Misturada Louca

Crazy Mixed Up Pup is a-typical of the sublimely surreal nature of the animated shorts of director Tex Avery. Oddly it's not quite as well known of his other works which is a shame because it's premise although simple is still wonderfully ingenious and totally off the wall. A married dog owner takes his pet pooch out for a walk, only for the two of them to be run over while crossing the street. The cross eyed paramedic who rushes to the scene mixes up the the blood to give them the necessary blood transfusion, the result being that the man begins behaving like his dog and vice versa. The term Man Bites dog never became more literal as ensuing events unfold.

It's a conceit that is brilliantly utilised as his bemused wife and anyone else who comes in to contact with them struggle to cope with their bizarre behaviour. For a six minute short it manages to cram in just enough jokes and crazy visual humour that by the time it's over, you can't help but want to watch it again. One moment where the dog just out of nowhere begins to dance in front of the freaked out wife is so random that you can't help but chuckling at the insanity of it. It all leads to an equally wacky pay off which rounds everything up quite nicely. If there is a flaw however its that while not dreadful the animation Isn't quite up to the higher standard of some of Avery's earlier shorts. However it's a quibble I'm willing to mainly forgive as it's a testament to his genius that nearly 60 years later it still stands the test of time. Not one to miss if you get the chance to see it.

From its title, I wasn't aware that I had watched this one before – which, despite being a latter-day Avery effort, is every bit a classic cartoon. Again, the premise is simple yet totally insane: a man and his dog are trampled by a car while crossing the road; a cross-eyed male nurse mistakenly applies the wrong kind of plasma to each, with the result that the man takes on the habits of the dog and vice versa. Of course, this sends the wife (and the dog's own 'spouse') up the wall – even if both intermittently revert to their natural states and, obviously, think that it's their respective mates who are nuts! Predictably, then, the ending sees the wife and her pet getting the exact same affliction after being run over themselves by a car – and subsequently revived by the same eager but clueless medical attendant! And they all lived happily ever after

Too busy reading his grocery list, poor old "Sam" and his dog "Rover" get hit by a car whilst crossing the road. I'm not sure plasma was on their list but some quick action by the medics appears to have muddled it up and so now the dog has human traits and "Sam" goes around on all fours burying bones in the garden and yapping like a maniac. "Maggie" can't make sense of this changed dynamic, especially when "Rover" refuses to eat his tinned dinner from a bowl. The role reversal aspect works quite well here and at the conclusion you don't know whether to feel more sorry for the cat hiding up the tree or the wife - well until she and her poodle meet a similar fate whilst trying to escape the madness. It's got a lively score from Clarence Wheeler and moves along quickly and quite entertainingly.

. . . over itself to find out who ACTUALLY wrote the 1965 novel THE PAINTED BIRD, originally published under the name Jersey Cold-Shin-Ski. What twisted, warped imp of the perverse could have contrived the implausible canine and human interactions serving as THE PAINTED BIRD's cornerstone, and what led infamous plagiarist Jersey to think that America would lap up such filth? It turns out that Mr. Cold-Shin-Ski, being functionally illiterate in English when THE PAINTED BIRD was released, did what many outsiders do when when seeking the most outrageous, unnatural, illicit material possible: He turned to Texas--specifically, CRAZY MIXED UP PUP. Though Jersey's paltry imagination pales in comparison to the bizarre doodles of Mr. Avery, it is always rewarding to clear up a decades-old literary mystery.

This short, nominated for an Oscar, is pretty typical of Avery, with one small difference-where he typically started with a rather mundane normal situation and then twisted it in insane ways, here he starts with an absurdity (the infusion of dog plasma into a man and vice versa) and THEN twists it in insane ways! A hilariously funny cartoon and the ending is perfect. Highly Recommended.