Lulu was voiced by Mae Questel, who also voiced Betty Boop and Olive Oyl. 1947′s Musica-Lulu is highlighted with a surreal dream sequence involving anthropomorphic musical instruments. It’s a lulu, all right.

The clip has French text, which is in English on the DVD.

The Famous Adventures show, which puts Magoo in various well-known historical events and pieces of literature, might be the most interesting one. Unlike the others, I’d never heard of this show and don’t remember it at all from my childhood. There aren’t a lot of gags relating to Magoo’s blindness, but it’s a lot of fun with a kicky, ’60s feel.

The film, by film-maker Johnny Kelly, depicts the life of a farmer as he slowly turns his family farm into an industrial animal factory before seeing the errors of his ways and opting for a more sustainable future. Both the film and the soundtrack were commissioned by Chipotle to emphasize the importance of developing a sustainable food system.

It’s totally charming, and the Willie Nelson song playing on it adds a haunting edge to the cute-style animation.

Personally, I’m looking forward to Warner giving all of the “Censored Eleven” a tasteful presentation on DVD. It’s supposedly on the way later on this year (originally planned for Warner Archive, but now I hear it will be a full-fledged retail release). Whatever the case may be, outright censorship is never the answer when it comes to politically incorrect pop culture of the past. Complain all you want, but let me be the judge of whether something is offensive or not.

How about some more animated Little King? Here he is three years later with a much more fondly remembered cartoon star, in Betty Boop and the Little King. Onscreen, he’s a bit vague; cartoonist Otto Soglow bestowed the character and his strip with an Art Deco panache that was more appropriate for the newspaper comics page than the cinema. Can’t blame ‘em for trying, however.

Related: The Little King at Wikipedia.

Rome Adventure (1962). Rented this lushly filmed Troy Donahue/Suzanne Pleshette romancer hoping for something soapy and escapist a la The Best Of Everything. Pleshette plays a rebellious teacher (named Prudence!) who is expelled from her workplace for distributing the same dirty book this film is based on (how meta can you get?). She takes off for the relaxed mores of Italy and becomes the object of affection for both native Rossano Brazzi and dreamy American Donahue. The film is pretty much half romantic drama, half travelogue. The romantic parts are nothing but trite dialogue (“I’m hungry.”) and predictable plottage, but I enjoyed the miles of footage showing Pleshette wandering about a strangely clean and deserted Rome. Had they ditched all the mush, it might have been a halfway decent film. Pleshette is beguiling in her movie debut, but Donahue always struck me as a shallow, brooding James Dean wannabe and here he’s no different. Angie Dickinson is around for about five minutes playing Donahue’s former flame.
Synecdoche, New York (2008). Knowing this is the directorial debut for screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation), I knew to expect something at the very least quirky and interesting. Synecdoche was all that, but the film is too ambitious and spottily done to be a complete success. The story opens with theatrical director Caden Cotard (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), 40, depressed, and with a crumbling body, as he deals with his prickly artist wife (Catherine Keener) and an infatuation with the perky ticket taker (Samantha Morton) where he works. After his wife leaves him and totes their daughter to Europe, he becomes the recipient of a grant which allows him to stage a huge autobiographical play inside a warehouse containing a life sized replica of New York City and hundreds of extras who seemingly have nothing better to do. The never-completed production goes on for decades, as Hoffman’s life and art become intertwined. Such a cool concept for a movie (wondering what legacy we leave behind), having a profoundness that is rarely done anywhere. Too bad the film itself is overlong, overly pretentious, and filled with obtuse flourishes (Morton’s burning dwelling, random shifts in time) that have no rhyme or reason. Hoffman was very good, and there are several clever/funny bits (such as when an extra asks the harried Hoffman for coaching on how to walk properly), but it became a draggy, depressing mess in the second half. It does score points for sheer originality, but Björk and director Michel Gondry did a strikingly similar thing in 1998 for her “Bachelorette” video. Check out that one instead.
Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005). One of my favorite films of 2005, a DVD of which will be proudly gifted to my 8 year-old nephew this Christmas. Upon this second watching, I hadn’t realized some of the more subversive, adult-oriented gags in the script. When the character of Lady Tottington (voiced by Helena Bonham Carter) bemoans that her boyfriend “hasn’t noticed my melons” whilst hoisting two huge fruits to her chest, that raised an eyebrow. Another funny moment occurred when the nude (don’t ask) Wallace hoisted a box over his midsection with a “Might Contain Nuts” sticker. Those Brits, so cheeky!

And look at the very end — the 1936 Christmas seal!

If you ever wanted to see something with Mother Goose characters using Streamline Moderne transportation, Once Upon a Time might be the cartoon for you. We caught this strange yet charming short on a budget DVD set called 150 Cartoon Classics. It was commissioned as a driving safety awareness campaign by Metropolitan Life Insurance in 1936, long before the company had Snoopy as their spokesdog.