Little Johnny Jet
Tags: psychedelic

Plot synopsis:
The cartoon follows the story of a B-29 Bomber named John, who is married to a Douglas DC-3 named Mary. John can't seem to find work at any airport because they're looking for jets. Mary later reveals that she's going to have a baby, and needing to find work to support his family, Johnny heads off to reenlist in the Air Force, but finds even they won't take him back in, as they're looking for jets as well, which further angers him. When Junior finally arrives, John's happy to have a child...until it turns out that Junior is a jet as well, which makes John lose his mind (but he doesn't take it out on Junior).
When reading the paper the next day, the Hot Air News, John sees the ad for a jet contest held by the United States Government where the winner gets a huge contract. Plenty fed up with jets, he goes to enter the contest as well to try to show them up. Realizing that risk that her husband is putting himself, Mary (with Junior in tow) goes after John. En route to the contest, John meets a B-29 general who smokes Douglas MacArthur's trademark corncob pipe and has Bataan written amidst his five stars. When John asks him, the general declines to enter the contest and states, parodying MacArthur's farewell address to the U.S. Congress, that "older planes never fly, they just fade away," before literally fading away.
At the contest, John lines up at the starting line with the rest of the jets. Mary and Junior catch up to him and Mary tries convincing John not to go through with the race, but John refuses to listen to her. While this was happening, Junior gets out of the baby buggy and gets in the fuselage of John, and by the time Mary realizes that her son's there, it's too late.
At the green flag, the jets all but disappear while John, in comparison, sputters badly to take off and run the race. Within no time, his engines had had enough and detach from his body and fly away on their own, sending him into a nose dive for Earth. Junior realizes what's happening and after a brief struggle with the door, manages to get out of him in time to grab him by the tail and save him. When John notices that he hasn't crashed, he looks back and sees his son holding his tail and flying him along. After happily praising him for saving him, they then kick it into high gear and run the race, tearing past the other contestants (freaking them out in the process), and are shown flying around the world, going by certain landmarks with funny things happening (the Eiffel Tower pulling itself open to let them through, the Leaning Tower of Pisa tilting the other way, they fly by a huge cloud of smog which is completely removed to reveal Los Angeles, The Statue of Liberty's dress blows open to reveal then-rather risqué lingerie on her (leaving Junior perplexed), etc.), and a few non-landmark things as well (a blimp gets cut in half to look like a watermelon, a sky-written ad for a cola changes to read "BURP!", an ocean liner gets shrunk down to a tugboat, and a rainbow literally tied up like a bow, etc.).
They easily win the race and the government contract...for Junior. While John's happy for his son, his joy is soon (somewhat) crushed when the government tells him that they need ten-thousand more just like him—John realizes that he and Mary have some serious procreating to do.

Review: The best of Tex Avery's cartoons giving human characteristics to inanimate objects. This cartoon was nominated for an Oscar, which is welcome although a bit puzzling, as this is a prototypical Tex Avery cartoon-take something ordinary, twist it in some odd or extraordinary way and fire sight gags at the audience for the bulk of the cartoon.  Avery often gave inanimate objects human traits, as he does here and this is a marvelous cartoon, but he did at least a dozen that were as good or better that weren't nominated. Which proves that the Academy Awards process is as much chance as anything else.  This shows on Cartoon Network often.  Recommended. 'One Cab's Family' with aeroplanes. 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. 'Little Johnny Jet' is not one of his best, animation limitations show in some of the backgrounds and it lacks the imagination and hilarity of his best work. It is nonetheless a very nicely done cartoon with a good deal to like, managing to make a story about an aeroplane family entertaining, endearing and full of human emotion which can't have been an easy thing to do but was achieved.'Little Johnny Jet' for much of the length is very amusing, and perhaps funnier than 'One Cab's Family', and then without feeling disjointed has a more dramatic second half that has excitement and pathos.The characters are very engaging and easy to like and the voice work is wonderful from Daws Butler.Expectedly, Avery fares very strongly in the directing, even if other cartoons show off his unique wild and wacky style more.Some limited backgrounds aside, the animation is colourful and expressive. The music is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed, a lot of the action is even enhanced by the music.In summation, very nicely done but Avery is not at his best. 8/10 Bethany Cox. Alright, so your son is a jet!. "Little Johnny Jet" is a fine MGM cartoon produced by Fred Quimby and directed by Tex Avery. I never would have guessed you could make talking characters out of airplanes! John (wonderfully voiced by Daws Butler) is an old-fashioned airplane who goes ballistic at the mere thought of jets. His loving & patient wife Mary lets him know a baby is on the way. And guess what that baby turns out to be? A JET! My favorite scenes from "Little Johnny Jet": Mary spoon-feeds Junior and changes his diaper while he flies back & forth buzzing his dad. During the climactic race, director Tex Avery employs a plethora of sight gags: the Sphinx head shaved bald; the Statue of Liberty's undergarments; the thick smog cloud revealing the city of Los Angeles; the ocean liner transforming into a toy boat; and the jet streaks "Drink Zippy Cola" and "Burp!" "Little Johnny Jet" actually saves his papa's life, for which his parents are grateful and proud of him. But the story doesn't end there!