Field and Scream

This late Tex Avery MGM cartoon was written by Heck Allen, so you know it's going to be a catalogue of gags; if you don't like this one, wait three seconds and the next one will be right along. I was particularly taken with the one about duck calls, and another about using an elephant gun.

By this time, alas, falling movie attendance and post-war inflation was taking its toll on cartoon budgets. No longer did Avery have the lovely details of his early work. Still, funny is always more than good enough.

Meet Ed Jones, typical American sportsman on opening day of trout season. Since this is a Tex Avery Cartoon, viewers can expect many sight gags and lots of slang made literal coming at them fast and loose. The first section starts off a running gag that wherever Ed goes, there's a crowd of hunters hidden away. Once he steps into his fishing boat, we are treated to some jokes in the style of 'The car/house of the future' and get useful safety tips involving bait and hats. To go into further detail would be spoiling, so I'll bite my tongue for now (insert cry of pain here).

Being an all round sportsman, Ed switches over to duck season for some of the best gags in the picture featuring duck calls, different types of guns and the use of dogs. Animal lovers beware: we catch sight of a dead duck (but tastefully drawn). The bit with the Canadian honkers later resurfaced on Sesame Street. Finally Ed meets his match during deer season, where the emphasis lies on silly outfits and dumb Hillbillies. Might also be offensive to mothers in law. Heck, this whole cartoon is offensive in a Mel Brooks kind of way, but I'll bet even the most hardened activist will have cracked a smile by the end.

8 out of 10

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 ever made by anybody. A late MGM Avery effort, 'Field and Scream' doesn't see him at his best and the main reason to see it is for completest sake. It's good, but it's not great and Avery at his best made masterpieces. With that being said, even when Avery was not at his best he fared far better than most at their worst.

Occasionally, limitations show in some of the backgrounds (in comparison to his cartoons from the 40s), but actually a vast majority of the animation is very good. The story is best forgotten, basically a series of gags. The gags themselves are entertaining and educational, misfires are few if any. They're not hilarious though and not among Avery's most inventive, a few of them seemed a little too short to me.

Some limited backgrounds and some unrefined drawing aside, the animation however has a lot of colourful colours and expressive, inventive drawing and expressions. The music from the always never less than dependable Scott Bradley is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed, a lot of the action is even enhanced by the music.

'Field and Scream' is amusing and its educational elements feel relevant and don't preach. Avery directs well and the pacing and characterisations are lively.

To conclude, good but not great. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Just watched this M-G-M/Tex Avery cartoon on Daily Motion as linked from the Cartoons, Model Sheets, and Stuff blog. This is a primer on fishing/hunting as represented by an everyday Joe named Ed Jones as the narrator tells of his trials in getting fish, duck, or deer...If you're familiar with Avery's sense of humor then you'll have no trouble imagining what to expect here though you might still be surprised by what happens! By the time this cartoon was released, Avery had left M-G-M and went back to the Walter Lantz studio where he started as an animator. Field and Scream, while not great, is still highly entertaining for one of Avery's last shorts made for Leo the Lion. Highly recommend.

"Field and Scream" is one of Tex Avery's later cartoons for MGM, the company with which he clearly made his best films. As a later film, the art work is more modern in style but still has a nice cel-count and is a quality short...though the jokes are a bit corny. But, as you'd expect with an Avery-directed cartoon, the gags come one after another and so the misses aren't a major issue. Overall, a cute film about hunters...and one hard luck one in particular.