I know this cartoon is weaker than the most of Tex's shorts at MGM. Some of the gags are so corny they're almost embarrassing. I think even Tex would have admitted that, why else end it with the "Hootenanny" gag. The best or worst (depending on your sense of humor) of the bunch. But what I do love about it is Gene Hazelton's designs. That alone is enough reason for me to watch it over and over.
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Gene Hazelton at MGM? Weird, but I definitely should have known that already. It's pretty obvious to me now that none of the designs in this cartoon look like either Ed Benedict's or Dick Bickenbach's typical work. I just didn't know because there's no layout credit. I always loved the design of the duck and the banana peel best.
Anyways, I agree with you. This cartoon was very weak, yet again, I never really liked many of cartoons that Tex made anyway involving something in the future, with the exception of "The TV of Tomorrow." Most of them just don't seem too much like Avery cartoons at all, with all these weak, unfunny gags (the Hootenanny gag is probably the worst of the bunch). He must have definitely been embarrassed when he saw these himself.
Overall, very lame, boring cartoon by Tex Avery's standards, but compared to most of the obnoxious crap I see on Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon nowadays, this cartoon is pure genius, and that's saying a lot.
I believe Hazelton worked on layouts for both H&B and Avery.I really like the backgrounds that Joe Montell painted like this short, "The Flea Circus" and "Dixieland Droopy".
I like all of the "Of Tomorrow" cartoons but compared to his other shorts they are definitely below average. They probably were able to bang these out a lot faster than say a Droopy cartoon.
Never knew Hazelton worked at MGM.
Kevin, where was Benedict at this period? And wasn't Hazelton doing work for H&B after Harvey Eisenberg left?
I think the problem with this isn't the corny gags; it's the repetition. There are too many "crossed with" gags.
There are some odd voices in here. I don't know who the guy is at 4:15 and the woman at 3:18. June Foray can be heard at 1:41 and Daws Butler does a voice at 1:18.
Yowp
Hazelton, from what I've read, was used as a layout man for both units at MGM. I assume Benedict was already working for Tex, maybe on a different cartoon? Both Hazelton and Benedict worked together on preliminary designs for the animated sequences in "Invitation To Dance" though they're work was too stylized and not used.
I note that Paul Frees does at least PART of this narration; he was so expensive [one of those actors self-pricing himself as a premium voice] that MGM didn't use him as much as they could, resulting in maybe the ONLY time that Chuck Jones used Paul Frees-"The Bear that Wasn't" from 1967-and Paul's at Warner Bros. only once, and it ain't even in a short cartoon, but it is in animation and even better, the 1964 full length half animated "The Incredible Mr.Limpet" as the Don Knotts porpoise's BFF* the Southern hermite crab Crusty [not to be confused with "The Simpsons"' Krusty the Klown or "SpongeBob SquarePants"'s Crusty Crabs, now], in a year when Disney was ["Mary Poppins"] having BIG box office success with live/animation. [And Daws Butler likewise saw his only DISNEY role in a live/animation film, "Mary".]
*BFF=Best Friend Forever..
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