. . . THE FROG OF WAR, this saga in The Inspector series constitutes France's last warning to their U. S. Allies that the Ted Offensive was looming just a few months ahead. WAR CROW, as the title translates into American, pictures all of the imminent horrors lying in wait for the unsuspecting U. S. forces. This thinly-veiled analogy suggests that the Communist War Crow was about to eat America's lunch, making off with the crown jewels of U. S. wealth: Youth, taxpayer billions and the supposed record of a nation never defeated on the battlefield. WAR CROW depicts America's "best and brightest military minds" as a bumbling French loser of the same ilk who lost the French Revolution, the Napoleon Wars, World War One, World War Two and the original Vietnam War.
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pixrox121 August 2023
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This is an Inspector short from Dapatie-Freling. There will be spoilers ahead:
The Inspector is investigating a jewel robbery, only to discover that the thief is a crow. From the first, The Inspector is over-matched and outwitted. This is made repeatedly (and painfully) clear to The Inspector throughout the short.
The bird is seemingly one step ahead of The Inspector at every turn. Sometimes, The Inspector's biggest problem is himself, but this is one resourceful bird. The Inspector falls from great heights, is shot and blown up at various points, mostly because he's dumber than the crow.
Some of the gags are reminiscent of old Looney Tunes bits and they're mostly predictable. There are still quite a few laughs here in any case.
This short is available on DVD, one of the two The Inspector DVDs which contain all 34 of The Inspector shorts in the series. This short and the DVDs themselves are recommended. -
TheLittleSongbird4 August 2019There are thirty four cartoons making up DePatie-Freleng Enterprises' The Inspector series. The first being 1965's 'The Great De Gaulle Stone Operation' and the last being 1969's 'Carte Blanched'. A series mostly well worth watching with even some very good to great efforts, though would be lying if saying all of them are great, some being very, very average. Like The Inspector too as a character and his contrasting chemistry with Deux Deux.
For me, his twentieth cartoon 1967's 'Crow De Guerre' is one of the best, as far as the 1967 efforts it gets my vote as the second best (and one of the funniest) of them after 'Le Pig-Al Patrol' as well. If summing up its quality, 'Crow De Guerre' is very enjoyable and one of the very good The Inspector cartoons. Even without Deux Deux, when he doesn't appear it is hard not to miss him and the two's chemistry together, and the Commissioner.
'Crow De Guerre' is hardly original, as with a lot of The Inspector cartoons it is pretty formulaic, and there could have been more freshness in some of the material, as it is never any real surprise as to who is constantly out-smarted.
Absolutely loved the crow though and the chemistry between him and The Inspector was instrumental to the cartoon's success and is one of the main things that lifts it from potentially standard to very enjoyable. The personality contrasts between the two works well. Have no issues with Pat Harrington Jr, it is hard not to imagine anybody else voicing The Inspector.
Gags, mostly physical and visual, are many and they are very funny and clever. It could have been sharper at times but the wit and irony are done well, The Inspector's bumbling is a pleasure to watch as always.
Have no problems with the animation either. It is simple but never cheap-looking, while the somewhat abstract backgrounds have nice attention to detail and sparseness isn't an issue. Especially love the colours though, simple but rich. The music has energy but also a jazzy slinkiness that never jars.
Summarising, very enjoyable. 8/10