Once I get back into the new stuff after my holiday it will be a higher ratio of new reviews vs commentary redos like 3:1 per week or something like that
Absolutely amazing cartoon. I think I had read somewhere that this was the last books-come-to-life cartoon because it was so good, and that nobody believed they could top it. I believe it. Such a wonderful cartoon, and a great commentary by you guys.
I thought it was either because the genre was considered outdated or this cartoon took the piss out of the genre so much that no one else could take it seriously.
The plotline of this short is a mixture of the plots of Frank Tashlin's Speaking of the Weather (1937), Have You Got Any Castles? (1938) and Clampett's own A Coy Decoy (1941).
The whole short is a burn on all of those "midnight in the bookstore"/"items come to life after the store closes" cartoons that were popular before the push for stronger stories and characters made them stale and passe. This cartoon (according to TVTropes) is the final nail in the coffin for this genre.
An absolute classic !!!! Bob Clampett should have received an Academy Award for Best Short for mastering this fantastic cartoon. He made a string of wonderous shorts, but Book Revue is undoubtedly his most brilliant work. What an amazing and hilarious musical parody. Clampett is beloved for many of his action-paced animations, and judging by this cartoon, he went out making this short happen in 1946. Daffy is insanely engrossing for his impersonation of Danny Kaye clothed in a Zoot suit, ( I hope Mel Blanc didn't lose his voice after he screamed C-U-C-A-R-A-C-H-A) complete with a supporting cast of popular jazz and big band players' caricatures. What a shame we couldn't watch it in its entirety here. Anthony has undisputedly noted in his commentary regarding this upload I agree wholeheartedly; AN ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE. The best Looney Tunes ever made !!!!
Masterpiece, indeed! Something I noticed watching this just now: The still labeled "There is a biography of Bob Clampett in the back" with all the handwriting, there are the words "Go to hell", with "hell" obscured. "Hell" was far more censorable back then than in modern times, so they'd be slyly getting away with something. Hayes office probably never noticed.
When Daffy reminisces about his native village he says "the happy people sitting under balalaikas playing their samovars." Balalaika is a russian musical instrument and samovar is a contraption that uses coal to brew tea. The name literally means self-boiler. This cartoon is definitely a masterpiece which should go without saying since it`s the work of Bob Clampett but for me personally it even stands out among his other pieces. Great job with the review guys it was really entertaining to listen to you two.
*"So Big"* is 1924 Pulitzer Prize book by Edna Farber. It's a sad, yet profound story in the Dutch Community in 1920's South Holland, a suburban area of Chicago. It was also satired on _"Have You Got Any Castles"_ by a caricature of Greta Garbo, dancing with her [big] feet to the music.
Before an original print was rediscovered years ago, this was reissued as a Merrie Melodies "Blue Ribbon" release [May 1951], omitting the original opening and closing titles.
4:57 The Book Revue version has actual lyrics, where Daffy's warning Red about how the wolf is in her Grandmother's bed and warns her about the wolf's ears, eyes and teeth and that he wants to eat her up. Bugs Bunny's version is just gibberish.
An extraordinary masterpiece and probably the best way to end the books or ads coming to life series that Warners did in the thirties. On domestic television I used to watch it with the Mexican dub in Spanish and mostly intact; on Cartoon Network it would run with several deleted scenes (the Latin American signal was coming from Atlanta, Georgia, so it was an American channel), but I would glue myself to the TV every time this one aired.
Several scenes deleted? The version I saw on Cartoon Network was the one that cut the wolf and Daffy running through Uncle Tom's Cabin (though apparently the Cherokee Strip part and Drums Along the Mohawk weren't considered problematic)... unless you saw The Bob Clampett Show, which had that part uncut.
This GREAT cartoon captures on screen the way we Americans from mis 20th Cen would riff and scoot on Pop Culture off the top of our heads ,(us bodacious creative types that is) in the shower or out. an activity I'm hoping won't die, but Bob captured it so often screen! I wish there was a name for this...
