The Legend of Rockabye Point

Tex Avery and Michael Maltese were known to repeat their gags, honing them to perfection.

This cartoon is the epitome of the "sleeping" gag Avery did in several of his Metro cartoons.

This particular cartoon is in my top twenty-five of the best.

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.

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

I have to agree with the user who called this their "favorite Tex Avery cartoon of all time." I agree 1000%. Every single time i watch this cartoon it makes me laugh. The bulldog who bites the polar bear's ass every single time he tries to steal the fish, the strange kinship the two of them develop, the wacky music track (based on "Rockabye Baby")...

It's all too much!

On my personal list of the greatest cartoons of all time, this cartoon would be ranked Number One... With a bullet! Although there are many great cartoons, there's just something about this cartoon... I think it might be the best punchline ever.

And you know what? This is exactly what is wrong with most of the so-called humor of today. Everyone hates Saturday Night Live (finally), the show stinks, but their first sin was ignoring the importance of a PUNCH LINE! This is what all good humor is based on. Otherwise, it's like sex with out a climax, people!!!

Humor is supposed to build a comic situation to a point where there is a release. From Mark Twain to Harold Lloyd to the Marx Brothers to Preston Sturges to every other great humorist, these rules have been followed... Until todays' garbage humor of SNL, Adult Swim (Cartoon Network) and one bad sitcom after another has tried to ignore the basic rules of humor. But shows like King of Queens, Seinfeld, and even Beavis and Butthead prove that the punchline still matters.

So this cartoon IMHO is the best because it has the best punchline of all time. Period.

DEATH TO SNL!

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.