La télé de demain

Tex Avery did a series of cartoons where he poked fun at things by showing how some aspect of life would be in the future, his target here being television. Interestingly, Avery was not fond of television, viewing it (somewhat correctly) as the enemy. Television is largely what killed the theatrically produced cartoon. So to a degree, Avery's barbs are less good-natured than usual in some cases. Devastatingly funny, its good that this one is in print. Highly recommended.

Your idyllic small town is being invaded by the new television sets. It comes with many new problems and the narrator suggests various solutions. What follows is a series of crazy T. V. adaptations. The stream of strange adaptations gets repetitive. They are mostly people sitting in front of a TV set anyways. I do remember some of this which is a good compliment. It's a good toon from Tex Avery.

Tex Avery bends reality in all the wacky things these TV's of the future can do, but he sure gets the growing obsession with screens right, then and now. Mixed in is a little sex (the set with the plunging neckline, the model across two screens so you can see "all" of the picture) and violence (the set that shoots the annoying know-it-all who thinks he can tune it better than you), but mostly it's just silly gags (the set that acts as a fourth in bridge). I wonder what Tex would cook up for the phones of tomorrow.

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. 'TV of Tomorrow' may not be one of his very best, only because his masterpieces were so many, more so than most other animation directors. Occasionally, limitations show in some of the backgrounds (in comparison to his cartoons from the 40s), but actually a vast majority of the animation is very good. As said many times, when Avery was not at his best he still fared much better than most other animation directors at their worst, some can only dream of having their best work on the same level as the masterpieces from Avery.

Have not seen all Avery's work, though that's my goal as of now, but as of now have yet to see anything "bad" from him, even if there are perhaps a few very early efforts that are not at his usual top standard.

Some limited backgrounds and some unrefined drawing aside, the animation has a lot of colourful colours and expressive, inventive drawing and expressions. The music from the always never less than dependable Scott Bradley is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed, a lot of the action is even enhanced by the music.

'TV of Tomorrow' is one of those cartoons that is very funny, with plenty of clever, imaginatively timed gags that really deliver on the humour (the William Tell gag is a hilarious highlight), and also manages to be very informative and educational with its demonstrations without preaching. Loved the innovations, like the built-in stove model. Despite being made over 60 years ago, the subject and what the cartoon says actually feels ahead of its time and somewhat current are very much relevant today, or at least to me it did.

Expectedly, Avery fares very strongly in the directing, even if other cartoons show off his unique wild and wacky style a little more, this is pretty tame stuff for him. Paul Frees makes for a suitably droll narrator.

In summary, not one of Avery's finest but still great. 9/10 Bethany Cox