Looney Tunes - Book Revue (1946, animated short)

Book Revue is a 1946 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Bob Clampett. The cartoon was released on January 5, 1946, and features Daffy Duck.
The plotline is a mixture of the plots of Frank Tashlin's Speaking of the Weather (1937), Have You Got Any Castles? (1938) and Clampett's own A Coy Decoy (1941)

Voice cast:
Sara Berner as Mrs. Aldrich, Swooning Girls
Mel Blanc as Daffy Duck, Henry VIII, Big Bad Wolf, Mice, Cop, Cuckoo Clock, Sailor
Stan Freberg as Frank Sinatra
Bea Benaderet as Bobby-Soxer, Lady on "Freckles" Cover, Red
Henry VIII's Yells provided by Stan Freberg
Screams provided by Bea Benaderet
The Sportsmen Quartet as Singing Group
Additional Voices by Richard Bickenbach

Influence:
Later releases of the short had the title card replaced with Warner Brothers' "Blue Ribbon" title card on which the title was misspelled (see above). The original title card has since been located and the fully restored short can be seen on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Vol. 2 four-DVD box set, the Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Vol 2 two-DVD set and on the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2 Blu-ray set.

In 1994 it was voted #45 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.

In one episode of Animaniacs, Yakko, Wakko, and Dot held a Video Review after being released in a videostore. Just like the books, they run in and out of films and mingle with movie characters. Daffy Duck made a cameo in the episode.

In one segment of the Tiny Toon Adventures episode "Inside Plucky Duck", Plucky performs Daffy's giant eye double-take (dubbed "a Clampett Corneal Catastrophe"), only to be stuck in eye form, unable to "de-take" until the segment's end.

Production notes:
The film was reissued in 1951, as Book Review. In the reissue, the title is a pun, as a "revue" is a variety show, while a "review" is an evaluation of a work (this pun was not in the original release).

Reception:
Animation historian Steve Schneider writes that many of the cartoon's references are dated, "but who cares? ... Better simply to revel in Book Revue's headlong brio, overlapping settings, meticulous economy of gesture, intertwining narratives, resourceful color effects, super-efficient use of screen space — and a great, great turn by a duck called Daffy, as he dances, scat-sings, cavorts, and distorts in one of his true moments of glory... Book Revue is an encyclopedia of what can be done in the animated medium if you're brilliant enough."

Edits:
The scene where the wolf chases Daffy through Uncle Tom's Cabin was cut from airings on Cartoon Network and The WB. Also cut on The WB was Daffy's line "So round, so firm, so fully packed, so easy on the draw," which was a reference to Lucky Strike cigarettes.