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Best Animated Short and Best Short Film are two Oscars that get little recognition each year perhaps because neither reaches many outlets in the States. At least Walt Disney and Pixar still include animated shorts with some of their new releases. This set, the Academy Awards Animated Collection, is three discs filled with some of the greatest animated cartoon shorts ever recognized by the Academy. Forty-one shorts are spread across three DVDs. Disc one is strictly winners with a total of fifteen shorts. The remaining discs have twenty-six nominated shorts total.
What is contained on these discs is dream team quality. You get stellar work from guys like William Hanna and Joseph Barbara, Tex Avery and Friz Freleng. Then there’s the whole nostalgia factor seeing some of the classic characters at the top of their games. Familiar faces likes Bugs, Tweety, Tom and Jerry, Popeye and Foghorn Leghorn.
The Milky Way has the distinction of being the first non-Walt Disney short to win the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. Produced in 1940, it is a fantasy about the “three little kittens who have lost their mittens” as they explore an outer space made up entirely of dairy products. So the moon is made out of cheese, and the Milky Way is made from milk. That same year, the short was competing against A Wild Hare and Puss Gets the Boot (both of which are on the second disc).
The Yankee Doodle Mouse is a 1943 Tom and Jerry short, and is the first of seven “T & J” shorts to win an Oscar. References to World War II are hinted as vehicles like Jeeps and Dive Bombers are used at various stages, as is a “Hen Grenade.” Also, there’s a controversial angle with Tom getting blackface after a stick of dynamite explodes in front of his face.
Mouse Trouble (1944), another Tom and Jerry short, has Tom befuddled; he can’t seem to catch Jerry. So he gets a book on how to catch mice with ease. All twelve chapters of the book are covered and all chapters end with Jerry getting the upper hand. A little bit of trivia for animation buffs: this is one of only three T & J shorts where Tom apparently dies on screen. (It happens again in The Two Mouseketeers, which is also on this disc.)
This next short brings back memories, as I think it was one of the first Tom and Jerry shorts I watched as a kid. Quiet Please! (1945) is that classic short where a large dog (sometimes named Spike) is trying to take a nap. But as Tom tries to catch Jerry, Spike gets mixed up in it somehow. Spike gives Tom an ultimatum that he will do bad things if he is awakened again. And so begins Jerry’s attempt to wake up Spike and Tom’s attempts to stop him.
The Cat Concerto (1947) takes the thrill of the hunt away from the house as we see Tom trying to perform a piano concert in front of a large audience. Jerry, who had been sleeping in the piano, awakens and tries to mock the cat. The rivalry heats up as Jerry tries to prevent Tom from playing the piano. So he slams his fingers, tries cutting them off, and uses mousetraps to try to trap them.
“Sufferin’ Succotash!” we finally get a Sylvester and Tweety short in Tweetie Pie (1947). Even though this first disc contains all of the Oscar-winning shorts featuring Tom and Jerry, a little diversity never hurts. This film would win Warner Brothers its first Oscar for animated cartoon short. At the beginning Thomas (Sylvester) is so close to catching a freezing tweety bird outside, but a faceless mother rescues the bird and puts him in a cage inside the house. She warns him not to bother the bird, but we know Thomas. He begins a series of failed attempts to both get back in the house and capture the bird. Each attempt causes the lady of the house to whack Thomas with a broom.
The Little Orphan (1949) is another Tom and Jerry award-winner. We get an appearance by Nibbles, the titular character in this short. It’s Thanksgiving time and Jerry has to look after Nibbles. Always the hungry mouse, Nibbles and Jerry creep out of the mousehole looking for food. All is well until Nibbles swallows an orange whole and its retrieval causes Tom to wake up. Uh oh. No giving of thanks here as Tom turns a feather duster into a headdress and makes like an Indian (another controversial moment in “T & J”‘s history).
Ah, who could forget Pepe LePew? Now there was one cartoon character that knew how to clear a room. He appears in the 1949 short For Scent-imental Reasons (1949). Here’s some more animation trivia for you. This is the first Pepe LePew cartoon to feature a female black cat accidentally getting a white stripe down its back. Ooo la la.
So Much for So Little (1949) is an interesting 10-minute short that is a public service announcement. The PSA won a Best Documentary Short Oscar and details how federal public-health services can keep babies healthy and away disease.
The Two Mouseketeers (1951) has Jerry and Nibbles causing trouble for Tom, a Royal Guard, at a King’s banquet.
Johann Mouse (1952) has Tom learning to play the piano in order to catch Jerry. Seems that Jerry breaks out in dance whenever he hears a certain Johann Strauss waltz.
Better call the border patrol for this next short. Speedy Gonzales (1955) has the Don Juan of rodents sneaking past border guard Sylvester (the first time these two interact) so that he can raid a U.S. cheese factory. Arriba Arriba!!
Birds Anonymous (1957) has that famous feline Sylvester trying to kick his bird addiction. So he starts attending BA (Birds Anonymous) meetings only to find that his temptation to resist Tweety is too much.
Knighty Knight Bugs (1958) sees Bugs Bunny on a quest to obtain a Singing Sword. He must sneak into the castle of the Black Knight (Yosemite Sam) where he meets a fire-breathing dragon that sneezes a lot.
The Dot and the Line (1965) is simplistic in its animation, but Chuck Jones ever the great storyteller is able to make us care about a straight line and his admiration for a lovely dot. It’s just too bad that the dot is hot for a squiggly line.
Watching these shorts again, it’s easy to see why they won Academy Awards. They’re great. Yes, some of the Tom and Jerry shorts can get repetitive, but it’s hard to resist seeing some of your favorite characters in wacky adventures.
The second and third discs go further to expand Oscar’s love of the animated form by showcasing a number of nominated shorts. Some of highlights include two Max Fleischer shorts, Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor and Superman; the first official Bugs Bunny cartoon, A Wild Hare; six more Tom and Jerry shorts, and a few different takes on the classic “Three Little Pigs” tale.
Of the nominated shorts, my favorite has to be High Note. This is the cartoon where some musical notes try to arrange themselves so that they can perform “The Blue Danube,” the Johann Strauss classic. But a rogue note ruins their plans after spending time at the “Little Brown Jug.” Hiccups, disorientation and madcap hilarity ensues as the rouge note disrupts the musical composition.
Looking at the technical side, all 41 shorts have been digitally restored and remastered for DVD. This is definitely the best these cartoons have ever looked, and this is coming from someone who remembers seeing them on Nickelodeon or as a part of ABC Saturday morning line-up. A majority of the shorts appear in standard fullscreen, but Touche, Pussy Cat!, Good Will to Men and One Droopy Knight are presented in widescreen since they were shot in cinemascope. The shorts only have a mono track, which is to be expected considering their age. But with the restoration, audio pops and hissing is at a minimum. Audio options for the shorts include English subtitles for the hearing impaired.
Just like the studio has done with the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Warner Bros. again gives us plenty of extra material to enjoy. On each disc you’ll find optional commentary tracks and music-only audio tracks from which to listen. The shorts included are:
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Disc One
Quiet Please! (Commentary by Animator Mark Kausler), The Cat Concerto (Commentary by Director Eric Goldbeg), For Scen-imental Reasons (Commentary by Filmmaker Greg Ford), So Much for So Little (Commentary by Historian Jerry Beck), Speedy Gonzales (Music-Only Audio Track), The Dot and the Line (Commentary by Eric Goldberg / Music-Only Audio Track)
Disc Two
Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor (Commentary by Historian Jerry Beck and Animators Leslie Cabarga, Ray Pointer and Bob Jaques), Peace on Earth (Commentary by Filmmaker Greg Ford), A Wild Hare (Commentary by Filmmaker Greg Ford), Puss Gets the Boot (Commentary by Animator Mark Kausler), Superman (Commentary by Producer Paul Dini), Blitz Wolf (Commentary by Director Eric Goldberg), Walky Talky Hawky (Commentary by Historian Jerry Beck)
Disc Three
Little Johnny Jet (Music-Only Audio Track), Touche, Pussy Cat! (Music-Only Audio Track), From A to Z-Z-Z-Z (Commentary by Historian Amid Amidi), Good Will to Men (Vocal Chorus Section Isolated Audio Track), One Droopy Knight (Music-Only Audio Track), Now Hear This (Commentary by Historian Amid Amidi)
Also, the third disc has a few more extras that will delight you for a few hours. To tie into the whole Oscar theme of this package, there’s the animated short What’s Cookin’ Doc? featuring Bugs Bunny at the Academy Awards. Under the trailers section are ads for The Smurfs Season 1, Vol. 1, Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who: Deluxe Edition, Justice League: The New Frontier and the black sheep of the bunch, Bonnie and Clyde 40th Anniversary release.
Other than this, the last remaining extra is an hour-long documentary entitled Drawn for Glory: Animation’s Triumph at the Oscars. This is a nice feature that traces animation’s place in the annals of the Academy Awards. It is heavy on clips from vintage shorts, including Walt Disney’s Steamboat Willie – the third Mickey Mouse cartoon, but the first the utilize sound. Interviews from a number of commentary participants listed above are matched by classic sound bites from the likes of Tex Avery, Chuck Jones and William Hanna. In sixty minutes you get a nice summation of how animation changed once the Supreme Court broke up the movie studios’ monopoly control over certain theater chains.
While the shorts included in this collection may not be the absolute best, as subjectivity comes into play, you do get some of the highlights from three different animation studios. I will say that this Academy Awards Animation Collection is better than the single disc that only includes winners; at least now you can have lively debate with friends about a particular nominee that was probably robbed at that year’s Oscars. With restored video and a small tweak in the audio, you get forty-one shorts that have probably never looked better. Add in the extras and this is surely a DVD package that young and old can enjoy. Recommended.
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Warner Home Video presents Academy Awards Animation Collection. Directed by Chuck Jones, William Hanna and Joseph Barbara, Tex Avery, and others. Featuring voice characterizations by Mel Blanc and others. Running time: 323 minutes. Not rated. Released on DVD: February 12, 2008. Available at Amazon.com.
About Travis Leamons
