Bad Luck Blackie (1949) User Reviews

You Have to Give Him Credit for Coming Back

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 27 December 2015]

This is absolutely vintage Tex Avery. The villain in this story is a bulldog who spends most of his time tormenting a kitten. There is a kind of ugly scene where the kitten is thrown way up in the air. The bulldog pulls a sofa cushion out and pretends to catch he cat, but pulls it away at the last minute. Frustrated and scared, the little guy meets a black alley cat who has the power to cross people's paths, giving them bad luck. Now sight gag after sight gag comes. Each is more clever the former. The bulldog never seems to learn a lesson. He is a sociopath, so his life is devoted to causing harm. I think the high point of this cartoon is the creative ways the bulldog is punished. Tex Avery throws in some of that eye popping, double taking stuff that he did, and makes this a real delight.

Full of fun and clever humour

[wyetttt · 7/10 · 16 September 2006]

Bad Luck Blackie is an animated short about an adorable kitten and a mean bulldog willing to do anything to anger and hurt the kitten. Luckily, the kitten finds another cat who can cause bad luck to anyone. With the help of this cat, the bulldog gets a taste of it's own medicine, and the viewers get even more laughs. It's pretty much your basic dog chases cat cartoon, but that excellent twist makes it a lot of fun to watch. From start to finish you'll find that there are tons of smart ironic jokes and lots of laugh out loud slapstick comedy. I can honestly say that I don't often laugh out loud or even crack a smile at these kinds of things, but I found myself trying to control my laughter as I watched late at night while everyone else in the house was in bed. It's just a fun little film to make you laugh, and nothing else. Don't expect writing or acting or anything that you'll remember for the rest of your lives.

I liked this quite a bit, I think anyone who likes any of this stuff will too. I rate it a seven out of ten.

It's not hard to see why these MGM animated shorts . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 22 March 2017]

. . . are considered the most violent cartoons of all time. Take BAD LUCK BLACKIE, as an example. Stuff keeps falling from great heights onto the head of an endangered doggy. First man's best friend is brained by a flower pot. Then ANOTHER pot full of blossoms gives the hapless headache hog another concussion. To make matters worse, a piano pulverizes the poor pooch. Next, Fido is blown up by a bomb. A large boxy metal cash dispenser registers the next assault on the canine cranium, just before a serial smash-down by four sequentially falling horseshoes and--of course, of course--the nonverbal horse they came in on. If you miss Flattenings by fire hydrant and a heavy metal safe, you cannot escape seeing this mishap-prone mutt mashed further by an anvil, kitchen sink, bathtub, second piano, steamroller, airplane, city bus, and ocean liner. This Titanic take-down is all crammed into a scant seven minutes. (Irving Wallace once released a pulp novel entitled THE SEVEN MINUTES, but compared to it, BAD LUCK BLACKIE is pure pup pornography.)

A logical Avery cartoon - Who knew?

[tony_ginorio · 15 March 2004]

This is perhaps Tex Avery's best cartoon, and it's because it has something one would not think of looking for in a cartoon, let alone one by Avery. That secret ingredient is logic. Yes, logic. This is a very logical cartoon, not because it presents realistic action (it certainly does not), but because the action - unreal as it is - follows a logical progression, and it's all the funnier for it. The cartoon has a very simple concept: a white kitten, harassed by a guffawing bulldog, hires the services of Bad Luck Blackie. With one blow of a whistle, Blackie crosses the bulldog's path and gives him bad luck - i.e., something drops from the sky and hits him on the head. The entire film is comprised of variations of this simple scenario, normal procedure for Avery. But rather than merely repeat the gag ad nauseam, Avery builds up the situation to a crescendo of outlandishness. With each scene, the objects become larger and more unlikely - from a simple flowerpot, to a piano, a lit bomb, a fire hydrant, and on and on until...let's just say that Avery doesn't stop at the proverbial kitchen sink. The dog tries to stop Blackie by any means necessary - good luck charms, setting traps - but always he succumbs to the inscrutable logic of the situation; whenever the whistle is blown, Blackie passes by and the dog gets conked. No matter who blows the whistle, no matter where the dog is, the result is always the same: whistle=black cat=conk! Finally, the dog gets the upper hand by applying some logic of his own. If a black cat causes bad luck, painting the cat white negates the effect, and that is just what he does. Unfortunately, the reverse is also true, so the kitten paints himself black and saves his hero and gets revenge on his tormentor at the same time. Anyone else would have ended the cartoon right then and there, but Avery gives us one more twist, one that is ridiculous, yet still in keeping with the logic established early on. (Think Pavlov) If this film teaches us anything (besides being kind to kittens and beware of black cats) is the importance of logic in cartoons. Avery isn't merely laying one gag after another. He is developing the situation, letting it build naturally to a satisfying conclusion. He sets up rules for his characters to follow and bends them without breaking them. The result may be irrational, but it is never illogical, and it's funny as hell.

I wish I had one of those whistles

[wbhickok · 10/10 · 25 July 2001]

This wonderful Tex Avery short has all the ingredients for a successful cartoon, protagonistic cats, antagonistic dogs, and falling anvils. As in most Avery vehicles, the jokes come rapid fire, all which will leave you in stitches. One of the masters best works.

The prototypical Tex Avery cartoon

[llltdesq · 10/10 · 19 January 2001]

This Tex Avery effort is virtually a crash course-pun intended-on how to make a Tex Avery cartoon. Take a wholly unsympathetic villain (in this case, a bully), add a victim ( a cute little kitten), show the bully in action and then set up a means for the bad guy to get what they deserve and then some, making certain that there's room for roughly 5,306 sight gags along the way. Tex Avery created or helped develop Bugs Bunny, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel and Chilly Willy, to name a few. Many of his cartoons centered around that basic outline, with some variation. Sight gags, sight gags and more sight gags. Most recommended.

Quick and creative

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 20 July 2016]

"Bad Luck Blackie" is a color cartoon from 1949, so this one is already almost 70 years old. The director is the famous Tex Avery and Rich Hogan (not as famous) wrote the story. Avery also works as voice actor. It runs for seven minutes as they usually do and I must say I enjoyed the watch for the most part. Especially during the middle, it was downright great and I was tempted to give 4 out of 5 stars. But the beginning and ending are not on par. You could say that this one is basically a collection of very short short films. A little cat gets bullied by a big bulldog, but a black cat comes to help and keeps bringing bad luck to the dog in the most unusual situations, locations and circumstances. But the bulldog is not dumb. Will it help if he paints the cat white? If he carries a horseshoe? Or if he just steals the whistle? Watch for yourself! This is certainly among the better Tex Avery films I have seen and I recommend it.

You Do Know How To Whistle?

[boblipton · 10/10 · 8 May 2021]

It's a classic Tex Avery cartoon -- what, again?! -- in which a large, mean dog torments a small cat, until the latter is approached by a black alley cat, who offers to. Bring bad luck to the dog by crossing his path whenever the small cat blows a whistle. The gags consist of the variety of increasingly absurd ways the black cat enters and exits the frame, and the increasing large objects that fall from the sky onto the victim. They start with flowerpots, and end up battleships.

It's a nicely graded assortment of gags, increasingly odd and immense, that makes this Avery cartoon simultaneously standard and so very funny.

This brief cartoon serves primarily as a primer . . .

[pixrox1 · 6/10 · 4 September 2021]

. . . teaching young tykes the fine points of becoming sadistically cackling schoolyard bullies. The kitten-tormenting bulldog dominating this picture epitomizes the principle of big oafs making much smaller and younger victims miserable. Only an anti-American movie studio would trek this far onto a limb to churn out such counter-productive garbage. Too bad someone with a chainsaw did not hack off this offensive branch immediately.

The cat and the bulldog

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 17 October 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 he ever did. 'Bad Luck Blackie' is another example of an animated masterpiece and one of his all time best. Like the best of Tex Avery, 'Bad Luck Blackie' is a cartoon of amazing quality, is very creative and hilarious, and has a potentially distasteful premise actually done inventively and tastefully.

The kitten is adorable and a character one roots for. The funnier and more interesting character though is the bulldog, who is both scarily formidable and hilarious. The voice work as to be expected is marvellous.

Avery does a wonderful job directing, with his unique, unlike-any-other visual and characteristic and incredibly distinctive wacky humour style all over it as can be expected.

Once again there is nothing sadistic or repetitious, instead it's imaginative, wonderfully wild and hilarious throughout from start to finish. The sight gags throughout are an absolute joy and are immaculate in timing.

It is no surprise either that the animation is superb, being rich in colour and detail. The character designs are unique, Avery always did have creative character designs, and suitably fluid. The music, courtesy of Scott Bradley, is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed.

Summing up, another Avery masterpiece. 10/10 Bethany Cox

good but not great Avery cartoon

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 7 June 2006]

This is a pretty good cartoon, but it's not exactly one of Tex Avery's best for MGM. The story begins with a cute little kitten being bullied repeatedly by a sadistic dog. Each time he does something mean to the kitten (such as offering him a saucer of milk with a mouse trap hidden inside), the dog laughs intensely (perhaps TOO intensely--it's a little annoying). Again and again, the kitten is tortured until a black cat comes to his aid. The black cat announced that he is a "bad luck" charm and any time he wants something bad to happen to the dog he should call. And, of course, the dog continues being abusive and the kitten calls again and again for the aid of the black cat. Each time, impossible but funny awful things happen to the dog. The sight gags are cool and the cartoon is entertaining.

Got my mojo workin...

[Lirazel · 7 August 1999]

There's a lesson to be learned here..but who cares? Don't mess around with the little cat, Spike..even after the bad luck inherent in the noir feline is negated by a dousing of white paint, fate learns to associate bad luck with a whistle..larger and larger objects come into contact with Spike's noggin, and though most would be daunted by the repeated application of anvils, safes and the like to their cranium, this cretinous canine continues causing chaos throughout the film..to the audience's glee.

Clever and smart short don't cross the black cat's path!

[blanbrn · 8/10 · 16 February 2021]

This short from 1949 was included from the early "Tom and Jerry" series the episode called "Bad Luck Blackie" was one of Tex Avery's best. The short was smart and clever. As the story moves with logic and makes sense and with a typical cartoon it has chase and action, it just doesn't have Tom cat or Jerry mouse in it. The story involves a bullied and tormented kitten who just can't escape the paws and jaws of a big unique laughing bulldog. Only things change when little kitty finds the services of a black cat named "Bad Luck Blackie". And on the side the trick is a piece of equipment that the cat carries that is a little whistle and with one blow the black cat crosses the big bulldog's path to save the day for little kitty. Things that drop from the sky to punish the bulldog are simple to far out from a flowerpot, to bigger items like a piano, a bomb and other things. The only short and slim luck the dog has is some white paint only the little kitten has learned the game and outsmarts the big dog! Really this short stayed true to the old myth of being aware and scared of crossing black cats. Overall well done short that's enjoyable and teaches a superstition like themed message!

Very entertaining

[gbill-74877 · 8/10 · 24 May 2021]

Tex Avery strikes again with this funny little cartoon. It's about a little cat who's been bullied by a large bulldog, and so turns to the services of the "Black Cat Bad Luck Company," which offers "Paths Crossed - Guaranteed Bad Luck." As soon as the streetwise alley cat crosses the dog's path, a flower pot drops from the sky and knocks him out. Given a whistle, the little cat can summon help anytime - which he does, again and again. The gag is repetitive, but the variations on the theme are amusing, including the dog trying to reverse his fortunes with a horseshoe, getting his hands on the whistle, and using some white paint. The various ways his body contorts and how he runs along on two fingers are funny, but note there is one unfortunate Asian stereotype when he's gone up the chimney of an outdoor grill (mercifully it's very brief). Overall, quite entertaining.

animation legend Tex Avery

[SnoopyStyle · 8/10 · 8 May 2021]

A large bulldog keeps tormenting his little kitten sibling. The little kitten finds help from Black Cat who is in the business of Bad Luck. Whenever Black Cat crosses the path of the bulldog, bad things happen to the dog. This is another good one from animation legend Tex Avery. I also love the resolution.