The Bashful Buzzard (1945)

the audience applauded

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

"The Bashful Buzzard" is a Warner bros cartoon from September 1945, so this one had its 70th anniversary last year and it is from the exact time when World War II ended. The director is prolific filmmaker Robert Clampett and the (voice) cast includes successful (voice) actors Sara Berner and Mel Blanc. It is one of Warner Bros' Merrie Melodies films and frequently they feature characters that don#t show up in other films too often and this is true here. There is a connection to "Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid" from three years earlier, but that's it. Mama Buzzard sends out her kids to get some food on the table, but one of them is just too peaceful and his attempts to catch a baby sheep or even a tiny bumble bee don't turn out very successfully, while his brothers raid an entire zoo. But then, there is the challenge of his lifetime in what initially seems a small turtle. Okay little film that scores more through the story than through comedy and the Italian bird mom is also a nice addition. Voice acting is strong as always, I give this one a cautious thumbs-up. Worth seeing.

Beaky Buzzard returns in this enjoyable short from Bob Clampett. Beaky had previously appeared in Clampett's classic Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid. Here, as in that short, Beaky and his brothers are sent out by their mother to capture food. The brothers do so easily but Beaky runs into some trouble. Fun stuff from Clampett but missing the something extra Bugs brought to the table in the previous short. Still there are funny gags and lines throughout, as well as references to Dumbo and The Great Gildersleeve. Beaky may be a minor character in the grand scheme of things but he's impossible to dislike. Good animation, music, and voice work. The last cartoon Kent Rogers did before his untimely death.

As "The Bashful Buzzard" started, I thought that it was going to be a shot-for-shot remake of "Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid" for about the first minute. But when it started doing its own thing, I found it an OK cartoon, not great. Why is Beaky Buzzard - or Killer, if you want to call him that - such a lazy ignoramus? Who knows? They have to entertain us somehow.I certainly liked the sight of Beaky bringing some of those things home. If I'd been that Italian mother of his, I'd have told the father (who probably would have been a godfather) that the son isn't fit for missions.All in all, worth seeing. Available on YouTube.

"Beaky Buzzard" was another Looney Tunes effort that never made it past a couple of efforts. This cartoon did offer some laughs, though.Mama buzzard, complete with a strong, stereotypical Italian accent, sends her four boys out on a mission - get food! Three of them head out in formation and start dive bombing immediately. The fourth is a shy little guy who sounds exactly like Edgar Bergen's ventriloquist character "Mortimer Snurd." He isn't just shy; he's just plain stupid. He's sarcastically called "killer."The cartoon started stupidly but did get funny when the buzzards started bringing back food to the nest high up in the mountains.What they brought back was astounding - and funny! Unfortunately, the 'toon reverts back to stupid near the end with the little guy inadvertently bringing back a surprise, but it's not really humorous. I can see why this idea didn't work.