The Way of All Pests (1941) Poster

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5/10
Revenge
boblipton17 February 2018
Mosquitoes, moths, flies, caterpillars -- all the pests that plague a man in his home and risk extermination at his hand -- band together to seek revenge on their oppressor in this Columbia Color Rhapsody.

It's an Art Davis cartoon in the period after Charles Mintz' death, but before Harry Cohn called in Frank Tashlin in to run the department... and then got rid of him. Columbia offered a full range of movies to its exchanges, from cartoons, to newsreels, all the way up to features, but they had trouble maintaining a cartoon program, so eventually they would farm out the work to UPA. In the meantime, the division floundered and even a skilled director like Davis would be hard pressed to turn out more than a decent effort like this, with its assorted collection of gags that don't really add up to much.
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6/10
So Was The WB Characters Just Another Day At The Office For Blanc?
richard.fuller116 November 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Mel Blanc clearly did so many voices in cartoons as well as movie and TV appearances, it was no surprise to hear him once in an interview he gave with his son and Mel got Sylvester and Yosemite Sam confused, not knowing which character was which.

Way of All Pests is really a sort of Merrie Melodies wannabe (there were other cartoons with insects) and is peculiarly noteworthy for the generic human the bugs are attacking. I suspected a couple of times he was a takeoff of Edward G. Robinson, but as he never spoke, who knows. It may also be Robinson was wanted to do the voice, or be imitated, and there was a snag.

There's virtually no ending punchline, just a concluding bit with a green mosquito who for no other reason is talking like Benny from Of Mice and Men. Perhaps anticipating he will be a breakout character? Didn't happen.
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6/10
Too Many Bugs!
Hitchcoc1 March 2019
A very coarse man is a pariah to the insect world. Without really realizing it, he is assaulting sentient bugs. They band together and launch an assault on him and his property. Where is RAID when you need it. The element of surprise helped them here, but with a host of chemicals, I'm afraid their efforts will be short lived.
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