Rookie Revue (1941)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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. Actually appreciate it even more through young adults eyes, due to having more knowledge of it, various animation styles, studios, directors and how it all works.'Rookie Revue' is not one of Friz Freleng's, a director who did many great cartoons and a director held in high admiration by me, best, not being one of his funniest, wittiest or freshest. For relatively early Freleng, 'Rookie Revue' is well above average though he would do much better later. It is never what one would call properly hilarious (but is never unfunny), Freleng's later efforts show more evenness and confidence in directing and the story is flimsy. It is quite thin in terms of story and the structure is basically an excuse to string them along. However, the characters are all fun and with enough distinct personality, if lacking a discernible lead character.The cartoon has a number of very amusing moments, there are frequent signs of variety, wit and invention and there is a good deal of liveliness.Animation is excellent, it's fluid in movement, crisp in shading and very meticulous in detail. The music is lovely on the ears, lushly orchestrated, full of lively energy and characterful in rhythm, not only adding to the action but also enhancing it. Voice acting is terrific, with Robert C Bruce providing snappy narration and Mel Blanc again showing a remarkable and unmatched ability to give individuality to multiple characters.In conclusion, decent. 7/10 Bethany Cox

. . . who just directed a 10-story American Coastal Artillery Piece to blow up HIS OWN headquarters in Warner Bros.' prophetic warning, ROOKIE REVUE. Which future U.S. neophyte might the Looney Tuners have in mind as the titular "rookie" here, you may ask. The answer is pretty clear. Never in our National History dating back to 1789 has our Quadrennial Election Cycle seen a Major Party Presidential Nominee rise to the top of the polls without ANY prior military OR public office service on behalf of America. (Most leading candidates have checked off BOTH of these Honor Boxes on their resumes.) Perhaps this first exception to the U.S. Golden Rule is a Nobel Peace Prize Winner, accomplished Labor Union Leader, or Nuclear Brain Surgeon? No, it's actually a GAME SHOW HOST born with a silver foot in his mouth, whom Casting Agents are pegging to excel in the Divine role as the "World's Nastiest Person" in the upcoming PINK FLAMINGOS remake (due to the fact that the Trumpster sports a habitual expression of having just swallowed a Fresh Pile of It). ROOKIE REVUE is full of Duck Dynasty types and their fans, as Warner warns us that the U.S. may become a nation of dolts in the 21st Century.

Rookie Revue (1941) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Fun natured animated short gives us a look of what life is like in the Army. This includes the morning wake-up call, roll call, mess hall and various other things you will be doing if you join.This short isn't meant to be taken serious and instead was probably aimed at children to show what their brothers, parents or whoever else was doing in the Army. Everything here is done in a comical way and while nothing is overly funny there's at least a good amount of imagination being used including the mess hall sequence where people eat in a style depending on what their job is in the Army. There's another aerial sequence that is quite good as well. Again, there's nothing ground-breaking here but this is pleasant enough.

MARSHALLING ALL OF the forces available for the War Effort, Hollywood did not have submit to any Draft Board. Willingly and cheerfully enlisting all of its studios' feature film productions, short subjects, serials and even cartoons into the fray, all could be used in an effort at solidarity and morale building.IN THE EXAMPLE of this Leon Schlesinger/Warner Brothers' cartoon, it is most general and non-specific in its intent and execution. Whereas it has a definite military theme, it never gets too technical. In form, it is a variation on the sort of general theme cartoons that they had been doing for some years at the Cartoon Studio; known as Termite Terrace.IN THIS CATEGORY of cartoon short, a narrator introduces the audience to several different related vignettes; going through some snappy narration while often getting an on screen response from one of the characters, usually being the punch-line. Visual puns are often employed and there is no central character such as a Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck to fill the spotlight. Often animated shorts of this genre were sort of spoofs of the Travelogues.SO IT IS that with a time tested and proved format such as this to work with, Looney Tunes gave us ROOKIE REVUE at a time when we really needed it.THANK YOU VERY much: Leon and you 4 Warners!