FEATURE LIST
.. a; ,. {.1
l
caricature his TVgoggling public. Not merely pot-. but literally yellow—bellied. with fleshy buttocks and daftsun hatthroughwhichhis ears poked. his smug catch-phrase ‘smarter thanthe average bear' remainedaneat joke on Neilson andGallup's more meaninglessfindings.
Buthe could putonashow alright. Yoginotonlyledhisimpressionable shortpalBooboo astray withhis comic felonies. andenragedthe eternally thwarted park-ranger. an officer Dibble lookalike. but he weekly introduced a wealth of animal talent. 0n Fridays at 4.55.whilethe boys whogrewupto be accountants were watching Crackerjack. Yogiwas entertaining us withDuick-draw McGraw and Snugglepuss. Then Yogidisappeared to make wayforanewgeneration of cartoons.
lnthe mid-19703 he madeabriel comeback. But America had been seized by a prototype moral majority ‘ , _ a whojudged hishazygrasp onproperty j rights anti-social. a bad example to the
i young. perhaps even un-American. Yogi had undergone some Clockwork Orange stylebrainwashing. and _ returned armed with a litter-spike. No ' longerhappytodozeinhiscave. . g entertained byeroticdreams about " Cindy. he lived. as I recall. in some sort . __ _ of flying saucerdwelling. with other 1‘ similarlyreduced cartoonfigures. j _ recruitedtothe social
Pretty wise guys Will Hanna and Jo Barbera. When Hollywood unspooled in chaos withthe arrival oftelevision in the late 19503 and MGM closed its cartoon studios. it did nottake long for the creators of Tom and Jerry to defect tothe rival medium.
The candy-barchewing Wyoming public who littered Yellowstone Park became Yogi's victims in thefittingly named Jellystone Park. Afamily couldn‘tputdown a hamperwlthout Yogi's brown arm stretching from behind a tree and whipping it. leaving only streak marks in the air.
Yogi. of course. was no less venal. greedy and vain than those he thieved from. Aparody oithose all-American failings. he was wonderfully drawn to
betterthanthat. He . ‘ may have swiped peanutandjelly sandwiches.
~i -2 buthe nevermuggedasoul. “'i :4 '5' ..{0'5 i. ,l 1;: I" "j .r‘ I 2"“. a“! <- ‘ "I J; i 1;}?- if,” it j a. z. 2‘1)... 3. 9' .5 i; 32‘ ,3‘ Ir” M? 3 r‘ l Ir .- .‘. 1' H ’5. “a f '3' ~ f I "'~. " a". v!" .V A 3‘ iii A i. ‘3 ’t i. 1. r M” t. “z r». ‘ a e ’
As Bamhi is re-released (iraham Caldwell looks at Bamhi‘s relations 2TheList21Mar—3Apr
services. Yogi deserved
rill
Daffy is a duck I can admire. Deceit. sloth. and avarice—it‘sallthere. And like all cowardscarpetbaggers and thoroughly bad eggs. he is someone I can look up to. I don't know about you. but I find these goody-goody. hero types very tiresome. Surely l‘m notthe only one who looksforward tothe day whenthatrevolting roadrunneris well andtruly scoffed bythatpoor. industrious. ingenious coyote? Tweety-Pielcouldcheerfullystrangle and longto see disappearinto Sylvester‘s mouth with one last strangled ‘lweet‘ and a flurry of leathers. As forShere Khan. the most perfectlyrounded screen villain ofall time. ljustsquirm in delighteverytime he examines his elegant. painfully .cisely'
lam a ear'toon addiet. l’ut me ill lront ola 'l'orn and .lerr\ eornprlation. ten minutes ol l)r'oop_\ or hest ol all a re—release Ul ill/It'jlllllw’lt' HUN/x dlltl l will he loudls and riotousls entertained. lmll serearn. ixml. slap my thighs and generalls l‘ehax'e in sueh a \s a_\ as to lllitl'xe' am ‘le _\ear old look like a ( 'aliier du ( inertia eritie. But life is not all roses for \\ e ehosen lien who pt'eler the Roadrunner to Renoir and l)isne_\ to De Mille. lt‘s lieen a long time sinee there \\as a elassre ear toon made and it is \\ ell nigh impossilile tor the eartoon hull nowadays to find enough new material to satisl_\ his need for a tix. It makes you pit} the kids ol today When we were sonny \\ e had lop ( 'at. \Vhat has e the_\ got
and if you can mix this with a large
put backto their natural shapes.
es sir. give me a villain everytime
yellow streakand a naturally slothlul nature. I'm hooked. Daffy has such wonderful linestoo. Rememberwhen hefinds Ali Baba‘streasure and runs aboutshrieking: 'l‘m rich. l‘m wealthy ...l'm comfortably well offl' Sheer bliss. And whataboutthatclassicline: ‘you‘redithspicable‘? Sheerpoetry— and whaia deliverlehere is only one thingthatruins itall. Thatsmart ass rabbitwiththe outsized carrotand disarming grin. Why should he be so lovable? Why is it that he can getaway withdoing all those unSpeakable things to poor Daffy and come up smelling ofroses? Daily is onlytrying to prove how much more talented. handsome etc. he is. and what does he get? A pie in the bill and a displaced beak. Where is the justice inthat. I ask you?Whathas Daffy everdoneto Bugs that has not been done to him twice as badlyandfortwice as long? Duck power. fairdo'sforcowardlyblack ducks. that‘s all I ask!
The hard evidencethatMrs Whitehouse was no longerasentient human being butjust an android knee-jerk ofinaccurately aimed moral prurience came when she cooed that Tom andJerry wastoo violent.
chourse it'stoo violent. that'sthe whole point. TomandJerryisa celebration ofmindless violence.
The greatHanna and
Barbera cartoons ofthe 19503 allow us to walchthe nastylittle sadistin us all creep out of the skirting board of the mind. Some Chinese philosopher called Egg Fu Yung once stated: ‘There is nopleasure so greatas watchingthe small misfortunes ofa greatlriend.‘ The creators of Tom and Jerry take this sinological apothogem to its ultimate Western application. Regularly we see Tom squashed asflatas EastAnglia: Tom dropped from a great height to shatterlikea Mingvase;Jerry swallowed. onlyto reappearas an all too obvious lump inthe pussy cat's throat. Butthis is scarcely serious violence. It‘s funny because we know attire endtheyare all "
toda} I’ .lllzsrers lit the ( min-WU litth
(iodlres and ( 'oseros e and l lall lor example. hut thereln' hangs another eurious anomaly. l’or some reasons
()l'eourse. there are triers
all the lrest earloons are .-\rneriean. /\’i wharf) and lhuieer'nrnme are eertainl_\1n\ enlix e enough and \\ ell