The Stop Button




Conrad the Sailor (1942, Chuck Jones)


A scene from CONRAD THE SAILOR, directed by Chuck Jones for Warner Bros.

I wasn’t sure what I was going to say about Conrad the Sailor when it started. It seemed pretty simple–Conrad is a lame cat sailor and Daffy Duck makes fun of him. It was a simple case of Daffy being a bully.

Maybe I could have done something about how cartoon icons are often callous and cruel.

Then Conrad escalates the situation and starts trying to kill Daffy. Daffy, while a jerk, was never insane and murderous. He was a jerk.

The role change makes Conrad the Sailor a little more interesting than its content.

As a cartoon, it’s decent. There’s a nice swaying of the ship in the opening titles. There’s a good gag with the ship’s captain coming through (until the final time Jones uses it–as a finishing gag–and it’s too little).

Besides being interesting and mildly amusing, Conrad doesn’t make much of an impression.

2/3Recommended

CREDITS

Directed by Chuck Jones; written by Dave Monahan; animated by Ben Washam and Ken Harris; edited by Treg Brown; music by Carl W. Stalling; produced by Leon Schlesinger; released by Warner Bros.

Starring Mel Blanc (Daffy Duck) and Pinto Colvig (Conrad Cat).


RELATED

n


2 responses to “Conrad the Sailor (1942, Chuck Jones)”

  1. Matthew Hurwitz Avatar
    Matthew Hurwitz

    I’m loving your cartoon reviews, but may I suggest you also include the animators in the credits? The credited writers were more responsible for the story premise than the actual content of gags, which back in the golden age of animation the animators had full say over improvising and adding to the cartoon at theirs (and the director’s) discretion.

    It’s only 3-4 more people and you can see crossover between directors and studios – Preston Blair was a Disney guy who went over to Tex Avery later (including Screwball Squirrel, accounting for the genuine Disney cuteness at the beginning), you can notice directors working up the ranks or even doing animation for other directors on side, and directors with different animators produced different looking cartoons – like early Chuck Jones with Robert McKimson animating for him looks very different than when he was with the guys who’d give him the “Chuck Jones cartoon” look.

    signed,
    a nerd for caring

    1. Andrew Wickliffe Avatar

      I agree. I’ve retroactively added the animators to this post and the previous ones. Glad McKimson did the animation in the one where I complained about him being sloppy….

Leave a Reply

Blog at WordPress.com.

Discover more from The Stop Button

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading