After a struggle, he throws the switch. A lightning-esque electric current activates.
It forms a hand that magnetically captures the raven and the bookworm and deposits them into a system that transports them via liquid-filled tubes and turns them back the way they were. The layouts and colours are certainly impressive.
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This is the second cartoon starring the bookworm and the raven (neither of which have a name in a profile in the July-August 1939 edition of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Short Stories.
Boxoffice’s review credited it for “Highly imaginative information and brilliant execution,” but warned exhibitors kids might have nightmares watching it. Think of the children!!!
Hugh Harman is the only person who gets screen credit.
The cartoon was released July 20, 1940, a week before A Wild Hare at Warner Bros. The first Tom and Jerry cartoon had already been in theatres for about 5½ months. Sorry, Hugh. That’s the direction Metro is going.
“ Boxoffice’s review credited it for “Highly imaginative information and brilliant execution,” but warned exhibitors kids might have nightmares watching it. Think of the children!!!”
ReplyDeleteI’m thinking I’m thinking…eh, let them eat cake.
If you had to summarize the Harman and/or Ising MGM cartoons with a single (hyphenated) word, it would probably be "heavy-handed." The gags and even colors are darker than what the other animation studios were doing at the time.
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