Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted December 27, 2006 12:19 PM
I don't do reviews of cartoons all that often, but this one is a special favorite of mine, and, in my personal opinion, Sylvesters best solo effort without Tweety.
This is remake of "Notes to You", (1941) which starred Porky in the role that Elmer plays now, and another cartoon cat that didn't become a star. The original was quite funny as well.
The plot is quite simple, Elmer desires sleep, Sylvester desires singing on the backyard fence. What is wonderful is how this film is executed. This was directed by the great Friz Freleng. Story was by Tedd Pierce and Micheal Maltese. Some funny gags such as Elmer throwing a book at the annoying cat, (The Thin Man) and the book being returned (Return of the Thin Man).
There are many styles to the songs, "Largo Al Factotum (from the Barber of Seville), the Second Hungarian Raspody, Sextette from Lucia Di Lammermoor, "All classicals, as well as a then current WW2 hit, "You Never Know Where Your Going Til Ya Get There". It ends with a Frank Sinatra then Spike Jones "Angel in Disguise"
There is never a dull moment in this cartoon. There is a wonderful bit of animation AND special effect where Elmer constantly trips going up and down the stairs, threw some tacks, (OW! placed there by Sylvester), and then back threw all that to get his club. Sylvester relaizes he's about to get pounded, so he gives his songbook to a large fat cat with a very high falsetto voice. The Fat cat gets pounded in a rather funny style, his voice slowing down like an under-cranked record, Hilarious!!
In the end, Elmer blows himself up, thinking he's gained peace, only to realize that now there are all nine of Sylvesters lives singing in harmony. Elmer chooses to jump off his cloud and fall to hell! THE END
This is an incredible cartoon and worthy of multiple viewings. You won't be sorry. This is one of those rare cases where the re-make of the original was better, but then Friz was redoing his own cartoon and Friz definitely improved with age.
Interestingly, both versions of this cartoon are available on Super 8. "Notes to You" was offered (sorry, the company escapes me), what is interesting about this print is that it is the colorized version of the cartoon. (Warner Brothers had nearly all of thier cartoons colorized in the early 70's, thinking that they would be more marketable for TV, as they thought nobody would want to watch B/W cartoons, what a bunch of idiots! When they copied the cartoons, they left out many a frame of animation, which made these look very cheap. The original B/W cartoons are very well animated, the same was done to the Betty Boop cartoons as well, same shabby results).
Fortunately, "Notes to You" was one of the well done re-animating in color that was done, with a few bad moments, but good.
Back Alley Oproar was offered by Cantenbury films, (I don't know if there were any offer film companies offering it.)
It is a very good rpint, but it does show a flaw inherant in many super 8 releases. My print has very good color for the titles, but when it switches into the actual cartoon, the color is slightly faded, which means that the original print was slightly faded to begin with, except for the title cards, of course.
The sharpness of both prints is above average, (especially the Cantenbury print. The Cantenburys were always pretty darned good). The film soundtrack on both is quite good as well!
Search out this cartoon! You will not be dissappointed!
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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