Hound Hunters

George and Junior get jobs as dog catchers. Unfortunately, the first dog they try to catch is a tiny little cutie-pie with great big nasty teeth. So they resort to subterfuge in the typically funny Tex Avery style of exaggerated and futile reactions.

Avery was not one for extended series; at MGM he created Screwy Squirrel, Droopy, and George and Junior, but seems to have tired of them rather quickly..... although Droopy kept going until after Avery had left. I suspect that Avery's kitchen sink filled with gags soon emptied for each character, and then he had to either repeat himself or move on to the next stand-alone cartoon. He usually did the latter.

George and Junior are hobos looking for a job from the newspaper ads. They are hired as dogcatchers but have great difficulties catching any dogs. This is a Tex Avery cartoon. It has some fun. I'm guessing that George and Junior are referencing Of Mice and Men. This is the first of their cartoons that I've seen. They certainly are a fun duo but the sadness of the source material probably held it back somewhat. This is a good cartoon short.

Tex Avery only created a few continuing characters. This short features a team he developed, George and Junior, patterned after the lead characters in Of Mice and Men, which was a fairly frequent source for inspiration for not only Avery, but other cartoon directors as well. George and Junior aren't too funny in and of themselves, but rather they serve as foils and/or victims for situations and sight gags that are thrown at them. Characters weren't terribly important individually to Avery, what happened around and to them was. Thus, the closest he came to doing a popular character and using them over and over himself, was Droopy. Somewhat ironic, given his role at Warner Brothers in the early years in developing many of the mainstays of the animation department. This is a very good short and fortunately, it's in print. Well worth watching. Recommended.

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 ever made by anybody. The second George and Junior cartoon 'Hound Hunters' doesn't represent him at his best, this was prime-era Tex Avery (1940s at the MGM) and most other cartoons from this period were far more representative of that which does make the cartoon a slight disappointment. While it is a long way from being one of his funniest or most inventive, 'Hound Hunters' is not a bad cartoon at all, and other than a slight lack of variety (inevitable when the humour revolves mostly around a running gag) there is very little wrong with it. To me, it is one of the better George and Junior cartoons.

Although it is not hilarious, 'Hound Hunters' does have very amusing moments and is timed well, and while Avery's wild and wacky approach that is so distinctive comes through stronger elsewhere this is hardly devoid of either.

George and Junior are an appealing and amusing double act. The dog is a good foil. Avery is also on voice acting duty and he shows as much talent for that as he had for directing and animating, both of which he also does a characteristically very good job. Dick Nelson joins him with the voice acting and he's fine.

It is no surprise 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.

Overall, nowhere near classic Avery but worth tracking down. 8/10 Bethany Cox

George and Junior (sort of like cartoon versions of George and Lenny from "Of Mice and Men") decide to stop living the hobo life and get jobs. They become dog catchers but naturally not very good ones. When they see a tiny (and very large-headed) dog roaming about, Junior turns out to be afraid of dogs! Additionally, this tiny dog becomes a very formidable foil. So, George comes up with all sorts of crazy schemes to catch him--the sort of goofy things you'd expect from a film directed by Tex Avery.

So is it any good? It's Tex Avery-directed--so of course, it's very good!! However, the animation quality (especially the backgrounds) was even better than usual and was very striking. While not among Avery's very best with MGM, it is a darned good cartoon that I cannot imagine anyone not enjoying. Terrific.