Edgar Allan Pooh
. . . falling asleep in a public library with this Looney Tune from the Mid-1940s, BOOK REVUE. Characters from various stories blend together and interact with each other amid a constant cacophony of loud noise. I have found my local library branches to be among America's noisiest places, as about half the people there are near-deaf (constantly shouting for help from the Reference Librarians, since these hopeless geezers were born in the 1900s, before computers were invented), while the other half of library "patrons" tend to be odoriferous foreigners yelling into their cell phones because 1)they were NOT reared in American Polite Society, and 2)they think that intercontinental communication requires them to raise such a ruckus. When MY ancestors arrived in the U.S., they were content to confine themselves to log cabins and sod huts, working hard to get ahead. With BOOK REVUE, Warner is telling us that by the 1940s a public library or "Booke Shoppe" was the WORST place to seek peace and quiet (and, of course, things have gotten worse ever since).
ccthemovieman-1
It's swoon time over Frank Sinatra in the little old book shop and all the female characters who come to life on the covers of books are shrieking and carrying on, even "Whistler's Mother."Musicians and all are not only to life but having fun with the music. All, that is, but Daffy Duck who jumps out of his comic book holding his ears, but then takes over the singing from there. That are a lot of period references here, not just to Frank, but Danny Kaye, W.C. Fields, Jimmy Durante, cigarette commercials and many, many classic books. It's really too wild and crazy to explain. Suffice to say this is wacky Daffy Duck in one of his craziest cartoons. He and director Robert Clampett made a tremendous pair with outrageous animated short films like this. Who else would have Daffy doing scat music to Little Red Riding Hood (a highlight)?As with some other Daffy Duck cartoons, this is total insanity....and a lot of us love it!
Lee Eisenberg
Part of the reason that the Looney Tunes cartoons were so great is that they exposed children to high culture. "Book Revue" is one of the many cartoons that does this. Featuring a book store where the literature does impersonations of Frank Sinatra, Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, and others, they go all out here.One thing that I have to admit is that when I was six years old, I didn't get the references; I mean, how many six-year-old children can identify William Shakespeare or Dante's "Inferno"? I also didn't know that Daffy Duck was doing a skit based on Danny Kaye.But even if you don't get all the jokes, it's still a hoot just for what they show. You're sure to love it.
movieman_kev
Daffy Duck stars in the surreal short that has all the books of a book store coming alive in humorous ways. Fawning over Frank Sinatra, whom Daffy seeks to steal the spotlight from with his Danny Kaye impersonation (and he succeeds I might add). He also goes up against the Big Bad Wolf in this great Robert Clampett short (and pretty much all of Clampetts work on Looney Tunes was indeed great, so for this to be one of the standouts is really saying something). This animated short can be seen on Disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2 and also features an optional commentary by Micheal Barrier.My Grade: A+
AD
