The First Bad Man

...told as only Tex Avery could! One funny thing is that if you would have seen this in 1955, you would have assumed that Dallas had a subway system. Well, we finally got one (actually a light-rail system) in the 1990s. (Dallas did have a trolley system back then that has fortunately been revived recently!) Whether you are a Texan or not (but ESPECIALLY if you are!), search this cartoon out. You will be a big kick out of it! Just don't come to Dallas searching for those huge cliffs, desert landscapes, or that jail -- but luckily, Dallas has learned to take itself a little less seriously in the past couple of decades, and you will see other fun things!

I know my summary might be confusing, but this is a Tex Avery cartoon featuring the voice of cowboy singing star Tex Ritter. And, incidentally it's set in Texas!

The cartoon is narrated by Ritter and he tells how Texas was originally an old west caveman town...much like Bedrock! You see all sorts of Flintstone-like guys wearing leopard skins and sporting cowboy hats. And, there are tons of anachronisms as well as the world's first bandit doing what old west bandits do best.

While the animation is not good, mostly because studios were deliberately choosing to make simpler (and uglier) cartoons with low cel-counts, it's a very entertaining cartoon. Clever and kinda funny.

It's Dallas today. It has the first jail which held the first bad man back in one million B.C. It's a Tex Avery cartoon. It's a fun idea but it does need some more characterization. It only has the voice of the narrator which is revealed at the end. It's a funny little reveal but Tex Ritter doesn't strike me as the villainous voice. While I like the switcharoo, it might work better if the narrator has a running argument with the bad man and it is revealed at the end that the narrator is actually the dinosaur.

Tex Ritter narrates this Tex Avery cartoon about the first Texas bank robber, set during the days when cave men and dinosaurs roamed the Permian.

Ritter's narration slows down the pace of this typically gag-filled Avery cartoon. The jokes are all about the juxtaposition of contemporary attitudes about Texas and how cavemen look funny drawing twenty-shot handguns on each other. It's a typically funny Tex Avery cartoon.

I make no claim that this is a great cartoon or that there is anything special or noteworthy about it in any technical sense. I LOVE IT!!!! It's the first Tex Avery I can remember and therefore remains much beloved. SO SUE ME!!! Recommended.