The House of Tomorrow (1949 film)

Last updated
The House of Tomorrow
Directed by Tex Avery
Story byJack Cosgriff
Rich Hogan
Produced by Fred Quimby
Starring Frank Graham
Tex Avery
Joi Lansing [1]
Narrated byFrank Graham
Don Messick
Music by Scott Bradley
Animation byWalter Clinton
Michael Lah
Grant Simmons
Color process Technicolor
Production
company
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • June 11, 1949 (1949-06-11)
Running time
7:00
LanguageEnglish

The House of Tomorrow is a 1949 animated theatrical short directed by Tex Avery. [2] It was part of a series of cartoons Avery did satirizing technology of the future which included: The Car of Tomorrow, The T.V. of Tomorrow , and The Farm of Tomorrow . These were satires of live-action promotional films that were commonly shown in theaters at the time.

Contents

The film is a straightforward narrated showcase of appliances said to be found in a typical house in the year 2050, roughly a hundred years after the cartoon was made, each one actually an outlandish joke. Most of the time, the inventions follow a similar pattern of being made for each member of the family, but ending with a fatal version for the "mother-in-law".

Plot

An off-screen narrator introduces The House of Tomorrow, a pre-fabricated luxury residence that impossibly unfolds from a tiny gift box. The house has separate entrances for each member of the family: for Fido, a tiny door surrounded by bones; for Junior, a door covered in muddy handprints; for the mother, a wide and curvy door to accommodate her large form from eating sweets; for the father, a saloon door; and, for the mother-in-law, a heavily barricaded door with a welcome mat that reads "SCRAM!"

Once inside, the narrator offers a tour of the house's modern conveniences, presented as a series of brief vignettes consisting of sight gags. The house contains all of the following:

As the narrator signs off, a typewritten letter suddenly appears on the screen:

PATRONS ATTENTION!!
Due to numerous requests of the tired business-men in the audience, we are going to show you the girl again.
The Management

The short then ends with a repeat of the film of Joi Lansing in her swimsuit.

See also

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References

  1. "AVERY…. Vol. 2??? WELL, IMAGINE THAT! -". cartoonresearch.com. 7 December 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  2. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 146–147. ISBN   0-8160-3831-7.