The Early Bird Dood It! (1942) Online

Tex Avery made two shorts for MGM in 1942, after leaving Warner Brothers in a dispute with producer Leon Schlesinger. Warner's loss was MGM's gain. The two shorts were The Blitz Wolf and this one. I believe this one was done first. Blitz Wolf was nominated for an Academy Award and is justifiably considered a classic, but this one is a fairly good short too. Lots of sight gags, if slightly more talky than the standard Avery of the early 1940s. The ending is typical Avery, equal parts insanity, humor and pathos. By becoming a strong second unit for MGM and pushing Hanna and Barbera, Avery did MGM and cartoon lovers a great service, because everyone got better, even, ironically, Warner Brothers, which was able to give people like Robert McKimson more latitude as directors. Everyone benefited, especially Avery, who had to be shaken up every so often anyway, so he kept pushing the envelope rather than grow complacent and stagnate. Well worth watching. Recommended.

This was a Tex Avery M-G-M cartoon that I just watched on the Girl Crazy (Garland/Rooney version) DVD. The worm (who it seems sounds and acts a little like Lou Costello) is trying to get away from the early bird but, of course, he's not easy to get rid of. So when a cat is chasing a mouse in his view, the worm convinces the feline to chase the bird he wants to rid himself of. I'll stop there and just say what you expect from Tex based on his many cartoons, you'll find here as well like signs stating the obvious or unexpected endings. This was one he made after immediately leaving Leon Schlesinger's studio and it's safe to assume if he hadn't, Hanna-Barbera's Tom & Jerry cartoons would have probably not been as outrageous as they eventually got. So on that note, The Early Bird Dood It! is very much worth seeing.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.

Also have much admiration for Tex Avery, an animation genius whose best cartoons are animated masterpieces and some of the best cartoons ever made by anybody. 'The Early Bird Dood It!' was one of the first cartoons from Avery's finest period where he made some of his best ever cartoons. While it is not quite one of my favourites from him, there are cartoons of his that are a little more imaginative and took more risks, also not being as talky, 'The Early Bird Dood It!' is nonetheless great and a fine representation of what made Avery so good and influential.

It is no surprise that, as with a vast majority of Avery's cartoons regardless of the period, the animation is excellent. Very rich in colour, the backgrounds have meticulously good detail and the character designs are distinctively Avery in style and are fluid in movement. The music, courtesy of Scott Bradley, is typically lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed, even enhancing the action.

Can't fault Avery, whose unmistakable and unlike-any-other style is all over, nor the dynamic voice acting and the very engaging characters. The bird for most of the cartoon is the most interesting, but the cat is the cleverest characterisation when it is revealed it is not what it initially appears. The ending is an unpredictable delight.

Overall, great even if even better was to follow. 9/10 Bethany Cox

"The Early Bird Dood It!" is an American cartoon from 1942, so this one is already over 75 years old and it is another work by Tex Avery. At sligthly under 9 minutes, it is a bit longer than most other cartoons from that time during World War II. And it is in color of course as usual with Avery's MGM works. As usual with Avery, this is a bit different than what you'd expect from the dominating Disney and Warner Bros during that time. The ending is the best example. You think the bird and cat actually died and it seemed that way, but then there is the usual things that makes things even more bizarre and maybe even unsuitable for the little ones. But typical for Avery. Cartoon animation for grown-ups and with that I don't mean it has adult stuff ot anything. As many other times with Avery, this is more about wit in terms of animation and about unexpected plot twists than really about fun or comedy or cuteness. The latter is something you will never find in Avery's works. The lake scene is the best example when the bird piicks up the lake like a carpet to find the work. Oh yeah, this film here is based on a famous proverb obviously, very loosely of course as you won't find a cat in there certainly. All in all, I must say that I was not entertained as well as I hoped I would be by this one, but then again I have never been a huge very fan, but even he has works that I enjoy a lot more than this one and I can still see why people like it I guess. It all depends on personal taste. I give it a thumbs-down though- Not recommended.

With "Blitz Wolf", Tex Avery had made a spectacular debut in the MGM studios, reinventing a new style of adult-aimed wackiness based on the deconstruction of tiresome animated clichés. The propaganda format was conventional for the time BUT it was nonetheless an Everest of hilarity reached by the genius. The second short "The Early Bird Dood it" proved that he had enough rope to climb higher.

The "Early Bird" is nothing of a masterpiece, even more impressive because it relies on a usual format: the chase between a hunter and a hunted character, based on the old saying about the early bird catching the worm. But this one is a pretty clever red- nosed worm, as evidenced by his hip bowler hat and trademark whistle, so it'll take more than getting up early. In fact, the worm established one of Tex' patterns, the smaller the creature is, the more intelligent, it creates a fair balance between the brawn and the brains. But this is not on that level that the short breaks the grounds. It's not even the initial disclaimer about possible similarities between the worm's behavior and any husband (Tex had already proved to be quite a wise-guy when it came to address his audience).

No, the real creation is in the entrance of the cat, which turns the shot into a triangular chase. The bird becomes the middle of the chain food, and naturally, as the biggest one, the cat is also the dumbest, and he's voiced by Dick Nelson who'd voice later the character of Junior in the "George and Junior" series. It's then easy for the worm to talk him into chasing and eating the bird, it's the perfect win-win deal, except that the bird won't be as easy to catch as the worm was. The next morning, the early cat hides behind a tree and raises a signal indicating that he's the cat, let's not get fooled, this is good old Tex winking at us. When the worms gets to his hole just in time, the cat immediately plays a "guess who" game with the bird, the bird guesses right, the cat accuses him of cheating, the bird bites the cat and gets the hell out, then the chase begins. And hilarity ensues.

And the chase is just an avalanche of gags one after another, from the cat getting hit on the head and sound being turned off for censorship, to the "slow" signal, from the five-minute break for a drink and the "here we go again" from the "Mrs. Mini-mum" ad with the cartoon of the same name in preview, and so on, even within such a conventional format as a chase between a cat and a bird or a bird and a worm, Tex Avery reveals to be an endless source of clever gags. They're so funny that they don't leave much for analysis except for one crucial aspect: the idea that roles are interchangeable in a cartoon. In my previous review of "Blitz Wolf", I mentioned that, as detestable as he was, the villain was still "sympathetic" enough so we could enjoy watching him. There's a fine line between vileness and dullness Avery never crosses.

There's no good or bad guy, we felt sorry for the bird's failed attempts and the cat being constantly on his tail, while the worm, as though as he was the main protagonist, was deliberately portrayed as an obnoxious character. It gets even more apparent when the chase between the cat and the bird ends at the bottom of a ravine, the worm looks sad, he takes his hat off and plays "Taps" a few seconds before turning it into a jazzy music. Then he gets back home uttering "that was a stupid cat". At that point, there's no way you can feel sympathy for the worm and the ending had a kind of bittersweet feeling but this is only Avery teasing our minds, there's like thirty seconds before the end of the cartoon, but what follows is perhaps one of the greatest ending ever, so the worm gives a final whistle and gets in his hole. The end? Not so fast!

What happens is just pure anticlimactic genius, the bird gets off the hole, he didn't eat the worm, he's still chewing him and after a final gulp, he whistles at us and gets back to his tree, satisfied, with the bowler hat as a trophy. He doesn't have time to enjoy his victory for the cat's face emerge from the tree with the bowler on his hat. He licks his mouth and whistles and after a little hic-cup, shows up a sign saying "sad ending, ain't it?" the images fades out on the sign and the macabre music playing. Morality: the early bird doesn't catch the worm, the late one sure does, and so does the cat.

What does that ending say anyway? Perhaps that no matter how smart you are, you just can't beat stronger than you. Tex Avery starts deconstructing the food chain which is the most predictable move in a cartoon but then provides the perfect twist ending when everything goes back to normal, and for all his hip and jazzy attitude, the worm becomes history, and just when the bird lets his guard down, he joins him. I don't think anyone could see it coming, especially not the audience used to see the "little one" winning, but Tex Avery proves that he doesn't indulge to conventionality and happy endings.

Tex Avery would always sacrifice his characters, because the priority is to make you laugh! And from that supposedly sad ending, he proved that his creatures are only meant to make people laugh, they were funny already but did they have to die at the end? Well think of it, what was the most unexpected thing to happen to them? Tex would always go for the most unpredictable move.