Edgar Allan Pooh . . . like a simple cartoon about a young boy merely guilty of being a serial day-dreamer at school. But when a Warnologist digs a little beneath the surface of FROM A TO Z-Z-Z-Z, a more sinister undertone emerges. Z-Z-Z-Z contemporaries would have noticed immediately that Master Ralph L. Phillips has morphed into General Douglas MacArthur at the end of this Looney Tune, when he threatens his Math Teacher Missy Wallace with MacArthur's most famous quote, "I shall return!" Since a chalkboard's worth of numbers literally attack Ralphie during this short, numerologists will quickly note that "Master Ralph L. Phillips" and "General Douglas MacArthur" BOTH count out at 244, along with "Math Teacher Missy Wallace" (also 244, with 24 divided by 4 times 3--for this fated trio--being expressed as Satan's Number, 666!). Warnology indicates that this was Warner Bros.' way of warning America against a renewed military coup effort on the part of MacArthur, who'd all but rolled up to the White House in a tank a few months earlier. This subliminal message obviously worked, since MacArthur just faded away until he died in the wake of this animated caution.

Lee Eisenberg I would have given "From A to Z-Z-Z-Z" a higher grade had it not contained a scene stereotyping Native Americans. But other than that, it's a good look at school life. I mean, how many of us didn't daydream in class like Ralph Phillips does here? Especially with the rote learning portrayed in the cartoon. Yes, he may be self-indulgent, but he has his reasons. And it probably would be fun to do some of what he imagines.So, although I prefer Chuck Jones's cartoons portraying Bugs Bunny and that crowd, this one has its merits. Worth seeing.Did Gen. MacArthur ever say that?

JKwiat5787 This cartoon is about a boy with Attention Deficit Disorder, done at a time when the affliction was not well understood at all (that only happened after 1980). I relate to it, as I'm sure anybody with ADD does. This also points up how widespread the disorder is: either Jones had it, or he knew someone who did. I'm sure that if I told my old high school classmates that there are an estimated fifteen million of us in the United States alone, they'd day "You mean there's fifteen million like YOU, Joe? God save the country!Then again, that teacher's teaching methods are so boring that it's a wonder she holds the attention of any of those kids for any length of time at all!

ColeSear While Chuck Jones has been given his just desserts as an animator he is awfully underrated as a filmmaker and should be considered as one of the top directors of all-time regardless of medium. Not only have his works inspired the likes of Steven Spielberg, Chris Columbus and Joe Dante but his characters were always human.In this short we get the most rounded character Chuck Jones ever created not only because he was "Flesh and Blood" but because he (Ralph Phillips) went through a range of emotions (boredom, whimsy, regret, anger, self-indulgence, loneliness) than most of his characters ever did. This film is a testament to Jones's art. In just 21 minutes Chuck Jones created a character who doesn't shine as brightly but is just as memorable as Bugs Bunny.10/10