The Shark Film Office

Plane Dumb  (1932, Van Beuren Studios)  Dir.: John Foster and George Rufle TC4P Rating: 4/9 So, I spent some time years back on this site heaping light praise upon a much-neglected series like Van Beuren's Tom and Jerry shorts, and then I ran into the film  Plane Dumb . The title  Plane Dumb  could very nearly describe the actions of the filmmakers as they contrived to create this wannabe  Amos N' Andy  homage. Apparently, donning blackface not only helped disguise the very white Tom and Jerry as they roamed about Africa in 1932, but it also lowered their IQs to the negative, changed your speech patterns automatically, and somehow also mad their disarrayed and lighter-colored hair instantly become short, dark and curly. Ah, the magical properties of a common makeup kit! I read a couple of reviews for this cartoon short years ago where each of the writers complained that Tom and Jerry were traveling to Africa "for no good reason". Let m...

OK, I have kept quiet about it until now, but since this is my last section of Shark Week reviews for 2017, I need to say something. There is something going on with Shark Week that is really off this year. This is the actual 30th anniversary of Shark Week right now, but Discovery Channel is pretending that it isn't. That's right... 2017 is the 30th straight year of Shark Week , and no one is celebrating until next year. Except for me, that is. Now, hear me out, because the details don't lie: The 20th anniversary celebration and DVD set for  Shark Week  came out in 2007. The 25th anniversary celebration and DVD set for  Shark Week  came out in 2012. (You can still find reviews online from those years for both DVD sets, and those reviews are dated.) So, using that knowledge, and counting 5 more years, when should the 30th anniversary be? Can you even count, Discovery Channel? Because you have already announced that 2018 is the 30th anniversary, but when you ai...

Of the many things that I wish existed somewhere on the internet, one definite would be the full hour long "Marineland Carnival" special that CBS ran on Easter Sunday in April of 1965. I would not normally get wound up to see what must have amounted to nothing more than an extended primetime advertisement for a theme park, but dammit... this one featured the Munsters!  Herman, Lily, Grandpa, little Eddie, and Marilyn Munster – the entire family – running amok at Marineland of the Pacific in Palos Verdes, California.  CBS, which was also home to their own sitcom show, got a little cross-promotion in by having their first family of horror visit the park. Fortunately, while we don't get to see the whole special (which is probably pretty creaky and stilted anyway, I would guess), there is a minute-long promo for the special that still exists and can be found floating about on Youtube in various places. Here's a look... Of course, the purpose of discussing...