About this item
Highlights
- Looney Tunes cartoons, writes celebrated television critic Jaime Weinman, are the high-water mark of American filmed comedy.
- About the Author: Jaime Weinman ============= Jaime Weinman is an expert on television and popular culture; he has written for Vox, Vice, Maclean's, Literary Review of Canada, and --Canadian Screenwriter.
- 375 Pages
- Performing Arts, Film
Description
About the Book
"Looney Tunes cartoons, writes celebrated television critic Jaime Weinman, are the high-water mark of American filmed comedy. Surreal, irreverent, philosophical, and riotously funny, they have maintained their power over audiences for generations and inspired such giants of the cinema as Mel Brooks, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas. Here, finally, Weinman gives Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Tweety, Sylvester, and the whole cast of animated icons their long-awaited due. With meticulous research, he takes us inside the Warners' studio to unlock the mystery of how an unlikely band of directors and artists working in the shadow of Walt Disney created a wild, visually stunning and oh-so-violent brand of comedy that has never been matched for sheer volume of laughs. The result is an unexpected and fascinating story that matches the Looney Tunes themselves for energy, humor, and ingenuity."--Book Synopsis
Looney Tunes cartoons, writes celebrated television critic Jaime Weinman, are the high-water mark of American filmed comedy.Surreal, irreverent, philosophical, and riotously funny, they have maintained their power over audiences for generations and inspired such giants of the cinema as Mel Brooks, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas.
Here, finally, Weinman gives Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Tweety, Sylvester, and the whole cast of animated icons their long-awaited due. With meticulous research, he takes us inside the Warners' studio to unlock the mystery of how an unlikely band of directors and artists working in the shadow of Walt Disney created a wild, visually stunning and oh-so-violent brand of comedy that has never been matched for sheer volume of laughs. The result is an unexpected and fascinating story that matches the Looney Tunes themselves for energy, humor, and ingenuity.Review Quotes
"In Anvils, Mallets & Dynamite, Jaime Weinman, scholarly and thorough, traces the evolution (and decline) of these two pop-culture brands. His is a devotee's single-minded attention to detail and historical context. Call him a 'toon nerd in the very best sense; his enthusiasm and dogged fascination underline every paragraph." - Bob Duffy, Washington Independent Review of Books
"Anvils, Mallets & Dynamite, a new biography of Looney Tunes by the former Maclean's editor Jaime Weinman, offers a thorough if breezy overview of the cartoons, characters, and controversies that have marked the franchise for nearly a hundred years... Weinman's book provides a much-needed update." - Alexander Sallas, Literary Review of Canada
"This book is a nice read-- Jaime really knows what he's talking about. It's a nostalgic look back at a time and place I thought I knew all about until I started reading this book." - Jason Chatfield, Chatfield
"Anvils, Mallets & Dynamite could be a deadly dull read, but the former Maclean's magazine staffer is animated enough about his subject matter to keep you entertained." - Neal Justin, Star Tribune
"One of the pleasures of the book is Weinman's focus on the dichotomy between the early anarchic, edgier works and the perhaps more famed and acclaimed works from the 1950s, dominated by the lofty creative goals and ideals of animation giant Chuck Jones." - Steven Gaydos, yahoo!Life
About the Author
Jaime Weinman =============Jaime Weinman is an expert on television and popular culture; he has written for Vox, Vice, Maclean's, Literary Review of Canada, and --Canadian Screenwriter.