Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

. . . at the pretentious Fat Cats of the Oxfordian Camp, who cannot believe that a blue collar card-carrying UAW (United Avon Writers) Union member like Bill Shakespeare could scribble out the World's Most Famous Plays. Where ANONYMOUS is out for blood, having "The Virgin Queen's" son Oxford watch as their incestuous spawn (son\grandson Oxford, Junior) is beheaded for High Treason, the Warner Bros. animated short A HAM FOR A ROLE simply features a canine named "Dog" getting pied-in-the-face for the 98th and 99th times one afternoon. As this flea-ridden HAMLET wannabe also rehearses JULIUS CAESAR, ROMEO AND JULIET, plus RICHARD III (which is the play that gets heads rolling in ANONYMOUS), two "goofy" gophers try to turn phrases to which Bill Shakespeare would never resort, such as "Let's shall" and "I Shalst." Though HAM preceded ANONYMOUS by about 60 years, it is not only more succinct in Puncturing the Pompous Pontificators who refer to Bill as "The Bard," but it is also more spot-on in making sycophantic quill sniffers such as the Oxfordians (or the dupes who believe that a humorless, senile Tory Traitor named Clement Moore--America's most infamous plagiarist glory grabber--was connected to 'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHR!STMAS, penned by working class Revolutionary War hero Capt. Henry Livingston!) appear as ludicrous jokes, rather than the tragic figures of ANONYMOUS.

If you love The Goofy Gophers, you'll like A Ham in a Role just as much. A Ham in a Role is not quite as good in my view, but it's still thoroughly enjoyable. The animation is beautifully drawn and lusciously coloured, giving the cartoon a cosy and elegant old-fashioned charm. The music has so much character and verve, and I shall always admire how the Looney Tunes cartoons are orchestrated and how the instrumentation blends. The writing is irreverent, done in a way that makes Shakespeare still sound so fresh, and the gags are similarly clever, I can't decide which is my favourite of the horseshoe magnet or Limburger gags. The characters are great fun to watch, the dog's delivery of the Shakespearean lines are priceless while the overly-polite gophers(characters that don't get anywhere near enough credit) are both endearing and funny. Mel Blanc and Stan Freberg provide sterling vocals as expected. Overall, not quite as good as The Goofy Gophers but every bit as entertaining. 9/10 Bethany Cox

When I saw "Lumber Jerks" a few months ago and then read about the Goofy Gophers in the book "That's All Folks: The Art of Warner Bros. Animation", I was surprised that those guys had their own series of cartoons and yet I'd never heard of them before. So, I've finally seen another one of their cartoons, and I liked it better than the previous one. "A Ham in a Role" has those most effeminate members of the genus Citellus tormenting a snobbish Shakespearean actor dog who left Warner Bros. (they never miss a chance to advertise themselves, do they?) to stick with serious roles. Specifically, they terrorize him based on his lines from the Bard's plays ("A rose by any other name..." becomes an excuse for Limburger cheese).Yeah, it's just nice, silly entertainment. But I saw it as a special feature on the "My Dream Is Yours" DVD, and this cartoon is easily the best part (it's practically a guarantee that any Doris Day movie totally sucks). So check it out; and if you watch "MDIY", skip to the Bugs Bunny scene, and the movie won't totally suck.

Topnotch Goofy Gophers cartoon, doing what they do best: pricking the vanity of the inept, in this case, a dog who wishes to give up doing slapstick cartoons for Warner Brothers and do Shakespearian roles instead.Although this cartoon is credited to McKimson, it shows the hand of Art Davis, the most under-rated of the directors at Termite Terrace -- the hambone hound likes to wear a bow tie. Davis had his own unit, but it was folded into McKimson's in the late 1940s. A pity, as he was a much better director than McKimson. Take a look at this one and see.