Slap Happy Lion

A mouse tells the tale of how he drove a lion insane with terror in this Tex Avery cartoon.

It's a fine cartoon, and had anyone but Avery directed this, it would have been a classic. Avery's MGM cartoons, however, were so continually brilliant, that they have to be considered by the standards of his work, and so this one is just standard brilliant. It's one comic cartoon bit after another, in seemingly endless parade, until he's filled up the time limit, and it ends quickly. That's a standard feature of Avery's cartoons: it's series of gags linked by a situation, less than the story-telling techniques that almost every other cartoon maker used. True, there is a story of sorts, but that disappears under the constant barrage of jokes, leaving the capping joke at the end fairly weak.

Still, even standard Avery is among the best. If you don't know this one, it's tremendous fun.

Slap Happy Lion (1947) is another short from cartoon king Tex Avery. In this short, a mouse is the only creature in the jungle who'll stand up to the king of beasts. The lion scares the hell out of every creature in his domain except some dumb mouse. This troubles the lion who tries to do everything he can to teach this mouse a lesson.

A bizarre animated short from Tex Avery. Not only is the story crazy but the visuals and sight gags are outrageous and over the top. Another winner from the man!

Highly recommended.

A+

When director Tex Avery left Looney Toons to work at MGM, there was a marked change in his work. Suddenly, his cartoons had an insanity to them that set them apart from his peers....and his MGM films are classics. Just watch "Swing Shift Cinderella", "Bad Luck Blackie" or "Little 'Tinker" and you'll see what I mean...he was responsible for the strangest, funniest and most surreal cartoons of his age. However, compared to these bizarro films, his "Slap Happy Lion" is amazingly normal.

The story begins with a lion being carted from the zoo to the booby hatch. Then a small mouse explains what brought the lion to this point....and the short consists of this same mouse terrorizing the lion...much like Jerry the Mouse terrorizes Tom the Cat.

This is a good film despite its lack of weirdness. Worth seeing.

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. 'Slap Happy Lion' is another example of an animated masterpiece and one of his all time best. Like the best of Tex Avery, 'Slap Happy Lion' 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.

The lion (the king of the jungle) is a very funny and well established and the conflict with the mouse, cute but with a strong personality, is very strong.

The voice work as to be expected is marvellous.

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 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 this Tex Avery short the meanest lion in the jungle does battle with a mouse. The sequence in which the lion scares the animals with his roaring is enough to make this worth watching. Just when you think they couldn't possibly come up with a crazier sight gag...Tex pulls out another one.