Chuck Jones was a great animation director, one of the best in fact, sadly Good Night Elmer doesn't see him at his best. In most ways Good Night Elmer is one of his worst. Is it completely horrible? No. The animation is good, being lushly coloured and fluidly drawn, the animation of the flame on the candle is quite clever and Elmer doesn't look so shabby either. The music is beautifully orchestrated and is characterful and Mel Blanc does some nice frustrated screams and sounds too, though he doesn't do very much. Unfortunately for Good Night Elmer there's not much else to it. Elmer always has been a fun support character, but while he had potential to carry a lead role he is not given much to show off that ability, much of it is repetitive in fact. And it doesn't even feel like he's the lead character, for much of the cartoon he's literally the reactionary character. What he has also gets tiring(making the same mistakes more than once) and he's even dopier than usual to the point of annoyance. Like undressing when holding a handle or having it balanced on your head, even someone not experienced in Health and Safety would know that it's a dangerous thing to do. The candle with a life of its own is very interestingly animated but is not a very compelling character either, in fact what it does sometimes is so irritating you do feel some sympathy for Elmer at the end. But what hurts Good Night Elmer most is that it's very pedestrian and it's just not funny. The cartoon is very dully paced and gets really predictable with a couple of transitions that add absolutely nothing(the stacking of books one for example) and silly logic lapses even for a cartoon. If you see how the candle behaves you'll get the gist. In the humour department, Good Night Elmer for this viewer was completely humourless, it was a one-joke cartoon in the first place(not a problem if done right), but the jokes/gags have no variety, are very drawn out(as long as 20 seconds for some) and repeat themselves to the extent it's no surprise how they turn out. Seeing Elmer trying unsuccessfully numerous times to battle a candle- even the concept of it is silly even for a cartoon- gets tedious after a while. All in all, as great an animation director that Jones was Good Night Elmer does not show off his talents well at all and is a waste of Elmer as well. 3/10 for the animation and music. Bethany Cox
Review of Good Night Elmer
