81. Buddy of the Apes (1934)

Title card courtesy of Dave Mackey.

Warner cartoon no. 80.
Release date: May 19, 1934.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Supervision: Ben Hardaway.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Cast: Jack Carr (Buddy) and Billy Bletcher (Chief).
Animation: Paul Smith and Sandy Walker.
Musical Score: Bernard Brown.

This is another cartoon on the Internet that has a really fuzzy screen in it that pops up at times, and the annoying eg timer - in which I had to borrow a title card. This is Ben Hardaway's first credit as a director - but nothing improves at all - he's also pretty bad but it he was slightly better in his return in 1938. This short is a parody of Tarzan of the Apes - a rather bad parody.

Our cartoon begins with Buddy who steps out of his hut at the top of the trees, and he's wearing a leopard pelt, but still has his regular slacks on. He is somehow all muscly, with a huge chest. Urgh, that looks hideous on Buddy since he's a scrawny little rake. He thumps his chest and does probably the worst Tarzan yell I ever heard! Goodness he - it's so annoying even having to listen to it! It's like as though I'm hearing a teenager's voice going through puberty trying to sing. Buddy then starts to swing from different trees from limbs (of course, like Tarzan). Well at least we get to hear some lovely smoothing Bernard Brown music played from Buddy as it sounds similar to a Disney production musical score - not trying to say that Disney is bad; we always use them for examples - right?

Buddy then lands to the ground of the earth in the jungle. There is his friend who is an elephant. Buddy decides to take a shower (Yeah probably not showered for months) and he uses his elephant's trunk to wash himself. Seconds later, he hides behind the elephant (boy that was too quick a shower). But he hides behind the elephant for privacy as he dries his leopard pelt quickly. Buddy then goes off into the pond and uses a cattail to brush his teeth - Yep, Buddy is a jungle-man - he lives an animal, but somehow it's just a different setting and adaptation.

We then see these extensive shots of these jungle animals such as a giraffe (Giraffes don't live in jungles!) but anyway the giraffe is drinking water from the pond but guzzles it with his mouth - and is that the gag? Then the giraffe spits it into the pond. The alligator then yawns loudly and takes his false teeth out (with a very sloppy mouth) but he finds a hedgehog next to him in which he scrubs his own teeth by using the hedgehog as a brush and -- I guess it is funny. More scrubbing goes from a hippo in which there is a monkey that cleans it's tooth with a towel, in which they go into an annoying rhythm.

We then see a mother gorilla who is cradling a baby gorilla (Aww, similar to the "Tarzan" story except no Tarzan as a baby). The gorilla then feeds it some coconuts like a bottle, but the baby gorilla drinks the whole lot. Then the mother places the pacifier to suck the coconut milk, and sucks it like a normal baby would do. The baby then starts to cradle itself as the mother leaves to go inside (Tut-tut) Careless mothers. The baby falls off from the top of the house and lands into the river with his cradle.

As soon as the mother gorilla has finished updating she returns and starts screaming like a gorilla would do. The baby monkey is still in the pond and starts wailing. Meanwhile Buddy is standing by a table and chops a coconut with his knife and slurps it. The mother gorilla enters the scene screaming and panicking like a monkey would. She asks Buddy of the Apes to go and fetch him immediately. The poor child is almost about to slide down the waterfall in which Buddy has an idea to use the limbs as a piece of rope to attach the knife. He tosses the knife and aims at at the cradle in which the gorilla is saved. Mmm, it always seems that the directors at that time had to come up with creative ideas of how to be safe from danger. All the animals cheer on the saved monkey, but instead the nagging gorilla tells him off. Mothers. All the animals gather around in a circle with Buddy in the middle and they go around in a happy circle.

Meanwhile one of the African tribes spies with his telescope up in a tree in which he finds Buddy of the Apes in the middle, either because he must be most wanted or he's forbidden from their tribal kingdom. The tribe then rushes to the king of the lands about Buddy being found, with the Chief saying "Well, shut my mouth" - Yep, that's Billy Bletcher's voice alright. The Chief then grabs his guard's nose piercing of a triangle instrument and rings it as though it's an emergency. All the other tribes start on the hunt. We see a gag with these tribes that have long mouths and use it to play ping-pong and by god this is SO politically incorrect. The Chief gathers around all the other tribes and speaks in some gibberish language about the capture to Buddy, with the last sentence in English "Go Get 'Em". So the chase begins. Well at least Billy Bletcher has a strong voice to keep the cartoon going with it's lame gags so far.

Meanwhile Buddy is playing with another monkey and they seem to be playing "Eeny Meeny Miney Mo", but then a spear enters the scene, and hits that type of dartboard on the tree, in which Buddy and the monkey go into a frightened take. They see the spears coming at them with the whole village charging at them. They do their best to avoid the spears as best as possible, but then they swing onto a spear and land up into the tree into Buddy's hut. He bangs his chest and does the MOST irritating Tarzan sound ever - still. God, and and every time I hear it - it makes me want to eat my own shoe.

One of the elephants then sucks up some flowers in his trunk and shoots them at the tribes with the sound effects of bullets. Buddy then is about to do one of the Tarzan yells - Oh that's it - let me get that shoe. No wait, Buddy gets a spear through his teeth (not through his mouth) but he bites the spear. He throws it back at the tribes in which the spear starts to go all curvy and loopy to chase the other tribes away.

One of the kangaroos shows up with the tribe's nose pierce stuck onto the spear that's also attached to a tree. The boxing kangaroo turns up and then starts to box the tribes pretty brutally. One of the smaller tribes tries to stop that kangaroo by kicking it's patch in which a baby joey pops out and whacks the tribe unconsciously.

We then see some monkeys storing coconuts inside the hippo in which there is a monkey standing onto a swing on top of a tree. The monkey lets out in which he hits the hippo's bottom and the hippo starts firing coconuts at the incoming tribes.They fire one coconut at the incoming tribes in which they all bump into each other and fall off the cliff and into the river. A pelican flies into the scene in which the beak opens with some monkeys inside and they throw it at the Chief and his guards. The Chief then runs off in scardness, but there are some monkeys that then throw arrows at the Chief's behind in which he yelps in pain.

Buddy swings down to the ground and manages to capture the Chief and there is nothing but dust as we see him attacking the Chief. The Chief is then knocked out, in which he still does those irritating Tarzan sounds (Urrgh. I've ran out of shoes). All the animals join in to celebrate their victory with Buddy - and that's all folks.

Ben Hardaway - this is the guy who contributed to Woody Woodpecker, and his name was the influence to Bugs Bunny, and he developed the character's prototype. His first cartoon he directed for Warner Bros. just almost drove me bat-shit crazy. This cartoon was dreadful - there is just such awful animation here, and Buddy looks horribly drawn and animated with all those muscles showing and he's such the wrong character to even act in a Tarzan-parody picture. Yes, this cartoon drove me to the point where I had to eat my show inside a sandwich - and you of course think this is crazy, but these cartoons just get worse and worse and the more I do wild things on the blog. Anyhow, I'm going to have some rest and let's hope the next cartoon will be the great way to end 2011 - shall we find out?