The House of Tomorrow

This is a very good cartoon from Tex Avery, a master of the art form known as the animated short. Avery typically came up with a premise, often an innocuous one and then proceeded to do the most outlandish and ridiculous sight gags imaginable fired rapidly at the audience starting from the basic idea. Usually, there is a running gag threading its way throughout the short. This time, Avery is ostensibly giving his ausience a look at the house of tomorrow. Hilarious and glorious fun. Highly 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 he ever did. 'The House of Tomorrow' is another example of an animated masterpiece and one of his all time best. Like the best of Tex Avery, 'The House of Tomorrow' is a cartoon of amazing quality, is very creative and hilarious as one would expect from Avery on top form like he is here. Even when he wasn't at his best, he still delivered, have yet to see a "bad" effort from him.

Simply love the house of tomorrow/of the future, it is so cool and makes one wish that they had the appliances that are as innovative as the plot summary suggests. Particularly loved the automatic orange juicer, the radishes device and the guest chair. 'The House of Tomorrow' is somewhat of the time, but it also feels ahead of its time.

The characters are great fun. The mother-in-law is a riot and the jokes around her are deliciously witty and sly, personally didn't think they were that over-used. The voice work is terrific, which is not unexpected.

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, rapid-fire, razor-sharp 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

In postwar America, many cars and household items would have a futuristic appeal to them, and can still look cutting edge today. This short shows how, in humorous fashion, the homes americans will be living in soon are completely modern. The short begins by showing a small cube which miraculously unpacks into a full sized house, complete with two upper platforms on either side containing a swimming pool and a tennis court. Inside the house, things get even more bizarre. The narrator says if the house needs more moisture, all you have to do is push a button and a small cloud is dispatched from a door in the ceiling, which proceeds to rain all over the living room. The house also features a cutting edge chair that transforms into different forms to suit the different members of the family. For the mother-in-law, it turns into an electric chair. The bathroom contains a strange device that claims to be able to give anyone a perfect shave in seconds, but testing it on some guy just shears off every part of his face (except eyes). In the kitchen, a new appliance claims to make the arduous efforts of housewives manually cooking food obsolete. Pressure cookers of tomorrow boast the magical ability to make a complete meal just by putting the required ingredients in them. However, after doing so, it blows up and takes the kitchen with it. These are just a selection of the things shown in this cartoon, but all of them seem to have the same mocking tone; I feel like this was made to satirize people wanting everything to be futuristic, and how old, tried and true things work better. Because america had come out of World War 2 so much wealthier than going into it, it was easy for people in the late 40s and 50s to want to see the country do something with its new potential, namely futuristic cars and items that would wow any visitors or neighbors. While things like these would be nice to have, vanity and showing off won't get you far. When you look at this short from this angle, it would make sense why it has an element of comedy to it. It's still enjoyable enough regardless.

The narrator holds out a tiny box which opens up to be the house of tomorrow. It's a lot of wacky futuristic innovations as they walk through the house. Every scene holds some sight gags.

It's a Tex Avery MGM cartoon. It's a series of inventive sight gags. It's fun. The in-law joke does get repetitive. It's one gag after another. There isn't much to the flow or pacing. What it does need is a recognizable character as the lead. It needs a family of known characters. As it stands, it has a standard 50's non-descript nuclear family. It's perfectly fine, but it needs a better narrative. Maybe a thief can break into the House of Tomorrow.

I have to admit that I only loosely know Tex Avery's work (namely that it was the inspiration for "The Mask"), but "The House of Tomorrow" is still a treat. A look at how people in 1949 imagined that future dwellings would be - think "The Jetsons" - there are some things that might eat at us in the 21st century, namely the fact that the cartoon envisions housewives staying home cooking and cleaning while their husbands go to work.

But, as long as we understand that this cartoon was a product of its era, we can accept it for what it is. And I think that everyone can agree about the mother-in-law; it looks like they were talking about Endora on "Bewitched". In conclusion, this cartoon will always remain a classic! And about that woman on dad's TV: meow meow...