The Legend of Rockabye Point

After Tex Avery was let go from M-G-M, rather than let his talents as a animation director/animation supervisor (take your choice)go down the tubes by retiring,he went to work for Walter Lanz (Woody Woodpecker,Andy Panda,etc.)at Universal. He managed to produce the usual high quality output of funny,funny material. This is just another shining example. This is a Chilly Willy episode,where Chilly & a rather deranged looking polar bear are both eyeballing a ship filled to the nine's with fresh fish. The only thing keeping both from scoring a booty of fish is a rather scary looking bulldog,guarding the ship from theft. What results is a series of gags where the bear trying to pilfer the fish,with Chilly waking the enraged dog,who bites the bear on the ass,where the bear has to sing 'Rock A Bye Baby', over and over again. This is another one of those laugh until you're sick to your stomach shorts (and I wouldn't want it any other way). It's a damned pity that these animated shorts have become neglected over the years. Perhaps,Cartoon Network's off shoot station, Boomerang will one day get the broadcasting rights to air this stuff from Universal.

Chilly Willy's best cartoons were perfect examples of how a potentially one-joke character and concept could end up actually being a perfect mix of the cute and the funny with a lot of colour and good comic timing to go with it.

'The Legend of Rockabye Point' is the second of Tex Avery's two Chilly Willy cartoons after the wonderful 'I'm Cold'. As good as that cartoon was, this is even better, one of the best Avery (an animation genius) ever did and one of his last masterpieces in a long career full of them. As far as Chilly Willy cartoons go, 'The Legend of Rockabye Point' is one of the best, Avery's involvement may have something to do with it.

Animation is the smoothest and most refined yet of the Chilly Willy cartoons in terms of drawing. There are also some lovely colours and handsomely rendered backgrounds, while there are some more imaginative visuals than before. The music is full of lively bounce and character, with luscious orchestration. It not only adds to the action and visuals but enhances them too.

Timing is nigh-on perfect, with Avery on excellent form with the hilarious gags with the funniest moments coming from the polar bear. The best of them are rich in invention and are hilarious, while an idea that is not exactly original is dealt with with so much freshness that that is insignificant.

No denying that Chilly is absolutely adorable without being cloying and has a few amusing moments, but he is more of a supporting character here with the lion's share belonging to the bulldog and particularly the polar bear. Not that that matters, Chilly was one of those characters where just the sight of him was more than enough at times. The chemistry between the three of them is brilliant though, which was essential in the cartoon's success being its driving force.

Overall, exceptional. Avery and Chilly Willy fans shouldn't miss this one. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Tex Avery was the best director of cartoon shorts, certainly in the Golden Age and probably ever. In my opinion, The Legend of Rockabye Point is his best short in a long, distinguished career. t's nominally a Chilly Willy cartoon, but the primary focus is not Chilly, but a polar bear named Charlie and a bulldog (I think his name is Sam) and the perfect Avery running gag. That this is not currently in-print saddens me beyond belief. It should be. I wish I had this cartoon! Highly recomended.

. . . weigh 330 pounds--EACH. Yet this nature film depicts them as smallish finned creatures, similar to bluegills, only green. This is what viewers can expect when they're being force-fed misinformation from that source of all deception, Texas. The director of THE LEGEND OF ROCK-A-BYE POINT even identifies himself with the initial 60% of that cursed word. By appointing this very identical baffled bozo as character designer, storyboard artist and writer, it's clear that Universal deviously intended to horrify patrons with the final result of this experiment in prevarication. This is why librarians in normal patriotic loyal states burn any book approved by the Texas School Board.

Pros: Glad it got an Oscar nomination; Avery as usual Cons: Seen familiar Avery gags before, but that doesn't bother me