Release Date:

August 2, 1941

Main Character(s):

None

Summary:

Spot gags shown around the world via an airplane trip.

That’s Not All, Folks:

Although this was not his last Warner cartoon, this is the last Warner cartoon where Avery is credited (he had left the studio before his last five Warner cartoons were released so none of them were released with a director credit).

This is also the final time in his career where Avery is credited as “Fred Avery” rather than “Tex Avery”. The reason why he was credited as Fred instead of Tex is because Leon Schlesinger didn’t approve of the directors being credited by their nicknames (which is also why Bob Clampett was always credited as “Robert”, Chuck Jones was credited as “Charles” or “Charles M.” until late 1955, and Friz Freleng was credited as “Isadore” or just plain “I. Freleng” also until late 1955).

The restoration for this cartoon has one of the most amateurishly sloppy errors on the opening titles. The words “Warner Bros.” that are supposed to be above the shield are missing for some reason (and MeTV even thinks that the cartoon was always like that as evidenced by this online quiz about the cartoon). How no one caught that or were even fooling around with the opening titles in the first place is beyond me. Hopefully, they’ll fix this for a future Collector’s Choice volume.

Speaking of restorations, the cartoon features two scenes with African natives which were of course cut when shown on television. MeTV was unfortunately where the restoration of the cartoon was first shown, so the full thing hasn’t been seen yet, as of this writing.

The cartoon also contains a “hair in projector” gag where a hair is seen caught in the projector and either someone yells for the silhouette of a hand to remove it or they would pluck it out themselves. Avery would use this gag again in his 1952 MGM cartoon, “Magical Maestro”, where it’s the opera singer in the cartoon who pulls the hair out and tosses it aside.

What I Like About This One:

The plane taking off by flapping its wings like a bird and running.

Sunny California “where the sun is always shining”. The camera pulls back to reveal rain clouds and snow clouds surrounding a small area of sunlight.

The plane is then shown following the path of a railroad. The plane’s shadow bunches up its wings when going through a tunnel and moves out of the way of an oncoming train.

The moon moving out of the plane’s way.

An Irishman singing “When Irish Eyes are Smiling” while a hair is caught in the projector. The Irishman stops his song at one point to yell, “HEY YOU UP THERE! GET THAT HAIR OUT OF HERE!” The silhouette of a projectionist pulls it out, and the Irishman goes back to his song (animated by Robert McKimson).

One of the scenes with the African natives is actually funny: the narrator describes them as able to shoot blow guns with deadly accuracy. It turns out the natives actually use them to blow darts at a dartboard game. When one misses, another tells him, “Terrible shot, Joe”.

When some ostriches are shown burying their heads in the sand to hide, one of them is confused and wonders where they went to.

A sickly butterfly hatches out of a cocoon and when the narrator asks what happened to him, he replies, “Well, I’ve been sick!”

When the plane returns to New York, visibility is poor. When the fog lifts, the plane is shown to now be part of a carousel ride with other airplanes (with the Merry Go Round Broke Down playing).

Where Can I Watch It?

On discord! (Archive was down when writing this, so this will have to do)

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕 ½