58. Bosko the Sheepherder (1933)

Warner cartoon no. 57.
Release date: June 3, 1933.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Directed by: Hugh Harman.
Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Johnny Murray (Bosko).
Animation: Rollin Hamilton and Carmen "Max" Maxwell.
Musical Score: Frank Marsales.

The quality of pictures I found on Bosko the Sheepherder are in such poor quality, so sorry if it's really bad. I do wish that someday every single of those Warner cartoons will be fully restored and remastered.

The short starts off with Bosko playing some music with his flute, and there are some sheep frolicking around him. Bosko even then grabs a goat's tail and swings it in which his bell strapped around it's neck makes a bell sound. As Bosko continues to play through some beautiful smoothing music, a sheep prances around the field with flowers. The sheep goes along prancing for a while (nothing exciting, really), until the sheep finds a flower, and eats it with a bee trying to escape from the flower being eaten.

The sheep then starts to try and find the bee (not aware of how dangerous they can be), but the sheep looks under a hole under the ground, but the bee pops back up a different hole, and pulls a prickly plant towards him, and then lets go of the plant that spikes the sheep's rear end. The bee laughs at the poor lamb. I wouldn't cook that poor lamb - the reason why I wouldn't because I can't bear eating lamb! The lamb then runs off "baaing" back at the bee for stinging him.

We then see a shot of a grasshopper that hops from flower to flower, the grasshopper then lands in a flower that the sheep gobs in one bite. The grasshopper is still alive of course, but inside the stomach and bounces in different areas of the lamb's stomach -now that is a great gag, but it has been used often. Now that's been a while since I saw a re-used gag ;-). The sheep then "baas" the grasshopper out of his mouth, and the grasshopper spits on the flower like a spittoon.

The sheep then returns to Bosko, as he was still playing music in his flute the entire time. They both go on a stroll through the woods, and then they spot a beehive hanging from a tree. Bosko then grabs the bee-hive (not aware that he would get stung), and he places it on his flute, with branches onto the bee hive, in which it looks like he is playing the bagpipes (and the bees come out of the pipes).

We then get a good shot of Bruno sleeping, he is snoring and right next to a log. The log has some holes in it, and there are some raccoons in there that are popping out of the holes and into the air. We then get a shot of a squirrel eating some walnuts (Mmm). The squirrel is having a hard time trying to bite the walnuts, but Bosko helps out by using his mouth like a nutcracker - interesting gag. We then see a shot full of sheep as they crowd together and they mow the lawn with their teeth, in which sheep used that back then. It's still great idea for a gag, though.

We then see a shot of a peckish looking fox who wants some food, but hides under a chopped tree trunk, as Bosko and the sheep are playing music. The roots of the branch then move as if it was creeping forward for that lamb very carefully. Bosko and the sheep then come towards a picnic basket, in which Bosko says, "Am I hungry?" We then see a shot of Bosko eating the sandwich and it was reused many times (originally from Bosko's Holiday), okay - it seems that we are going back to the reuses faze.

We then see a group of sheep that meet Bosko altogether, and they are begging for something to drink. Bosko then grabs out one of his gloves, and he places it on top of the milk bottle, and each finger a lamb drinks the milk out of, like drinking from a cow's udder. We then go to a shot of a sheep that is prancing around the field. The fox is then hiding behind a rock, and he finds some skin that is attached outside a cabin, and the fox grabs it and disguises itself as a sheep.

The fox then starts prancing around like a sheep as his plan is to catch a sheep himself of course. A lamb then prances to the fox disguised as a sheep and the lamb gets his attention on the fox. The fox then reveals itself as a fox (which frightens the lamb) and then captures the lamb. Aww, how could that fox do that to a cute little lamb? Bosko hears the sounds of the screaming, and so does Bruno as they chase after the fox.

 

The fox then runs into a cave where he thinks he won't get caught by Bosko and Bruno. We can see that a lot of crashing is going on due to the cave's reaction with stars coming out, and Bruno itself. Then the fox comes out, and Bosko weeps thinking that he was eaten, but it was just Bruno inside the costume (it seems that Bruno's personality is that he always tricks Bosko as if he's dead). They then reunite with each other by licking Bosko's cheeks - and that's all folks.

Overall, this cartoon was very bland and very boring. There were gags and all, but it was not interesting to watch at all. I noticed that animation reuses has returned in this cartoon, after quite a number of cartoons of no reuses in the animated shorts. Did Harman-Ising had to take budget cuts or something? Maybe that's why it convinced them to leave in 1933. So, this cartoon was just like watching a normal Harman-Ising in that era - so boring and nothing special worth watching. But I still feel sorry for that lamb, though.