Read Online The Moose That Roared The Story of Jay Ward Bill Scott a Flying Squirrel and a Talking Moose Keith Scott Books

Product details Paperback 480 pages Publisher St. Martin's Griffin; Reprint edition (November 20, 2001) Language English ISBN-10 0312283830

The Moose That Roared The Story of Jay Ward Bill Scott a Flying Squirrel and a Talking Moose Keith Scott Books Reviews

• I was hoping to enjoy this book much more than I actually did.
  
  This book is subtitled, "The story of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, a Flying Squirrel, and a Talking Moose". It does tell the tale of all four subjects. The main focus is on Jay Ward. He was one of the pioneers of television animation. Over the years he produced many different shows. Most were animated cartoons, but some were also live action. The author, Keith Scott, was very meticulous in gathering as much information about each of Jay Ward's endeavors. He interviewed many of the people involved animators, voice actors, producers, directors, and other associated personnel. Unfortunately, the book seems a bit disjointed at times. Anecdotes included sometimes refer to periods from other chapters. This interrupts the narrative flow of the book quite a bit. Some of the events (such as the earliest Rocky cartoons) build up concurrently (character design, character voice recording, storyboarding, and animation). As everything starts coming together, some of the side notes soften the climax by changing the train of thought for a few unexpected beats. The premieres of Crusader Rabbit, Rocky and Friends, The Bullwinkle Show, and the Captain Crunch commercials all suffered from this inadvertent subversion. I believe the author should have integrated the thoughts together of those he interviewed in chronological order. That way the narrative would have flowed much better naturally and events detailed by more than one person's viewpoint could be grouped together to give a clearer picture of the context.
  
  It's a shame, because the book could have been exciting to read. Instead, it became a bit of a chore at times. Compare this to Buck Bigger's and Chet Stover's, "How Underdog was Born". That book was very interesting and at times exciting to read. I expected this Keith Scott book to be a similar read. Unfortunately, it wasn't.
  
  I was disappointed to see Mr. Scott take an unfair jab at Total Television (the company that produced Underdog and other cartoons). He states, "........This situation led various TV historians to believe that Jay was responsible for a batch of rather unfunny cartoons." The situation he refers to is a company based in Mexico entitled Gamma Productions was contracted to do the actual cel animation/painting of both Jay Ward's and Total Television's output. The scripts, storyboarding, soundtracks, and everything else was done in the USA for both companies. I found Total Television's cartoons to be very enjoyable. I don't think there was any good reason to disparage TTV's efforts at all.
  
  I have to admit, Mr. Scott did a lot of research. The reference sections at the end of the book detail credits for just about everything Jay Ward produced. It notes the directors, actors & voice actors and the roles they played, synopses, and various other facts. For this reason alone, one should buy this book.
• I grew up watching Rocky and Bullwinkle, and I purchased this book in a fit of nostalgia. Author Keith Scott presents a comprehensive history of the personalities and talents within Jay Ward Productions, detailing the teething problems these talents faced when they shunned the cinema theater marketplace and decided to produce intelligent animation for the television fledgling medium. The comprehensive history is interesting, but that's not why I purchased this book.
  
  The Rocky and His Friends television series overflowed with socially-relevant puns; that ever-present no-good-nik Boris Badenov (i.e., bore-us-bad-enough, and ...) is a pun-ishing obvious example. This book emphasizes that Jay Ward Productions worked because the resident talents were having fun, and authoring socially-relevant puns was a large part of that fun. I had hoped Keith Scott's history would enumerate the series' socially-relevant puns for posterity. Alas, that pun list remains on the cutting room floor, extinguishing one star from this well written but IMO incomplete history.
• "Rocky Do you know what an A-bomb is? Bullwinkle Certainly. A bomb is what some people call our show." One of the many memorable lines from the show. Well, "some" people may have called the show a bomb but far more people loved it. Me included. And this book is certainly no bomb in the classical sense of the word. It is "da bomb" as the saying goes these days! I have just begun the book and am resisting my usual sneak peeks ahead; but so far, it's a very interesting and fun read. I'm a 45-yr fan of Rocky and Bullwinkle so I'm thrilled to read these "inside" stories. The author's story is a classic example of pursuing what you love, what "trips your trigger" - and how doing the work and chasing the dream can actually lead to a dream come true. About this purchase The book arrived timely and in good condition. It was a little bigger than I expected (happy surprise) and I love the cover. I am very happy with this transaction and would buy from this distributor again.
• Not only a detailed history of the development as well as Jay Ward successors to Rocky and Bullwinkle, but an insightful story about the made-for-TV animation industry. Rocky/Bullwinkle had humor potential that appealed to both kids and adults and ensured it's survival for decades when stuff like Mighty Mouse and Beanie and Cecil were forgotten. Naturally, there were run-ins with the censor, some of which are pretty dumb. ("Cannibalism? How can it be cannibalism if a squirrel and a moose are in the cooking pot?") I remember as a kid hearing this distinctive voice on many movie trailers and it stuck with me. It turned out it was Alan Frees, the voice of Boris Badenov, as well as a prolific voice-performer playing the Pillsbury Doughboy among others along dubbing Japanese kaijira movies like Rodan. This is a terrific book on Jay Ward and his creations that I highly recommend.
• I was really looking forward to reading this book. I wanted the story of Jay Ward, his animated friends, and all the people who made up his cadre of comedy. The story is there, but I kept having to weed it out. The anecdotes are all there, it’s just among so many facts that it makes it difficult to enjoy them. I know this was written with love, I just wish it had been edited that way, also.