Bad Luck Blackie

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 he ever did. 'Bad Luck Blackie' is another example of an animated masterpiece and one of his all time best. Like the best of Tex Avery, 'Bad Luck Blackie' is a cartoon of amazing quality, is very creative and hilarious, and has a potentially distasteful premise actually done inventively and tastefully.

The kitten is adorable and a character one roots for. The funnier and more interesting character though is the bulldog, who is both scarily formidable and hilarious. The voice work as to be expected is marvellous.

Avery does a wonderful job directing, with his unique, unlike-any-other visual and characteristic and incredibly distinctive wacky humour style all over it as can be expected.

Once again there is nothing sadistic or repetitious, instead it's imaginative, wonderfully wild and hilarious throughout from start to finish. The sight gags throughout are an absolute joy and are immaculate in timing.

It is no surprise either that the animation is superb, being rich in colour and detail. The character designs are unique, Avery always did have creative character designs, and suitably fluid. The music, courtesy of Scott Bradley, is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed.

Summing up, another Avery masterpiece. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Tex Avery strikes again with this funny little cartoon. It's about a little cat who's been bullied by a large bulldog, and so turns to the services of the "Black Cat Bad Luck Company," which offers "Paths Crossed - Guaranteed Bad Luck." As soon as the streetwise alley cat crosses the dog's path, a flower pot drops from the sky and knocks him out. Given a whistle, the little cat can summon help anytime - which he does, again and again. The gag is repetitive, but the variations on the theme are amusing, including the dog trying to reverse his fortunes with a horseshoe, getting his hands on the whistle, and using some white paint. The various ways his body contorts and how he runs along on two fingers are funny, but note there is one unfortunate Asian stereotype when he's gone up the chimney of an outdoor grill (mercifully it's very brief). Overall, quite entertaining.

This short from 1949 was included from the early "Tom and Jerry" series the episode called "Bad Luck Blackie" was one of Tex Avery's best. The short was smart and clever. As the story moves with logic and makes sense and with a typical cartoon it has chase and action, it just doesn't have Tom cat or Jerry mouse in it. The story involves a bullied and tormented kitten who just can't escape the paws and jaws of a big unique laughing bulldog. Only things change when little kitty finds the services of a black cat named "Bad Luck Blackie". And on the side the trick is a piece of equipment that the cat carries that is a little whistle and with one blow the black cat crosses the big bulldog's path to save the day for little kitty. Things that drop from the sky to punish the bulldog are simple to far out from a flowerpot, to bigger items like a piano, a bomb and other things. The only short and slim luck the dog has is some white paint only the little kitten has learned the game and outsmarts the big dog! Really this short stayed true to the old myth of being aware and scared of crossing black cats. Overall well done short that's enjoyable and teaches a superstition like themed message!

This Tex Avery effort is virtually a crash course-pun intended-on how to make a Tex Avery cartoon. Take a wholly unsympathetic villain (in this case, a bully), add a victim ( a cute little kitten), show the bully in action and then set up a means for the bad guy to get what they deserve and then some, making certain that there's room for roughly 5,306 sight gags along the way. Tex Avery created or helped develop Bugs Bunny, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel and Chilly Willy, to name a few. Many of his cartoons centered around that basic outline, with some variation. Sight gags, sight gags and more sight gags. Most recommended.

This is absolutely vintage Tex Avery. The villain in this story is a bulldog who spends most of his time tormenting a kitten. There is a kind of ugly scene where the kitten is thrown way up in the air. The bulldog pulls a sofa cushion out and pretends to catch he cat, but pulls it away at the last minute. Frustrated and scared, the little guy meets a black alley cat who has the power to cross people's paths, giving them bad luck. Now sight gag after sight gag comes. Each is more clever the former. The bulldog never seems to learn a lesson. He is a sociopath, so his life is devoted to causing harm. I think the high point of this cartoon is the creative ways the bulldog is punished. Tex Avery throws in some of that eye popping, double taking stuff that he did, and makes this a real delight.