The Blow Out

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. 'The Blow Out' is fairly early career Avery, but it's a good, very good even, early Avery cartoon. For Avery, 'The Blow Out' is fairly tame with his uniquely wacky style being more obvious from the 40s onward, a sense that he was still finding his style. Porky is fun and appealing, but there is a vast personal preference for Mel Blanc voicing Porky than Joe Dougherty, who didn't sound as natural as the character.

However, the animation in 'The Blow Out' is characteristically great with the inventive and atmospheric use of shadow being particularly striking. The music score is energetic and lush.

Only Avery could make something entertaining out of a very serious subject like terrorism. The material here is not as imaginative or as hilarious as the material when he properly found his style, but it's still well timed and funny while never including anything that will offend.

The pace throughout is lively and the characters are a lot of fun. Dougherty as Porky aside, the voice acting is good especially Lucille La Verne (best known as the evil queen in 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs').

All in all, good well-made fun but Avery is not at his best. 8/10 Bethany Cox