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The Great Carrot-Train Robbery (1969)
Oh, how the mighty have fallen!
It saddens me to know that someone like Robert McKimson, after decades of directing some brilliant work for Warner Brothers, had by 1969 been reduced to making fourth-rate imitations of sixth-rate Hanna-Barbera TV dreck. Bunny and Claude, apparently, were an attempt to create a new franchise for WB Animation (a good idea, since shorts from that period starring Porky, Daffy, etc. had pretty much lost sight of who those characters were). They did their best, even attempting to inject a little of the spirit of the actual "Bonnie and Clyde" into the mix; I'm thinking of Bunny reclining on a pile of carrots in a boxcar and simpering, "Come here, Claude," in what is the closest to a seduction scene as you'll ever see in a WB cartoon.
There are two problems, however. The first is that the animation is depressingly cheap. This I can forgive, since budgets for theatrical animated shorts were drying up very quickly. The second I cannot forgive: it's not funny. Not even in passing. Not even a titter's-worth. I absolutely cannot reconcile in my head the fact that the same studio produced such phenomenal works as "Duck Amuck" and "What's Opera, Doc" only 15 years earlier. Just goes to show you that you can never go home again. Sigh...
My rating: 1 out of a possible 10.
A Slice of Life (1988)
The point, please?
The problem with making a short subject is that of content--specifically, what do you say if you only have five minutes to say it in? Answer: Not much, granted, but there still has to be a discernable point. This brings us to "A Slice of Life," which leaves with the question, "And you filmed this...why?"
Basically, the film is a presentation of a distasteful mishap that befalls a mother and child, all in the name of "black comedy." Now, I'm not saying that there's no potential for a decent short there, but when you're left wondering what possessed those involved to spend valuable time and assets committing this to celluloid (above and beyond the vague nausea left behind by the mishap itself), the mind boggles as to what on earth they were thinking. It's not even funny--not even in a gallows-humor sort of way. Don't bother.
Rating: 2 out of 10.