Hit or Miss - Snake Preview (1973)

[cbrubaker]

This is to those who saw "Snake Preview" from my website - would you consider this hit or miss?

BTW, if you haven't seen it yet but want to, better do it quick, sometime in 2 or so weeks, I'm planning to replace the file with another DFE cartoon. I'm planning to put up a "Tijuana Toads" cartoon next.

[Dan Porceddu]

"Oh, I'm just going to give till it hurts!"

I think the issue at hand is not "Hit or Miss," it's "Who's Gayer: Blue Racer or the bee?" Blue Racer kept winking at the screen and I'm sure there is some sort of perverted meaning in everything he says ("I was just admiring your offspring" etc).

"Oh, that meanie!" I'm gonna give him such a sting! Ow! What didja go and do that for? Now I bent my stinger!"

Blue Racer replies, "This is what I was waiting to hear! Hehehehe!"

Is it any coincidence that this cartoon was made following the sexual revolution of the 1960s? :p


-Dan

[Thad]

Dan, if you thought the Blue Racer was gay in that one, you should see the Tijuana Toads cartoon he debuted in...

Pancho: "Hehehe, I can't believe that estupido chicken believe us..."
Torro: "Yeah, hehehehe, he swallow anything!"
Blue Racer: "'Tho would I! Ethpecially a niceth fat frog!"


-Thad

[frizfrelengfan]

The bee reminds me of the Joe Besser elephant in "Rabbit Fire" ("I'll give you such a pinch!")

[Frank]

I think it is a hit. The animation and storyline were better than most 1970s cartoons (HB, Filmation, etc). The only gripe I would have is that the animation of Crazy Legs Crane melting after picking up the skunk is quite cheap!

[cbrubaker]

Another example

In "Support Your Local Serpent", when Blue Racer finds Japanese Beetle and asks if he has friends, he lowers his eyelids before swallowing the Beetle. It was kinda freaky.

Now that I think about what Dan said, I'm afraid to watch "Blue Racer Blues", where the snake goes to the city to find female snakes.

[cbrubaker]

Is it any coincidence that this cartoon was made following the sexual revolution of the 1960s? :p


-Dan
Sorry to doublepost, but it's interesting to note that this short was rated G by MPAA (on my 16mm transfer for this short, there was a notice in the end that said "This has been rated G by the Motion Picture Association of America)

Maybe I should've left that in when I captured the file to avi.

[frizfrelengfan]

The "son of a B" joke at the end could have earned it a PG (or an "M" which I believe the PG rating was at the time).

[cbrubaker]

My opinion of the cartoon

It was okay, but I think other BR cartoons are better. My favorite BR must be "Support Your Local Serpent". The animation was quite good, and also, Blue Racer had a different, and better design in it (you can see a black and white drawing of the said design in Jeff Lenburg's "Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoon")

However, not bad for a cartoon directed by a person who would direct "Hey Arnold" episodes years later. (Cullen Blain and Cullen Houghtaling is a same person) :p

[Frank]

I've spotted some Ken Muse animation from where the Blue Racer tries to catch the bee when he was sitting on a flower till the Blue Racer hides under the fly paper. I think Don Williams does the scene when Crazy Legs Crane crashes into the fence to the end of the pipe scene. I could be wrong, because I'm not familiar with DFE animators.