Weinman, a seasoned television critic, dives deep into the world of Looney Tunes, giving these iconic characters and the creative minds behind them the thorough exploration they deserve. The book is a nostalgic journey for anyone who grew up with these zany cartoons. He expertly captures the essence of what made Looney Tunes such a monumental force in American comedy. The book not only revisits the classic characters—Bugs, Daffy, Porky Pig, and their crew—but also unpacks the genius of the animators and directors who brought them to life, such as Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, and Friz Freleng. It sheds light on the wild, chaotic, and often competitive environment where these cartoons were born. It’s a testament to the creative spirit of the time, showing how a small group of directors and artists, operating in the shadow of Walt Disney, managed to create something that not only rivaled Disney's work but surpassed it in terms of sheer comedic impact.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Comprehensive, entertaining, informative. Loved reading about the Looney Toons and I feel like some of my students would enjoy this as well!

Thank you to NetGalley and to Sutherland House for and ARC of this book.

This book was very entertaining yet informative at the same time. I learned a lot reading this about the history of Looney Tunes. I was drawn to this book by its cover, but I thought the content was great as well. This was just a fun book and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning more about Looney Tunes and it's history.

A sincere thank you to NetGalley and Sutherland House for providing me an advance copy (ARC) of “Anvils, Mallets & Dynamite” in exchange for an honest review. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read this story and leave my review voluntarily.

The title and cover of this book grabbed my attention -- and was excited to learn more about the Saturday morning cartoons I enjoyed as a child every Saturday morning in the 1960's and 1970's. Reading the background on the Looney Tunes' characters as well as the writers really enriched my knowledge of these classic cartoons. I got a better sense on how the cartoons evolved in terms of jokes and comic timing. I liked learning about the "making of" many of my favorite cartoons. Weinman does not shy away from addressing what happened to the controversial cartoons and historical context. I recommend this book -- it is very well researched and it brought back positive memories of my childhood.

Looney Tunes cartoons", writes celebrated television critic Jaime Weinman, "are the high-water mark of American filmed comedy." Surreal, irreverent, philosophical, and riotously funny, they have maintained their power over audiences for generations and inspired such giants of the cinema as Mel Brooks, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas.

Here, finally, Weinman gives Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Tweety, Sylvester, and the whole cast of animated icons their long-awaited due. With meticulous research, he takes us inside the Warner Bros. studios to unlock the mystery of how an unlikely band of directors and artists working in the shadow of Walt Disney created a wild, visually stunning and oh-so-violent brand of comedy that has never been matched for sheer volume of laughs. The result is an unexpected and fascinating story that matches the Looney Tunes themselves for energy, humor, and ingenuity.

Sutherland House Publishing, out of Canada, released Weinman's Anvils, Mallets and Dynamite: The Unauthorized Biography of Looney Tunes in October of 2021. I was very pleased to have a chance to review an early galley of the book.

Like the author, I grew up on watching these classic cartoons on television, both on Saturday mornings and part of afternoon after-school syndication in the 1970's. However, being a bit over a decade older than he, I also can remember seeing some cartoon shorts on the big screen before a feature film. Thus, I had that extra touchstone as a child on how these shorts from the 1940's and 1950's might have played on in their original medium. All that together puts this book right into my pop-culture wheelhouse.

I truly appreciate Weinman's attention to detail, especially when he was describing particular shorts to illustrate his points about the artwork, the music, the trademark Looney Tunes humor and more. I found myself seeking out some of these online via YouTube and DailyMotion, just to refresh my memories of them - and I found myself smiling again as I had as a kid. I highly recommend to readers that they do so similarly; it definitely enhances the reading experience of this volume.

Weinman also takes time to discuss the various creative talents and their styles that made these cartoons such classics. Animation icons Friz Freleng, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising, and Leon Schlesinger are all celebrated in the pages of this book.

For fans of animation as well as American pop-culture, I would highly recommend this book.

This book was a huge disappointment. As a lifelong fan of Looney Tunes, I really wanted to learn more about their history & about several of the great men behind them, such as Carl Stalling, Mel Blanc, and Chuck Jones. I guess my opinion of these men & the great cartoons they created during the 1950s are pretty much ignored.

Instead, the author chooses to focus on the period before 1948 and after 1962. With the earlier period, the best in his opinion 9I do not agree) we get lengthy descriptions of the cartoons and analyses of some characters. In the later period, which takes up over 2/3's of the book we get an entire chapter on Space Jam, and confusing and unclear writing on TV distribution.

I wish as if I felt that Weinman had a point, but I and many others have watched the cartoons both before and after 1948 and come to my conclusion that the 50's cartoons are superior.

If he wanted to write a polemic about the pre-1948 cartoons, it should not be called a history. If he wanted to write a history he should not have left out o much of importance.

This was a great comprehensive look at the history of Looney Tunes. It’s accessible to casual fans yet also interesting enough to keep diehard fans invested.

This book is quite insightful look into the world of Looney Tunes, from humble beginnings to modern day atrocities with nostalgic aura.

Weinman goes about it mostly chronologically and easily lays out how the cartoons got made, who made 'em, when, sometimes delving even in what techniques were being used. But the most precious attempt of this book is to differentiate all, and I mean literally all, versions of each Looney Tunes character. Even in comics. You can literally pop a Looney Tunes DVD or, you know, stream cartoons and go by this book to see all the differences that exist in, for example, Foghorn Leghorn cartoons. Not just his surroundings (farm or... city) but his sidekicks, enemies and demeanor (in some cartoons he spoke without accent, than suddenly became Southerner).

I found it funny that the author looks down on Mickey Mouse, and not-Warner studios including Disney of course, but being hard core Looney Tunes fan himself he also delves into terrible situation of what Looney Tunes became after theatrical shorts production ceased. Bleak versions of themselves. My words not his. And although I do have love for anything Looney (both Space Jams or Cartoon Network shows), he does not. Weinman informs us about it, but you can feel that he despises it.

So, for casual Looney Tunes fan, this book can be a treasure. You can get interested for a specific cartoon or character and go find it somewhere to watch it. But for hard core connoisseurs, it has glimpses of less known information and tends to get boring. That feeling was stronger with every chapter, at least for myself. But even so, I successfully found interesting facts about Warner Bros' cartoon production end cards. Why are some names smaller, why some are bigger, why are some people missing... That information alone worked for me, but it could be incredibly dull for some other people. But Weinman did a good research and created something that can be useful to people interested in history of animation, or animation itself.

<i>I'd like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read and review this book. As you can see, it had no effect on my feelings and thoughts about it.</i>

Animated films have been around since the late 1800s, if you include the prolific Georges Méliès’ stop-action special effects and labor-intensive hand-painting frame by frame. This neo-romantic Frenchman, flamboyant colorist, and fantasist certainly qualifies as a mainstream figure in early film history.

On the conventional animation front, Walt Disney, in step with a raft of other early animators, introduced Mickey Mouse in 1928. When Leon Schlesinger founded his own animation studio in 1930, he rolled out the first Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes cartoon shorts. A few years later, Warner Brothers brought the Schlesinger team under its wing, and the nearly two-decade ascendency of these hallmark cartoon series began, only to fade into the banal crowd as TV sucked up most of the mass audience’s attention.

In Anvils, Mallets & Dynamite, Jaime Weinman, scholarly and thorough, traces the evolution (and decline) of these two pop-culture brands. His is a devotee’s single-minded attention to detail and historical context. Call him a ‘toon nerd in the very best sense; his enthusiasm and dogged fascination underline every paragraph.

Weinman profiles all the key human players in the Looney Tunes story with wit and respect for the art, and notably for the talented handful of iconic Warner Brothers’ animation directors: Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, and “Friz” Freling. He also pays attention to this A-team’s leading rivals in the eccentric packs of other studios. Along the way, Weinman unspools a wealth of compelling anecdotes, displaying unfailing insight into the style and structure of the cartoons themselves. He proves both a sensitive critic and an adept chronicler of an important American cultural moment.

It’s with these Warner Brothers cartoons that this reviewer’s wonderment with popular American film begins. This infatuation reaches back to Saturday afternoons, mid-1950s, to a throwback movie palace in North Jersey, a rapt kid down front in a massive auditorium encrusted with fading ornament.

If you’re only conversant in Bugs and Porky, Tweety and the Roadrunner from narrow-gauge TV reruns, Weinman’s apologia is likely a headscratcher. But if you’re of a certain age, you know how it was. Forget the ho-hum broadcast domain of Fred Flintstone and Scooby-Doo. Those more recent phantoms, however colorful, can never match the experience of the big screen.

Back then, with the Warner cartoons, it was a matter of overreaching hue and scope, of soaring, knock-your-socks-off backdrops awash in muted color — cityscapes, deserts, barnyards, woodlands. It was the pitch-perfect voicing of Mel Blanc, the lushly overstated musical orchestrations, and the incessant blackout sequences of failed pursuit, never-say-die pursuers hoisted on their own petards.

And, yes, there was the hyperviolence, too, fetchingly magnetic to us 8-year-olds.

Along with this violence, the stereotypical (most would say racist) treatment of characters both human and animal is where some of today’s misgivings about these cartoons originate: the Mexican Speedy Gonzales and the compulsively womanizing Pepé Le Pew, that French skunk. Also, in Tweety turning broad-brush Chinese in physiognomy as his script demanded, or in the buck-toothed, bespectacled Japanese characters portrayed during the WWII years. And, perhaps most offensively, in the wide-eyed, slouching Black characters depicted in menial roles — chauffeurs, railroad porters, street sweepers — across the decades.

Although Weinman pays necessary critical attention to each of these stereotypes, it should be said that the American film archetype in the 1930s and 1940s rather joyously embraced this same approach to characterizing diversity. I still flinch a little, having come of age as a real-world representative of the slur, when an Irish tippler teeters onscreen in a John Ford or Howard Hawks film.

But violence and racism aside, these Warner Brothers cartoons, along with Disney’s more pristine full-length prototypes pre-1950, set high standards for all serious-minded animation since — from “Shrek” to “The Simpsons” — and for certain live-action comedies, too. Consider Frank Tashlin, former Looney Tunes maestro turned Hollywood director, with his brace of over-the-top 1950s-era social satires (“Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?”) and half-dozen celluloid cavalcades of oversaturated sight gags for Jerry Lewis.

The apple, I suppose, doesn’t fall far from the tree…where, in keeping with Looney Tunes convention, it knocks out Wile E. Coyote in a cascade of tiny stars. Then, a beat or two later, the tree itself falls, flattening the furry villain in a musical cacophony. Fade to black…

That’s all, folks!

I loved Looney Tunes as a kid and it's a shame to see how misused and neglected they've become in the past few decades. Bugs Bunny is one of the greatest comedic characters of all time and no one knows what to do with him. The author shares this opinion and I enjoyed this passionate history and dissection of the Looney Tunes place in the culture.

Looney Tunes was one of my favourite cartoon growing up. I kinda forgot some of the characteristics mentioned so I had to go back google them. Worthwhile read for Looney Tunes fan.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher for granting the e-ARC :)

A very informative book on the inner workings of the various groups responsible for the cartoons we love from our childhood. The author spends a good portion in the latter half of the book discussing the more modern takes on the classic characters and how they may/may not have spoiled the classics for those that aren't able to view the cartoons from the heyday of Looney Tunes that easily (due to repeated transfer of rights, or limited viewing due to availability.

While losing the thread, in my opinion, at points Weinman does a good job of weaving a tale of how these classic bits of comedy were created and how they influenced those that came after.

Now pardon me, I have a lot of cartoons to rewatch.

A passion-fueled and comprehensive history of Looney Tunes. It read like a podcast or documentary series, with a chronological history, showcasing all the characters (both drawn and behind the scenes) that made Looney Tunes what it was -- and still make Looney Tunes what it IS.

I walked away feeling like an expert (I now let my husband know if we are watching a pre or post-1948 short), without the research. Instead, I had a few-day read that keep me not only interested in what I was reading, but desperate to put the book down and find each cartoon short I was reading about. (Hey, Mr. Weinman, can we convince the streaming service to make us a companion playlist?! ;) )

It is clear that Mr. Weinman is a Looney Tunes purist, and knowing that, I hope he feels accomplished with this book. I went into this book as a passive fan, and walked away as someone eager to consume more. And maybe even watch Back in Action. Maybe ;)

Thanks to Sutherland House and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Looney Tunes! If you grew up before the Cartoon Network and cable ruined Saturday mornings, you would have seen the Looney Tunes gang in action. Bugs, Daffy, Foghorn Leghorn, Pepe LePew, Taz, Tweety, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, Roadrunner, Coyote, and the rest all ran wild on Saturday mornings for decades! But as Jaime Weinman explains, they did not start out on the small screen, instead they were big screen stars!
In fourteen enjoyable chapters and a very interesting epilogue, Jaime Weiman walks the reader through the history of the Looney Tunes and Warner Brothers studio beginning with their search for a star to compete with The Mouse. Bosko did not quite work, Daffy, well, he was a bit over the top. Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig work better as straight men, so when Bugs Bunny was created, the Looney Tunes system really began to shine. The Warner Bros. Studio had Chuck Jones, Fritz Freeling, Tex Avery and many others. But another person was needed - Mel Blanc, the voice of so many Looney Tune characters. Weinman spends time analyzing the gags used in the cartoons, the switch from writing for movie screens to television screens, the rebooting and rebooting of the franchise along with the search for movie stardom with Space Jam, and spinoffs. Weinman also spends time discussing stereotyping and racism in the cartoons. Weinman then concludes the book with an in-depth look at "Racketeer Rabbit" - looking at the characters, the atmosphere, the lighting, and the gags.

If you enjoy the Looney Tunes, you should pick up this book and find out the history behind your favorite characters and episodes! You will not be disappointed!

Anvils, Mallets & Dynamite is the definitive story of Looney Tunes. It is well-researched from a multitude of sources. Plus, it is just a fascinating read!

The book starts at the beginning of animation in Hollywood with a brief mention of Disney and other animation studios’ styles before jumping in with Warner Bros’ history. It describes many of the directors’ methodologies in detail. Even many of the iconic cartoons receive a deep drive into their creation.

Anvils, Mallets & Dynamite is the perfect gift for the cartoon fan in your life! They are sure to learn many things by reading this engrossing book. 5 stars!

Thanks to Sutherland House and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

A really interesting read. I admit it felt more like something I would have read academically, and the bibliography is a joy for anyone studying animation. Hugely distracting for this geek, but it just meant I have other things to read off the back of this. I would have loved to have known the author's thoughts on Animaniacs, but we can't have everything. Thank you to NetGalley for my copy.

Jaime Weinman writes a passionate and moving picture of those enduring Warner Bros cartoons…. The Looney Tunes gang are all here, as Weinman tells the whole story of those characters on and off screen.

A cartoon laid back, grey lanky talking rabbit with buck teeth and a strong Brooklyn accent chomps on a carrot asks you “What’s up, Doc?”. An animated large eyed yellow canary’s baby voice tells the fourth wall “I tawt I taw a puddy tat!”. Immediately on hearing about these two animated characters you’ll visualise and hear the two Looney Tunes characters, Bugs Bunny and Tweety Pie.

You might now hear The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down theme tune that accompanied these Looney Tune characters. These and many more characters – including Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales and Foghorn Leghorn – are lovingly recalled no matter what your age, as you remember these enduring cartoon shows from then and now.

Pop culture writer Jaime Weinman now immortalises them in his heartwarming biography. This telling of the history of these beloved Looney Tunes characters on screen and their off screen creators. His detailed book titled Anvils, Mallets & Dynamite: The Unauthorized Biography of Looney Tunes.

The book title refers to just a few of the outrageously violent ways those hunters try to kill the hunted in Looney Tunes cartoons. This was a constant theme that was seen in many of their cartoons be it between Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny, Sylvester the Cat and Tweetie Pie or Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. There is an emphasis on the try, and this cartoon “violence” added to their long-lasting appeal for us all, as those hunter’s plans inevitably backfire again and again and again.

Over 375 pages and 14 chapters, Weinman’s intense love for this subject, like (Bugs) Bunny leaps from every page. Weinman starts with a wonderful convincing and affectionate argument from Rob Long’s Conversations with my Agent (1996) on why Bugs Bunny – described as ” a funny comic genius” – is more amusing than the Walt Disney creation Mickey Mouse. The book ends in the same passionate way, but this time as Weinman dissects and fully analyses his favourite of these Looney Toons Bugs Bunny cartoons, Racketeer Bunny (1946).

Weinman writes candidly and affectionately of his love for this subject. He tells how his adoration for these animations was amplified after attending a cartoon film festival. This was after watching a number of these cartoons on a large cinema screen. He shares his joy from that time with us, as he tells us that as he was absorbed in the on-screen action he observed little touches he hadn’t noticed after seeing them on TV. These added to his amusement and he

“walked out of the theatre, more convinced than ever that I’d picked the right thing to be a fan of”.

I immediately identified with this author as he wrote telling how he loved watching these cartoons on television as a child. I remember that I watched these cartoons in the 1970s, and like him had watched a number of these cartoons that had been created in the 1940s and 1950s. These same cartoons, with their timeless plots, have been seen and enjoyed over many generations. This seems unique to this genre, as now my stepdude loves and enjoys those same cartoons and characters I watched as a kid.

Looney Tunes is evergreen entertainment and these cartoons are more enduring than many of these live-action films from earlier times. Weinman’s enthusiasm is contagious as he writes about the long-lasting appeal of these earlier cartoons. He advocates that they were often “silly and unreal”, had “idiotic villains” and on their release were often uncensored unlike the live-action films from this time.

He wonderfully sums up these cartoon characters saying that;

“a Looney Tunes character may have one or two traits that define him, and everything else can change depending what’s funnier in the moment”.

He then argues why he feels these cartoons were great. He contests the cartoons are “purely comedy”, themeless and therefore watched solely to be enjoyed. He gives a glowing list of the elements found in these cartoons and gives examples in relation to their formula, premise, gags, amorality, violence and distinctive voiceovers. The violence – although cartoon based – has however been censored over the years, and eleven cartoons were withdrawn from circulation for a number of controversial reasons.

Chapters take a linear approach as they outline the history of Looney Tunes from its origins and these facts blended with descriptions of cartoons made during this time. Key cartoon characters and those animators, writers and directors who worked in developing and producing these characters over the decades are also explored. Weinman’s thorough and intricate research gives a rounded true story that will appeal to entertainment historians, animators and cartoon fans.

Weinman’s detailed outline of the Looney Tunes history is told from its beginnings in 1930, by Leon Schlesinger who as the talkies came in created a new company producing six minute cartoons. Schlesinger recruited Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising as animators and they brought their cartoon character Bosko to the company. The name, Looney Tunes was inspired by the Disney name Silly Symphonies, and these early cartoons changing “what made Disney bland”. After being taken over by Warner Brothers, music was used from this company’s own library as well as classical music.

This detailed history then continues and includes familiar director, animator, writer and cartoon names and these are beautifully illustrated with examples of their work. Weinman backs up his biographies with some heartwarming descriptions and analyses of their individual portfolios. These cartoon scenes are written so vividly you can visualise them. He helpfully adds the cartoons name that the scene came from as an aid for future viewing. Added together these factors wonderfully illustrate Weinman’s extensive knowledge of this subject.

His history leads chapter by chapter to the present day. More recently a number of these animated characters starred as themselves but in live-action films such Space Jam (1996) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988). In this latter film, Weiman believes “Mickey mostly watched Bugs Bunny work”. Weinman tells that these cartoon characters’ quirks and behaviours were homaged in the live-action Mel Brooks film Blazing Saddles (1974).

Other pop culture references are added as he tells of these cartoon characters who were caricatured in these cartoons and of Looney Tunes influence on George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. This franchise has also inspired a wide range of merchandise, as well as media player products.

Weinman writes with the same never ending enthusiasm about those real-life characters who created this series. There are wonderful comparisons of those different cartoons directors works at the studio, citing the work of familiar names from my own cartoon viewing as a child such as Tex Avery, Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett. He also plays tribute to the sound effects, music and writers associated with Looney Tunes.

At one time, individual cartoons were made by one of three departments within the company. A fourth department concentrated solely on those older black and white cartoons. He adds that these cartoons often show the individual director’s and their department’s personal stamp. Weinman effortlessly compares the directors’ different styles for their individual ways of showing characters, themes, gag and storytelling in their cartoons. Weinman gives many examples of their work illustrated with scenes from these cartoons.

He also explores the components of these animations by looking at the use of sound effects, voice actors and music, and how these were developed as an integral part of these productions. Biographies of Looney Tunes most famous contributors such as the voice actor Mel Blanc and writers such as Michael Maltese are also remembered in this way. He also explores the more controversial cartoons and tells that many previously released cartoons are censored today for their racial, violent and cultural depictions.

The book gives detailed biographies of those cartoon characters as personalities in their own right. These include personal favourites such as Bugs Bunny, Tweety Pie, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig. Weinman provides their full stories, outlining their origins, their physical development as cartoon characters, the different reincarnations of their personalities, their behaviours over the years and their representations in both cartoons and live-action films. Weinman illustrates these characters in meticulous detail describing a wide number of their memorable cartoon scenes as he writes his honest accounts of these.

His book shows that these cartoon caricatures may have changed in their looks and personalities over this time, but one thing is clear. That kids of all ages will still tune in to watch these cartoon hunted animals outwit their hunters in fun and imaginative ways again and again and again. These cartoons are enjoyed no matter when they were made and kids often watch and enjoy these timeless films made long before they were born.

In one chapter Weinman defines show business as;

“People who accidentally create art that lasts.”

It is clear from his explanation that these cartoons are the literal definition of show business. He also speaks for many of us telling how we have “never grew out of loving” Looney Tunes, and this I believe is supported with their 94% rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website. Weinman believes that these cartoons have “never got the credit they deserved”. I feel they have now, and they have their time in the spotlight once more, thanks to this illuminating and heartwarming book.

Now, I advocate that you join Weinman as he brings those much-loved characters to life in his animated biography for his passionate encore. And as you remember those glorious cartoons, characters, writers, voice actors, theme tunes, gags and directors from your childhood and beyond that defined showbusiness… that’s all folks…

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Sutherland House for an advanced copy of this new entertainment and animation reference book.

Never has a title more apt for a book and its subject matter. Anvils, Mallets & Dynamite:The Unauthorized Biography of Looney Tunes by Jaime Weinman is a complete look at the cartoons that made me the person that I am, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. The book offers behind the scenes, explanations on technology and how the cartoons were created, studio politics, and studio meddling. The book has it all.

I have read some of the authorized biographies, and most of the large photo books that came out on various anniversaries. This book went much deeper into the telling, not a warts and all or gossipy kind of telling, more of a setting the record straight, a honest appraisal of who did what, creation of various characters, and other truths. Some did more than others, some did a lot less and claimed quite a bit. However this is a story told with love, and you can tell the author is a fan. Heck anyone who wrote to Roger Ebert to complain about Space Jam is a much better man than I.

Another aspect I enjoyed was the bringing the story up to the present day. I lot of the newer iterations have passed me by, the Looney Tunes Superfriends mashup sounds like a particular mess I am glad to avoid. I admit to watching the cartoons in the 70's. I remember when they switched from CBS to ABC, and how it messed up my whole viewing schedule. It was nice to review those moments, and remind me how much television I used to watch.

A great gift for animation lovers, or people who spent their childhoods wondering why every cartoon didn't have Bugs Bunny in it. A very well written informative book. I can't wait to read more by Mr. Weinman.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was well written, engaging and struck the perfect balance between Looney Tunes' history and the author's critical analysis of the various phases of the cartoons. Highly recommended