I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

One of the many "objects coming to life" cartoons created at Warner Bros., this one focuses on magazines coming to life at a drug store. It's interesting to note that director Frank Tashlin would do a very similar cartoon to this one year after the initial release of this cartoon, "Have You Got Any Castles" -- but moving onto the cartoon I'm reviewing anyways...The cartoon focuses on music, puns on popular magazines of the time, and celebrity caricatures -- notably Hugh Herbert, who pops up giggling throughout the short. Note that in the magazine Hugh appears, it is mentioned that "he produces his devastating giggle with a feather duster worn strapped to the sole of his left foot."The story is a rather basic one, focusing on the magazines in the first half, and then a thug is introduced who causes ruckus in the second half of the cartoon. However, it doesn't sound as boring as you would think. Tashlin uses the magazines in some rather creative ways, and while some of the puns are corny and predictable, I love them myself anyways. Tashlin also adds more chemicals to the cartoon by making use of his fast-paced editing (although mainly done in the ending), and in a couple of cases, interesting perspectives, which makes the transitions from scene to scene feel neatly done yet action-packed.For a cartoon with a big focus on music, Carl Stalling certainly gets the job done, with excellent renditions of popular tunes of the time. The vocals are nicely done as usual. The original animation is crisp and in some scenes, add more to the gags; a good chunk of animation in this cartoon is reused from other cartoons, however.Overall, Speaking of the Weather, while somewhat generic and not quite utilizing Frank Tashlin's techniques to the fullest, is worth a watch.

In the early years of the WB cartoon studio, the gimmick was popular music. The Looney Tunes featured a popular star and the Merrie Melodies plugged a pop tune from a WB musical.One of the genres that was introduced at the start of the Merrie Melodies series was the book come to life cartoons (or sometimes product labels). After closing, characters would come out of books to sing and dance. A villain would start trouble, only for the other characters to defeat him.Frank Tashlin started directing Merrie Melodies in 1937, starting with this title. He took inspiration from Harman-Ising's cartoons of this genre and would do a trilogy over the next year. The title song and most of the tunes featured on the soundtrack come from the WB musical GOLD DIGGERS OF 1937 (1936). One interesting thing about these cartoons, is that it offers a glimpse into popular American culture of the year the respective cartoon was released. In this case, popular celebrities, magazine covers, and music.Tashlin is known for bigger and better things, especially in animation, but this is a fairly good entry in his filmography. I've always loved the fast paced rendition of "All's Fair In Love And War" that plays while the convict is in hot pursuit.Tashlin's other entries in his trilogy are HAVE YOU GOT ANY CASTLES? and YOU'RE AN EDUCATION (both 1938), which also give some interesting glimpses into popular American culture of the late 1930's.

One of the many Warner Bros. cartoons portraying inanimate objects coming to life (others include "Little Dutch Plate", "Have You Got Any Castles?" and "Book Revue"), "Speaking of the Weather" focuses on magazines putting on a most splendiferous show. But when a shady character starts committing crimes, everyone has to take charge.This genre reminds me just a little bit of Stephen King's novels (note: this is a VERY loose connection). As we see azoic objects coming to life and taking on their own personalities, Stephen King's novels often portrayed lifeless objects coming to life; think "The Shining" and "Christine".OK, so it's probably pretty ridiculous to suggest that a series of zany cartoons could have any true relationship to a series of horrific novels. I look for connections just about anywhere. Overall, I liked this cartoon both as a 1930s time capsule, and as entertainment. I recommend it.

A gimmick that Warner Brothers animators used quite often was the idea that characters/images come to life after business hours off of magazine covers, books or even grocery store labels and boxes. Quite often, they used caricatures of celebrities who would have been well-known to audiences in those days and they did so here, though not every character in this one is a caricature. I can't swear to it, but I suspect that all of the magazine titles featured in this one actually existed. I recognized most of them as having been magazines available on newsstands and elsewhere. The rest of my comments may contain spoilers, so you have been warned: The plot is pretty basic and predictable. What makes this cartoon interesting is the juxtaposition of titles to make up gags, like a crook coming out of "The Gang" and passing "Popular Mechanics" to grab a torch and having "Wall Street" close by, with a safe on the cover to crack. Charlie Chan captures him, he's tried by the "Judge" and sentenced to "Life", but manages to sneak over to "Liberty" in order to make his escape. Things like that come together frequently.A lot of the standard caricatures are here (including Ned Sparks-it must have been a requirement to have Ned Sparks appear somewhere in one of these, as he's in most of the ones I've seen) and you'll be treated to the likes of Leopold Stowkowski, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Hugh Herbert and others. William Powell is here as Nick Charles from "The Thin Man", along with his dog Asta. Everyone from the Boy Scouts to Santa Claus joins in on the chase when the villain escapes. How he is caught is hilarious and I won't spoil that gag. There's a cute ending involving Hugh Herbert as well.This short is on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 3 and is well worth getting. The Collections themselves are extremely well done and worth every penny. Recommended.