There Auto Be a Law (1953) User Reviews

Warner Bros.' always prophetic cartoon prognosticators . . .

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 10 December 2017]

. . . those psychics Par Excellence, those Clairvoyants Non Pareil, the Animated Shorts Seers (aka, The Looney Tuners) hit the nail into the tire once again with THERE AUTO BE A LAW. From picturing Alaska's infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" midway through this outing to depicting New Jersey Gov. Krispy Kreme Christie as a blonde bimbo applying lipstick so that no one can make it into New York from the so-called Garden State, Warner's cartoonist savants put their fingers on the pulse of American Transportation of (The Then) Far Future again and again during THERE AUTO BE A LAW. Perhaps most telling is the plight of the "timid" True Blue Loyal Patriotic Normal Average 99 Per Center Silent Majority Progressive Union Label motorist, stuck amid an endless maze of freeway ramps because he cannot afford to pay Putin's Red Commie Pedophiliac Machine-Gun Repug Party's illegal and Unconstitutional "Variable Rate Toll" to use a proper through lane on this taxpayer-funded road. Warner's seers foresaw that there would be Hell to pay if the Corrupt Job-Killing Fat Cat "Conservative" Communist Corporate Oligarchs came up with the idea of allowing an inadequate freeway system to fester while taxing the Common Man to build High Speed Passing Lanes that ONLY THEY could afford to use. One issue of this week's USA Today documented just that happening recently on the new ring expressway around Washington, DC, as We Normal People were forced to waste our gas idling stuck in two hours of highway gridlock while the Rich Fat Cats paid $40 of their countless ill-gotten horde of wealth to zip by on five miles of an adjacent open lane FOR WHICH OUR TAX DOLLARS PAID. This is the sort of Reverse Robin Hood Shenanigans (steal from the poor, give to the rich) that Putin and Don Juan Rump's Repugs are trying to guarantee for another century through their stolen Supreme Court Seats, voter suppression efforts, and criminal Gerrymandering. Thanks, Warner Bros., for reminding We Average Americans that THERE AUTO BE A LAW, and that the sooner we initiate the inevitable and unavoidable Apocalyptic Day of Reckoning against the Fat Cat Class, the better!

Who wants to spend all day stuck in a car?

[lee_eisenberg · 6/10 · 18 June 2015]

Robert McKimson ventured into Tex Avery territory with "There Auto Be a Law", a blackout gag cartoon looking at the rise of cars. I laughed the whole way through, but the cartoon looks dated now that we're trying to move away from motor vehicles. Once upon a time owning a car was seen as symbolic of freedom, but before too long more cars meant more traffic jams, hence road rage (which we see in the cartoon). And that's not even counting air pollution. I can happily say that my city is expanding its light rail, including a bridge exclusively for light rail, pedestrians and bicycles. It would be best if the US had a nationwide high-speed rail system like Japan's bullet train. Extensive mass transit is the true sign of progress, not millions of cars.

But anyway, the cartoon's really funny. The meek motorist has a voice almost exactly like Bugs Bunny. Aren't we all destined to look over a four-leaf clover eventually?

McKimson goes into Tex Avery territory

[wilhelmurg · 8/10 · 4 February 2015]

This was the 65th cartoon Robert McKimson directed. This is a "blackout" cartoon. Where there's a gag and then a blackout before the next gag. Tex Avery was a master at this style of cartoon; McKimson is better with character driven shorts, but there are still some gems here, especially the repetitive gags sprinkled throughout the cartoon. The narration is credited to John T. Smith, who played a few classic Looney Tune one-shot characters, like Bugs Bunny's Master Sargent in FORWARD MARCH HARE, outlaw Nasty Canasta in the Daffy & Porky horse opera DRIP-ALONG DAFFY, Bugs Bunny's wrestling opponent, The Crusher, in BUNNY HUGGED, and Hercules, the construction worker, in HOMELESS HARE ("I'm feelin' mighty low").