37. Bosko at the Beach (1932)

Warner cartoon no. 36.
Release date: July 23, 1932.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Directed by: Hugh Harman.
Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger (associate).
Starring: Johnny Murray (Bosko).
Animation: Isadore "Friz" Freleng and Rollin Hamilton.
Musical Score: Frank Marsales.

The short starts off with Bosko at the beach and he appears to have a part-time job by selling hotdogs: and it's sort of similar in an earlier short Ups N'Downs but the only thing the same is the occupation he is doing. Bosko doesn't really do much in the job except bark out "hot dogs", so the director realized that nothing interesting is going to happen. In the cartwheel, there are hot dogs dancing, and coming to life; they also they skip rope with each other.

Meanwhile, there is a rather cartoon-looking octopus that dances around the beach, with seahorses dancing as well. They all dance in their own routines. There is also a repeated gag in there, of the octopus that lands on a rock in the sand, so that the seahorses grab one of the legs like a "merry-go-round" ride. Now, I'm getting sick of that repeated gag.

Bosko's dog Bruno also runs into the short and he is doing what a dog would usually do at the beach: running around, barking, sniffing for tracks, etc. Suddenly, Bruno gets a glass cut on one of his paws, and the glass must have been tiny and sharp, as we can't see it. Bosko runs away from his cart and finds Bruno yelping for help. Bosko runs over to Bruno yelping in pain, and Bosko tries to calm him down. It seems that his paw has a pin stuck on it, not broken glass. Bosko pulls the pin off Bruno's paw, and he heals from the pain. Huh, now I wonder who on earth would leave pins on the beach. Broken glass would've made sense I guess, but a pin would be more suitable to avoid blood and such.

We now see Honey who is skipping on the beach, and her pet cat Wilbur is along as well (I hope he doesn't cause trouble this time). Honey is wearing her bathing suit on, and bathing cap. Wilbur seems to be struggling with the tides coming in, and almost drowns as Honey doesn't notice him. Is it just me or does Honey look fat in her swimsuit.

Honey goes to a spot and picks up a ukulele from a property and starts to play a song. Wilbur decides to go off to the high waves off-screen, but Honey warns him "Be careful, Wilbur". It appears to be that off-screen Wilbur is body surfing through the huge waves. So, it seems that Honey is a ukulele theft by playing one that could have belonged to someone - so it's "finder's keepers" to her then?

As Bosko is waking through with his hot-dog cart, he notices Honey playing the ukulele inside an umbrella in silhouette, Bosko goes in excitement "Oh boy!" Honey suddenly notices Bosko doing his job, and asks him to wait there as she goes into a hut to get changed. She gets changed through the hut with clothesline coming through with her skirt, pants and bra coming in. She steps outside (wit no bra on), and starts to walk outside the beach area, and asks Bosko to come along. They start to play the song Ain't We Got Fun?

Meanwhile as they are playing the song, Bruno keeps on coming into the scene to play, but Bosko keeps on throwing the stick to get Bruno's attention to the stick and not towards Bosko and Honey. The next part, Bruno returns with a log, so Bosko throws the log away so he can catch it. Bruno comes by next with an even larger log, but it lands on a picnic setup, and a jar lands onto Bosko's head. This is another moment in which dogs ruin the show for the characters, but Bruno is just behaving like a dog.

Wilbur continues to be body surfing through the waves, until a big wave comes in this time, which causes Wilbur to run away from a tide, but he's then washed up from the ocean, and ends in the sea shouting for help. Well, so far Wilbur hasn't seem to have done anything spoilt in this cartoon so far, but it's still grateful to save someone's life from drowning.

Bosko hears the cry for help, and he immediately runs to the sea to help rescue Wilbur. Bosko attempts to dive through a huge wave, but instead it leaves him at the dry land swimming. He swims through big, curvy waves that are very dangerous, and especially dangerous for poor Wilbur. As the waves get higher, and Bosko is swimming, the wave suddenly falls flat, that causes Bosko to land on a belly flop, I don't think that's even possible at all in terms of gravity. But he doesn't care about the pain, he's just trying to save Wilbur and he the hero of this picture. A fun gag is in which Bosko swims through huge, curvy waves under the water, before swimming back into a normal level. Wilbur is still screaming for help, and asks someone in the audience who could help him.

Bruno realizes that Bosko is in trouble too, with the waves. So he decides to make a plan to save both Bosko and Wilbur. I've noticed that in shots at Bruno barking at the waves, the waves don't seem very choppy at all, but when Bosko is swimming after Wilbur, the waves are dangerous. However, the waves were very choppy as Wilbur was body surfing.

Bruno grabs a fan from a shop, so he starts to attach the plug of the fan into a log, in which the fan starts to speed up Bruno into safety to save Bosko and Wilbur. I know that it's especially impossible for that to happen (as there is nowhere to plug it into), but whatever: Bosko and Wilbur are in trouble and at least "Cartoonland" can give them many chances by doing the "impossible things".

 

 Bruno realizes that he's not getting enough speed on the log, and then he makes the fan go faster, by placing the fan on the sea that makes the log move like a speedboat. There are huge waves that keep on separating Bosko and Wilbur. But Bruno comes in just in time, to rescue Bosko and Wilbur, that really makes Bruno the hero of this picture - and that's all folks.

As for me about this cartoon, well: I think it's best to say it was mediocre at best. The gags in there were pretty straightforward and obvious, they followed the same routine in this cartoon as usual such as: Bosko and Honey having a dance sequence in the middle of the picture, and always a climax sequence. The waves were quite exciting in this short, as there are huge waves which make the short more exciting to watch. Overall, this cartoon isn't one of the best to watch, but it wasn't terrible to watch.