Mesa Trouble (1974)

电影

(17)

国家/地区: 美国
类型: 动画, 短片
上映日期: 1974-05-16
导演: Sid Marcus
编剧: John W. Dunn
语言: English
演员: Bob Holt , Bob Holt , Bob Holt , Larry D. Mann (1922–2014) , Allan Melvin
片长: 7 分钟
奖项: N/A
又名: Mesa Trouble (德国) , Mesa Trouble (美国) , Mesa Trouble
剧情简介: Generally do not care for most of the second half of the Hoot Kloot series, so post-'Giddy Up Woe' and including that cartoon. Pre-'Giddy Up Woe', almost all the cartoons that formed the first half were above average ('Ten Miles to the Gallop' being the exception) and the best being pretty good. Almost all the second half of the series came over as average at best and actually mostly mediocre. Being an animation fan and having liked a lot of DePatie-Freleng's previous work in other theatrical series, this saddens me.There were two exceptions to the average at best and mostly mediocre standard of the series' second half, and 'Mesa Trouble' is one of them. The other being 'Gold Struck', of which this is the best Hoot Kloot cartoon since. It is not great and is quite uneven, with it feeling like two cartoons in one and the latter portions being significantly better than the early portions. With the latter portions actually showing signs of what the Hoot Kloot series was like in its first half, whereas the early portions was too indicative of what it was like when it declined.'Mesa Trouble' is a lot of fun in the second half. Where there is a lot more energy, of the fast and suitably wild kind, and the story engages a lot more. It is also funnier, with the highest gag count of any latter Hoot Kloot cartoon and while there is little original about them they are very funny and well timed. The animation is also a lot better, the finesse isn't always there but it is a lot closer to the vibrant and elegantly abstract quality of the earlier cartoons' animation quality than the scrappier, more simplistic and flatter quality of too many of the latter cartoons in the series. The wordplay is suitably wild and witty.Furthermore, the things that were consistently good shine here still. The music is very characterful and the rhythmic energy and Western flavour are infectious. Hoot Kloot and Fester carry the action very well and their contrasting personalities gel beautifully. Big Red is to me easily the best antagonist of the series since the vampire in 'Gold Struck' and part of me really wished that he was introduced earlier. Bob Holt excels with the voice work.It did though take time for 'Mesa Trouble' to get to that level, as the first half is nowhere near as good. If it weren't for the second half being a significant improvement, this was very close to being one of the worst of the series. The music, lead characters, some of the wordplay and voice work are all fine. What aren't fine are the non-existent "too long to set things up" plotting, tired pacing and forgettable at best characters.Also the inferior animation quality. While liking it in the second half, it looked very careless and flat to begin with. DePatie-Freleng Enterprises always did adopt a more abstract animation style in particularly the background art, but it was almost too over-simplified here.Concluding, started off pretty weak but ended up pretty decent. 6/10.
IMDB:tt0151540