Edgar Allan Pooh . . . Warner Bros. live-action feature films are embedded in this seven-minute-long animated short, HAVE YOU GOT ANY CASTLES? Despite this fact, not ALL of the books OR characters referenced here called producer Jack L. Warner "Daddy." For instance, that mendacious melodrama GONE WITH THE WIND is famously MGM property, and the House of Horror--Universal Studios--churned out the early versions of FU MANCHU and FRANKENSTEIN. Every Hollywood film outfit probably cranked away at various editions of Louisa May Alcott's LITTLE WOMEN and LITTLE MEN, and Alexandre Dumas' THE THREE MUSKATEERS, since they all hailed from the Public Domain. On the other hand, BULLDOG "Drumming" DRUMMOND, THE THIN MAN, THE GOOD EARTH, THE LIFE OF LOUIS PASTEUR, TOPPER, MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, and THE 39 STEPS were all more recent literary efforts likely to be the property of one specific film studio (most often Warner here, of course). But I'm not sure that Shirley Temple ever belted out a "HEIDI Ho!," or that the THIN MAN ever filled out his rump from a White House Cookbook!

tavm Just rewatched this Merrie Melodies cartoon on the Varsity Show DVD. It has the characters on the book covers in a big shelf full of them coming to life, often in the caricatures of the film actors that portrayed them. It also had some black characters portrayed with big lips which is considered offensive today so kudos to Warner Bros. for including a disclaimer to that effect. Quite musically pleasing and a bit funny in some scenes concerning the film stars being drawn. Frank Tashlin was one of the most creative animation directors at the time and he's done well with something like this. So on that note, I recommend Have You Got Any Castles?

phantom_tollbooth One of the books-come-to-life series of cartoons that peaked with Bob Clampett's 'Book Revue', 'Have You Got Any Castles?' is a strong and extremely handsome piece of work. Much of the credit must go to underrated director Frank Tashlin whose work on this short is superb. At this early stage in their history, the Merrie Melodies cartoons were seen as prestige efforts attempting to rival the success of the bigger budget Disney Silly Symphony shorts, often by emulating them. The gorgeous look of 'Have You Got Any Castles?' owes something to Disney but Tashlin's cartoon has much better gags than the average Disney short. 'Have You Got Any Castles?' is essentially plot less yet Tashlin keeps us engaged throughout with some inspired gags (my favourite being the Heidi gag) and beautiful animation. As with most early Merrie Melodies, 'Have You Got Any Castles?' revolves around music which can often be a nail in the coffin of these early era cartoons. Fortunately, 'Have You Got Any Castles?' is deftly executed. It could hardly be more different from Clampett's 'Book Revue' in terms of pacing and animation style but it's worth noting that the Clampett cartoon does borrow some ideas from this one. 'Have You Got Any Castles?' is far from what would become the recognisable Warner Bros. style but it manages to be hugely entertaining on its own merits, trumping the majority of Disney shorts from which it takes a degree of influence.

Lee Eisenberg One of the first things that I noticed about "Have You Got Any Castles?" was the racist portrayals of certain characters (Fu Manchu, Uncle Tom's Cabin). Other than that, it was a pretty neat entry in the "books come alive" genre. A previous reviewer noted that most of the books portrayed in this cartoon are books that had recently been turned into movies when the cartoon came out, and the characters in the books resemble the actors from their respective movies (Charles Laughton in "Mutiny on the Bounty", Victor McLaglen in "The Informer", etc). It was probably intended to appeal more to the movie-going audience than to bookworms. But of course, isn't it easier just to watch the movie than to read the book? Thinking about this cartoon in its historical context, I can't help but imagine what it would look like nowadays. Many of the novels portrayed would be pretty grim (e.g., anything by Stephen King), and there might be a number of political books, cookbooks, self-help books and foreign language dictionaries. Out of "The Shining", Jack Nicholson would chop a hole in a door and say "Here's Johnny!"; out of the James Bond novels, Sean Connery would bed the world's hottest babes; and then there would be Noam Chomsky's various books about US-foreign policy. Go figure! Anyway, it's a cartoon worth seeing. So is "Book Revue", starring Daffy Duck.