometimes there’s simply nothing I can do about it. Whatever site I found the short on before our Year in Shorts began is, for one reason or another, no longer hosting it, and I’m left trying to review my memories of the film more than anything. The last time this happened to us was with George Pal’s John Henry and the Inky-Poo. And unfortunately it’s going to happen with another Puppetoon, the 1945 short Jasper and the Beanstalk. (via TV Tropes) Why George Pal's Puppetoons are so hard to find, I can not say. It's a miracle that I was able to find Tulip...

It’s not a competition, but it’s hard to imagine a group of people more consistently fucked over in terms of media representation than the Romani. Between reality TV shows that play off the worst stereotypes to movies like Thinner which portray them as magical criminals, there really haven’t been a lot of positive depictions out there. Really the best the Romani can typically hope for is an adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which will still generally portray them as thieves (and almost certainly won’t cast any actual Romani people in the roles). So, as you can well imagine, the first time I watched today’s short, reading that title, seeing that it was released in 1945, I braced myself for an incredibly racist cartoon. But sometimes films can surprise you, and this was one of those times! (via TV Tropes) While we've looked at a lot of classic cartoon characters in our Year in Shorts, we've yet to cover anything starring Mighty Mouse. There is a perfectly valid reas...

Classical music and cartoons are a match made in heaven, like peanut butter and jelly. There are countless Looney Tunes shorts dedicated to proving this. Fantasia was a  whole damn movie about exploring where that relationship could go. And Lord knows we’ve looked at more than enough shorts which showcase that marriage beautifully. But not every pairing is going to create movie magic, of course. And any movie starring Andy Panda is already starting itself off on the wrong foot. But let’s see if The Poet & Peasant can clear that hurdle anyway. (via TV Tropes) The premise of The Poet & Peasant (directed by Dick Lundy and released in 1945) is a pretty simple one- Andy Panda is conducting a concert in which the musicians are all animals. It's such a simple concept, in fact, that it's no surprise that it's been done before, most notably in Disney's The Band Concert, released ten years before this short. The Band Concert, bafflingly, was NOT nominated for an Osc...

Sometimes it feels like film noir is a genre I like more in theory than in practice. It certainly seems like something I really like, and there are quite a few films within the genre that I absolutely love, but very often when I’m actually watching a proper film noir I’m left unsatisfied. Perhaps I like the idea of it, or the strange variations on it that people make. One such variation is the 1945 Disney short, Donald’s Crime. (via Wikipedia) Directed by Jack King, Donald's Crime is a story of greed, guilt and the extreme lengths to which a man will go in order to get laid. It follows Donald as he prepares for a date night with Daisy, only to discover that he has no money. Seeking to avoid embarrassment (and, again, just desperate to get some tail), Donald decides to steal from Huey, Dewey and Louie's piggie bank. (Has Disney ever explained what happened to their parents? I assume they were killed by the hunter who shot Bambi's mother.) Aided by a voice in his head alle...

Content Warning- Today's post contains discussions of suicide When it comes to the iconic characters Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, I’ve made my feelings fairly clear. Bugs Bunny is hilarious. Pepe Le Pew is not. Speedy Gonzales is a badass. Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner are the poor man’s Tom and Jerry, and there’s nothing wrong with that. And Tweety Bird , of course, is my mortal enemy. But somehow, despite being the absolute worst Looney Tune, the Academy loved them some Sylvester and Tweety shorts. Which is unfair on two levels; it was unfair to the much better shorts that they ignored, and it was unfair to associate Sylvester with Tweety Bird. As we’ve seen with Speedy Gonzales, Sylvester can be a great character under the right circumstances. And as his debut short, Life with Feathers, shows, sometimes the right circumstances are incredibly dark. (via Wikipedia) Life with Feathers is another short from animation legend Friz Freleng, this time released in 1945. ...

There are some things in cinema that we know to be true- Movies set on trains are automatically better than movies not set on trains. Nothing is better than watching a movie and having Margo Martindale pop up unexpectedly. And Tom and Jerry never ever talk. But there are exceptions to every rule. The Polar Express is set on a train and that movie’s not very good at all. The only thing better than watching a movie with a surprise Margo Martindale is watching a movie and seeing her name in the opening credits. And on a few occasions, Tom and Jerry have spoken. Some of them are clearly regrettable; Tom and Jerry The Movie comes to mind. But sometimes it works, and the 1945 short Quiet Please! is one of those times. (via IMDb) Of all the Tom and Jerry shorts we've covered, Quiet Please! is the one I've had the most difficult time finding information about. It doesn't even have a Wikipedia page for Pete's sake! Still, some things need no explanation- We know it's a ...