Broadway Bow Wow's (1954) User Reviews

Going solo

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 11 January 2024]

'Broadway Bow Wows' (1954)

Opening thoughts: Will agree absolutely that while not a Tex Avery cartoon, 'Broadway Bow Wows' can easily be understandbly mistaken for one. 'Broadway Bow Wows' is a very, very good, and actually close to great, cartoon. There is very little to criticise and the many good things at their best are truly outatanding. When it cones to cartoons seen recently, 'Broadway Bow Wows' to me is among the best of them. Considering the premise, this reviewer was expecting it to be potentially too cutesy and/or sugary sweet, but it turned out to be nothing of the kind. The opposite if anything.

Bad things: Will agree that the ending goes for a little too long.

Good things: Everything else is very good to outstanding. Immediately standing out is the quality of the animation, which is very lush and with some very clever and inventive visuals. No signs of stiffness at all. Also loved the very characterful and beautifully orchestrated music that enhances the action, the pre existing music is cleverly arranged.

Although slight in story and with an ending that goes on for a little too long, there is a lively fast and furious energy that is very Avery in spirit. The gags are many and very funny and witty, there is a good deal of heart, the setting is affectionately done and the characters are ones worth caring for.

Closing thoughts: Overall, very good.

8/10.

One of the best Tex Avery cartoons that Avery didn't make.

[llltdesq · 9/10 · 11 November 2006]

This short was made at the Walter Lantz studio during Tex Avery's brief stint as a director there and though he wasn't involved, his influence is seen throughout. As I want to discuss some of the details, this is a spoiler warning:

This is a story told in flashback (for the most part) and is about two dogs, John and Mary, who start out at the bottom of the list in vaudeville (I suspect the idea of making them dogs was a deliberate joke, as the dog act on the vaudeville circuit was normally placed at the end of the show, to clear the theater out for the next performance) and gradually rise to the top and play the Palace, doing the same act throughout. John is then foolish enough to walk out on Mary for another woman, who's just using him until he's out of money. John then tries to go back to Mary, only to find she's a successful solo act. He tries a solo and bombs, tries again to contact Mary repeatedly, with no luck and decides to jump off a bridge, which is where we find him at the start of the short.

Near the beginning, on the stage backdrop in a vaudeville house John and Mary perform in, one of the ads touts "Avery's Liver Tonic", which is appropriate, because Tex Avery's stylistic fingerprints are all through this short. The gags recall several shorts Avery made while he was at MGM, most specifically his Symphony In Slang. The narration even sounds the same! Now that I think of it, the principal female character in Symphony In Slang is named Mary, though I don't recall if the narrator is named John. It's a very funny cartoon.

The ending of this short is mixed, for my tastes. I would have ended the short about ten or fifteen seconds sooner! I won't spoil the gag here.

This short was released on one of the Columbia House Woody Woodpecker and Friends DVDs and is well worth watching. Most recommended.