Hollywood Steps Out (1941)

Disappointment for a huge fan!

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

What is this rubbish about this cartoon being confusing - confusing - really??? Anyway, although this short is not the very, very best piece of animation from Warner Bros., how can you not like it? It moves very quickly, has tons of celebrities (even though you might know who they are), and the music is wonderful. Please watch it on it's own merit, without any kind of bias. Forget about not knowing who all the celebrities are - just enjoy the sight gags, which are definitely funny. Also forget about any jokes that you cannot understand. The statement from someone on this board stating that the jokes are too difficult to understand, is something that I cannot understand, as just about anyone from around age 6 and up can understand or at least appreciate this cartoon. The jokes and sight gags are very obvious. So, why anyone cannot understand the jokes, etc. is a mystery to me! At any rate, just relax, enjoy the fantastic music (The CONGA, by the way, NOT the CHA-CHA as someone mentioned on this board), and the fast pace, and the great animation. This cartoon is very fun, in 1941, in 1975 and in 2009.

Tex Avery's 'Hollywood Steps Out' is a Hollywood caricature spot-gag cartoon which is mostly notable for film buffs who still recognise the celebrities being lampooned. As a film buff myself, I still enjoy 'Hollywood Steps Out' to a degree but it's more historically interesting than hilarious. Inevitably, there are a handful of gags that are difficult to understand for modern audiences but the cartoon is less dated that other reference-based cartoons thanks to a continued interest in the Golden Age of Hollywood. So even the most casual of movie fans should recognise the likes of Groucho Marx, Jimmy Stewart, Bing Crosby or the Three Stooges. It's a charming little short really but it lacks the punch that it would have had when the stars it was depicting were current celebrity icons. 'Hollywood Steps Out', then, is a fun star-spotting exercise for fans of classic entertainment and many of the jokes still work OK but there's nothing here that's likely to have you rolling in the aisles.

The Hollywood set steps out at Ciro's to be precise, where the night-clubbing action is exclusively set. The script is not particularly amusing or inventive, but fascinating all the same. The voice impersonations are mostly very skillful. One of the longest spots has Jimmy Stewart declining an invitation to rumba. At least two gags deal with Crosby's horse-racing ventures, whilst the climax features a bubble dance by "Sally Strand". Naturally the stars in evidence at Ciro's on this particular night (Dinner $50 and up. Easy terms available) are weighted in favor of Warner Bros, though a number of "foreign" stars receive a fair innings including the Hardys (both real and fictional), the Three Stooges, and Harpo Marx. Some of the faces are glimpsed so fleetingly they will be difficult for a 2007 audience to recognize. And maybe two or three are now forgotten.Musically, the film is a feast for song-lovers with snatches from Nat Ayer's "Oh, You Beautiful Doll", Tony Jackson and Egbert Van Alstyne's "Pretty Baby", Allie Wrubel's "The Lady in Red", Isham Jones' "It Had To Be You", James Brockman, James Kendis and Nat Vincent's "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles", M.K. Jerome's "Congo", Harry Warren's "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby", Murray Mencher's "Merrily We Roll Along" and others, all delightfully rendered by the studio orchestra under the baton of Leo F. Forbstein.To sum up: In view of the star line-up, somewhat disappointing, but still a must for all movie buffs.

This short is jammed with caricatures of notables-mostly actors and actresses, but J. Edgar Hoover is here too, as are Leopold Stowkowski and Sally Rand. Not only stars (Gable, Garbo and Grant) but character actors (the almost mandatory Ned Sparks appearance is here) as well. It was an excellent concept, tailor-made for the animators. Their audience would recognize the caricatures and get the jokes easily. This is one of the better ones. Most, if not all the animation studios did at least one or two such shorts. Well worth looking for. Most recommended.