Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

. . . is an apt description of this product from Warner Bros.' warning Animated Shorts Seers division (aka, the Looney Tuners), THE PHANTOM SHIP. On its surface, THE PHANTOM SHIP is a simple story about an explorer embarking upon a Treasure Hunt with a couple mischievous stowaway nephews. However, anyone familiar with Warner Bros.' yeoman's work in alerting we Americans of the (Then) Far Future about our upcoming Calamities, Catastrophes, Cataclysms, and Apocalypti just KNOW that there has to be more to this tale than simply that. There is. Note the GPS locator on the instrument panel of Beans' aircraft. At 1:07 it reads "New York," and then--quicker than you can say "Red Commie KGB Chief Vlad 'The Mad Russian' Putin, self-styled Czar of 21st Century America"--the indicator reads "Russia" (1:13) prior to flipping back to a more logical "Iceland." Shortly thereafter, Beans lands his plane near America's icebound Ship of State, which features a skeleton in every closet. Beans and his nephews discover that Putin and his odoriferous puppets--aka, the Rump\Scents Administration--have looted the U.S. Taxpayer's Treasure Chest. At a time when recent surveys have found that the Russian flag has replaced the Stars and Bars of the Confederacy on the majority of Red State front porches, with NASCAR reporting that the Hammer & Sickle leads this Daytona 500 Week's Retro Sales category by 4 to 1 over Jeff Davis' banner, there's only one way to spell out THE PHANTOM SHIP message Warner is delivering to we savvy consumers of their clairvoyant gifts regarding Today's so-called leaders of the USA: T-R-A-I-T-O-R-S!!

There are two things that make a cartoon character: cuteness and funniness. The characters in this film (Beans, and Ham & Ex) possessed considerable measures in both categories. It's so hard to believe why those three have such a short run in the Looney Tunes series. When some critics give their take on why this is, chances are they'll say it has something to do with personality. I just wonder how some people define the word "personality"? Well, whatever the meaning is, the three aforementioned characters are still worth featuring.For some reason, WB retired them in favor of Porky. True, his stuttering speech is funny. But at the same time it could be quite a drag in trying to understand what his trying to say. This guy maybe quite hilarious. But when it comes to cuteness, he probably doesn't come close.The Phantom Ship is an entertaining film. It does feature sufficient thrill and humor.

This is a short starring some lesser-known characters, namely Beans and the duo of Ham and Ex. It's a mostly effective, though somewhat uneven, black and white cartoon directed by Jack King. As I want to discuss the short, there will be spoilers: The short starts off with Ham and Ex reading that their "Uncle" Beans is going exploring for "Haunted Treasure", so they stow away on his plane and off they go.Beans spots a wreck and lands, to see a spooky bat fly off the side of the Phantom Ship. Naturally, Ham and EX jump out to surprise him just then, which scares him. They go on the ship and Ham and Ex see skeletons, get under a sheet and scare skeletons themselves. I would have liked it had this sub-plot continued, but the short diverges, with Beans finding two frozen pirates near a stove and, inexplicably, starts a fire in the stove. Following a train of thought to its practical and logical conclusion is clearly not his long suit.He finds the treasure and starts loading it on his plane, while the pirates thaw out and take a dim view of theft when they are the victims rather than the perpetrators. The chase being on, one pirate goes after Beans and the other goes after Ham and Ex. After some nice sequences in the chase scenes, Ham and Ex jump in the plane and take off, while Beans gets blown up with the ship, goes skyward and is caught in mid-air by Ham and Ex in the plane and our heroes exit, stage left.Very good early short from Warner Brothers. Well worth watching if you get the opportunity. Recommended.