Boyhood Daze
Boyhood Daze
NR | 20 April 1957 (USA)
Boyhood Daze Trailers

Ralph gets sent to his room for breaking a window. There, he passes the time in Walter Mitty-type fashion, daydreaming that he's a parent-saving jungle explorer, an alien-fighting jet ace and a convict.

Reviews
Edgar Allan Pooh

. . . that title reference character Ralph Phillips is generally confined to his family's DISAPPOINTMENTS ROOM. Has he been bitten by a Zika Mosquito, and come down with Microencephaly? No. Has Lon Chaney tried to cast him as Lon Chaney III by bathing his face in acid? No. Was Mrs. Phillips knocked up by a Pachyderm, turning Ralphie into a budding ELEPHANT MAN? No again. Young Ralph is doomed to inhabit a metal cell in a turret because he cannot stop thinking like a Looney Tuner, envisioning the 21st Century Calamities, Cataclysms, Catastrophes and General Apocalypti in store for America. First, BOYHOOD DAZE features an ISIS Guerilla Gang trying to serve up American Tourists as Cannibalistic Hors D'Oeuvres. Then our Chinese nemesis attacks the U.S. with aircraft so advanced that they must be depicted as UFOs for 1950s theater audiences. Finally, an adult Ralph is thrown into a Maximum Security Federal Pen (after he's implausibly outgrown his DISAPPOINTMENTS ROOM). Wouldn't you want to chop down a few of the Trojan Horse-like Pearl Harbor cherry trees if all of this happened to YOU?

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Lee Eisenberg

Semi-sequel to Chuck Jones's earlier "From A to Z-z-z-z", about young daydreamer Ralph Phillips. This time, he accidentally breaks a window, gets sent to his room and has a series of fantasies.While Ralph Phillips only appeared in these two cartoons (plus an educational cartoon in which he enlists in the army), his wild imagination shows childhood at its most innocent. Who didn't, as a child, imagine himself/herself having all sorts of neat adventures? In my opinion, the fine troika of fictional daydreaming characters is Ralph Phillips, Walter Mitty and Calvin (of "Calvin and Hobbes"). I certainly never would have thought up "Martians who got straight A's in arithmetic". I recommend "Boyhood Daze".

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kdryan

I remember sitting and waiting for hours on end on a Saturday morning just hoping this cartoon would come on. There is something innocent and sweet about all of it, even if some of the language would seem a bit sinister by today's standard. This is exactly what every kid feels when he is sent to his room. I wonder if Watterson got his inspiration for Calvin and Hobbes from this show?Com Ralph to HQ, Com Ralph to HQ, over...Ralphie rules!Ralphie makes one previous appearance in 1954's "From A to Z-z-z-z"

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boblipton

Here we have yet another rarely-seen and under-appreciated cartoon classic by Chuck Jones. Ralph Phillips' three fantasies after he gets sent to his room for breaking a window are exactly the the sort of thing that any imaginative nine-year-old would think of, and the script is chock full of screwy lines like "My insurance will pay for the the window and use whatever is left over to buy yourself a catcher's mitt" and "You are being pursued by Martians who all got "A"s in Arithmetic" -- just the sort of vengeful daymares that every child who is regularly laughed at by his classmates would dream. It was so good that Jones managed one and a half sequels. Keep an eye out for this one.

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