Memorable, crazy movie

Brilliant and touching

Better Late Then Never

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

A Corny Concerto, what can I say? Simply wonderful. Maybe not as hysterically funny as other Looney Tunes cartoons, but it is special to me for many reasons. A Corny Concerto isn't necessarily what you call hilarious, the funniest it comes to is Elmer's struggles with his loose fitting evening clothes though Porky and the pointer dog sobbing in Waltz time at Bug's "death" was funny too as was Bugs revealing his bra, tutu and pointe shoes and the stunned looks on Porky and Pointer Dog's faces. The animation though is wonderful, the wood in Tales from the Vienna Woods is beautifully rendered, but in terms of animation On the Beautiful Blue Danube was superior, with vibrant colouring particularly of the river itself. In terms of humour, Tales from the Vienna Woods is the better of the two, On the Beautiful Blue Danube is beautiful essentially but rather humourless in comparison. But what both segments have in common is that the music is outstanding. Johann Strauss II is rightly nicknamed "The Waltz King". Both pieces featured are fantastic and two of my favourite classical music pieces of all time, though I am more familiar with On the Beautiful Blue Danube. What impresses me most is how so much is fitted in in such a short running time without feeling bloated. This cartoon is fantastic, perfect for a classical music listener. 10/10 Bethany Cox

'A Corny Concerto' is Bob Clampett's inspired parody of Disney's 'Fantasia'. A cartoon in two parts (packing an incredible amount into seven minutes), 'A Corny Concerto' was actually written by director Frank Tashlin. It opens with a magical moment in which Elmer Fudd, taking the Deems Taylor role, emerges in silhouette onto a platform but confounds the audiences expectations of how tall he will be. Elmer's opening speech is a masterpiece of speech-impediment exploitation, a great piece of word-smithery in a largely musical cartoon. Both sections of 'A Corny Concerto' are set to pieces of music by Johan Strauss. The best of the two is the gloriously off-colour 'Tales From the Vienna Woods', in which Porky Pig and a pointer dog hunt Bugs Bunny to the strains of Strauss's music. It opens fairly inoffensively but then heads into the sort of sick territory only Clampett would ever dream of exploring. Porky's gun falls into the hands of a squirrel who fires it randomly at the trio. Fearing they've been hit, Clampett has the three characters dance around in their death throes! This section ends with a bawdy (for its time) gag in which Bugs slaps a bra on the heads of Porky and his dog and pirouettes into the sunset, hilariously collapsing in the cartoon's blink-and-you'll-miss-it highlight. The second section tells a tale set to 'The Blue Danube', in which a baby version of Daffy Duck attempts to find favour with a group of swans. Their rejection of Daffy is hilarious, particularly the moment the mother swan finds him under a rock and uncaringly slams it back down on his head. The short has a happy ending, however, as Daffy saves the baby swans from a vulture and is accepted into their family, It's the sort of story that could have been played straight and with a doe-eyed sweetness but Clampett and Tashlin instead fill it with gags which defy all accusations of cutesiness. 'A Corny Concerto' is a jaw-dropingly event-packed cartoon and another classic in the classic-stuffed Clampett canon.

Cartoonists just love puns; have you noticed? Here, we begin this corny parody of "Fantasia" at "Corny-Gie Hall."Elmer Fudd is the conductor and tells us what to expect in the concert, using as many "w's" instead of "r's" the writers could think of for a 10-second speech. We then witness the Strauss waltz, "Tales From The Vienna Woods" featuring hunter Porky Pig, his dog and their prey, Bugs Bunny. All the action is done to the music. The same holds true for the second number, "The Blue Danube." This second part was totally lame except for the great artwork.The colors in here at stunning, and might be the highlight of the whole cartoon. The laughs were not plentiful, but you can't win them all.This cartoon is part of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two and can be seen on disc three.

Nicely made Warner's Cartoon "Merrie Melody" from 1943. The Warners' Cartoon stable occasionally took a swipe at the far most prestigious Disney group across town. Here they decide to have a go at Disney's one attempt at grand art - his musical cartoon movie FANTASIA, which did episodes such as alligators and hippopotomi dancing ballet, or Mickey Mouse in the cartoon's most famous sequence: The Sorceror's Apprentice, or Moussorgski's A NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN followed by Schubert's Ave Maria.The Warners Cartoons never (at that time) expanded beyond nine minutes - usually they were seven to eight minutes. So there was no full scale spoof on the Disney masterpiece. But everyone could see the spoof by the appearance of the shadow on the podium (Leopold Stowkowski in FANTASIA - here it was Elmer Fudd). Elmer introduces the two segments (both Johann Strauss the Younger standbys: THE TALES FROM THE VIENNA WOODS and ON THE BEAUTIFUL BLUE DANUBE). He too tries to uplift the cultural level of the audience, by explaining how the melody flows around and around, "and it comes out here". To people not around in the 1940s, it is a reference to a popular tune, "THE MUSIC GOES ROUND AND ROUND". Elmer's attempt at cultural awareness is undercut by his shirtfront, which keeps popping up and hitting him in the face. He eventually tears the shirt off. Later he strips even more.THE TALES FROM THE VIENNA WOODS is a ballet with Porky as the hunter (filling in for master of ceremonies Elmer), hunting Bugs. He has brought along his hunting dog, and Bugs (progressively more effeminate in this ballet than usual) is able to fool them. There is a bit of a knock at SWAN LAKE here, with Bugs disarming the hunters, only to enrage a squirrel by hitting him with the rifle. Then, for the first time in any Bugs Bunny cartoon, Bugs dies (briefly). His resurrection, involving a brazier, is also unique in his cartoons.ON THE BEAUTIFUL BLUE DANUBE deals with a variant on the "ugly Duckling" of Hans Christian Anderson. Lonely baby Daffy wants to be accepted by a family of Swans (a mother and her three daughters), but he is obviously a duck. He proves himself when he bests a vulture who momentarily grabs the three baby swans. The avenging Daffy takes on the appearance of a U.S. Air Force fighter plane, while the vulture suddenly takes on a yellow coloring. The most subtle point in this sequence is when the mother Swan faints after failing to find her three children. She has fallen faint in the center of a pond or lake surrounded with water. A shocked Daffy runs off, gets a pail of water, and flings it on the Swan - without any effect whatsoever to the Swan.A delightful romp into cultural pratfalls, to the strings of Strauss.