Supervision by Fred Avery; (Last time he was credited.) Story by Dave Monahan; Animation by Sidney Sutherland; Musical Direction by Carl Stalling. A Merrie Melody released on August 2, 1941.
I don’t like flying. It’s cold, cramped, cold, takes too long to get started, monotonous, (you thought I was going to say “cold”, didn’t you?) cold, and I’m stuck in this hell with loud, squealing, pig children and jerkish adults. And there’s really nowhere on this planet that is worth a plane ride. So, can Avery’s latest gag-shtick flick convince me otherwise? No. Let’s get started.
We’re departing from Cali, where the sun is always shining. Just admist the rain, wind and snow. It’s a toon plane, so it can flap its wings. Isn’t that funny! We’ll be following railroad tracks, so we don’t get lost. Our shadow is the courteous, yet playful type. It loves to duck into tunnels, but always is sure to let the trains have the right of way. Isn’t that not boring! We just need to take in one landmark, and we’ll leave the country.
The landmark is Mt. Rushmore. (And then, since North Dakota is a myth, we’ll leave as promised into Canada.) You can see all the four presidents currently carved, and plans to add whoever wins the next election. Unless the artists get bored and put it off for the next time. Or the next, next, next, next, next, next, (Kinda annoying, isn’t it?), next, next, next, next, next, necks, next, next, next time.
Okay. Ireland is next. (Next, next, next…) Patrick here will sing us a song. We let him think we can hear him in the plane, because when he gets angry, he gets drunk, and that makes him scary. While he sings, what appears to be a hair is caught in the projector. It goes on a little too long for my tastes, but I’m really hoping some theater goers thought it was a real hair back in the day. Imagine how they must have doubted reality, when Patrick yells for it to be removed.
Next, let’s go to Darkest Africa so we can make a literal joke again. At least having just the lighted windows remain on the plane is a shake-up. But there’s no need to visit a specific country, because there’s no difference. What would you find in Morocco that you wouldn’t find in Zimbabwe? And all the natives look as racist as we deem appropriate in this era. We’ve seen it all before, so why not go all the way and make a racist, ostrich joke?
I DIDN’T MEAN IT! $^&# you, guys! I hate, loathe, and detest, the ostrich hiding head joke! Only if because it’s still done to this day! Read a book! Feel free to educate others! These are our biggest dinosaurs left! Treat them with a little more respect, would ya? BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!
Now let’s look at some butterflies. Yes, from the plane. I didn’t hear anyone say we were disembarking, did you? It’s that magical, marvelous time, when they first emerge out of their chrysalises. The magic might lessen a little, when you realize they kinda just get spat out, but look at how gorgeous they are! Even when they’re drinking other animals’ sweat, tears, and urine, you can’t get much more beautiful than lepidopterans. Unless it’s the third one. He’s been sick. *Groan* I’m not much more fond of that overused chestnut. Here’s a change up: It lows, and calls itself a buttermilkfly. No laughs? Might as well take me home, then.
And so we head back. But there’s a fog! Is every trip Avery takes us on going to end like this? We try our best to land, but we’ll have to settle for ending up part of an amusement park ride. Just relax and get dizzy. Once someone throws up, they’ll stop the machine.
Favorite Part: As sick as I am of “sick” jokes, they did do a good job making that ‘fly look sickly. The bloodshot eyes were especially effective.
Personal Rating: 1. Draw out jokes, racist jokes, and me being a bit bitter that I couldn’t find a complete print of the short. If you have one, share the wealth, would ya? I promise to lie and say I’ll raise the score a point.