. . . by 1939 Warner Bros. "Looney Tune," THE FILM FAN. That could be a headline from your favorite tabloid, and it would be truer than most. Over the years I've noticed that both Warner Bros. live-action features and their animated shorts have an uncanny knack for hinting at (or, in some cases, such as THE FILM FAN, fully fleshing out) crucial happenings in America's future, often many decades in advance of the Real Life events. THE FILM FAN is set in Greater Los Angeles, where Donald Sterling's L.A. Clippers played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) during the early years of the 21st Century. Though Porky Pig, as the title character of this brief cartoon, diverts from his trip to the market for Mom into a "free kids' day" theater grand opening, the black fowl sitting next to him during the MASKED MARVEL serial episode being projected on the Big Screen slingshots some mud onto the butt of this Warner Bros. Lone Ranger clone's horse, "Sterling." (The actual Lone Ranger's mount is named "Silver"--get it?) Sterling than turns to this particular movie audience and badmouths his attacker, thinking--in his dementia--that his film image can communicate ad lib with any member of any future theater audience! In Real Life, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver confiscated Sterling's Clippers. Warner Bros. has embedded 29 other NBA-related prophecies which have come to pass (so far) into THE FILM FAN. Watch this eerie mother lode of pro sports prognosticating for yourself to see what's happening next!
Review of The Film Fan
