. . . NORMAN NORMAL is told that the "ethnic" American learned "just before the icicle broke." Warner Bros.' fading gang of animators experienced a Ghostly Final Gasp of Glory as they channeled the Spirit of Fatty Arbuckle to warn 21st Century America of its would-be P - - SY-Grabber-in-Chief, Donald J. Duck. First, Norman's boss "B.B." (an ironic reference to the self-styled Big Billionaire, as well as the size of his seed generators) browbeats ball bearing salesman Norman into internalizing his sleazy Art of the Deal: get your potential customer as drunk as a Mad Russian, and then have him sign a contract that your crooked corporation has no intention of honoring (since you've bribed the U.S. Congress and Judiciary into rigging the system!). In this case, the "ball bearings" product constitutes another sly Warner dig at Trumpenstein's under-sized equipment (Have you seen The Duck flailing his miniature hands about during his televised rants?) Norman's dad counsels him that "Success--that's the main thing; fit in--don't make waves." Pops pretty much is summarizing the syllabus for every Trump University course offering. As Norman questions B.B.'s total lack of Ethics, Conscience, and Humanity, both men are shown to regress to squabbling school boys, perfectly foreshadowing the Trump versus Rubio Debate Debacle. This cartoon ends with Norman in Voting Booth Purgatory.

Alex Lovy's 'Norman Normal' is an exceptional little satire on business ethics and social behaviour. Produced by the new Warner Bros. department in the late 60s (long after the dreadful Speedy and Daffy series and lacklustre new characters such as Cool Cat had made Warner cartoons seem entirely past their best) as a "Cartoon Special", 'Norman Normal' takes an entirely different approach as a hip animated think piece which ultimately takes place inside the titular character's head. The amiable Norman must fight off unethical propositions from his boss, endorsements of conformity from his father, peer pressure from his acquaintances and the desperate search for approval by a man with a lamp on his head! A whole new contemporary attitude is apparent, especially in the scene in which Norman refuses to laugh at a joke about a minority group which seems like an apology for Warner's decades of politically incorrect racial humour (although a year later Warner Bros. animation department would close down with a short called 'Injun Trouble'!). The satire is sharp and funny and the modern atmosphere is enhanced by a catchy theme tune by Peter, Paul and Mary. It may have little in common with the golden era of Warner cartoons but 'Norman Normal' is a wonderful short and one of the few latter day Warner shorts that really works.

"Norman Normal" is a Warner Bros./Seven Arts one-shot cartoon that is very strange. But then, it's the sixties! Our hero, the title character, is a businessman who apparently gets to choose the path of his life via a series of doors. The animation is nothing really special, but the results are, shall we say, interesting.My two favorite scenes in this cartoon: First, Norman and his boss decrease in age and height as they argue together. And second, one of Norman's inebriated buddies regales him with a joke about a traveling salesman and an Eskimo ("That was no walrus. That was your wife!").There's not much else I can write about "Norman Normal"; you'll just have to see it for yourself. It somehow got tacked onto the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 6 Disc 4, even though it is not a Looney Tune.

Just watched this extremely rare Warner Bros. cartoon on the Misce-Looney-ous Blog. With a story, voices, and title song sung by Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul, and Mary, the title character of Norman Normal (voice of Paul Dixon) is a young ad executive who's told by his boss to get his latest client drunk in order to sign a contract, tries to talk to his father about right and wrong but only gets stories of the Depression from him and gets told to "fit in", and encounters at a cocktail party a lampshade wearing guy who keeps saying "approval", another drunk guy who tells a racist joke about Eskimos, and a bartender who says, "You don't want your real personality to show, do you?" when Norman refuses a drink. Directed by Alex Lovy, this supposed pilot for a possible TV series showed some promise when Norman and his boss are talking and they literally turn into a bully and a shy kid while discussing their client as if the whole thing is something that brings Norman bad memories of his childhood but the subsequent stuff with the father (who literally floats in the air when discussing his past) and the cocktail party fell flat with me. Still, this one-shot from the near end of the Warner Bros. cartoon factory in the late '60s is worth a look for anyone with a taste for the unique. And dig the rock band that appears in the beginning and end!