From A to Z-Z-Z-Z

Looney Tunes cartoons are mainly known for their stock characters, Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, etc., but now and again there was a single cartoon, or one or two, featuring a character who didn't appear anywhere else. One of these characters was the daydreaming little boy, Ralph Phillips.

In 'From A to ZZZZ', Ralph daydreams during class - he's underwater, he's a general, the usual boyish kind of dreams. Cutely drawn and influenced just a touch by Gerald McBoing-Boing, UPA's award-winning creation who only speaks in sound, Ralph and this cartoon are an irresistible combination.

I would have given "From A to Z-Z-Z-Z" a higher grade had it not contained a scene stereotyping Native Americans. But other than that, it's a good look at school life. I mean, how many of us didn't daydream in class like Ralph Phillips does here? Especially with the rote learning portrayed in the cartoon. Yes, he may be self-indulgent, but he has his reasons. And it probably would be fun to do some of what he imagines.

So, although I prefer Chuck Jones's cartoons portraying Bugs Bunny and that crowd, this one has its merits. Worth seeing.

Did Gen. MacArthur ever say that?

This is an adorable cartoon featuring Ralph Phillips--the child who is perpetually daydreaming. There were two such cartoons in all, but this is the first and the best. I have noticed as I review Warner Brothers cartoons that my favorites all are ones that do not star the traditional favorites, like Bugs and Daffy, but lesser characters such as Ralph, Bertie and Hubie, Mark Anthony the dog, etc.

Ralph is an adorable kid who spends his school day imagining he is a hero in a wide variety of day dreams. Through the course of the day, he imagines he's a skin diver battling sharks, a boxer and ultimately General MacArthur! The dreams are cute and very endearing. About the only negative is that all the Ralph Phillips cartoons are animated in a sketchier style with stylized backgrounds--not exactly the best quality Warners had to offer.

Young "Ralph" takes exactly the same view as most of us did at school when we were children. We were usually bored - especially when it came to arithmetic. Those repetitious times tables, or improbably complex calculations that brought on an ennui - before we even knew that was a word - that just encourage day dreaming. This young lad has quite a vivid imagination that seems to tap into what ever punishment the teacher has for his lack of attention, especially when she decides to put him in the corner and he turns into Jack Dempsey. It's good fun this with our hero, despite his grade "C", proving he is much more of the Errol Flynn than the model student and maybe, just maybe, educating people, parrot-fashion isn't the best of techniques.

This cartoon is about a boy with Attention Deficit Disorder, done at a time when the affliction was not well understood at all (that only happened after 1980). I relate to it, as I'm sure anybody with ADD does. This also points up how widespread the disorder is: either Jones had it, or he knew someone who did. I'm sure that if I told my old high school classmates that there are an estimated fifteen million of us in the United States alone, they'd day "You mean there's fifteen million like YOU, Joe? God save the country!

Then again, that teacher's teaching methods are so boring that it's a wonder she holds the attention of any of those kids for any length of time at all!