The unknown origin of the space creature would have been an interesting topic for this movie to cover. But by avoiding that topic almost entirely, it does allow for the imagination to take over. This was probably a better choice because this could have turned into another space action flick and that would have been more than likely underwhelming. As it turns out, this was just a drama about a relationship gone bad couched as a space story. Still, the conversations between the creature and cosmonaut were interesting.
The reviews that I've seen about this episode have been mostly positive, citing a creepy atmosphere and some nice windblown special effects. However, this did nothing for me. The mother and little Chrissie were unconvincing characters and were most definitely not scary. Maybe some viewers feel sympathetic because the older daughter, Christine, has recovered from a breakdown and that makes the story more impactful to them, but that's only a guess.
"The Old Soft Shoe" is notable for its character actors, Paul Dooley (Chester) and John Fiedler (Arthur). Dooley plays a traveling salesman who desires a one-night stand but when the heat gets turned up by a lovely lady in lingerie, Chester remembers what he has at home. Arthur is a strange little motel owner who is an exercise freak and keeps a turtle as a pet. The turtle is kept in a fishbowl, and it has a lit candle on top of its shell. The two of them talk about it for about a minute which amounted to nothing, other than an entertained laugh from me. The lingerie lady, whose name is Glenda I believe, seduces Chester. His fate is not a pleasant one, and as much as I expected something bad was going to happen, the final shot of the episode is very sad.
This is another crazy, action-packed Clampett cartoon. It's got a lot of wild drawings, with all of the characters capable of stretching out to extreme levels at any moment. Everyone and everything are rubbery. The flea character is really ugly and not funny, but the dog makes up for it. This isn't fall down funny or anything, in fact, the agony that the dog goes through is what stands out. The cat killing himself at the end makes zero sense and seems like a way to conclude the short when they had no idea of how to end it.
What a great pair George and Bennie are! Bennie is the big, dumb cat that makes a lot of mistakes and misreads a lot of words, all to the detriment of poor little George. Speedy Gonzales is here but he doesn't look anything like he will in later cartoons. There are lots of great and painful gags in this, every one of them affecting George, who takes a real beating. Remember "P-E-T-R-O-L sure is a funny way to spell water."
It was fun to see Abe Vigoda as a crime boss, even though I'm tired of seeing movies and TV shows about mobsters. There's a couple of surprises in this, but it's ultimately pretty predictable. The minimalistic set of the scientist is cool enough and the makeup effects of the brain is well done. It wasn't tough to figure out how this would end, but it had a darker vibe to it than I expected. It was a mistake to have Vigoda's character says "I'm sorry" at as the episode faded out.
This story was a little tedious because where the story was going to go became apparent very early on. The people in the last car are quite strange and it really enhances the pedestrian plot. What puts this episode over the top is the creepy scene in which the characters transform. The shaking corpse of the old woman is on another level for this series.
This is a great episode. It's got a mysterious prelude that totally sets up the other mini-stories that all involve a strange pair of glasses. Great acting all around here and some crazy violence for early '60s TV. There are a couple of amazing shots of fear and horror when two different men look into a mirror. The final shot is simply one of the most memorable shocks in TV Horror history.
The opening bit where the Gremlin is banging on the bomb is great, as is the wrench gag. The extended nosedive of the plane is a fun conclusion with Bugs uncharacteristically freaking out while the Gremlin calmly files his nails. The drawings of Bugs are incredible.
Being old enough to recall the aesthetic of this movie helps it to establish the atmosphere needed to appreciate what the filmmakers were attempting to convey. The changing aspect ratios and black and white versus color were a mistake. This should have committed to the found footage format that it claimed at the beginning of the movie. Maybe they figured that modern viewers would become annoyed by a VHS-like presentation. Who knows.
Much of the time, this came off as comedic or maybe it was just so over-the-top that it just seemed like it. The concept of a talk show gone south is appreciated, but this was most certainly not scary. It was entertaining overall.
This short is beautiful. It looks great. The Wildcat drawings are neat. But it's a Pepe cartoon so it's worn out its welcome after about two minutes.
This was shown endlessly on the Bugs Bunny show when I was a kid. So much so that I am still kind of tired of it. But, it's probably the funniest that Granny has ever been. The way she runs in a circle laughing, and the way it sets up Bugs to imitate her is fun. When Granny blasts Sam with a shotgun through the keyhole and then again once he climbs the ladder, the impact of the gunshots are sharp. And speaking of that, when Bugs throws Granny's sofa, refrigerator, kitchen sink, and vault off of the balcony, you can really feel the weight when they crush Sam as he catches them.
This would get a higher rating, but the animation is pretty stiff at times. There doesn't look to be a lot of exaggerated or "stretchy" drawings.
This is another high energy Clampett short. Daffy is plain insane, and Mr. Meek proves to be a worthy opponent. The headless ketchup gag is still shocking (and "bloody") and Daffy serving "swamp water" has always tickled my funny bone. And speaking of bones, in that very scene, it's weird that a bunch of chicken bones share a plate with a partially eaten donut. I haven't done any freezing of frames while watching this cartoon, but I'll bet there are some wild drawings given how action-oriented it is.
The stereotypes and war time propaganda are what they are. But this newsreel style format for presenting gags almost never works. Knowing enough about World Wars is helpful to grasp where the creators of this cartoon's heads were at. You be the judge as to whether or not there's ever justification for this sort of thing. Ultimately, it's so focused on its subject matter that it will never get past being a relic of its time.
I don't recall ever seeing this one. It's pretty good, not great, but I'm not really a Granny/Tweety fan to begin with. I actually thought all of the gags with explosives were funny in that Looney Tunes violent sort of way. The timing is always great with Freleng.
This is a pretty funny cartoon and is one of the last Black & White Looney Tunes. It features Porky and Daffy checking out of a hotel, but Daffy loses all of their money while gambling. This features some great animation. Tashlin's shorts are becoming quite angular by this time and its very retro looking with some great camera angles. Daffy's nuts here, which is always a good thing.
I keep running into cartoons that I have never seen before. This is a Norm McCabe-directed short featuring a kangaroo and a couple of Scottish rabbits. If not for a few interesting camera angles, the first half of this is entirely disposable. But then when the rabbits set up a Wile E. Coyote style contraption that launches the kangaroo into the air, things get wild. The whole short turns into a crazy WWII action sequence with the kangaroo inadvertently bombing Tokyo. There were some interesting backgrounds which would have been more noticable if the cartoon weren't black and white. I ended up liking this despite the slow start and the fact that the kangaroo is a cheap copy of Disney's Goofy.
This is one of the greats and one of my favorites. Cecil Turtle is so cool, and his voice is perfect. I love the look of Bugs when he is pissed while watching the movie of his race against Cecil. His pained grimace and his huge, full set of teeth are amazing. I'm trying to take notes while watching this cartoon and it's useless to call out things I love because the whole thing is perfect. Bugs has lost all sanity by the end of the short with the rabbits committing mass suicide. The "ehhh, NOW he tells us!!" is a shocker but it's great. This is Clampett teetering on the edge of directorial control.
What a strange cartoon. Not a lot makes sense, but I really enjoyed how crazy (to almost Clampett levels) it was. The WWII references are a product of their time, but that's not the primary source of the wackiness. There are some neat directorial moments; an over-the-shoulder shot when the spy is on a bridge, and a really tight closeup of Porky's panicked face come to mind. The gag with the spy failing twice to enter a small opening to a cave cracked me up. It was probably his reactions as it was slightly out of character, which is a complement because his character traits were actually established so quickly.
This one is a kind of travelogue or something like that. There's a narrator that sets up or talks during each gag. The jokes are pretty obvious and it's a lot like some of those MGM/Tex Avery "Farm of Tomorrow", "T.V. of Tomorrow" shorts. I enjoy the Mel Blanc voice work which is typically energetic and wonderful. This is a different looking McKimson-directed short. I'm not schooled up on UPA cartoons, but this seems influenced by something outside of the normal Looney Tunes stuff.
Another Chuck Jones cutesy short, but this one follows a very determined squirrel and his battle against a coconut that defines the term "tough nut to crack". The best sequence is when the squirrel figures that the coconut will crack open if he takes it to the top of the Empire State building. Unfortunately, he skips the elevator and rolls the coconut up the stairs, one at a time. Earlier, he tries to use a jackhammer to open up the coconut, and it's funny that he knows how to use that but not how to press an elevator button. But that's cartoon logic for ya.
A story about one of the Observers who has had feelings for a woman since she was a girl. He saves her from a disaster because he believes that she is special. It's a pretty touching episode, actually. The paintings and pictures containing past sightings of Observers at famous historical world events look kind of dumb, though. Walter has some continuing close connections to the Observers that he's not talking about.
This is a lot like the X-Files episode "Pusher". It's got a twist that makes it better because it's not really anything new from a story perspective. It's not surprising that Massive Dynamics is involved and didn't tell the Fringe team.
This was pretty original. The entity possessing the cosmonaut was an above average protagonist. The effect of people turning to ash was nothing short of an amazing effect. The variety of the one-shot episodes that don't have anything to do with the continuing storyline are inconsistent but are always entertaining to watch.
This is about a doctor who implants a computer interface into his insomniac patents' thalamus, and feeds off of their nightmares, which he can induce at will. This is pretty bland, except for the demon hallucination at the beginning of the story.
It was weird to see Elmer Fudd actually starring in his own cartoon. The concept of Elmer starting a war with ants is so different. The ants were cool and Elmer was downright nasty. Even though he spends a lot of his time in other cartoons shooting at Bugs and Daffy, he seems particularly vicious in this.
Chilly Willy looks a lot different in this first cartoon than he will in future shorts. His eyes are smaller and his beak is bigger. This is enjoyable and interesting to see the character in its earliest version, but the Tex Avery Chilly shorts are much better and loads funnier.
Not only is the almost 3-D animation at the beginning of this cartoon amazing, the action throughout that features a dogfight between Bluto and Popeye in their airplanes is terrific. Not to mention how great Popeye's mumbling comments are. This is such a great cartoon!
Well, an extra point to this episode because it's the first that doesn't feature the Herculoids fighting yet another invading villain and henchmen. Zandor and crew are returning a lost Dorgyte to the "dark side" of the planet and they run into a bunch of hostile species of being on the way.
How does Dorno immediately know a "mole ship" when he sees one? This time, the bad guy is Markon (the Mole), and Zandor says that Markon is up to his old tricks. Zandor has a reputation because all of these villains invade his planet. They really hate the guy. There's a lot of repeated animation in this, it's almost like watching a clip show at times. These Herculoids cartoons are packed with action, though. I'm sure I saw these as a child, but it must have been in reruns years after they originally aired.
