Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Lee Eisenberg One of the many Merrie Melodies cartoons that entertained American moviegoers during WWII, Bob Clampett's "An Itch in Time" portrays a hobo flea settling on Elmer Fudd's dog. The little guy turns into a real sadist while making a home on the dog's back, but Elmer warns the dog: "One more scwatch and I'll give you a bath!" Meanwhile, the flea is setting up dynamite on the dog!* And that's not the end! I noticed that in one scene, Elmer is reading a comic book featuring Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig. Obviously, Elmer and Bugs frequently co-starred but Elmer never co-starred with Porky (unless you count the very short "Any Bonds Today?"). But to me, the thought of Elmer reading about these other famous characters from his same genre stresses the metaphysical nature of his world, as though he knew of their existence within his universe even though they don't appear in this cartoon.Of course, I'm probably going too far in my analysis. I'm sure that the cartoon was intended as pure entertainment, and it certainly entertains. As for the "I might get to like this" line, it sounds as though that was something that the censors wouldn't have allowed but somehow missed; I, for one, don't actually know what it was supposed to sound like. Was it something sexual? As for the end, had I thought that I'd seen everything, I would have been tempted to look for more, rather than do what the cat did (although it was a neat trick).*The guys behind these cartoons sure had a thing for TNT, didn't they?

slymusic Wonderfully directed by Bob Clampett, "An Itch in Time" is an entertaining Warner Bros. cartoon that is quite full of the kind of elaborate sight gags one would expect from Clampett. (He was, after all, the man who put the word "looney" in Looney Tunes.) The plot concerns a pesty little hillbilly flea with a voracious appetite. After spotting Elmer Fudd's dog, the flea believes he has just found his next meal.There are several memorable scenes from "An Itch in Time" that I shall now relate. First off, how could anybody forget the delightful little song "There'll Be Food around the Corner," sung repeatedly by the flea in his high-pitched voice? With the aid of a telescope in search of food, the flea stumbles upon a close-up of the dog's rump and lets out a wolf whistle! Elmer's flea powder sprinklings on the dog turn out to be a snowstorm for the flea. When Elmer catches his cat scratching the dog, both pets quite humorously cower in front of him (with a great sound effect) and helplessly look upward at him with large eyes. When Elmer and the dog slip on a bar of soap, they both respectively resemble Santa Claus and a reindeer as they are covered with soap bubbles. Even the sight of Elmer laughing at a Looney Tunes comic book is memorable! "An Itch in Time" can be found on Disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 3, with a very entertaining audio commentary by Warner Bros. animator Bill Melendez and contemporary animator John Kricfalusi. If I only had one concern for this film, I really feel that it was not necessary for the cat to shoot himself in the head at the very end after being a witness to all of Bob Clampett's craziness.

bob the moo Elmer Fudd is at home reading his Porky Pig comic by the open fire with his dog asleep by his side. When a flea enters the house it heads straight for the dog, making both the dog's and Elmer's night a misery. However getting rid of him is not so easy.When this cartoon started I had reasonable hopes as I thought it might be a Bugs Bunny cartoon due to the presence of Elmer Fudd. However not only wasn't it, but Elmer himself seems to be in there simply to have a well known character in the cartoon. The main characters are actually the dog and the flea – neither of which are very good characters. The dog is OK but the flea is an annoying little fellow with a high voice that just grated on me.The jokes are OK without ever being very good. I think what pit me off the most was just the weakness of the characters – they weren't very interesting and, although their jokes would have made me laugh if other characters had done them, the weaknesses in their characters just seemed to drain a lot of the laughs out of the cartoon.Overall this could have been better and, indeed, many viewers may well find it funnier than I did. But for me a cartoon is not simply the jokes, it is also the characters and the plot framework. Here neither of those factors came into play and the already weak cartoon was just made weaker.

mfiof `An Itch In Time' is one of a string of home runs Bob Clampett hit for WB in the early 1940s, including `Horton Hatches The Egg' and `Tortoise Wins By A Hare.' Soaked in manic timing and exaggerated mayhem, it's basically the saga of a flea who's busy breaking ground for a new home, and the dog whose ground is being broken. Because master Elmer will give him a dreaded flea bath if he so much as scratches, the unlucky canine is forced to endure an upward spiral of torment as the homesteading flea uses pick-axes and power tools to clear the `land.' Ultimately, the little monster lights the fuse to a small mountain of high explosives he's piled onto his victim's backside! There's a tremendous explosion, and the hapless pooch covers his eyes as his rear end erupts in a blazing Fourth of July display! That really has to hurt, and the dog takes flight, but soon he stops the action and says with a merry smile, `You guys better cut it out, 'cause I think I'm starting to like it!' For years this kinky confession was censored, but current prints have restored the clip, so now viewers can enjoy it in its original devilish glory. Still cut, however, is the closing gag in which the cat blows his brains out after he laments, `Now I've seen everything!' This was a common gag at WB, but it has since been purged from this cartoon and several others, including `Horton.'