Edgar Allan Pooh . . . Red Commie KGB Chief Vlad "The Mad Russian" Putin began fingering his sock puppet Don Juan Rump toward America's once-respectable White House in 1989. Dr. Seuss nailed this emerging threat to America at this time (that is, 28 years ago) by including ALL of the most deranged elements of Putin's Deplorable Rump Administration within the 24 minutes spanned by BUTTER BATTLE BOOK. As most American Media Outlets predict the END of Life as We Knew It will occur Tomorrow (that is, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017) because Rump and his counterpart madman in North Korea BOTH have their itchy trigger fingers hovering over their respective Nuclear Missile Launch Buttons, this moment is perfectly captured by BUTTER's Yook and Zook leaders on the brink of Mutually Assured Destruction from their own "Itsy Bitsy Big Boy Boom-Er-Roo" weapons as this animated short concludes on an ambiguous note. The entire cartoon takes place at or near the Great Wall of Rump, and Dr. Seuss is surely quoting Rump at some future date when the Yook Grandpa boasts "with my Triple Sling Jigger, I sure felt bigger!" Putin's Secretary for U.S. Miseducation, Billionairess Betsy "Amway Calling" DeVos, even makes a cameo appearance here at 2:45, as she leads the tykes of Yook in a brainwashing song at one of her for-profit Charter Bamboozling Shacks.

TheLittleSongbird Even from an early age I have loved Dr Seuss, and I find the animated versions of his work on the most part classics(1966's How the Grinch Stole Christmas is my favourite). Ralph Bakshi's The Butter Battle Book is not an exception. While I am more familiar with and prefer Chuck Jones' visual style, the animation is very good, not always smooth but always colourful and vibrant. The score has the right mix of whimsy and energy, while the songs are very catchy and succeed in making Dr Seuss' classic rhymes highly memorable. With or without song, the rhymes have razor-sharp bite and wit and move along at a sprightly(and gentle when needed) pace. The story is simple, smart, charming and true to Dr Seuss' book, with many funny moments for children and adults to savour. The message is important and doesn't feel thankfully overly-didactic in how it was put across. The characters are wholly engaging and the voice acting I can't fault either. All in all, terrific like most of the Dr Seuss animated adaptations. 10/10 Bethany Cox

loxias-1 Wow. Wow, wow. Hmmm. Do I waste the words? In the spirit of Bakshi, I'll stay human and fail by trying. I won't believe the Grandfather. Anyone who studies Bakshi feels the tides of generations, of change, of the street, of music, and art, addiction and emotion. Of the loss of soul which accompanies conviction. So those few will suck on the sour, ironic pill of these comments like they have every minute of Bakshi film, and twist their face wry, and spit it out and never forget. They illustrate alike. Let me simplify and close; from 'a brilliant, if all-too-brief, collaboration...' "Soon there are goofy attempts by a hired Grandfather Yook (voiced by Charles Durning) to take on the task of stopping the Zooks from continuing on their bottom-buttered path." And contrast. From 'Simplistic and misguided' "In any event, the cartoon is little more than simplistic propaganda which does little to explore the nuances of the ethical questions behind nuclear armament and instead tries to inculcate fear of weapons technology into children." Do I really need to summarize? Probably, but I won't. Conviction becomes reality. What acts is indestructible.

Alexis (griffin84) This was one of my favorite adaptations of a Dr. Suess story. On one side of a stone wall, there's the Yooks, the "proper" race that butters their bread "butter side up". On the other side live the Zooks, which (gasp!) butter their bread "butter side down". The two groups, whom appear to be the exact same with the exception of this one characteristic, have waged war with each other for countless years. The Butter Battle Book shows the story of an old man who was once patrolled the wall, protecting the Yooks from the terror of the Zooks. With the help of his advisor, things get worse and worse until he and Zooks' protector both bring out a device that will destroy both sides of the wall forever. Who's going to drop it first? We may never know...I saw this when I was a child, and it left a lasting impression on me. These two races are fight over something as simple as this, and it shows what happens if we don't learn to get along and accept one another as each other. In a way, this story is the summary of every war that has happened: the fighting gets worse, and if we don't learn to get along, things are only going to get worse until both sides will destroy one another. Even though the story is very humorous, the moral is an important one. I'm hoping that one day I can share this story with my children and my grandchildren.