The Shooting of Dan McGoo

Droopy takes on an outlaw in a saloon, with hilarious spoofs and gags - unique even for a cartoon. The quick wit, adult-fare humor, and classic slapstick comedy that children would appreciate all blend in well in this cartoon. It's great entertainment for the entire family, even it is just under eight minutes!

Grade A-

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.

Also have much admiration for Tex Avery, an animation genius whose best cartoons are animated masterpieces and some of the best he ever did. Generally like the Droopy cartoons and the character himself a lot, his best cartoons are classics and among Avery's best. Like his remarkable debut 'Dumb-Hounded', 'The Shooting of Dan McGoo', the second and the better of the two Tex Avery-directed cartoons based on Robert Service's poem, is one of Droopy's best.

For so early on, even with a different name and not quite the character design that one is more familiar with, Droopy's personality is so well established and he has everything that makes him a great character in the first place.

Luckily the Wolf is a very worthy foil, with just as interesting and funny a personality as Droopy. Lou is beautiful and very sensual. Again, 'The Shooting of Dan McGoo' is endlessly inventive and hysterically funny in typical Avery-style cartoon.

Tex Avery does a wonderful job directing, with his unique, unlike-any-other visual and characteristic and incredibly distinctive wacky humour style all over it as can be expected.

Some of 'The Shooting of Dan McGoo' is over-the-top in a delicious way, it is also incredibly clever, imaginatively creative and full of inspired visual gags, play on words and hilariously droll asides and puns. There is enough variety to stop it from being repetitious.

It's beautifully and brilliantly animated as usual. The character designs are unique, Avery always did have creative character designs, and suitably fluid. The music, courtesy of Scott Bradley, is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed.

Voice acting is very good from Bill Thompson, Bea Benaderet, Paul Frees and Frank Graham.

Overall, brilliant, a must for Droopy fans. 10/10 Bethany Cox

This cartoon is vintage Tex Avery, including his classic barroom scene with the wolf's eyeballs bulging across the room toward the voluptuous dance hall girl. The cartoon is a clever takeoff on Robert Service's poem, "The Shooting of Dan McGrew".

This is a remake from another cartoon Tex Avery had done earlier at another studio. That short was called "Dangerous Dan McFoo." Both that one and this one, as stated in the cartoon's opening, are "based upon 'The Shooting Of Dan McGrew' from 'The Spell Of the Yukon and Other Verses' by Robert W. Service."

This cartoon has an edge to it the previous didn't have, right in the opening scene were we see a sign stating the town is called "Coldernell" That that fast and you'll get my drift. Seconds later we see the gallows announcing a double-header and then a little noose for kids!

The first saloon scene where "a bunch of the boys are shooting it up" was fantastic and kudos to the restoration team to worked on this "Tex Avery's Droopy - The Complete Theatrical Collection." It was scenes like this that make you appreciate how good these cartoons look.

This was an outstanding effort and certainly better than Avery's first cartoon about this story (which also was good). Of course, he had six more years of animated experience so it is no surprise this one topped the original. I can't say enough good things about this: the dialog, the humor and the artwork are all spectacular.

I don't mean to overly gush, but this is one of the best cartoons I have ever seen - period, and I've seen hundreds of them.

Dangerous Dan McFoo, a short that Tex Avery directed at Warner Brothers, is re-made here some six years later, when Tex was at MGM. This cartoon is a bit crisper, with better timing, although both are quite good and both unmistakably Tex Avery cartoons. The Robert W. Service poem that serves as the starting point for both is used to much better effect here and Avery had six more years worth of practice honing his timing on his much-loved sight gags. The pacing is better here and it's just a better cartoon. Tex Avery was one of the giants of his field, working at a time when the animated short was significant, at least moreso than it is today. Many of his conventions are still used today. Too bad he didn't really seem to understand his impact while he was alive. From all reports, he felt that he'd been largely forgotten and had done little that would last. The work remains, but like most truly funny men, his personal life was a less than happy one. Excellent cartoon. Well worth seeking out. Most highly recommended.