62. Bosko's Mechanical Man (1933)

Warner cartoon no. 61.
Release date: July 29, 1933.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Directed by: Hugh Harman.
Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Johnny Murray (Bosko).
Animation: Isadore "Friz" Freleng and Thomas McKimson.
Musical Score: Frank Marsales.

The release date (July 29) is my birth day - but this was released 63 years before I was even born!!!

The carton begins with Honey who has a sponge on her hand, and she is scrubbing a large window with soap. While she is scrubbing, she is wearing a see-through skirt, and that we can see her pants. Due to her embarrassment, Honey pulls her skirt down so that we (the audience) cannot see her pants. Mmm, it seems that Honey is the main character where we sometimes see sexual innuendos - but that's just me I guess. After Honey has put a lot of soap on her window, we see Bosko in silhouette and he writes on Honey's window with his finger I love you. Hang on, Honey has cleaned the window outside, and yet Bosko can still write a message on her wall? How's that possible?

Honey notices the message by Bosko, and is disgusted with the message for some reason. She wipes the message off the window. As she is scrubbing the soap off her wall, she spots Bosko who comes up from the bottom outside of her window, and tries to pull on a sophisticated look. She is surprised to see him and she runs outside to meet him. Bosko follows on, and so does Bruno. Bosko stands outside her doorstep with a bunch of posies for Honey. Honey opens the front door, and greets Bosko, "Oh Bosko, you've fullfilled my wishes, you're just in time to do the dishes." It obviously was not Bosko had in mind, as he expected a romantic moment - but instead, he's been dragged in to help out do chores for Honey. Is it me, or does Honey seem to be acting like an ass so far?

Bosko drops his flowers with surprise and questions, "Who me? dishes?" and hopelessly laughs, and showing some sexist attitude as if women should do the washing. Bosko, continues laughing that he won't wash dishes. Until the very next scene, Bosko is found washing the dishes. Ha, I really like that set up there - with Bosko laughing about him washing the dishes, and the next shot he is already washing them. I think that is one of Harman-Ising's greatest timing there. Bosko is washing the dishes, while Honey is doing the scrubbing. Bosko has a miserable look on his face - as he is washing the dishes.

He gets out two stacks of plates that are separate, and he shuffles them - like shuffling a deck of cards. He does the same for the other dishes, and places them on top of the deck of dishes, in which it is very tall and wobbly to carry. Honey warns Bosko to be careful, but Bosko is skipping while holding a big stack of dishes. As Bosko was about to walk down the stairs (totally ignorant of what he was doing), Honey does a complete 'take' of the broken dishes. Honey steps out at her porch to find Bosko all weary from the broken dishes that fell on his head. Honey taps her foot, in which Bosko turns around putting on an innocent look, and then Bosko's body fades into a lamb that acts innocent.

Bosko immediately notices the Daily Bulge newspaper standing outside Honey's front lawn, and Bosko reads the front headline that reads ROBOTS WILL DO WORK OF HUNDRED MEN SAY TECHNOCRATS which is a headline that talks about a "mechanical man" (robot) that will do all the work, so that the men don't have to help out their girlfriends or wives. Bosko thought that it was a great idea, so he goes into his shed and he builds a mechanical man. He uses different items inside the garage, like a stove for the body. Honey notices Bosko in the garage, and demands that he comes back and helps her out with the dish washing.

 Bosko ignores Honey's words, and he finishes off the development of the robot - and adds two light-bulbs as eyes; the finishing touch. Bosko then runs to find an engine and places it inside the robot's back. He steers it, and then the robot comes to like. Bosko's plan and development now works - he is free! The mechanical man pops and moves slightly with the engine going "ka-boom" ever so slightly. Bosko then pulls the button that reads "Free Wheeling", he pushes the lever firmly and lets go, with the robot coming to life. Bosko's plan on the robot - didn't go quite as well as he thought, since the robot is a killing machine who tries to kill Bosko. The robot almost crushes Bosko by walking door to door, and each door squashes Bosko.

The robot then chases after Honey, and Honey comes to the end of the room, and she spots some of her perfume. She grabs the perfume and sprays it on the robot. The scent immediately changes the robot's personality, from a tough killing-machine to a soft robot. Bosko then rushes to the piano to try and stop the mechanical robot from trying to cause any danger. So, the robot then skips merrily to the music, and throws toilet paper around the scene. That scene was originally animated on Sinkin in the Bathtub but instead of a bathtub, it's a robot. It's pretty much the same movements, but different drawings.

The robot suddenly turns back into a horrible killing robot, and grinds it's teeth. The robot is about to destroy Bosko, but Honey then places a gramophone inside the robot's back, in which the robot dances and sings to Mary Had a Little Lamb. This little bit of animation is entertaining, and it saves Bosko and Honey for a short time. Suddenly, the records starts skipping, and it changes the robot from dancing into a killing machine again.

 

Bosko and Honey rush out of the house, and the robot runs out as well. In the front porch, there is Bruno sleeping by the step, but the robot pulls out a telephone wire where it is electrifying - the robot places its hand on the sparkly wire and then zaps Bruno's bottom with the robot's eyes.  In which Bruno screams and yelps in pain. Poor Bruno, how could the robot he so cruel to animals - what a sadist! Bosko and Honey continue to run away from the robot, and poor Bruno is panting as he runs. The robot points with his finger, as a radio is shown and is announced, "You're now in the hands of the dear old Maestro" - Ben Bernie reference.

 Bosko and Honey are still running away, and they run so far that they end up in the park. Bruno is still panting and runs very slow, but does catch up with them as they hide in the garage. The robot is charging at them - Bosko, Bruno and Honey are still in danger, but Bosko has one last weapon left. He throws a TNT bomb inside the robot's mouth, that lands into his stomach. Then, BOOM the robot is all blown up into pieces and we can see his joints inside the mechanical machine - and that's all folks.

Well, this cartoon was in fact a delight to watch. There was a great story in there, that shows Bosko's plan to build a mechanical man to do his chores for him, but instead his plans go all wrong in which the robot turns into a killing machine. The robot certainly does look pretty frightening to me. I've seem to notice that Honey at the beginning of the film, was just a rather bitter, sweet nothing. She forces Bosko to help do the chores, wipes off the "I love you" mark off. Gee, it's a bit like Minnie Mouse's personality in The Little Whirlwind except Minnie was even worse.