From A to Z-Z-Z-Z

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.

While Chuck Jones has been given his just desserts as an animator he is awfully underrated as a filmmaker and should be considered as one of the top directors of all-time regardless of medium. Not only have his works inspired the likes of Steven Spielberg, Chris Columbus and Joe Dante but his characters were always human.

In this short we get the most rounded character Chuck Jones ever created not only because he was "Flesh and Blood" but because he (Ralph Phillips) went through a range of emotions (boredom, whimsy, regret, anger, self-indulgence, loneliness) than most of his characters ever did. This film is a testament to Jones's art. In just 21 minutes Chuck Jones created a character who doesn't shine as brightly but is just as memorable as Bugs Bunny.

10/10

This Oscar-nominated short directed by Chuck Jones is one I can relate with. In school while I'm usually the talkative/class clown type. There are times when I doze off and daydream about fantastic adventures and places and people. So in a way I can relate to this short and it's leading character. And this short is based on Chuck Jones' childhood daydreams. So I guess we have something in common.

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.

Nominated for an Oscar, this cartoon is a takeoff on Walter Mity, with a small boy named Ralph Phillips surpassing Mitty in inventiveness. Thoroughly engaging and extremely hilarious, the situations Ralph imagines are wonderful and so off-beat (particularly his bout with mathematics!) that the cartoon can be watched again and again without getting old or growing flat. Most highly recommended.