New Zealand's fourth most popular five minute podcast about TV Squad returns! As always, you can either listen to it right in your browser or subscribe to it via iTunes and bring the dulcet tones of my voice with you on the subway. I can't think of anything better than hearing me talk about Ashton Kutcher's possible exposure to Hep A while being stabbed to death by one of the Shower Posse.
Tex Avery's Droopy: The Complete Theatrical Collection will be released May 15. Here's an early look:
Tex Avery made a name for himself at Warner Bros before moving on to MGM. He helped create such iconic characters as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck while working for Warner Bros, but what I've always loved about Droopy (whom Avery created at MGM) is that, save for rare moments of abandon, he's the polar opposite of his cartoon contemporaries over at Warner Studios. Sure, Bugs could be unflappable and insouciant, but he still had that "looney" quality. Droopy, however, never seemed to care about annoying his nemesis the way Bugs did, he just lived by a code that the good guy would always win, and his universe always stretched and squashed to make sure that's exactly how things went.
It's almost impossible to find any Tex Avery cartoons on television anymore, which is exactly why God created the DVD. Some people might argue that Man created the DVD, not God, but if that's true, then how did God know Adam and Eve ate the Forbidden Fruit unless he watched it on DVD? And don't tell me that's the most idiotic thing you've ever heard -- I hear enough of that from the Bible publishers who refuse to accept my revisions to the Book of Genesis.
I'll have to admit right at the start here that I have no idea what Charlie and Lola is. I mean, I know several Charlies, and I even met a Lola once (she was a showgirl), but I'd never heard of Charlie and Lola until I read this Slate piece about finding the perfect cartoon for your child. Stephen Metcalf even has a conversation with his 3 year old daughter about the show.
There's also a quick history of animation, from Max Fleischer and Walt Disney to Chuck Jones and Tex Avery. Adam, are you reading this?