A big, cartoony heart, it offers more on every viewing

Rating: 10/10 (27 September 2005)

"Smile, Darn Ya, Smile," sings every cartoon creature in Toon Town, in the over-the-top second act production number as Eddie drives into town. It is a song from a 1931 Friz Freleng cartoon. The whole countryside is singing, including the trees, the sun, the flowers and the birds. It is so ridiculously happy, so infectious and outrageous, you can see how a sourpuss like Eddie would be annoyed. But it makes me incredibly happy each time I see it. It's exactly what cartoons represent in this movie -- pure joy.
It is a wonder that such unbounded silliness can suddenly bring tears to your eyes. I speak of the scene when Eddie Valiant is flipping through some newly developed photos, to find pictures of his dead brother and partner, taken before he died.
The movie does not play this scene for cheap sobs, but tenderly and humanly. Eddie shows little emotion on his face, and the music is sweet and simple. Suddenly we know what everyone was talking about when they said, "A toon killed his brother." The photos show he was more than a brother. The slow pan across his brother's desk show his whole life, just as Hitchcock did for Jimmy Stewart's character in the first scene of Rear Window. The story? Here was a business partner who had shared Eddie's successes (successes now lost in dust and drink), and a best friend who could hang out at the beach with Eddie and his girlfriend, sing, drink and have some laughs. He was someone Eddie probably didn't know how much he loved until he lost him. Now he was alone, his business gone, and his life over. He couldn't return to his old work -- Toons -- because that was the world of joy he had lost. He thought that joy had betrayed him.
The extravagance in details, especially the small ones, are what sells this movie. The sets and costumes are sumptuous. And the humor is in every line and gag. It's pretty funny to see Eddie snag a free ride on the back of a trolley car with a bunch of school boys. It's more funny when Eddie hops off and thanks the boys for the cigarettes.
The melding of the real world and the cartoon world is brilliant. Cartoons have a natural effect on their surroundings. Cartoon logic makes complete sense in this picture; when Judge Doom tries to trick Roger out of hiding with his "shave and a haircut" routine, it's hilarious because it's true, and it's suspenseful because it's true. It's perfect.
It is an homage to every cartoon ever made. The saxophone player and the dancing brooms giving a bow to Fantasia... And a swell, multi-level gag that most people miss: When Eddie takes pictures of Jessica "playing patty-cake" with Marvin, the two *really are* just playing patty-cake. What a gag. But when Roger flips through the photos, they move so quickly that the actions in the still photos become animated. What you are looking at, in fact, is the very first kind of cartoon -- the animated flip-books that once sold for a few pennies, long before the first movie was ever made. It hearkens back to the earliest days of cinema and animation. It's simply sublime.
This movie does have its flaws; it drags during the warehouse scenes, for some reason. But watch for the many sub-references to the world of cartoons, and the rich sets, the beautiful color, the flawless editing, the physical humor. The movie revels in the rich history of cartoons, bringing together characters never before seen on the same screen. Such a movie will never be made again. It is old-time cartoons' last bow. It's a marvel.