Sniffles and the Bookworm (1939)
Literary characters come to life late at night in a bookshop, serenading Sniffles the mouse with swing music until the Frankenstein monster intrudes.
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Very disappointed :(
Purely Joyful Movie!
The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity
Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
Sniffles was one of Chuck Jones' early characters. This was during his early years when he was attempting to emulate Disney. Sniffles appears in a handful of Jones' shorts from 1939- 41. One of Sniffles regular companions was a mute bookworm. This is his first appearance.Most of Jones' early shorts had sluggish or dramatic pacing, which Jones' colleagues at the time and even contemporary fans have criticized him for. This is the case for the first half of the short until all the characters break into song and dance, which saves the film from being forgettable.This also falls in the genre of book come to life cartoons, which was a staple of WB cartoons throughout the 1930's. The book (or product label) come to life shorts always featured a popular song. This one being a musical number "Mutiny In The Nursery" from the WB feature "Going Places (1938)". The musical sequence is very catchy and makes it one of the best Sniffles entries.
Sniffles and the Bookworm (1939) ** (out of 4) A mouse falls asleep in a book store when he is visited by a bookworm, which turns a bunch of book characters into moving creatures. We get appearances from various stories all leading up to the showdown with Frankenstein's monster. All in all I found this animated short to be rather bland because none of the characters were all that interesting and that includes our lead, the mouse. I wasn't even overly impressed with Jones' animation because it too comes off bland and without too much life. The story itself is an interesting one but not much is done with it. There's a musical number that I didn't care too much for but the one interesting this is that the death of the monster here comes somewhat similar to that seen the same year in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN.
This is one of the most enjoyable and endearing little cartoons ever turned out by Chuck Jones, simple and unpretentious bits of humor that come about all because a "bookworm" invades a bookstore where Sniffles the Mouse is on guard watching out for the classic books.Various characters from the books join in the fun, and mayhem erupts when someone awakens the Frankenstein monster. The merry chases are fun to watch and Sniffles manages to resolve the situation at the predictable end by disposing of the monster.The last scene involves a happy reunion between Sniffles and the little green bookworm. The animators do a great job of giving the mouse and the worm warm personalities. Kids should find it delightful.
Chuck Jones's first star Sniffles was usually known as just plain cute. However, "Sniffles and the Bookworm" is different. This cartoon incorporates the "inanimate objects come to life" genre that twice portrayed books acting out their titles ("Have You Got Any Castles?" and "Book Revue"): Sniffles, a studious worm, and a group of classic novels have a hootenanny and inadvertently wake up Frankenstein's monster.So, for once, we do get to see a different side of this mouse. Of course, I probably speak for most Looney Tunes fans when I say that Chuck Jones got really good once he started directing Bugs, Daffy, and the rest of the really famous characters.All in all, worth seeing.