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Transcription
00:00Hi, Greg Ford here, and this is an absolutely extraordinary Chuck Jones cartoon with great
00:05character layouts, great facial expressions, and expert manipulation of point of view
00:11in the one-frag evening sense, you know, showing how people can perceive things completely
00:15differently from each other.
00:17It's a masterpiece, in my opinion, a simple dog and cat cartoon, or so it seems.
00:21A world in which treachery, a world in which treachery, I think you can hear already from
00:27this important-sounding official narration.
00:30There's a roiling political subtext bubbling just below the surface of this dog and cat
00:34cartoon.
00:35Now, here's our first view of Shep, faithful old Shep, and immediately from the way the
00:46master of the house treats the pets, you'll see that his attitude is completely predicted
00:49by prejudice.
00:50Dogs are supposed to be loyal, steadfast, protect the house, and cats, being independent,
00:54are supposedly egotistical and sneaky.
00:57But, you know, the audience gets to see the reality that the owner can't see in the case
01:00of these animals.
01:01Great drawing here, by the way.
01:03Shep is vicious and gluttonous, to boot.
01:06His noble qualities are all an act.
01:11And here's his big gut that we get to see, but the owner can't see.
01:18This scene is great.
01:19I mean, Shep's not even hungry, he couldn't be.
01:23We just saw him eat or overeat, but it doesn't matter.
01:25He simply has to steal that steak, just on principle, because the opportunity is there.
01:30Meanwhile, the good cat sweetly donates his meager fishbone dinner to replace the steak,
01:34and he has that saintly expression, that altruistic kind of look.
01:38But, you know, bias will trump everything.
01:45Perception alters reality, and the sneaky cat's the culprit.
01:49Why, you contemptible sneak.
01:50Just like a cat.
01:51Can't be trusted out of your sight.
01:52And now, in a terrific story twist, to add insult to injury, not only does the cat get
02:02blamed, but his good deed is appropriated by the duplicitous Shep, who sees a good
02:07publicity idea and steals it.
02:09I mean, this is great black comedy.
02:11No, Shep, I don't want your bone.
02:16Now this largely unknown cartoon has some strong supporters.
02:18The animation historian Mark Barrier, I remember, in Funny World, way back when, was great
02:22on this cartoon, and I'm happy to report that.
02:25But not a half an hour ago, I checked the film database and read this anonymous entry.
02:30Fresh Airedale is a gross aberration, unenjoyable and outright difficult to watch.
02:34The plot, which is painfully simple, features an unscrupulous, nasty and greedy dog named
02:39Shep getting his own way.
02:40Okay, it's just a cartoon, but cartoons are supposed to be fun, and I don't understand
02:44what message Chuck Jones was trying to convect.
02:46Well, first of all, Chuck Jones was as averse to so-called message pictures as was almost
02:51every director in Hollywood.
02:52But beyond that, I resent the just-a-cartoon implication that this most wonderful and
02:57flexible of forms, you know, so-called flat 2D animation, shouldn't deal with the kind
03:02of political manipulations that are depicted here and shouldn't deal with politics in
03:06general as if that's somehow off-limits and not fun.
03:09I remember talking to Chuck about art and politics in the late 60s and the relationship
03:14between the two, and he thought it was a natural combination.
03:44How the hell does the water get there?
03:46It gets there through politics, and that's it.
03:49There's no such thing as a political politics.
03:51Or as John Grierson says, you know, the National Film Board, he says, art cannot be apolitical.
04:01But on the other hand, art must not be consciously political, and that's very important.
04:06But to say that it's apolitical simply means that at any time you make a statement, you're
04:11political, because you're stating what you think.
04:16Now here's where this little domestic dog and cat tale, you know, this wallboard cartoon
04:21as they used to call them, suddenly explodes into national and even cosmic proportions.
04:27Shep, who you saw there, was falsely credited for having defended the house.
04:30I mean, in actuality, he invited the burglar in, got a reward, and even kissed the burglar's feet.
04:35Shep's not satisfied with his new heroic status.
04:37He's jealous of the number one dog.
04:40Now that number one dog actually was a picture of Roosevelt's dog,
04:43Fala.
04:44But they had to change it because Roosevelt died before the film got released.
04:47They had to make some quick changes.
04:48So now he's a number one show dog.
04:53This dream sequence, this nightmare is great, partakes of like the graphics that Chuck got
04:59pretty adept at during the making of the snafu cartoons.
05:02And it's just a great number one dog, number one dog.
05:06You know, the ones, and look at the ones take on the little Scottish terrier affects
05:11on the top of the one part there.
05:13No, boom.
05:15And it propels the character out into this broader context suddenly.
05:20And, you know, the cats there to save the number one dog, obviously Shep is going to
05:24kill because it's like he wants to be the number one.
05:29Maybe the cat will expose him, you know.
05:32Now you can see they made some changes.
05:33They must have been originally the White House.
05:35They changed it to sort of a Pennsylvania townhouse, but that's obviously Fala.
05:40But now it's just a number one dog.
05:45There's the heroic cat.
05:47Boom.
05:51Now, Chuck was a big Roosevelt supporter and even did a cartoon that was frankly partisan.
05:57I mean, it was a campaign film, so of course it was partisan.
05:59It depicted Roosevelt as a streamlined diesel and the opposition as this old
06:04puffer belly locomotive, the defeat is limited.
06:07But this cartoon is non-denominational politically.
06:10It's really getting a state of mind is the point, a state of mind, a sense of frustration
06:15where there's someone who's in power and you know he's a scoundrel, but and yet he's
06:22constantly feted and celebrated.
06:25Now, why shouldn't he be any different?
06:27Well, the number one dog was the cat.
06:29He co-ops the good behavior and now he's the hero.
06:33Fala saved him, but in fact, he saved Fala.
06:36Now he's the biggest celebrity ever.
06:38It's gigantic.
06:39And you know, this state of mind, you know, I mean, the Republicans felt this way about
06:43Clinton.
06:44The Democrats feel this way about Bush.
06:46It's just like there's a Washington context here somehow.
06:50And mudslinging.
06:50There's a Washington thing right there.
06:53And you know, where's the justice?
06:56Where's the justice?
06:57Bang.
06:58In this cartoon, you know, there is no justice.
07:00And what a brilliant cartoon to capture that feeling so well.
07:05Greg Ford, goodbye.