SCFZ poll: Tex Avery

[flip]

Polling the films of director Tex Avery

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half of the Avery films you've seen, up to a maximum of 5. So if you've seen seven of his films, for example, you can list only a top 3. It's only if you've seen ten or more of his films than you can list the maximum of five.

- i'll assume ballots are ranked unless you tell me otherwise. unranked ballots are fine.

- deadline for ballots: next Tuesday, in seven days, whatever day that is

- if anyone is watching films for these polls, then i'll extend the deadline up to three days, if someone requests an extension

- next poll: whoever posts the first ballot in this thread is free to nominate the director we poll next, unless you've nominated in this round already (everyone should get a chance). Already nominated this round: greennui, bure, roscoe, kanafani, greg x, silga, oscarwerner, john ryan, mrcarmady

umbugbene created an index on letterboxd of all of our previous polls here: letterboxd.com/umbugbene/list/index-of-all-scfz-director-polls/

one rule for nominees: at least 3 scfzers need to have seen 10+ of a nominee's films, or at least 4 scfzers need to have seen at least 8 of the nom's films, so if it isn't clear if that will be the case, we'll confirm that's true before moving forward

if 24 hours pass after a poll opens, and no one eligible to nominate has posted a ballot, then i'll nominate someone, and then we'll start over, and everyone will be able to nominate again

[greennui]

Thugs with Dirty Mugs
Blitz Wolf

Seen many but don't remember most of them. Might add more if I end up rewatching a few.

[Holymanm]

Probably seen lots of these in my yout', but none of them logged...

[Umbugbene]

Seen 68, mostly back in the 1990s

1. Swing Shift Cinderella
2. Bad Luck Blackie
3. I Only Have Eyes for You
4. Red Hot Riding Hood

Do I get to nominate the next director? I thought of suggesting Denis Villeneuve but decided it would be better to wait until Dune comes out. So I'll go with René Clément. I'm pretty sure we decided he qualified last time I threw his name out. I've seen 9 Cléments.

EDIT 6 February 2021 - I Love to Singa should be inserted in 3rd place.

[DT.]

1. The Screwy Truant
2. Batty Baseball
3. Red Hot Riding Hood
4. Swing Shift Cinderella

[---]

Red hot riding Hood
Thugs with dirty mugs

[wba]

Seen 2 in recent years ("The Screwy Truant" and "Red Hot Riding Hood"), but both were nothing to write home about, so I pass.

[Roscoe]

Not a fan. Pass.

EDIT -- I'm a fool.

I LOVE TO SING-A!
PORKY'S PREVIEW

I don't care if I ever see one of those MGM things ever again, but there's nothing more joyful in all my movie-going experience than that little singing owl.

[Holdrüholoheuho]

1. Symphony in Slang
2. The First Bad Man
3. Cellbound
4. The Screwy Truant
5. The House of Tomorrow

Farm of Tomorrow
T.V. of Tomorrow
Car of Tomorrow
A Gander at Mother Goose
The Cuckoo Clock
Red Hot Riding Hood
Swing Shift Cinderella
Thugs With Dirty Mugs
Who Killed Who?
I Love To Singa
Cat’s Meow
The Hick Chick
King Size Canary
Wacky Wildlife
https://vimeo.com/channels/892335/100989067
https://vimeo.com/216244712

[MrCarmady]

Gonna add a bunch but seen 8 for now.

Who Killed Who?
Blitz Wolf
King Size Canary
Red Hot Riding Hood

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

One of the greats.

1. Cellbound (1955)
2. Homesteader Droopy (1954)
3. Page Miss Glory (1936)
4. King-Size Canary (1947)
5. A Wild Hare (1940)

Cellbound is, I think, an undiscovered late jewel. It's a brilliant meta goodbye film: a character who has been in prison as long as Tex Avery has been an animation director tries to escape entrapment in California (prison/animation) cells — only to end up inside an endless loop of television.

[rischka]

i love to singa! about the moon-a in-a june-a in the spring-a
page miss glory
king-size canary
red-hot riding hood

[cinesmith]

I want to say I've probably seen more than half of Tex's 160ish shorts and I KNOW I've seen more than two dozen of these more than a dozen times each growing up when these were regularly played in re-runs some five days a week! (circa the late 70s-80s pre-cable era)


1. Deputy Droopy (1955) https://www.bitchute.com/video/5yqaF4Fj71fj/

2. Musical Maestro (1952) "A tisket a taskette, I lost my yellow basket "

3. The 3 Little Pups (1953) "Okay, break it up, son. Joke's over, hear?"

4. Little Rural Riding Hood (1949) "Kiss me, my fool!" [city wolf was supposed to be an imitation of Ronald Colman]

5. The Cat That Hated People (1948) " They walk on ya, step on ya, walk on ya, step on ya-and kick ya."

Honorable mentions
Shhhhhh (1955)
Caballero Droopy (1952)
Out-Foxed (1949)
Billy Boy (1954)
Tortoise Beats Hare (1941)

[flip]

if we checked on rene clement before, then that's perfect, he'll be our next poll!

[Umbugbene]

I was tempted to propose Auguste Lumière. We certainly have enough views for him. Anyway that's great, Clément deserves a turn.

[oscarwerner]

Seen 16 of René Clément. Like him.

[MrCarmady]

One more day please!

[...]

Crap, forgot about this one. Meant to rewatch some for the poll to refresh my memory. Oh well.

I Love to SInga
TV of Tomorrow
A Feud There Was
Porky's Duck Hunt
Out-Foxed

[flip]

Hollywood Steps Out

seen two (as of this morning)

[flip]

i'll tally this tomorrow, so still time to watch more and edit (or post) ballots

[MrCarmady]

Gonna add a bunch but seen 8 for now.

Who Killed Who?
Blitz Wolf
King Size Canary
Red Hot Riding Hood

Seen 15.

Blitz Wolf
Who Killed Who?
Red Hot Riding Hood
King Size Canary
Swing Shift Cinderella

[MrCarmady]

One of the greats.

1. Cellbound (1955)
2. Homesteader Droopy (1954)
3. Page Miss Glory (1936)
4. King-Size Canary (1947)
5. A Wild Hare (1940)

Cellbound is, I think, an undiscovered late jewel. It's a brilliant meta goodbye film: a character who has been in prison as long as Tex Avery has been an animation director tries to escape entrapment in California (prison/animation) cells — only to end up inside an endless loop of television.

Cellbound sounds great but I can't find it anywhere. Would you happen to have a link or a copy to put in the place? Thanks!

[flip]

perhaps not surprisingly, a ton of different films (29 of them!) got votes, but enough got multiple votes that a few clear favourites emerged. i actually broke ties throughout by imdb views (easier to check than letterboxd views), so fewer views led to a higher placement, when there was a tie:

results
1. Cellbound (1955) — 11.06 pts
2. I Love to Singa (1936) — 11.04 pts
3. Who Killed Who? (1943) — 8 pts
3. Red Hot Riding Hood (1943) — 8 pts
5. Symphony in Slang (1951) — 7 pts
6. Page Miss Glory (1936) — 6 pts
6. The Screwy Truant (1945) — 6 pts
6. Blitz Wolf (1942) — 6 pts
9. Sh-h-h-h-h-h (1955) — 5 pts
9. Deputy Droopy (1955) — 5 pts
9. Swing Shift Cinderella (1945) — 5 pts
9. King-Size Canary (1947) — 5 pts
13. The First Bad Man (1955) — 4 pts
13. TV of Tomorrow (1953) — 4 pts
13. Homesteader Droopy (1954) — 4 pts
13. Magical Maestro (1952) — 4 pts
17. A Feud There Was (1938) — 3 pts
17. Batty Baseball (1944) — 3 pts
17. The Three Little Pups (1953) — 3 pts
17. Thugs with Dirty Mugs (1939) — 3 pts
17. Dumb-Hounded (1943) — 3 pts
17. Bad Luck Blackie (1949) — 3 pts
23. I Only Have Eyes for You (1937) — 2 pts
23. Porky’s Duck Hunt (1937) — 2 pts
23. Little Rural Riding Hood (1949) — 2 pts
26. The Legend of Rockabye Point (1955) — 1 pt
26. Porky’s Preview (1941) — 1 pt
26. The House of Tomorrow (1949) — 1 pt
26. Out-Foxed (1949) — 1 pt
26. The Cat That Hated People (1948) — 1 pt
26. Hollywood Steps Out (1941) — 1 pt
26. A Wild Hare (1940) — 1 pt

[Umbugbene]

I almost included the winner on my ballot. There's something memorable about that little owl.

[MrCarmady]

i like that short but it doesn't feel very avery to me, not as horny, as punny, or as meta as his MGM work. makes sense that roscoe, for example, doesn't vibe with avery in general but put it on his ballot

just watched cellbound which was great and would have certainly made my list, superb gags and wonderful use of dramatic irony

[flip]

just watched cellbound which was great and would have certainly made my list, superb gags and wonderful use of dramatic irony

if you want to update your ballot, i'm happy to incorporate the update into the final tally, just as long as i haven't posted the list to letterboxd yet (which i won't do for a few days at least) -- if you want to do that, please just quote your earlier ballot and then make a new post with your new ballot so i can easily see how to adjust things

[MrCarmady]

Gonna add a bunch but seen 8 for now.

Who Killed Who?
Blitz Wolf
King Size Canary
Red Hot Riding Hood

Seen 15.

Blitz Wolf
Who Killed Who?
Red Hot Riding Hood
King Size Canary
Swing Shift Cinderella

Blitz Wolf
Who Killed Who?
Cellbound
Red Hot Riding Hood
King Size Canary

thanks flip!

[flip]

so... that means we now have a tie for 1st. i generally prefer to break ties by waiting for new ballots, but failing that, we'll need a tiebreaker runoff vote (and if that ends up tied, cellbound will win because it has fewer views).

so if anyone wants to vote in the tiebreaker:

• you can only vote if you have seen both films, Cellbound and I Love to Singa
• just post the film you prefer in a new post below

i can only infer one vote from ballots posted so far (so no need to post a vote, jiri) :

Cellbound
jiri
evelyn
mrcarmady
flip
thoxans???
searchlike

I Love to Singa
roscoe
rischka
greg x
umbugbene

[Evelyn Library P.I.]

Seen both - Cellbound

[MrCarmady]

Seen both - Cellbound

ditto