Bad Luck Blackie

Voices of: William Hanna, Tex Avery
Directed by: Tex Avery
Rating: Approved
Genre: Short, Animation, Comedy
Length: 7 minutes
1949

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A kitten is tormented by a bulldog, but is helped out by a black cat.

Review:

Tim: I've seen a lot of these animated shorts over and the years and the reality is that most are interchangeable. Sure, there's small differences here and there, but it's all the same slapstick humor. Bad Luck Blackie might follow that formula, but Tex Avery's short executes on it perfectly. This is one of the best made animated shorts I've seen.

Like all of them, the set up is familiar. A big bulldog is continuously bothering a small kitten. This changes when the kitten meets a black cat, who teaches him how to harness the power of bad luck to stop his tormentor. The action comes fast and furious and it's really, really funny.

I watched this short with my seven year-old son and 3.5 year-old daughter and they loved it. Shoot, I loved it too. It was so funny to watch this big mean bulldog continually pummeled every time he went after the kitten. It's all slapstick, but it was expertly done and very, very funny. I found myself eagerly waiting to see what the next bit of bad luck would be to befall the dog. Pain and devastation might not be the best kind of humor, but it was quite effective here.

Like most of these shorts, the film moves very quickly, barely giving you a chance to take a breath. By the time the 7 minutes were up, I honestly wished the short was longer. That so rarely happens. Usually I'm either relieved it's over, or satisfied with what we got. It was a rare occurrence to wish the movie was longer. That's a testament to what Avery did here.

Bad Luck Blackie was really funny and entertaining. It's one of the better of these shorts that I've seen.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: N/A



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Kitty Foiled, A Star is Bored