Aviation Vacation

This is one of the last cartoon shorts directed by Tex Avery before he left Merrie Melodies (Warner Brothers) and had a much more successful career with MGM. And considering the dubious quality of the material with "Aviation Vacation", it was a good decision! The first 2/3 of this cartoon is a very innocuous little cartoon--not particularly funny but on par with the sorts of shorts they were making before the studio really hit their stride with cartoons. It tries very hard to be a funny documentary about airplanes but most of the jokes fall pretty flat. At this point, I was very curious why the short has been shelved by Warner Brothers. However, at the five minute mark...WOW! This portion of the film was set in Africa and the natives all are the sorts of stereotypes that make folks cringe today--bones through the noses, huge lips and the like. It was embarrassing and sad...and not one bit funny. Combine that with the rest of the cartoon and I feel it is no great loss that this one was shelved. But, if you are curious, it can be downloaded for free at archive.org. Sad.

This early Tex Avery effort, made way back when he was still calling himself Fred, already features his crazy trademarks. The whole cartoon is just a collection of crazy sight gags one after another. On this plane trip to Africa (via Ireland), airplanes fly like birds, sound like trains and dance to music. Shadows move like they have a mind of their own, Mount Rushmore get a (at the time) topical joke and even the sun and moon get in on the act. Strangely enough there are no references to W.W.II.

During a musical interlude Patrick the Irish man (who looks amazingly like the young Sean Connery in "Darby O'Gill and the Little People", 1959) does the old gag with the hair on the lens. Patrick and the first African natives we see are roto-scoped, but they soon make way for some politically incorrect stereotypes. When Fred Avery directs nobody is safe: Ostriches are portrayed as the stupid birds they really are, butterfly's are used for fart jokes and on the retour trip to America the merry go round went down. Don't worry if you did not get that last one, neither did I when I saw it.

6 out of 10

Tex Avery Merrie Melodies short about an airplane flying around the world. Basically a mock travelogue that's just a series of sight gags instead of a real plot. Avery was the master of these types of cartoons. While this isn't his best (see Avery's Tomorrow series for that), I still find it enjoyable. The most notable part of the short today would probably be the part that takes place in "Darkest Africa." Here we have some of the stereotypical portrayals of African natives that were prominent at the time in film and cartoons. It won't sit well with some today so be warned if you're easily offended. All together it's an interesting short with some really good animation and a few funny gags. The hair bit was probably my favorite because I didn't see it coming. Not among Avery's best work but solid.