Wacky Wildlife (1940) User Reviews

A rather typical Avery cartoon for Looney Tunes.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 5 February 2022]

During his time at Looney Tunes, Tex Avery made many cartoons like "Wacky Wildlife". It's a documentary style short which features tons of rapid-fire gags...some good, some not so good. Like most of them, "Wacky Wildlife" is enjoyable but not nearly as funny as his later work for MGM.

In addition to the jokes, the animation is particularly good in this one...with a nice 3D looking lake in the first scene. Well worth seeing but not among his better work.

What can we Americans of (The Then) Far Future glean from . . .

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 30 June 2017]

. . . WACKY WILDLIFE, a brief cartoon from Warner Bros.' always prophetic Animated Shorts Seers division (aka, the Looney Tuners), a clairvoyant bunch who could always be counted upon to alert the Posterity of Our USA Homeland as to America's upcoming Calamities, Catastrophes, Cataclysms, and Apocalypti? Since this effort is directed by eventual sell-out defector Tex Avery, the least perceptive Looney Tunes director Warner Bros. ever tolerated, the answer might appear to be "Not much." Shallow Tex, as his name implies, always took any shortcut toward a cheap pun or stale sight gag. WACKY WILDLIFE is chock full of such material, best summed up by the phrase "Same old, same old." Perhaps the final bit of this eight-minute brief is the clearest warning to We of the Future, slipped in under Tex's nose despite his best efforts to neuter and cheapen this product down to the level of his prospective employers at MGM, the Hana Barbera folks. This closure shows a wild dog angrily reacting to Red Commie KGB Chief Vlad "The Mad Russian" Putin's Environmental Pollution Czar, the Deplorable Scott Pruitt, clear-cutting America's forests in an attempt to make our formerly Great Homeland as much of an eyesore as Mother Russia.

Typical Avery wackiness

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 21 November 2017]

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.

Also have much admiration for Tex Avery, an animation genius whose best cartoons are animated masterpieces and some of the best cartoons ever made by anybody. 'Wacky Wildlife' has many of Avery's trademarks, without being one of his best. It may not be one of his overall funniest or most imaginative and structurally it's a little episodic, but it's well made and clever and the wit, colour and wackiness as well as some fun characters are evident.

It is no surprise that, as with a vast majority of Avery's cartoons regardless of the period, the animation is excellent. Beautifully drawn, very detailed and the colours are vibrant.

Carl Stalling's music score is typically lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms, it's also beautifully synchronised with the action and gestures/expressions and even enhances the impact.

'Wacky Wildlife' is clever and amusing, the animals are suitably wild and the timing is spot on. The narration entertains and educates and the voice acting is solid, perfect in the case of Robert C Bruce.

Overall, well made and enjoyable. 8/10 Bethany Cox