Ventriloquist Cat

When I began watching this cartoon, I was prepared for the worst, but it really seemed to be a good cartoon. But after a while, it has multiple faults. The basic theme is original, but after a while it was obvious the cartoonists only tried to form a new couple of natural born sadists like Tom and Jerry. Off course they failed doing so. Tom and Jerry are cult, this stupid dog and cat couldn't be as funny as worlds most loved cat and mouse team. In less than one minute, I believe I saw five explosions. Imagine if the kids of today would think killing somebody is funny! No, I really dislike this demonic cartoon. But I can't stop human evolution, so I guess it's too late to stop it now.

Tex Avery was a genius at the art of the animated short. He did for the animated short what Walt Disney did for the feature. Avery seemed to have something of a fondness for black cats, as he did a number of cartoons featuring black cats. Ventriloquist Cat was one of them. Mostly sight-gags fired at the viewer at a very frenetic pace and designed to keep you rolling around on the floor laughing. More often than not, it works. This and most of Avery's shorts are marvelously (sometimes wickedly) funny. Most highly recommended.

Ventriloquist Cat (1950)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Classic Avery cartoon about a cat who becomes a ventriloquist so that he can play a bunch of tricks on a rather dumb bulldog. The premise to this short is a very, very simple one but it works perfectly as it gets one incredibly big laugh after another. One could argue that the same thing keeps happening over and over but that doesn't really matter when you're getting a laugh with the joke. There are countless highlights here including a terrific sequence where the cat makes the bulldog think he's hiding in some clothes, which the dog starts to rip up and he finally makes it to a real police officer and rips his clothes off. Another great scene is the end when the cat thinks it's safe to take the special piece he's been using out of his mouth but the final shot is pure classic. The majority of the jokes come from various explosions where the bulldog is the victim but they're all funny.

Another hilarious Tex Avery cartoon with breakneck pace and always with a new twist on old gags! This short from 1950 predates ANY other use of "Sound sampling" which became a norm in the 80's with the advent of electronic samplers, especially for Rap. (Sound sampling is where you take a snippet of a musical or voice recording and repeat it several times, therefore using the original sound instead of having the performer repeat it). I could not imagine how either Tex or the sound engineer came up with the idea nor how it was performed cause this was recorded to magnetic 35 mm film stock, so I guess they PRERECORDED and dubbed(and spliced) the "MEOW MEOW!" to another sound reel and synchronized its playback when the orchestra and cast did the soundtrack (sound was always recorded BEFORE the cartoon was done)... He repeated this experiment in "Billy Boy" a few years later, except that then it was with SEVERAL samples from Daws Butler's voice... These early Hollywood pioneers are all but forgotten but they paved the way to all things modern... "MEOW, MEOW!!!.. MEOW, MEOW!!!"

Alley Cat is writing "I hate Dogs!" on the fences. Spike spots him and chases him away. He finds a box labeled "be a Ventriloquist!!". He uses the device to throw his voice and prank Spike. This is a classic Tex Avery MGM Cartoon. Beside all the fun pranks, there is a weird comedic rhythm with the "Meow, Meow". It's a great Spike cartoon. The concept is so simple and so effective. As a kid, I actually thought that that's how real ventriloquists do their voices. It's an invented interesting writing device coming from Tex which fixes so many issues. All in all, it doesn't get much better than this.