Tex Avery's MGM cartoons are among the very best ever made--and if you haven't seen them, you are in for a treat if you see one. While "Ventriloquist Cat" may not be his very best, it's sure close. And, if after seeing it you STILL don't like his films, then there is no hope for you! The cartoon begins with a nasty cat doing 'I hate dogs' graffiti everywhere...including on a dog's stomach! The dog is not amused and spends the rest of the film chasing the cat. But the cat is VERY resourceful and uses a trick device to throw his voice--sending the dog on a wild chase all over town trying to find that darned cat. This isn't all, but I won't say more--it would spoil the crazy fun.While the animation is great, the film is wonderful because it's funny...very funny. And, wildly creative--a characteristic of Avery's fine MGM films. By the way, I mention his MGM films because, oddly, Avery's films he did prior to this were for Looney Tunes--and they were much, much more conventional. Not terrible, but not nearly as much fun as his later films, that's for sure.

Ventriloquist Cat (1950) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Classic Avery cartoon about a cat who becomes a ventriloquist so that he can play a bunch of tricks on a rather dumb bulldog. The premise to this short is a very, very simple one but it works perfectly as it gets one incredibly big laugh after another. One could argue that the same thing keeps happening over and over but that doesn't really matter when you're getting a laugh with the joke. There are countless highlights here including a terrific sequence where the cat makes the bulldog think he's hiding in some clothes, which the dog starts to rip up and he finally makes it to a real police officer and rips his clothes off. Another great scene is the end when the cat thinks it's safe to take the special piece he's been using out of his mouth but the final shot is pure classic. The majority of the jokes come from various explosions where the bulldog is the victim but they're all funny.

When I began watching this cartoon, I was prepared for the worst, but it really seemed to be a good cartoon. But after a while, it has multiple faults. The basic theme is original, but after a while it was obvious the cartoonists only tried to form a new couple of natural born sadists like Tom and Jerry. Off course they failed doing so. Tom and Jerry are cult, this stupid dog and cat couldn't be as funny as worlds most loved cat and mouse team. In less than one minute, I believe I saw five explosions. Imagine if the kids of today would think killing somebody is funny! No, I really dislike this demonic cartoon. But I can't stop human evolution, so I guess it's too late to stop it now.

Tex Avery was a genius at the art of the animated short. He did for the animated short what Walt Disney did for the feature. Avery seemed to have something of a fondness for black cats, as he did a number of cartoons featuring black cats. Ventriloquist Cat was one of them. Mostly sight-gags fired at the viewer at a very frenetic pace and designed to keep you rolling around on the floor laughing. More often than not, it works. This and most of Avery's shorts are marvelously (sometimes wickedly) funny. Most highly recommended.