Dangerous Dan McFoo

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. This is the first of two cartoons he made based on Service's poem, the other being the 1945 Droopy cartoon 'The Shooting of Dan McGoo'. Of the two, there is a preference for the funnier and more imaginative later cartoon, one of Droopy's greatest cartoons and one of the best Avery himself did. 'Dangerous Dan McFoo' is still very good, with not really anything wrong, just that the later cartoon did it better. The story is a little thin and the ending is not as strong as the rest of the cartoon.

The characters all engage and have compelling personalities. They are also very well voiced by some of the most talented voice actors of the time and ever, some, especially Arthur Q. Bryan using immediately unmistakable voices which may be strange at first but is actually effective.

'Dangerous Dan McFoo' is not as imaginative or as hilarious as 'The Shooting of Dan McGoo', but it is still inventive and very amusing.

Tex 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. Humour-wise, it's clever and wonderfully exaggerated in typical Avery fashion.

Once again with Avery, 'Dangerous Dan McFoo' is beautifully and brilliantly animated as usual. The character designs are unique, Avery always did have creative character designs, and suitably fluid. The music, courtesy of master Carl Stalling, is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed and even enhances it.

Summing up, very good if not brilliant like the later 'Dan McGrew'-based Avery cartoon. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I ended up watching this because I picked up the blu ray for Dodge City-a Western from the same year this short was released. It is a funny short in large part because it basically does not have a plot. For such a short film it plays like a series of gags and parodies, i.e. Hepburn. It also had one of the darkest gags I have seen in a Tex Avery short. This short is not a classic by any stretch but if you like early American animation this is a good find.

"Dangerous Dan McFoo" is a Looney Tunes cartoon set somewhere in the frozen North...probably the Yukon or Alaska. The small dog, Dan McFoo, is roughed up by a larger bully dog. Dan has had enough and decides to fight back, as his Katharine Hepburn-like doggy girlfriend cheers him on in the fight.

This is an odd cartoon because Dan is voiced by Arthur Q. Bryan, the same guy who voiced Elmer Fudd. And, Dan sounds EXACTLY like Elmer as well. As for the quality of the cartoon, it's decent...with nice animation and a few laughs. Nothing memorable here but it is enjoyable.

We first see "Dangerous Dan" and it's not who except to see, but a meek little guy who sounds like Elmer Fudd. In fact, as Mr. Reynolds states in another review here, it IS the voice of Mr. Fudd (Arthur Q. Ryan). The barmaid at the "Malibu Bar" where the action takes place, also is a weird. She looks like Betty Boop, talks like Katharine Hepburn, but is supposed to be Bette Davis. What the.....? Whoever she is, she Dan's girl...but the wolf who just entered the bar doesn't care. He's the obvious villain.

The rest of the cartoon is a boxing match between the two foes, complete with a referee and a very strange way to announce each new round. It was fairly interesting but the very end was lame. The cartoon was a feature in the DVD of the Errol Flynn film, "Dodge City."

A small dog is playing pinball with his friends and his girlfriend when a wolf arrives at the bar out of the cold night. However the wolf tries to hit on Dan's girlfriend which forces him to defend her honour in a impromptu fist fight.

With the `wacky' animation and exaggerated jokes this is the type of cartoon that I like the best. In this case there are quite a few off-the-wall moments that show good imagination but the plot lets it down by giving too few moments to show this humour off. The plot is essentially one fist fight which, while amusing, never offers more than the most basic jokes.

The characters are OK despite not being established faces and they manage to do well even if they are just characters written to be one thing – shy hero, gangster's moll etc. Overall this may not be hilarious but it is still enjoyable with a few good laughs scatter amongst a lot of pretty average material.