The Great Oscar Baiter

Here at The Great Oscar Baiter we’ve discussed a lot of iconic characters from the Golden Age of animation, from the Looney Tunes at Warner Bros. to Donald and Goofy over at Disney. And, unfortunately, we’ve also looked at the characters belonging to universal- Woody Woodpecker and Andy Panda. Yes, unfortunately the creations of Walter Lantz productions don’t quite have the staying power as their contemporaries did. Case in point- Chilly Willy, the star of Tex Avery’s 1955 short The Legend of Rockabye Point. (via Wikipedia) I kind of feel that Tex Avery has gotten a raw deal in our Year in Shorts. Aside from A Wild Hare , most of his work that we've covered has been his post- Looney Tunes output, which I think we can all agree isn't nearly as good. Sometimes the Academy ignores a lot of the great work an artist does, only recognizing them for their later, inferior work. I call it Sam Rockwell Syndrome. Anyway, The Legend of Rockabye Point follows your standard cartoon formu...

As I’ve said before, I’m not from New York. In fact, I’ve never even been to New York. I’m West Coast, born and bred. I don’t mind this in the slightest (the Pacific clearly being the superior ocean), although sometimes I do feel envy about all the movies they make on the East Coast. Think about all the great movies out there where “New York is the most important character”; ninety percent of the time a movie’s set in Seattle, it gets filmed in Canada. The most iconic Washington State movie is 10 Things I Hate About You, which, I shouldn’t have to point out, is a goddamn classic (and yet another 1999 film that was more worthy of Best Picture than American Beauty ). Still, it’s always nice when a movie gives me a window to another place. That’s what they’re for, after all. And when the film can take me to a place that no longer exists? Well, that’s icing on the cake. And 3rd Ave. El is some pretty good icing. (via Letterboxd) There isn't a lot of information I can find on 3rd Ave...

Like all reasonable people, we here at The Great Oscar Baiter are great fans of Donald Duck. Across his proud and storied career, everyone’s second favorite irritable waterfowl managed to rack up a respectable nine Oscar nominations for Best Animated Short. And his final film to receive such an honor may very well be one of his finest, with 1955’s No Hunting. (via IMDb) No Hunting is a fairly straightforward short, presenting a satirical look at sports hunting, inspired by director Jack Hannah's own childhood experiences. But despite its simple premise and fairly short run time, the film is packed to the brim with a wonderful anarchic spirit, providing the viewer with more great gags in six minutes than some filmmakers can manage in ninety. (via Wikipedia) A great deal of the credit for this lies at the feet of the animators, who managed to fill the short with frantic slapstick and absurd sight gags while also producing a short that's still beautiful to look at. This might be...

It’s the same complaint every year. Doesn’t Hollywood make anything new anymore? Why is everything a remake or adaptation or sequel? Remember when Hollywood was original? And so on this Christmas season, I will give you the greatest gift of all- the realization that Hollywood was always creatively bankrupt! Hell, they used to remake shorts! Case in point- 1955’s Good Will to Men. (via Internet Animation Database) Much like its predecessor , Good Will to Men is another fun Christmas short about animals living in a post-apocalyptic world in which humanity has driven itself to extinction. And while that was undoubtedly a very real concern when Peace on Earth was released in 1939, it was especially pressing to the audiences of 1955, what with the Cold War and the atom bomb and the mutually assured destruction and all that jazz. Such a short could obviously never be made today (when humanity wipes itself with climate change, we'll probably be taking the cute animals with us), but i...

Here at The Great Oscar Baiter we’ve spent an unfortunate amount of time discussing racial stereotypes. That sort of thing is inevitable when discussing film history. But how do you discuss a stereotypical character when he’s so beloved by the culture he’s stereotyping? I don’t have the answer to that, but let’s discuss Speedy Gonzales anyway! (via IMDb) Directed by Friz Freleng, the 1955 short Merrie Melodies short Speedy Gonzales is generally considered to be the official debut of the titular character, although an early version of him appeared in Cat-Tails for Two two years earlier. That seemed to be something of a common thing with Warner Brothers characters. You can't rush perfection! The plot is fairly simple stuff- a group of mice want some cheese, Sylvester the Cat will eat them if they try, so the mice hire Speedy Gonzales to steal the cheese for him. You don't come to these shorts for the story, you come for the gags, and I think the gags in this short are pretty s...