djclancy

This is probably my favourite Australian movie. Had reasonably high production values for a short film, and often used soundtrack effects, and camera, to have the world from the point of view of Bonza the family dog. This dog is the only element that unites an otherwise fractured family. I say 'fractured' because part of the film's appeal is the mixture of comedy and realism in the family's dysfunction.

Nearly every scene is comic but some are absolute comedy gold: the family eating dinner while watching TV, 'Aha, Bonza, the Thong of Death', Mum dancing with Bonza.

Peter Rowsthorn's best work.

Robert McKimson, to my mind, was the funniest animator WB had, because he used animation not just for comedy involving physical impossibilities, but for character-based physical comedy, the sort that made WC Fields great, the sort where a character expresses themselves physically. Added to which, the violence was always highly comic. In The Fractured Leghorn, the McKimson cat is chasing a worm for fishing and Foghorn is in competition for the worm, constantly (often violently) upbraiding the cat, who never speaks, and accusing him of being a gasbag, blabbermouth etc etc. The comic crescendo for me is when the cat, crawling backwards away from the Foghorn tirade, crawls through a horse trough under the water and Foghorn follows, sticking his head into the trough and under the water to continue his monologue, which is now just bubbles and burbling. But this is just one of many comic gem moments in this cartoon. I think overall, I like McKimson best because he had a better sense of humour; he was just funnier than the others.