Did you people see the same film I saw?

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

. . . at the pretentious Fat Cats of the Oxfordian Camp, who cannot believe that a blue collar card-carrying UAW (United Avon Writers) Union member like Bill Shakespeare could scribble out the World's Most Famous Plays. Where ANONYMOUS is out for blood, having "The Virgin Queen's" son Oxford watch as their incestuous spawn (son\grandson Oxford, Junior) is beheaded for High Treason, the Warner Bros. animated short A HAM FOR A ROLE simply features a canine named "Dog" getting pied-in-the-face for the 98th and 99th times one afternoon. As this flea-ridden HAMLET wannabe also rehearses JULIUS CAESAR, ROMEO AND JULIET, plus RICHARD III (which is the play that gets heads rolling in ANONYMOUS), two "goofy" gophers try to turn phrases to which Bill Shakespeare would never resort, such as "Let's shall" and "I Shalst." Though HAM preceded ANONYMOUS by about 60 years, it is not only more succinct in Puncturing the Pompous Pontificators who refer to Bill as "The Bard," but it is also more spot-on in making sycophantic quill sniffers such as the Oxfordians (or the dupes who believe that a humorless, senile Tory Traitor named Clement Moore--America's most infamous plagiarist glory grabber--was connected to 'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHR!STMAS, penned by working class Revolutionary War hero Capt. Henry Livingston!) appear as ludicrous jokes, rather than the tragic figures of ANONYMOUS.

I have always loved Mac and Tosh, the Gopher Twins. They are cute and very wicked little characters from Looney Tunes that never fail to make me laugh--though they don't appear in this film until it is almost half complete.The cartoon begins with a very snooty, Frasier Crane sort of dog who is tired of slapstick and low humor, so he leaves the Looney Tunes studio for good. His intent is to become a Shakespearian actor but unfortunately, he comes into contact with the gophers--and they make his life miserable. And, being that this dog is so full of himself and sophisticated, it's fun to watch him being taken down a few pegs by the little rodents. Well worth seeing like all the Mac and Tosh films.

If you love The Goofy Gophers, you'll like A Ham in a Role just as much. A Ham in a Role is not quite as good in my view, but it's still thoroughly enjoyable. The animation is beautifully drawn and lusciously coloured, giving the cartoon a cosy and elegant old-fashioned charm. The music has so much character and verve, and I shall always admire how the Looney Tunes cartoons are orchestrated and how the instrumentation blends. The writing is irreverent, done in a way that makes Shakespeare still sound so fresh, and the gags are similarly clever, I can't decide which is my favourite of the horseshoe magnet or Limburger gags. The characters are great fun to watch, the dog's delivery of the Shakespearean lines are priceless while the overly-polite gophers(characters that don't get anywhere near enough credit) are both endearing and funny. Mel Blanc and Stan Freberg provide sterling vocals as expected. Overall, not quite as good as The Goofy Gophers but every bit as entertaining. 9/10 Bethany Cox

"A Ham in a Role" is a very clever Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Robert McKimson. A dog grows weary of lowbrow comedy and vows to brush up his Shakespeare, all the while the overly polite Goofy Gophers pull a series of pranks on him that relate to his recitations.Highlights: In the beginning, after the dog gets "creamed" with a pie, a stagehand pulling a billboard of chorus ladies' torsos makes an ever bigger ass out of the dog, thanks to some expert timing. When the canine dons a suit of medieval armor, the Gophers have fun with some horseshoe magnets. The Gophers drop a glop of Limburger onto the dog's face during his "rose by any other name" speech."A Ham in a Role" is indeed very funny, but after awhile, I begin to feel for the dog. After all, he is diligently trying to study something quite worthwhile, but the Goofy Gophers apparently tell him to stick with what he already knows.