Change Your Image
michael-anthoney
Reviews
Super Friends: The Time Trap/Sinbad and the Space Pirates (1978)
d.u.m.b.
My vote for dumbest Super Friends episode of all time. Prove me wrong. (the Sinbad segment)
Tom Thumb in Trouble (1940)
Jones does straight drama
Had Chuck Jones been employed at Disney, or in some alternate timeline a credible Disney competitor, I think he'd have served himself well with this effort. Starts with a little bit of slapstick, I'm sure to appease audience expectations as much as anything, and then segues into a sweet, and effective, mini drama, with some rousing moments. Recommended.
Sniffles Takes a Trip (1940)
Visually quite wonderful, but doesn't work as a short
Watched this for the first time on HBO Max, and they've done a great job restoring it. Fantastic colors and arresting nature scenes. The comedic timing is mostly off, however, and the main character is far too cloying. If Jones has played it straight, it could have been great. But the mouse would need to shut up. If you can see a pristine version in high definition, though, I recommend it.
Spider-Man (1981)
The voice actor is tooo far over the top
Alright, I've only seen two episodes (I'll revise this later, as I'll probably watch them all) so feel free to downvote me, but I'm having a hard time listening to this iteration of Spidey. He recites the lines as if they're actually funny, and he's trying waay too hard with the corny dialogue - you can't make something funny just by saying it louder. Well, some people can, but not him, so far. It's probably not the actor's fault, I bet he's doing just what the director wanted - he's certainly skilled, but the tone here is pretty grating. The villains so far are much better. The humor from this sort of older animated show comes from its charming clunkiness, and the implausible nature of its superhero world. Not from having Spider-Man crack LAME jokes every other line of dialogue. He says them like he expects big laughs, if he were in front of a live audience. The only way they might be funny is in how they top themselves in their unfunniness.
It seems like a minority opinion among the reviews here, but I enjoyed Amazing Friends much more. It takes itself seriously within the confines of its world and you don't have to shrug off the awful jokes every twenty seconds. It probably helps that there, the characters have each other to bounce lines off, where here, Spidey is forced to comment on the proceedings alone, mostly. I really don't care about the stories, maybe they're better here, but that's not why I watch something like this.
We'll see if this grows on me. So far, the wisecracks are *not* cracking me up. Maybe there's a reason Amazing Friends was much more popular.
The Black Hole (1979)
This movie is hilariously bad in its final third!
I saw this in a theater when I was 7 and remembered nothing about it today except for the scary red robot, and that I was fairly transfixed. Just got Disney Plus and I have to say - if you're a fan of so bad it's good, stick around with this one.
The beginning and middle are ponderous but with quite good special effects for the time, and some great funky 70s sets. The John Barry score is very enjoyable and helps greatly to set a mood.
And then, when the "action" picks up, hold on for some laughs. The music turns heroic and is a jarringly comic mismatch to what's come before, and the film becomes a -blatant- Star Wars cash-in pew-pew fest. You like stuff blowing up? We got it. Let's have all these robot guys fall off this ledge too. No, more robot guys. Ok, let's wrap it up with some stuff that looks cool and makes no sense. No, less sense. Ok, perfect. Ok, that's a wrap.
If you like camp, I recommend The Black Hole.
Filet Meow (1966)
Not directed by Chuck Jones, and it shows
The director here is Abe Levitow, not Chuck Jones. Jones is the producer only, as he apparently is for most of this era of Tom and Jerry cartoons. I've started streaming these and I must have gotten lucky that the first few I've seen Jones was the sole director. Those couple were pretty good! This one, and the several others so far not by Jones alone are decidedly mediocre.
Everything is just off. Timing, which makes or breaks comedy, is off. Character's faces at times don't accurately convey their mental state, so you're left to wonder what they're thinking. Sure there's chasing and hijinks, but it's not all that funny. It's just ... there. The characters look good (though the animation can be pretty limited) and this cartoon in particular has a nice jazzy soundtrack. So not everything is terrible. It's just quite bland.
Jones imbued both Tom and Jerry with personality in his couple shorts. The others, including this one, Filet Meow, they're just going through the motions. Maybe that's what people like about Tom and Jerry, endless chases and recycled sight gags? For me, there's no comparison. Give me a genuine Chuck Jones effort. The earlier Hanna Barbera Tom and Jerry's beat these easily.
Jerry and Jumbo (1953)
Just like Sylvester in Looney Tunes
Not a bad cartoon, and it does pick up after the setup. I'm surprised though that no one has commented on the unoriginality of using exactly the same plot device as the several Sylvester the cat and Hippety Hopper cartoons, where Sylvester mistakes a baby kangaroo for a giant mouse, gets beat up, goes crazy, etcetra, etcetera. I guess there's only so many ideas to be had for cat-mouse battles, so you gotta get 'em where you can? Then there's also that Tom and Jerry cartoon that copies another Looney Tunes even more precisely - Bugs Bunny as concert pianist fighting a mouse sleeping inside the piano, leading to chaos vs a proper formal recital. Tom and Jerry did the same thing a little later - even used the same piece of classical music! Makes me wonder what other ideas were "borrowed" from Looney Tunes. No matter. If it's done well, still a worthy short.
Discovering Bigfoot (2017)
If you think these shows are funny, it's worth a look
Every review here except one is seemingly by a Bigfoot believer (plus one reviewing a different/wrong movie) but that's not why I watch these. They're funny! Oftentimes some hilarious moments, and there are several here. But, it's way too long. All the stuff with the professors and the endless talk about broken branches and maybe-footprints in moss could have been skipped; would have been much leaner, more entertaining.
However, Todd Standing is awesome. All his commando running through the forest and Bigfoot bluster is great. If he can make a living going out in the beautiful wilderness then good for him. I hope he keeps going for a long time.