From A to Z-Z-Z-Z
Ralph is a daydreamer... and he is quick to adapt his current surroundings into new, adventurous dreams.
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- Cast:
- Dick Beals , Mel Blanc
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Reviews
Too many fans seem to be blown away
brilliant actors, brilliant editing
The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
'From A to Z-Z-Z-Z' is a clever, charming and imaginative cartoon that is deserving of more attention. Despite being Oscar-nominated, a high IMDb rating and reviews expressing extreme fondness and adoration, compared to other Chuck Jones cartoons it's not particularly well-known and it's a shame.It's very well-animated, the drawing of course is sketchier than previous Jones cartoons and the backgrounds more stylised but they don't look cheap or ugly at all. There is some lovely lush use of colour, the backgrounds even when stylised look as though a lot of careful detail went into them and the sketchy drawing style is of the elegant rather than scrappy kind.Carl Stalling has long been my personal favourite of the regular Looney Tunes composers, his music always elevates cartoons to a greater level and this reviewer has yet to hear a bad score from him. Here in 'From A to Z-Z-Z-Z', fits beautifully and not just adds to the cartoon but enhances it. It's lushly and cleverly orchestrated as always, has a delicious wit, a dream-like whimsy and the rhythms are high in energy and character.The writing is sharp, whimsical and never misfires, often being hilarious. Ralph's day-dreaming is very imaginatively rendered and never less than highly amusing, especially with the maths. The story is energetically paced and one, particularly anybody known to day-dream or wanting to go on more exciting adventures, will find themselves relating to the story and to Ralph, who is a very charming title character who conveys a surprising wide range of emotions instead of just being adorable.Voice acting is very good, Mel Blanc and Bea Benaderet are always great and Dick Beals more than holds his own.All in all, a real charmer from Chuck Jones. 10/10 Bethany Cox
. . . like a simple cartoon about a young boy merely guilty of being a serial day-dreamer at school. But when a Warnologist digs a little beneath the surface of FROM A TO Z-Z-Z-Z, a more sinister undertone emerges. Z-Z-Z-Z contemporaries would have noticed immediately that Master Ralph L. Phillips has morphed into General Douglas MacArthur at the end of this Looney Tune, when he threatens his Math Teacher Missy Wallace with MacArthur's most famous quote, "I shall return!" Since a chalkboard's worth of numbers literally attack Ralphie during this short, numerologists will quickly note that "Master Ralph L. Phillips" and "General Douglas MacArthur" BOTH count out at 244, along with "Math Teacher Missy Wallace" (also 244, with 24 divided by 4 times 3--for this fated trio--being expressed as Satan's Number, 666!). Warnology indicates that this was Warner Bros.' way of warning America against a renewed military coup effort on the part of MacArthur, who'd all but rolled up to the White House in a tank a few months earlier. This subliminal message obviously worked, since MacArthur just faded away until he died in the wake of this animated caution.
Looney Tunes cartoons are mainly known for their stock characters, Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, etc., but now and again there was a single cartoon, or one or two, featuring a character who didn't appear anywhere else. One of these characters was the daydreaming little boy, Ralph Phillips.In 'From A to ZZZZ', Ralph daydreams during class - he's underwater, he's a general, the usual boyish kind of dreams. Cutely drawn and influenced just a touch by Gerald McBoing-Boing, UPA's award-winning creation who only speaks in sound, Ralph and this cartoon are an irresistible combination.
This is an adorable cartoon featuring Ralph Phillips--the child who is perpetually daydreaming. There were two such cartoons in all, but this is the first and the best. I have noticed as I review Warner Brothers cartoons that my favorites all are ones that do not star the traditional favorites, like Bugs and Daffy, but lesser characters such as Ralph, Bertie and Hubie, Mark Anthony the dog, etc.Ralph is an adorable kid who spends his school day imagining he is a hero in a wide variety of day dreams. Through the course of the day, he imagines he's a skin diver battling sharks, a boxer and ultimately General MacArthur! The dreams are cute and very endearing. About the only negative is that all the Ralph Phillips cartoons are animated in a sketchier style with stylized backgrounds--not exactly the best quality Warners had to offer.