Speaking of the Weather
Speaking of the Weather
NR | 04 September 1937 (USA)
Speaking of the Weather Trailers

It's midnight at the bookstore and all the book and magazine characters are coming to life. When a bulldog from an adventure book uses a Boswell Sisters-like performance by girls in a travel magazine as a distraction to rob a bank, he is chased, caught, and sentenced to, of course "Life" (the magazine). But there's also a conveniently placed "Escape" magazine....

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Reviews
Scanialara

You won't be disappointed!

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Tedfoldol

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

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Lollivan

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

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Philippa

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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TheLittleSongbird

It is agreed that 'Speaking of the Weather' is not as good as 'Have You Got any Castles' and especially 'Book Revue', cartoons that execute their concept more cleverly and with slightly more energy and surprises.However, 'Speaking of the Weather' is still a very good cartoon. What immediately stands out is how visually stunning it is, the lush and vibrant colours do positively leap out as you, the backgrounds are handsomely and imaginatively detailed and while not quite as smooth as 'Have You Got any Castle' and 'Book Revue' the drawings are fluid and appealing.Carl Stalling's music is always a highlight in every cartoon he scored for, even if the cartoon itself is not quite so great. His scoring elevates everything to a greater level, with everything beautifully orchestrated with clever use of instruments and energetic rhythms that never loses character or momentum, it's not only dynamic to what's happening, it enhances it and Stalling was a master at this.What's also great about 'Speaking of the Weather' is that it is very funny. The titles are truly inspired and the caricatures are so much fun to spot and easily recognisable if familiar with them, admittedly though the caricatures/references in 'Have You Got any Castles' and 'Book Revue' are more easy to recognise and is less likely to go over people's heads if familiar with the literary classics. The William Powell and Hugh Herbert caricatures are especially noteworthy.Do agree that the story is basic and very easy to figure out what will happen next, especially if you are familiar with cartoons that explore the same, or a similar, concept, which is the case with me, having grown up with the two cartoons being compared with and pretty much only got acquainted with this. It is still paced nicely and all the gags are timed well. The voice acting is spot on from Mel Blanc and Billy Bletcher, both with multiple characters.In summary, very good cartoon and lots of fun, even if there are other cartoons with the same, or similar, concept and did it with more energy and imagination. 9/10 Bethany Cox

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phantom_tollbooth

Frank Tashlin's 'Speaking of the Weather' is another in the series of cartoons in which books come to life. In this case it is magazines which suddenly leap off the page. Although it has an attractive look to it, 'Speaking of the Weather' suffers from a lack of decent gags. Although these cartoons can sometimes rely on outdated references a little too heavily, they often make up for this with sheer energy or by providing enough information for audiences of any era to understand the joke. 'Speaking of the Weather' features a few more celebrity cameos than usual in these type of cartoons and the jokes that are self-explanatory are mostly just not that good. The obvious high point of this loose series is Bob Clampett's classic 'Book Revue' but Tashlin himself would go on to direct the excellent 'Have You Got Any Castles' a year after 'Speaking of the Weather'. That cartoon was both lush and amusing and 'Speaking of the Weather' feels like just a dry run for 'Have You Got Any Castles'. They're certainly stylistically similar but the latter is by far the superior cartoon and renders 'Speaking of the Weather' virtually unnecessary.

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ccthemovieman-1

I love the retro look of the drugstore right in the opening scene. It looked like an Edward Hopper painting. Once inside, the camera pans to the magazine rack, and we get a glimpse of some of the famous "rags" of the day.The cartoon story is two-fold: characters in these magazines "coming to life" and a story ensuing about a thief as he hops from one magazine cover to another. Another reviewer here, Robert Reynolds, explains that part well. Myself, I especially enjoyed the parody of William Powell and his "Thin Man."I was stunned at the bright colors in here, especially for a cartoon 70 years old. It was stunning to observe. The people responsible for these Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVDs should be lauded for their efforts. That, and the wonderful nostalgia of seeing all of these old magazine covers with their distinctive styles is just wonderful.

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Robert Reynolds

A gimmick that Warner Brothers animators used quite often was the idea that characters/images come to life after business hours off of magazine covers, books or even grocery store labels and boxes. Quite often, they used caricatures of celebrities who would have been well-known to audiences in those days and they did so here, though not every character in this one is a caricature. I can't swear to it, but I suspect that all of the magazine titles featured in this one actually existed. I recognized most of them as having been magazines available on newsstands and elsewhere. The rest of my comments may contain spoilers, so you have been warned: The plot is pretty basic and predictable. What makes this cartoon interesting is the juxtaposition of titles to make up gags, like a crook coming out of "The Gang" and passing "Popular Mechanics" to grab a torch and having "Wall Street" close by, with a safe on the cover to crack. Charlie Chan captures him, he's tried by the "Judge" and sentenced to "Life", but manages to sneak over to "Liberty" in order to make his escape. Things like that come together frequently.A lot of the standard caricatures are here (including Ned Sparks-it must have been a requirement to have Ned Sparks appear somewhere in one of these, as he's in most of the ones I've seen) and you'll be treated to the likes of Leopold Stowkowski, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, Hugh Herbert and others. William Powell is here as Nick Charles from "The Thin Man", along with his dog Asta. Everyone from the Boy Scouts to Santa Claus joins in on the chase when the villain escapes. How he is caught is hilarious and I won't spoil that gag. There's a cute ending involving Hugh Herbert as well.This short is on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 3 and is well worth getting. The Collections themselves are extremely well done and worth every penny. Recommended.

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