Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

TheLittleSongbird Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.Also have much admiration for Tex Avery, an animation genius whose best cartoons are animated masterpieces and some of the best he ever did. This is the first of two cartoons he made based on Service's poem, the other being the 1945 Droopy cartoon 'The Shooting of Dan McGoo'. Of the two, there is a preference for the funnier and more imaginative later cartoon, one of Droopy's greatest cartoons and one of the best Avery himself did. 'Dangerous Dan McFoo' is still very good, with not really anything wrong, just that the later cartoon did it better. The story is a little thin and the ending is not as strong as the rest of the cartoon.The characters all engage and have compelling personalities. They are also very well voiced by some of the most talented voice actors of the time and ever, some, especially Arthur Q. Bryan using immediately unmistakable voices which may be strange at first but is actually effective.'Dangerous Dan McFoo' is not as imaginative or as hilarious as 'The Shooting of Dan McGoo', but it is still inventive and very amusing.Tex Avery does a wonderful job directing, with his unique, unlike-any-other visual and characteristic and incredibly distinctive wacky humour style all over it as can be expected. Humour-wise, it's clever and wonderfully exaggerated in typical Avery fashion.Once again with Avery, 'Dangerous Dan McFoo' is beautifully and brilliantly animated as usual. The character designs are unique, Avery always did have creative character designs, and suitably fluid. The music, courtesy of master Carl Stalling, is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed and even enhances it.Summing up, very good if not brilliant like the later 'Dan McGrew'-based Avery cartoon. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . but if I were fishing around for fodder for an animated "Merrie Melodies" poem, I might sooner draw on "The Raven" or "Annabelle Lee." After all, there's not much in the historical record to contradict any poetic license taken against those two ditties. On the other hand, the immortal Robert W. Service lived the Yukon Gold Rush of 1898, and newsreel footage of that historic event still was fresh in many minds when DANGEROUS DAN McFOO hit theaters in 1939. Like all Warner Bros. "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies," McFOO was at least partially aimed at children. No matter how you sanitize the pursuits of those "clean mad for the muck called gold," you're presenting material that may scare the Heck out of some kids (a case in point is MGM's remake of L. Frank Baum's anti-Gold Standard classic, THE WIZARD OF OZ, which came out the same year as McFOO). Many kids fled the theaters playing OZ in horror, and no doubt there were lots of tykes terrorized here when the tall character proclaims, "One of you is a Hound of Hell . . . and that one is Dan McFoo."

MARIO GAUCI I watched this – it was included among the extras on Warners' DVD of DODGE CITY (1939) – as part of a 5-cartoon marathon to commemorate the 100th Anniversary from the birth of one of the most important figures in animation history: Tex Avery. It was actually remade – and considerably improved upon – by THE SHOOTING OF DAN McGOO (1945), a Droopy 'vehicle'; while remarkably similar in many respects to the later classic, one of my favorite Averys, it is a minor (if still highly enjoyable) effort – for one thing, because of an anonymous i.e. less sympathetic protagonist, but also its more primitive quality (Avery's Fred Quimby-produced MGM efforts being generally superior to his stuff at Warners).

Robert Reynolds This is a typical Tex Avery short: he takes an idea from anther source (here it's a poem by Robert W. Service, an idea he would use again at MGM), follow the basic concept and toss in every oddball sight gag or joke that could be shoehorned in in the 7 or 8 minute length. An interesting point here is that Arthur Q. Bryan does the voice for the title character, in the voice he would use as Elmer Fudd for a great many years. It really is strange hearing that voice from another character. Good cartoon, although the one Avery did at MGM was just a touch better than this one. Well worth seeking out. Recommended.