The Great Oscar Baiter

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...

Nearly two weeks ago we covered The Old Mill , a classic Disney short beloved by animators the world over. Today’s short, The Old Mill Pond , was released one year before The Old Mill, and has otherwise very little in common with the Disney effort. I only bring it up because this mild coincidence is really the only interesting thing The Old Mill Pond has going for it. (via IMDb) D irected by Hugh Harman and released in 1936, The Old Mill Pond was part of MGM's "Happy Harmonies" series of shorts. I don't know about you, but the name "Happy Harmonies" does not instill a lot of confidence in me. It makes it sound like whichever short you're about to watch is just a paltry imitation of the "Merrie Melodies" or "Silly Symphonies." Which, I suppose, is pretty true. Probably the biggest issue with The Old Mill Pond is what I imagine made it such a popular short in the first place- the pop culture references. Virtually every joke in this ...

Anyone who dedicates a good amount of time and energy to watching the Academy Award nominated shorts is probably going to get pretty familiar with the name Pete Smith. A Hollywood producer with vaudeville roots, Pete Smith produced a series of short films from 1931 to 1955 called the “Pete Smith Specialities.” These short films were generally educational, sort of like the shorts that sometimes got riffed on Mystery Science Theater 3000. The key difference is that the Pete Smith Specialties riffed themselves. And there’s no better example of this than Marines in the Making. (via IMDb) Like London Can Take It!, Marines in the Making is a propaganda short released during World War II. Unlike London Can Take It!, this 1942 film was released after the United States had joined the war, and was released to celebrate the U.S. Marine Corps (and presumably to encourage people to enlist). Marines in the Making, like most Pete Smith Specialties, sets itself apart from other shorts like it than...

If Tom and Jerry were the king of the Animated Shorts in the 1940s, then it’d only be fair to call Walt Disney the God-Emperor of the 1930s. In the first eight years of the category’s existence, Walt Disney won the Oscar eight times, while also being nominated for seven more. And when you look at a short like The Country Cousin, it’s not too hard to see why. (via Wikipedia) Released in 1936 and directed by Wilfred Jackson, The Country Cousin is another Silly Symphony short based on one of Aesop's fables ( The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse ), following the similarly Oscar-winning 1934 release, The Tortoise and the Hare. Unlike the previous short, this film takes a few more liberties with its source material. While The Country Cousin might lack the sophistication of a short like The Old Mill, there's still a lot to appreciate about it. The character animation is expressive and appealing, the sight gags are funny and clever, and there's still some pretty impressive anima...

The Pixar short is as beloved a tradition as the Pixar movies themselves. If Pixar movies are a delicious gourmet meal, then their shorts are a great appetizer to warm up your taste buds. But all shorts aren’t created equal, and for every classic like Bao , there’s also a run-of-the-mill short like 2003's Boundin.’ (via Wikipedia) Released in theaters and shown before The Incredibles (although it was actually released a year earlier to qualify for the 76th Academy Awards) , Boundin' was written, directed and narrated by the late Bud Luckey. Luckey was an animator and character designer for Pixar, probably best known for his role as Rick Dicker in the aforementioned Incredibles. Boundin' is a fairly simple short, telling the story of a self-conscious sheep who gets a lesson in confidence from a wandering jackalope. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times, I'm sure. As far as Pixar shorts go, Boundin' is fairly average. The animation is pl...

If Tom and Jerry can be considered the kings of animation, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner are sort of like the court jesters. Originally created as a parody of the famous cat and mouse duo (how exactly does one parody something that was funny to begin with? I digress), the Coyote and the Road Runner shorts soon became wildly popular in their own right. So it’s a little surprising that the duo only ever received one Oscar nomination, for the 1961 short Beep Prepared. (via IMDB) Directed by Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble, Beep Prepared follows the typical Coyote and Road Runner formula, and that's hardly something to complain about. Admittedly, none of the gags in this short represent the duo at their best (with nary a train tunnel painted on a cliff wall in sight), but they're consistently funny and the whole thing is brisk enough to never get boring. He might not be the real Batman, but at least he's not wearing hockey pads. (via TV Tropes) Altogether, it's hard to ...

How, exactly, does one review a propaganda short? How does one give it a star rating? And perhaps most importantly, how does one write about it while trying to stay entertaining? Well, hopefully we find the answer to all the questions and more as we discuss London Can Take It! (via Londontopia) London Can Take It! is the first documentary short we're covering on the Great Oscar Baiter, although at the time of its release the Documentary Short category hadn't been created. Instead, the live action shorts were divided by length, with two categories being reserved for One-Reel or Two-Reel Shorts; London Can Take It! qualified for the former. Like a large number of Oscar-nominated shorts released during the Second World War, London Can Take It! is a propaganda piece, depicting a day in London during the Blitz and released to shift popular opinion in America towards declaring war on Germany. There is a part of me that thinks perhaps the only way to truly rate a short like this is...