Booby Hatched (1944)

Too much about the plot just didn't add up, the writing was bad, some of the scenes were cringey and awkward,

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

And this is coming from someone who likes Frank Tashlin without considering him a favourite. Booby Hatched might not be one of the greatest cartoons of all time, however that doesn't stop it from being thoroughly entertaining. It is colourfully and fluidly animated, and camera shots show a master animation director who puts a lot of thought and care into what he does. Carl Stalling's music score is without fault, it fits so well, sounds beautiful and is full of energy. The writing has freshness and wit, who can forget the lines of the hibernating bear? While the story has enough excitement and twists to stop it being too routine. Booby Hatched is solidly paced, and underneath all the hilarity the duckling in the blizzard is so heartfelt you cannot be touched by it. The line proceeding it is funny if a little bit obtrusive to the mood. The characters engage throughout, the hibernating bear is priceless, and the voice work is perfectly pitched by Mel Blanc and Sara Berner. To conclude, very good and great entertainment. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Frank Tashlin's 'Booby Hatched' is a splendid cartoon full to bursting with all sorts of different types of gag. A mother duck tries desperately to keep her eggs warm in subzero temperatures (and this set up alone spawns five or six great jokes in only a couple of minutes). All but one finally hatch out and the unhatched egg sets out on a journey to find warmth. 'Booby Hatched' seems to pack a ridiculous amount of plot into its seven minutes, incorporating the mother duck's attempts to hatch the eggs, the introduction of the unhatched protagonist, his attempts to find a source of heat, the discovery of his disappearance, the very late introduction of the main villain, a frantic chase, an unexpected twist and finally the punch line. That's without even mentioning the cameo appearance of a hibernating bear who steals the cartoon with just two lines! Tashlin's direction here is as magnificent as ever with some great executions of some tricky concepts (the egg x-ray sequence that opens the cartoon is particularly beautiful) and 'Booby Hatched' emerges as something of an undiscovered masterpiece, a tremendously satisfying classic which has happily reached a wider audience through its much deserved distribution on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 4 DVD.

"Booby Hatched" is a very silly Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin. It's basically about an overprotective mother duck and one of her unhatched little offspring who somehow manages to separate himself from his siblings and get himself lost. No need for me to reveal more than that.Here are, in my opinion, the funniest moments from "Booby Hatched". As the mother duck prepares to rest her boiling hot fanny on her chilly blue eggs, they all suddenly hatch, with all the little ducklings shouting, "Don't do it! We'll come out." The one unhatched duckling (voiced by Mel Blanc) is hilarious as he makes his first appearance, saying, "Hey, where is everybody? Who turned off the heat?" and later, "I've just gotta find someone to sit on me, someone with a nice, warm DISPOSITION." As the poor little duckling trudges through a violent blizzard, the musical accompaniment suddenly stops and the snow suddenly freezes in midair as he comments, "This is the saddest part of the picture, folks." To conclude, how dare I write about a Warner Bros. cartoon without mentioning the genius of composer/orchestrator Carl W. Stalling. At the opening of "Booby Hatched", depicting an excruciatingly chilly day on the farm, we hear "Old MacDonald" cleverly written in a minor key! The mother duck checks on her icy blue eggs to the accompaniment of "Am I Blue?" And "A Cup of Coffee, a Sandwich, and You" accompanies the wolf attempting to cook the unhatched duckling in a large pot.

This is an incredibly funny cartoon, but a minor character steals the show. There is a hibernating bear who has two lines and the second is one of the funniest bits in the whole short. Other things to watch for are the roll call of the baby ducks' names after they hatch and Robspierre's closing line at the very end. Well worth looking for. Recommended.