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(rating: 3 stars / 1 review)
Animation > Theatrical Short
Reviews for The Cat That Hated People
posted: Apr 13, 2006
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World-Class Animation Critic
Despite basically inventing Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck before he threw a fit and stormed out of Warner, Tex Avery was never a great one for using the same characters over and again. Even in his later 15 or so years with MGM I think the only vaguely major character he invented was Droopy. He was much happier with 'one-shots' - unique shorts involving characters you hadn't met before. And to a large extent, I appreciate that. It tends to get less bogged down in formula.

***Some spoilers***

In this one shot, a cat spends a few minutes telling us about how awful humans are, and how he'd even go to the moon to get away from them. Coincidentally he happens to be walking past a rocketship store at the time, and without a second thought climbs into the moon rocket and takes off (I don't know how he pays for it. Avery doesn't worry about details like that)

When he gets there he basically lands in Tex Avery land. He is pursued by a hammer repeatedly banging a nail into the ground, a piano accordion that plays itself, an invisible dog chasing a fire hydrant, a pair of scissors cutting up a newspaper, a tube of lipstick chasing a pair of disembodied lips... he gets back to earth via a sort of 'Duck Amuck' kind of trick and decides that humans aren't so bad after all, even if they walk all over him.

Tex Avery perhaps didn't hit the heights or artistry of Chuck Jones at his best, but for sheer lunacy (excuse the pun) and rapid fire action, he trumps just about everyone.