Bronies ist die Craziest People

Settling down into Grad is probably not any one's idea of a good time. However, watching cartoons is certainly one of mine as the following four show.

Susie the Little Blue Coupe– 1952

The golden age of the entire lifespan of Disney was from the mid thirties to the early forties when they produced some the best-animated works ever. Sadly, much that falls outside of that time period isn’t very good. This piece while far from a masterpiece, is still charming. It shows the life of a little car named Susie, narrated by Sterling Holloway (a Disney regular, here he’s using a voice very similar to the one he would give Pooh). It does have problems; it’s slow at times and the narration carries far too much of the weight to tell the story, if not feel like an unneeded layer (and Holloway is not on the same level as James Mason for acting). Plus some parts, like chase scene at the end, are handle wrongly (truth is we should want Susie to be caught because she was stolen but the film suggest otherwise). Still, it is amusing and cute at times especially at the end.

Birdy and the Beast - 1944

I’m not a fan of Tweety; most of his (yes, Tweety is a guy) cartoons are more about Sylvester with Tweety existing as nothing more than a plot device to give the cat motive so that gags could be worked into the plot. There are a few were Tweety is a little more active and does play a role in Sylvester’s failures, but not often. However, I am talking about Friz Freleng’s Tweety. The character was originally created by Bob Clampett, and his bird his much nastier, more sarcastically innocent, and, for my money, more enjoyable (he’s still reactive for the most part). This cartoon features that Tweety and a black cat (not Sylvester, though) here. The gags are rather violent (for one, Tweety pours gasoline inside the cat’s mouth), but most are still funny.

Beep Beep – 1952

This is the second of the roadrunner & coyote cartoons created, and it’s still one of the most enjoyable. As is usual for a cartoon directed by Chuck Jones at the time, the poses are strong and crisp (these are strong points of the animation as opposed to the movement) and are not held back by dialogue or bombastic music (the Tom and Jerry series has this problem). It’s certainly an improvement over the first cartoon in the series.

Russian Rhapsody - 1944

This is another cartoon directed by Bob Clampett and due to its heavy war based story, it isn’t a very visible one. I think that’s a shame because I feel this is one of Clampett’s best. There isn’t much of a story here; because no bombers have reached Moscow, Hitler (declares he will do it himself. There on his plane is wrecked by “Gremlins from the Kremlin.” Seems simple, but as with Baby Bottleneck, the real joy is in the animation (I always laugh when Hitler is delivering what is probably the funniest bout of gibberish, mainly because he’s so animated). Combine that with some very funny gags (there's also some rather lowbrow), a catchy (if indecipherable at times) song and you have one of the best war cartoons ever. As an added bit of trivia, a number of the gremlins are caricatures of members of the staff at the time (example, the one on the hook is producer Leon Schlesinger, while the green one with the freckles is fellow director Friz Freleng).