. . . was simply "phoning it in" at the tail end of his Warner Bros. career, before defecting (Racist Proclivities and All) to that Big Money Bastion of Bigotry, MGM. Once Tex was able to drool over the Fake News rewriting of The War to End Lazy Racist Southerners' Genocidal Torture of Kidnapped Black People (aka, GONE WITH THE WIND) at least a documented 27 times, he felt compelled to collect his Thirty Pieces of Silver from the Fascist Confederate Propagandists at MGM. As this lame AVIATION VACATION outing proves, Avery was no longer in sync with Warner Bros.' Extreme Early Warning System for We Americans of (The Then) Far Future (aka, the Animated Shorts Seers squad), who would prove so adept at prognosticating the USA's upcoming Calamities, Catastrophes, Cataclysms, and Apocalypti. There's an old Norse Saying that there's one Quisling in every crowd. When it comes to the Lonely Star of Texas, it's the reverse of Norway. It's too bad the personnel department at Warner Bros. did not exercise a little common sense during the vetting process that Mr. Avery "passed."

Tex Avery Merrie Melodies short about an airplane flying around the world. Basically a mock travelogue that's just a series of sight gags instead of a real plot. Avery was the master of these types of cartoons. While this isn't his best (see Avery's Tomorrow series for that), I still find it enjoyable. The most notable part of the short today would probably be the part that takes place in "Darkest Africa." Here we have some of the stereotypical portrayals of African natives that were prominent at the time in film and cartoons. It won't sit well with some today so be warned if you're easily offended. All together it's an interesting short with some really good animation and a few funny gags. The hair bit was probably my favorite because I didn't see it coming. Not among Avery's best work but solid.

This Warner Brothers animated short doesn't contain any of their regular characters nor does it really have a plot; it just follows a plane as it flies from Hollywood to Ireland, then on to Africa before returning to New York. We don't get to know the passengers; we just see the sights along the way. Some have obviously dated a bit such as the scene where we see two presidential candidates as possible carvings on Mt. Rushmore; no doubt viewers in 1941 would have instantly recognised the pair. Another gag is dated for another reason; the depiction of a savage African tribe is obviously not politically correct... although I did chuckle at the blowgun gag!The rest of the gags were fairly innocuous; we see the plane running and flapping its wings on take off; its shadow folds back its winds and vanishes as the plane flies over a railway tunnel for example. We also get a rather bizarre musical interlude where an Irishman sings 'When Irish Eyes are Smiling' it is odd as he is drawn far more realistically than most cartoon people. This is by no means a must see but isn't terrible either; just rather average and dated.

This is one of the last cartoon shorts directed by Tex Avery before he left Merrie Melodies (Warner Brothers) and had a much more successful career with MGM. And considering the dubious quality of the material with "Aviation Vacation", it was a good decision! The first 2/3 of this cartoon is a very innocuous little cartoon--not particularly funny but on par with the sorts of shorts they were making before the studio really hit their stride with cartoons. It tries very hard to be a funny documentary about airplanes but most of the jokes fall pretty flat. At this point, I was very curious why the short has been shelved by Warner Brothers. However, at the five minute mark...WOW! This portion of the film was set in Africa and the natives all are the sorts of stereotypes that make folks cringe today--bones through the noses, huge lips and the like. It was embarrassing and sad...and not one bit funny. Combine that with the rest of the cartoon and I feel it is no great loss that this one was shelved. But, if you are curious, it can be downloaded for free at archive.org. Sad.