Blog Post #9: God Of War III (2010)

God of War III for Playstation 3

God of War III is a game developed for the Playstation 3 console.  It was developed by Sony Santa Monica and published by Sony Computer Entertainment.  This video game was recently released on March 16, 2010.  The previous two games were made for the Playstation 2.  This game, made for the Playstation 3, has better graphics and stays faithful to the gameplay of the other previous God of War games.  In this blog, I will discuss what the plot of these three games, as well as, discuss advanced the animation is compared to the first two games.

In these next three paragraphs, I will give a brief synopsis of what happens.  Therefore, if you do not want to know what happens in these games, do not read them (I recommend playing them if you have the console and are a fan of Greek or Roman Mythology).  In the first video game, God of War, it starts off with Kratos jumping off a cliff.  Then, the story goes to an earlier time before everything that happened.  Kratos was a leader of the Spartan army and promised to serve Ares (the god of war in mythology) if he helped him defeat his enemies.  In doing this, Ares burned chains to his arms with swords attached to each end.  Then, while raiding a village for Ares, he accidently kills his wife and daughter.  Ares forced Kratos to do so because he felt it would get in his way.  So, Kratos, with the help of Athena (the goddess of Wisdom in mythology), Kratos seeks revenge on Ares.  In order to defeat Ares, Kratos has to find Pandora’s Box.  In the game, he goes on a journey to do so.  At the end of the game, after finding Pandora’s Box, he is killed by Ares.  However, Kratos goes to the underworld and fights his way back to the top.  Releasing the powers from Pandora’s Box, he gains strength to defeat a god, Ares.  After defeating Ares at the end of the game, he becomes the new god of war, hence the title of the game.

Playstation 2 God of War

In God of War II, while his Spartan Army attacks Rhodes, Kratos is up against a Colossus.  Earlier an Eagle came and drained his powers.  Zeus enters the game and gives Kratos a sword to defeat the Colossus.  In order to use the sword, Kratos infuses his godhood into it, leaving him mortal.  After defeating the Colossus, Kratos is hurt from rubble.  When he gets up, he learns Zeus was the Eagle that took his powers and is actually there to betray him because of his behavior.  Zeus impales Kratos with the sword as he is taken to the underworld.  However, Kratos gets saved by Gaia, a titan, who wants Kratos to help them defeat Zeus and the gods because they were humilated and banished by them.  Kratos agrees, but has to seek the Sisters of Fate.  Only they can help Kratos go back in time to prevent Zeus what he did to him.   Kratos finds the Sisters of Fate, defeats them and is able to go back in time.  When he does, Kratos and Zeus battle each other.  When Kratos is about to impale Zeus, Athena comes and steps in front of the sword, getting killed.  Kratos finds out from Athena (who is dying) that Zeus is the father of Kratos.  Angered, Kratos goes back to the Sisters of Fate and goes back to when the gods battled the Titans.  Kratos persuades the Titans to leave battle, in order to prevent them from getting banished and humilated (defeated).  At the end of this game, the titans climb up to Olympus to defeat the gods, with Kratos.

Playstation 2 God of War II

God of War III continues once again from the previous game.  As Kratos is on Gaia, you start off fighting some enemies.  Then, Poseidon (the god of water in mythology), comes to defeat Gaia and Kratos (mostly Gaia).  However, Kratos tries to defeat Poseidon.  After some running around, Kratos kills Poseidon.  As Gaia is climbing Olympus, Zeus throws a lightning bolt at Gaia and they are about to fall.  Kratos asks Gaia for help, but she tells him he was just a pawn to the titans to get to Zeus.  Kratos then falls into the underworld once again, losing all of his power except for Icarus’ wings and the Golden Fleece (Acquired in the previous games).  Athena’s spirit comes to help Kratos and she gives him some weapons and power.  As he fights his way through the game, he kills Hades (the god of the Underworld in mythology), Hercules (the son of Zeus), Hera (the wife of Zeus), Helios (the son god in mythology), Hermes (the messenger god in mythology), and Hephaestus (the god of technology/craftsmenship in mythology).  In order to defeat Zeus, Athena tells him he has to seek Pandora’s Box one last time because of a greater power to kill Zeus.  In order to release it from the flame, he has to find Pandora (the daughter of Hephaestus).  After finding her, she is about to release the box from the fire, but Kratos won’t let her.  After Zeus comes and fights Kratos, Pandora jumps into the fire.  Kratos opens Pandora’s Box, but it is empty.  He eventually kills Zeus at the end of the game.  We find out that the power to kill Zeus was already in Kratos from the first game, but it was hidden by guilt and fear.  Athena wants her power back from Kratos, but Kratos insists he doesn’t have any power.  He ends up killing himself at the end of the game because he is done with his task.  After the credits, the body of Kratos is gone, with a trail of blood at the end of the cliff.  Is this the end?  We don’t know because it can be interpreted in different ways.

As you can see, the story to this game is incredible.  This is just a quick summary of the games.  It goes much more in depth.  The animation in God of War III is very sharp and defined compared to the other two previous games.  This is due to the fact that this game was made for the Playstation 3 compared to the other two that were made for the Playstation 2.  This game was made with blue ray technology.  Blu-ray technology outputs a much more clear and crisp picture.  It also helps to have an HDTV to have while using a blu-ray based game.  If you look at Kratos in the movie sequences, you can see the definition in his skin.  Also, while playing the blood from enemies actual stain his skin for a little bit when it squirts out on Kratos.  The movie sequences make it seem as if you are watching an actual animated movie.  It is so compelling that you get lost in the sequences.  The technology today is truly amazing.  Due to this, video games are being developed on a higher level and greater images for the animations are giving characters from these video games a much more realistic look to them.  The next thing you know, technology will be so advanced that when someone plays a video game, it will look like real life.

ETA:  I commented on the Blogs of Chuck Soo-Hoo and Christopher DeMarco.

Til Next Time…

Blog Post #8: Daffy – The Commando (1943)

Similar to Blitz Wolf, this cartoon deals with the way animators used cartoons during the World War II era.  However, this cartoon was distributed by Warner Brothers Animations and produced by Leon Schlesinger.  It was directed by Friz Freleng.  It is interesting how many animation studios used the war as a means for profit.  Instead of developing normal cartoons, animators used the war for different ideas.  In this blog post, I will give a brief synopsis of the short animation, some interesting facts about the animation, as well as, discuss how this short gives the audience a sense of nationalism.

In the beginning of the animation, a German commander (Von Vulture) is given a telegram from the “Gestinko Gestapo.”  The telegrams says if he allows anymore unwanted people through, he’ll get in trouble.  After hearing a plane outside, Von Vulture calls Schultz, a soldier who Von Vulture hits over the head with a mallet.  When they use the spotlight, they see Daffy Duck.  However, after Daffy yells at them to turn off the light, Schultz does so, but turns it back on when Von Vulture yells at him.  Unable to locate Daffy, there are hand puppets visible from the light.  After noticing Daffy is doing this, he runs behind a curtain that says “asbestos.”  When Von Vulture opens the curtain, Daffy has a funny face (used to make fun of the Japanese in other cartoons) and scares off Von Vulture.  Then the typical bomb joke takes play and Daffy gives Von a bomb as a gift.  When he realizes what it is, he gives it to Schultz who is flown up in the sky.  When he comes down, Von is about to hit him with a mallet, but Daffy hits him instead.

Von Vulture then chases him to a phone booth, saying “hail Hitler” at a skunk.  Then, Daffy goes inside the telephone booth, talking to someone on the phone.  Here, there are a series of cards Daffy holds up to translate what he is saying.  When he allows Von Vulture to go in and use the phone, he thinks he is talking to Schultz, however he isn’t.  After realizing this, Daffy jumps into plane and is almost taken out by German airplanes.  However, they end up destroying each other and Von Vulture shoots down Daffy.  Daffy hides in a human canon, which Von shoots off.  Daffy flies out with to United States Flags in his hands.  He lands beside Hitler, who is giving a speech.  Daffy then hits Hitler on the head with a mallet, when all of a sudden Hitler yells for Schultz.

Along with humor, this animation has some very interesting facts.  One fact is when Daffy is parachuting down at the beginning, he is singing “She was poor but she was honest.”  This song was popular in Britain during World War II.  A funny fact about this cartoon is about the telegram.  It was to Von Vulture as an uberkommandant, which is a fictional German rank.  Also, all of the words in German on the telegram were words for foods.  When Von takes down Daffy’s plane, he uses an MP40.  The music playing while Hitler is giving his speech is a distorted version of “The More We Play Together.”  Out of all of these facts, the last one is the most intriguing because it has absolutely nothing to do with something inside the cartoon.  A clip from this cartoon is played during the introduction of Futurama.

Looking at this cartoon as a child, I would not really associate it to any kind of propaganda.  However now, I can see how it is propaganda and supports United States Nationalism.  For example, the good guy, Daffy Duck, prevails throughout the whole cartoon.  He is never hurt and when it looks like he is about to get hurt, he doesn’t because he comes out winning in the end.  Another interesting thing about this is the fact that he waves two American Flags in the air, signifying that the United States is the superior.  This cartoon, as well as many other cartoons, had one mission and one mission only:  to support the war efforts and to create humor while doing so (to make it less noticeable to the public).  Overall, this cartoon achieves this goal.

ETA:  I commented on the Blogs of Jessica Martin and Myca Taylor.

Til Next Time…

Blog Specimens: Mid-Term Blogs

For my Blog Specimen, I’m going to choose:

Blog Post #4: Magical Maestro (1952)

Blog Post #5: Blitz Wolf (1942)

Til Next Week…

Blog Post #7: A Wild Hare (1940)

Before the special Spring Break Post, I was talking about Tex Avery Cartoons and the Merrie Melodies from Warner Bros. Animation.  This week I was going to talk about Logorama, the winner for Best Animated Short at the Academy Awards.  However, someone already beat me to it.  Therefore, I decided to talk a little about A Wild Hare.  This animation is credited as the first cartoon to feature the popular character, Bugs Bunny.  In this Post, I will discuss the antics used to create humor, as well as, the character’s exaggerated expressions from these antics.

Everyone knows what this cartoon is about (or at least you should know).  Elmer Fudd is a hunter who is hunting rabbit.  Bugs Bunny is the rabbit he tries to hunt.  However, Bugs tricks Elmer several times, preventing him from ever catching him.  In this particular cartoon, Bugs makes Elmer so mad that Elmer Fudd leaves crying in anger because he can’t catch “that screwy wabbit.”  In a way, this shows how naive Elmer Fudd is and how clever Bugs Bunny is, but we’ll get to that later.

There are a number different antics Bugs does in order to keep Elmer in check.  The animation starts off with some comedy when Bugs takes the carrot, eats most of it, and then puts it back.  However, he feels the gun and attempts to reclaim the eaten carrot once again.  The first antic in this cartoon is when Elmer Fudd sticks his gun in the hole.  Bugs ends up tying his gun into a “pretzel”  knot.  After that, Elmer starts digging a hole to catch the rabbit.  However Bugs Bunny comes out of his hole and asks what Elmer is doing.  Elmer is so naive that he doesn’t realize he is talking to the rabbit (even after seeing him – makes Elmer look pretty dumb).  Then Bugs yells into his ear and runs away.  Bugs Bunny procedes to make him guess who he is, but Elmer does not know.  This is when he kisses Elmer twice on the lips.  Wait, isn’t Bugs a guy?  I think he is.  Anyway, Elmer thinks he can catch Bugs with a carrot under a box, however, Elmer ends up catching a skunk instead.  One last antic that makes Elmer go over the edge, is when Bugs lets Elmer “shoot” him, and he thinks he killed the “wabbit.”  But he didn’t and ends up kicking Elmer Fudd right in the behind; making  him angry and upset.

As you can see things happen to Elmer (in a negative way).  Elmer has big, wide eyes in this animation.  When he is getting his gun knotted, you notice his eyes and eyebrows.  In this case, the eyebrows give away his feelings and expression.  Also notice his eyebrows are tilted downward with his eyes shut to show the audience he is smelling something bad.  You know which part I’m talking about; the skunk scene.  At the end, we can tell his anger by his facial expressions and the yelling.  Bugs is a little different when it comes to facial expressions.  Instead of just using his face for his expressions, Bugs uses his ears.  For example, after he kisses Elmer Fudd in his hole, we can see his eyes go down, like a dog.  We instantly know that when the ears go down, it shows vulnerability and love.  This is part of the humor with Bugs.  So, unlike Elmer, Bugs has an extra advantage for expression, long, Bunny ears.

ETA:  I commented on the Blogs of Emily Witt and Michael Griffith.

Til Next Week…

Spring Break Blog Post: Little Nemo (1989)

Little Nemo:  Adventures in Slumberland is an animated cartoon released in Japan in 1989.  It was directed by Masami Hata, Masanori Hata, and William Hurtz.  It wasn’t released in the United States until 3 years later, in 1992.  I remember watching this movie when I was a kid, about 13 – 15 years ago or so.  Throughout the semester, we have learned various techniques used in animation, various animators, and have seen various animations.  However, throughout all of the lectures, there was something told to us from the first lecture that stood out; a good animation comes from a combination of drawing, film, and story.  I personally believe in this because being a film major, this can easily relate to live-action films as it does to animation.  In this blog post, I will discuss the origin of Little Nemo, give a brief synopsis of the film, as well as, discuss the development of the drawing and story of this particular animation.

Little Nemo in Slumberland was originally a comic strip by Winsor McCay, which appeared in the New York Herald from October 15, 1905 to April 23, 1911.  From April 30, 1911 to July 26, 1914, this comic strip switched to the New York American, with its name changed to In the Land of Wonderful Dreams.  If you noticed, the comic strip ended a month or so after the start of World War I.  This comic strip wasn’t very popular among the crowd compared to other comics like Buster Brown and Krazy Kat (which we saw in class).  In the comic strip, Nemo was invited by King Morpheus to become the “playmate” of the Princess in Slumberland.  The comic strips consisted on Nemo trying to make it to Slumberland, but he would always end up getting hurt, dying, getting old, etc., right before he woke up (the comic strip would end with him waking up on or beside his bed).  He would eventually make it to Slumberland, but it took him four months to reach the Princess because he would be awakened by Flip (a green-faced dwarf with a hat that says “wake up”).  Flip would later become his friend in the comic strip series.  Even though this was a comic strip, it was far from a children’s fantasy; it was dark, surreal, and very violent at times.

Similar to the original comic strip, this movie is called Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland.  It starts out with a shot of Nemo sleeping.  As his bed flies out out of his window down the street, a bird (an owl I believe) makes a noise, which wakes him up.  Then he flies through the town, up into the sky, into a darker place.  This is where his bed starts to descend slowly and a train starts chasing him.  When his bed gets torn apart, he sees a house that resembles his own and runs into it and shuts the door as the train is coming towards it.  He yells to his mother, but she seems to not notice him whatsoever.  As he opens the front door and peeks, he sees the train coming fast right to the door.  When he closes the door again, holding it shut, he still screams for his mother.  However, the train busts through the door, as he goes flying in the air, it cuts to him falling out of bed.  It was just a dream.  This is just the beginning of the movie, which you can view above (the rest of the clips are on youtube if you want to watch the whole movie).  We then meet Icarus, his friend, a flying squirrel with wearing a pilot’s hat (similar to Rocky from Rocky and Bullwinkle, except Icarus is Brown).  They go to a parade, advertising there is a circus in town.  You don’t know this yet, but all of the characters from his dreams are those who are in the circus.  We see the “Professor” on the piano, the “Princess” throwing him a flower, “Flip” knocking him over while balancing on his ball and juggling, and “King Morpheus” riding a horse.  The others in the parade are the people of Slumberland and servants to the King and Princess.

(From Left to Right: King Morpheus, the Professor, Servant, the Princess, Nemo, Flip, and Nemo's mother and father. Icarus shown throughout the picture in various places.

After talking to the “King,” Nemo goes home to ask to go to the circus, when his father tells him “tomorrow.”  That night, after Nemo sleep walks trying to take a pie from the fridge and running away from his mother, he tries going to sleep, however he notices a light shining through his window.  Professor Genius and some other characters come inside his window to invite him to Slumberland as a playmate to Princess Camille.  After they give him a gift from the Princess
(a box of cookies), he boards a dirigible (or airship) outside his window.  When arriving at Slumberland, Nemo sees Flip; the professor tells him to avoid him.  When going to see the King, he is missing, so they all split up to find him, while Nemo is told to wait.  However, Flip tells him to follow him.  Nemo follows him into an upside room.  While Nemo is trying to follow Flip, he falls down into a toy room, where he helps a conductor fix a toy train.  While Icarus gets on to ride it, the conductor and Nemo run around to catch it and hop on board.  The train crashes into the Professor and we find out the conductor was actually King Morpheus.

King Morpheus ends up giving Nemo a key which will open everything in Slumberland.  However, he makes him promise to never open the door with the same symbol as the key, which Nemo promises.  Nemo is then taken to meet the Princess, where he gets a bit of an attitude with her because of he gets offended by what she says to him.  However, they end up getting along and playing with one another.  Then Nemo is thrown to some adults to teach him how to act proper (become royalty, if you will).  After a dance and song number, Nemo escapes and runs into Flip.  Then Flip shows Nemo how to have “fun” by making the guards hit one another.  They run after him and Nemo, whom get away and do more mischievous things.  Then, of course, Flip talks Nemo into opening the door which he is not supposed to open to take a peek.  Nemo and Flip do it and there is something scary on the other side.  They slam the door shut, with the key still in the lock and run away in fear.  Nemo makes it back to the palace, running late for his ceremony.  They dress him up and he is introduced to all of Slumberland.  The King shows them the scepter which has kept Slumberland safe from Nightmare King.  The Professor and King start to dance, as Nemo runs to retrieve the key, however, a black fog already has gotten out and consumes the King at the Party, where the King has vanished.  The crowd blames Flip for what has happened and then he blames it all on Nemo.  The crowd starts looking at Nemo and as they crowd around him, he “faints,” ending up at home in bed.  When he wakes up, he realizes it was a dream.  However, when he uncovers his blanket, he finds the scepter there.  He starts hearing the King’s voice and starts to walk down the stairs.

When he makes it downstairs, he sees a flood heading towards him.  He runs upstairs and the flood takes him, Icarus, and the bed down a waterhole.  They are seen floating on water, where they find the Professor.  Nemo learns Flips is going to be banished from Slumberland (by canon).  Knowing Flip has a map to Nightmareland, Nemo and the Professor paddle quickly to stop the banishment.  Nemo makes it and makes Flip give him the map.  However, it is in code that only Flip can read, so Flip takes Nemo, Icarus, the Professor and the Princess to Nightmareland (to save the King).  However, they all fall asleep and are taken down a waterhole, where the boat is destroyed and they end up in what seems to be Nightmareland.  There they meet some nice goblins or woodland creatures who are looked down upon because they are not evil.  As night falls, they camp for the night.  However, evil bats come and take Flip, the Professor and the Princess.  As, Nemo waves the Scepter back and forth, trying to recite the words to activate it, he falls out of bed.  Nemo seems relieved it was just a dream, however, he notices the scepter and the woodland creatures in his room.  Another woodland creature falls into his room, which he has never met before.  We find out he escaped Nightermare King and has a message from the King.  The message is the words to recite to activate the scepter.  So, they go off on Nemo’s bed to Nightmareland.

They finally end up in Nightmareland with the scepter.  They make it inside to find the Nightmare King.  Nemo defeats a flying creature by only reciting part of the words for the scepter.  Eventually, Nemo defeats the Nightmare King and saves everyone.  However, it seems Nemo died in the process.  So the King takes the scepter and brings him back to life.  After going back to Slumberland, the Princess takes him back home on the airship.  Right before Nemo wakes up, him and the Princess kiss each other.  When he wakes up, he finds out his dad is going to take him to the circus.  Nemo and Icarus go to the window happy and dance as the camera keeps pulling farther away from his house until he is barely visible by the window.  Then the movie ends.  Sorry for the lengthy summary, but I felt it was necessary for those who haven’t seen it in a while.

The Nightmare King

When looking at the drawing, you can tell it’s not as similar to other movies as Aladdin or Mulan.  This movie, in my opinion, was drawn to be a much more dark movie (something similar to Tim Burton movies, except actual hand-drawn animation).  Also, it seems to be more of an Anime (style of animation originated in Japan) feel to it.  This could be due to the fact that it was developed in Japan, which is a popular place for Anime.  In a way, this movie is on the borderline between English animation and Japanese animation (Anime).  I personally don’t watch too many Anime films, however, this one I enjoyed as a child, even now.  Overall, the feel of the movie is very interesting, due to the fact that it can either be considered a regular animation or a stylized Japanese animation (in my book anyway).

The story to this film is also very important.  It does stay mostly true to the comic strip, which is a good thing because it should satisfy those who enjoy reading the comic strips.  Also, the storyline is engaging, both to adults and children alike.  Children have dreams and nightmares, which would allow them to relate to this movie.  Adults can understand how intricate the film was done to achieve this feel of a dream.  Throughout the entire film, the story plays tricks on your mind, making you think it was just a dream, but then showing you it wasn’t just a dream.  This is seen when he ends up in his room a couple of times, but notices the scepter is still there or the creatures are in his room.  This is supposed to give the audience a feeling that we are in a dream-like state.  Dreams trick your mind, which is exactly how the story makes you feel while watching it.  At the end, you can either believe it was just a dream or it wasn’t just a dream.  Most people should understand that it was most likely not real and just a dream because it was the characters from the circus, but I guess arguments can be made.  I also really like how the main character went on a journey through his dreams.  A good story is usually done with the character going through a journey.  In this case, his journey was done to essentially prevent himself from having nightmares, which he achieved in the end.  So, in the end, we know Nemo will most likely not have anymore nightmares, just good dreams.  Also, in the end, Nemo learned a lesson; to not break a promise.  In a good screenplay, the main character should learn some type of lesson and have some type of redemption.  Overall, this story, written by Chris Columbus and Richard Outten, really captures a terrific journey by a main character in an animation.

ETA:  I Commented on the Blogs of John Lyver and James Scutari.

-Hope Everyone Is Having A Good Spring Break…Til Next Time…

Blog Post #6: Hollywood Steps Out (1941)

In class, we all were introduced (or re-introduced) to Disney’s Silly Symphonies cartoons.  These were cartoons with music as the key component.  For the last couple of weeks, I have been talking about Tex Avery cartoons.  As I was researching him (once again), I found out that he contributed many cartoons known as Merrie Melodies from Warner Bros. Studios and Leon Schlesinger Productions between 1931 and 1970.  This was a couple years after the release of Silly Symphonies.  I came across a Merrie Melodies animation called Hollywood Steps Out, directed by Tex Avery.  In this Post, I will give a brief history of Merrie Melodies, a brief summary of the animation, as well as, the humor behind this animation.

In 1930, Warner Bros. became the owner of Brunswick Records and wanted to promote music because of it.  After the success of Looney Tunes, Warner Bros. developed Merrie Melodies.  Rudy Ising and Hugh Harman started the development of this series.  In 1931, the music for the series was orchestrated from the famous Abe Lyman.  In 1932, a Merrie Melodies animation called It’s Got Me Again, was nominated for the first academy award for in animation.  Ising and Harman left in 1933, with all of the rights to their characters.  Leon Schlesinger took over Merrie Melodies and produced the first colored Merrie Melodies animation in 1934 with cinecolor (since Disney acquired the rights to Technicolor already).  In 1936, Merrie Melodies started using the slogan “That’s all folks,” as well as, started using the “bulls-eye” beginning and end sequence.  In 1946, Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes became undistinguishable.  The last Merrie Melodies animation was created in 1969, known as Injun Trouble.

Hollywood Steps Out is short animation from the Merrie Melodies series.  It was created in 1941 and aims gags from popular Hollywood names from the 1930s and 1940s.  The animation begins with an overview of Hollywood and then focuses on a place called Ciro’s.  It goes to a close-up of a sign that says dinner is $50.00 and if you can’t pay it, then you can make payments and pay it off within 6 months.  As we go inside the building, we see such starts as Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, Adolphe Menjou, and Norma Shearer.  This is followed by Cary Grant sitting at a table by himself as he starts talking.  Next we see Greta Garbo selling cigarettes.  After, there is a scene with Edward Robinson and Ann Sheridan talking to one another.  Next, as the camera trucks to the right, we see Henry Binder, Leon Schlesinger sitting and reserved tables for Bette Davis, Kate Smith, Blondie, Dagwood, Baby Dumpling and a fire hydrant for Daisy the dog.  After we see Johnny Weissmuller and Sally Rand, we see James Cagney, Humphery Bogart, and George Raft talking.  Then, Harpo Marx lights Garbo’s foot on fire.  Next we see Clarke Gable spotting a girl he sees.  Bing Crosby announces the first act of entertainment with Leopold Stokpwski.  As the music plays, Dorothy Lamour wants to dance with James Stewart.  On the dance floor, we see Tyrone Power dancing with Sonja Henie, Frankenstein dancing, the three stooges poking and slapping each other, Oliver Hardy dancing (only seeing his back), and Cesar Romero dancing with Rita Hayworth.  It then cuts to Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland and Lewis Stone.  The final act is then introduced with Sally Rand performing the bubble dance.  During this act we see such stars as Kay Kyser, William Powell, Spencer Tracy, Gilbert Roland, Errol Flynn, Wallace Beery, Aubery Smith, Peter Lorre, Henry Fonda, the Aldrich Family, Edgar Hoover, Boris Karloff, Arthur Treacher, Buster Keaton, Mischa Auer, Ned Sparks, Jerry Colonna, and Groucho Marx.  Also notice in the animation how the Hollywood stars were portrayed.  They had very shiny and over-exaggerated facial features, almost like they were in drawn in between a cartoon and real-life.

Of course this animation was humorous back then because it essentially made jokes at all of the Hollywood stars.  However, I think most of you, like me, would not understand these jokes due to the fact that we most likely don’t know much of these people.  Therefore, I will help break down how each of these people in the animation brought humor to the audience.  First, everything Cary Grant says at the beginning are references from his movies.  Greta Garbo was known for her enormously large feet and this is why she is gagged like so.  Ann Sheridan was known as the “Oomph” girl, which is why she repeatedly says “oomph.”  Henry Binder and Leon Schlesinger both worked on this cartoon and as they are shown the melody from the intro starts playing.  Johnny Weissmuller portrayed Tarzan in a movie, which is why he is seen with a Tarzan outfit after taking off his jacket.  Cagney, Bogart, and Raft were known for their “tough guy” roles.  Harpo Marx of the Marx brothers, is known for his antics, which is why he light Garbo’s foot on fire.  Clark Gable is known for being a womanizer, which is why he spots the girl and follows her throughout the whole animation.  Bing Crosby loved horses, which is why he is interrupted by one, every time we see him on stage.  Stokowski is about to conduct a serious orchestra, however it ends up being a conga beat.  Stewart was known for his shyness in movies and therefore, he leaves when asked to dance.  The sign is a reference to one of his movies.  On the dance floor, Henie was an ice skater in movies, Frankenstein is out of place, everyone knows about the Three Stooges (hopefully), Oliver Hardy is actually dancing with two women instead of one (because of his size), and Romero and Hayworth were both excellent dancers and seeing their moves made it a joke.  Rooney was known to be mischievous and ask his dad for help in a television show, so the animation makes a joke about his relationship with his television show father.  Rand performs the bubble dance in a movie, which is making a joke reference to that.  As for the rest of the cast, they pretty much do things that are referenced to other works of theirs.  The funniest part of this animation, for me, was the end when Gable finally catches up with the woman, we find out it was Groucho Marx in disguise.  Overall, this Merrie Melodies animation had several jokes about Hollywood at that time period.  If this was made today, with more current Hollywood stars, we would most likely find it much more amusing.

ETA:  I commented on the Blogs of Jessica Martin and Danyael Hughes.

Til Next Time…