Edgar Allan Pooh . . . a guy wearing a hat (unless you enjoy sitting at lights for eons even after they turn green, and always want to mosey along 15 MPH under the speed limit, even when the limit is 25 MPH), WAR DOGS warns America never to turn over a conflict to a canine wearing a hat. Only one of the many mutts pictured here always is sporting headgear. It soon becomes obvious that if the outcome of World War Two is left up to this four-legged Numbskull, Americans will soon be speaking Gapinese and bowing down to Hirohitler. However, this raises an intriguing question. Since the WWII Unconditional Surrender Documents (consequently voided by various trade agreements) were signed in 1945, it seems that the USA has only won the War against Grenada and the 1984 "Home" Olympics in Los Angeles. Someone needs to research all the documentation from Korea, Vietnam, Santo Domingo, Panama, Lebanon, Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan to see if there's evidence of this Hat-wearing Devil Dog pictured in WAR DOGS lousing things up for us. If so, it's about time that this mutt gets Deep-Sixed!

Robert Reynolds This is a one shot cartoon from the MGM animation department. There will be mild spoilers ahead:MGM produced quite a few wartime animated and live action shorts aimed at stirring patriotic fervor in moviegoers. There were great ones, like The Blitz Wolf, good ones like The Rookie Bear and then there were marginal time fillers like this one.The problems with this one are that, one, it's a one joke cartoon and it beats that one joke to death in under seven minutes and, two, the pacing isn't terribly good.. It's just a collection of gags seen mostly in other shorts but given a twist to relate them to the basic premise of this short.The idea here is a boot camp for the training of dogs in World War Two. It follows one incredibly dense and idiotic mutt through training. There are moments when you think someone looked at a few Tex Avery shorts, grabbed off a few of his gags and simply shoved them into this short, without realizing that what made them funny to begin with was Avery's sense of timing.It's a cute cartoon in spots. The bit where the dog winds up doing a very involuntary parachute jump is nice and the ending is cute. there are flag waving moments and it's decent (if obvious) propaganda, but not the best short by any means.This short is an extra on the Reunion In France DVD. It's worth watching.

boblipton This is another of the banned World War Two Cartoon. Given the sort of thing that they got banned for, it looks like this one got it in the neck for about a three-second clip in which a Japanese soldier appears: short, fat and childish.I won't go into my usual rant about how we are, as a culture, very forgiving of everyone but our grandparents, with a side discussion on what sort of thing our grandchildren will find absolutely despicable about popular culture today. I'm sure you've got a little list, too.However, this cartoon, nominally directed by Hanna and Barberra is pretty funny. I write 'nominally' because it doesn't like like H-B's other stuff. in terms of gag construction and base design it looks like something Tex Avery might have done when he was turning out cartoon newsreels for Schlesinger. Is it possible that he actually did direct it and handed off the credit to his fellow directors, because he already had BLITZ WOLF under his belt and they needed something to prove their patriotism?