48. Bosko's Woodland Daze (1932)

Warner cartoon no. 47.
Release date: December 17, 1932.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Directed by: Hugh Harman.
Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Johnny Murray (Bosko).
Animation: Isadore "Friz" Freleng and Paul Smith.
Musical Score: Frank Marsales.

The short starts off with Bosko playing the harmonica while Bruno is running around the woods with Bosko. He's playing the harmonica in a rather jolly way, while Bruno is just barking away as normal running like a happy dog. While Bruno is sniffing, Bosko decides to trick him, by shouting "Look Bruno", as he points at what is behind Bruno. Bosko runs off as a prank, by running away from Bruno and hiding under a rake of leaves.

Bruno doesn't spot anything behind Bruno's back, and is worried if Bosko is lost or something. There is suddenly a breeze, in which all of the leaves blow away, so Bosko's identity can be found. The assistant work on the leaves isn't great - just poor inbetweening. Bruno spots Bosko after the leaves have blown away. He then creeps up to Bosko, as he's lying down flat. Bruno bites the vine as he runs away, as Bosko can feel it on his crotch. Boy, it seems that Harman-Ising sure liked that painful gag - and it does very boring and dodgy when you keep on looking at it, but it tickles Bosko.

Bosko then decides on playing hide and seek with Bruno, as he hides behind a tree and starts counting. Bruno then starts to hide inside a tree, but then a woodpecker that resides there starts to peck Bruno, as he yelps outside in pain, as he's being pecked on the head. As he runs off, he lands in a river as the woodpecker floats in the air and flies away.

Bosko then turns around to see what was going on, and finds Bruno in the lake in which he laughs, and shouting that he's found him. Wait a minute, he just interrupted his counting as he heard the noise, didn't he? Bruno rinses himself, as Bosko says it's his turn to be "it". Bruno starts to count, and breaks the fourth wall - telling the audience something that I can't even understand. Bosko starts to run off, by sliding down vines and hides behind a tree. Bruno finishes counting and as he runs to find Bosko he gets distracted by a turtle, and ends up following it.

Much to the impatience of Bosko, he suddenly falls asleep assuming that Bruno hasn't found him yet. (Bruno still follows the turtle, as the turtle bites him on the nose, and walks off). Suddenly, a group of elves start to dance around Bosko while he's fast asleep on a tree. It seems that now Bosko is having a dream of pixies having a plot on him. The gnomes are then carrying a tub of bubbles with foam, and a bubble pipe.

The elves are now blowing a bubble inside Bosko while he is sleeping. The bubble gets so huge that Bosko fits inside there himself. Bosko starts to float, in which the timing of the bubble is done quite well. Suddenly, the petals of a flower start to open with a tiny human woman (who probably resembles Thumbelina) starts to sing a song - with flowers in the background having petals transforming into dresses, with ladies dancing. Bosko is still sleeping in the bubble, and doesn't even notice that he's up floating in the sky.

Bosko then wakes up inside the bubble and wakes up as though he is in paradise or something. Suddenly, Bosko starts to sneeze, and as he sneezes by accident - the bubble bursts, and he starts to fall down. The gnomes then start to rescue him by catching a spider web. Bosko does land on the spider web, but he falls down a gap in which he starts falling, falling, falling...

Bosko continues falling (and shouts "is there a doctor in the audience?") and he lands in the grounds of Hell. In Hell, he lands on a piano, as he's shrunk to small size. He starts to play the piano by using his feet, and he's playing it rather skillfully. All the other elves (you seemed to have arrived at hell, for some reason) all start dancing to Bosko's piano skills - as he continues to play some upbeat music. He even kicks the keyboards by sliding on one side, with all the other keyboards piled up, and kicks them back into it's normal position afterwards.

Suddenly a giant enters the scene (and not the devil - what is this Jack and the Beanstalk?) the giant starts to make a grab for Bosko in his greasy hands, but Bosko slips out of his hands, and is being chased by the scary giant. Bosko then climbs up on top of draws, and lands on the table part as he's sliding in grease. The giant then places him on a bun, and strokes him with a brush of mustard...

 

The brush of mustard that's stroking Bosko's face was actually Bruno licking his face - as it turned out that Bosko was dreaming all along. Bosko wakes up from the dream he had, as Bruno has found him. Although, that it's Bosko's turn to be "it" in hide and seek, he's still glad to be with Bruno again - and that's all folks.

This cartoon is rather strange to be in a reason. The elves sequence was rather strange, as it's sort of a fantasy land. Those flowers in which it shows lady singers were rather creepy looking to me. It's certainly not one of the best material produced by Harman-Ising, either. It was just a mediocre cartoon, much like any other Bosko cartoon. This is the last cartoon produced in 1932, and next we go to 1933 - in which later on it will become a completely different Looney Tunes afterwards.

47. Three's a Crowd (1932)

Warner cartoon no. 46.
Release date: December 12, 1932.
Series: Merrie Melodies.
Directed by: Rudolf Ising.
Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger (associate).
Cast unknown.
Animation: Rollin Hamilton and Larry Martin.
Musical Score: Frank Marsales.

This is the first Warner cartoon in which it evolves book illustrated characters coming to life for the night, as it followed on in shorts like Have You Got Any Castles? (Frank Tashlin, 1938) and Book Revue (Bob Clampett, 1946).

The short starts off with an old man happily sitting in his rocking chair reading a book peacefully by the warm fire at 1.20AM (look at the watch),  but at least for an old person - he likes to stay up. But as the clock strikes at 1.20am  - the man stretches and yawns as he decides that it's time that he ought to go to bed. He brings out his candle holder and places it on a table outside his door, and blows it as he's going to sleep. A settling and calm introduction to start off this short...

 ...but as soon as the old man closes the door for the night, the book that the man was reading: Alice in Wonderland (actually, the book is called Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice in Wonderland is a title you see in films), in which Alice pops out of the book. She jumps out of the book and onto the table in which he is going to turn on the radio to dance to some music. This is probably the ugliest character design of Alice in any animated-adaptation, isn't it? I know that it's presented in it's Harman-Ising form but the design is very ugly and cartoony. Definately not like the Alice you will find in Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland.

Alice tunes onto the radio going through different choices, but none of them suit her picks, but then she dances to the title song, Three's a Crowd. Do I hear some Rudy Vallee in the radio singing? You see some characters from Robinson Crusoe pop up humming to the music. We see that Rip Van Winkle is sleeping in the book titled with the same name, and he is dancing to the music. Perhaps, he's woken up early as he's slept for 700 years in the book.

Alice continues to dance along the books, as she opens up The Three Musketeers - the musketeers step out of the book illustrations and say their famous line "All for one, one for all", which was the motto for The Three Musketeers. The musketeers start humming together to the song as well as Robinson Cruesoe characters, Napoleon and Omar Khayyam. We even see Henry VIII clapping after the song shouting "Whoopee", (book titled Henry VIII which was one of Shakespeare's many plays).

The next sequence we see is the book Antony and Cleopatra (another Shakespeare play), we then see Antony step out of the scene and shouts "Ladies and gentlemen, lend your ears to the old Maestro". We see Emperor Nero (the old Maestro) who is playing the violin, while we can see in the illustration backgrounds of Rome burning.

We then see a Cleopatra sequence with the her doing a dance with the music. I must say I just find the dance very spooky to me and weird movements. The animation is very nice and subtle, but the dance movements just put me off because it just looks really weird. I wonder if Bob McKimson did an uncredited role as he was a great draftsmanship - could he have done this particular scene; if not - Rollin Hamilton??

Alice continues to walk along (as no one seems entertained with the Cleopatra bit) but then Alice opens the book with the title The Specalist of a shack in which a man saws a hole through it. Everyone claps at that part. Alice then wonders to the next book along to open up Uncle's Tom Cabin. Alice quickly turns on the light switch so Uncle Tom can appear at the spotlight. He appears at the light and sings the song Got the South in My Soul which gives the audience of book characters some spirit. 

Everyone is enjoying the book, but as we PAN right, we see the book title of Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in which Mr. Hyde steps out of the book cover looking for some trouble. He's very well designed here for this bit of animation, I mean - at least he looks creepy looking. He creeps out of the bookends and spots Alice dancing - why that's why he plans to capture her to cause a riot. Mr. Hyde then captures her which causes Alice to scream.

I must say that having the book characters casted in this short is just fantastic. Mr. Hyde is just the perfect choice as the villain to steal the girl, as Alice is great for the main role. In fact, it's sort of a skeleton of the Alice in Wonderland story as she wonders through different book - except she's not looking for a White Rabbit, and wanting to turn on a radio. There is no Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, White Rabbit or Queen of Hearts. The story here is very well done, and it's great to see some familiar characters from literature pop up.

As Alice screams for help, Tarzan pops out of his book and screams as Tarzan would scream. He swings down a rope to rescue Alice (so, will that make Alice, Jane in the book - they're both British characters :). Robinson Crusoe and Friday (the tribe) try their duty to rescue Alice and defeat Mr. Hyde by squrting ink out of an fountain pen onto Mr. Hyde's face. The attempt worked, as Alice runs for her life - but Mr. Hyde hasn't finished yet.

Meanwhile, Cleopatra characters start to help out in persecuting Mr. Hyde by holding onto a pipe and burning Mr. Hyde's rear end. Robin Hood helps out by shooting matchsticks with his bow. Now that gag, I just simply love. His bow doesn't just come in handy with arrows, but matchsticks for characters in book illustratrion sized works very well as well. I must say, I think Rudolf Ising was at his best here.

The Three Musketeers then help again by playing pen points onto a pencil sharpener and shoot them at Mr. Hyde, in which he starts to hide inside a small box as a shield from the pen points. Various book characters then hold the box, with the "Death March" music being played at the background. The box is then tossed into the bin with all the celebration going on from the characters - and that's all folks. If only the man didn't own Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde there wouldn't be any trouble.

Great cartoon. Just a great cartoon. It's very creative and I think it was the best cartoon made by Harman-Ising at that point. The story was very creative, and the choices of characters was well-thought. It was certainly better than the other cartoons they were producing in terms of story and character development. There isn't even a reused gag in there, which makes the cartoon even more rich itself. Even though, I complained about the character design of Alice and the dance movements for Cleopatra, but that's separate - that's animation standard. The animation quality is still the same as the other Harman-Ising - I'm afraid. But the way the animation looks doesn't matter, the story really does and the characters too. I think it was Harman-Ising's most creative and inventive work at their time at Warner Bros. You have to agree, the short inspired guys in a new generation to make more of those cartoons like Book Revue and Have You Got Any Castles.

46. Bosko's Dizzy Date (1932)

Here is a review in which was a remake of Bosko and Honey which was supposed to have been released earlier in 1932, but had to be reworked due to so many reuses in it. Bosko's Dizzy Date is the remake and improved version, and if I did review Bosko and Honey it would be reviewing the same thing.

Warner cartoon no. 45.

Release date: November 19, 1932.

Series: Looney Tunes.

Directed by: Hugh Harman.

Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger (associate).

Starring: Johnny Murray (Bosko, Wilbur).

Animation: Rollin Hamilton and Bob McKimson.

Musical Score: Frank Marsales.

The short starts off with Honey and Wilbur having a violin lesson in the learning room. Wilbur is trying to learn to play In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree while Honey is trying to teach him. After a few muck ups, Honey keeps interrupting everytime he goes sloppy and to start at square one. After a couple of attempts on going back to square one, nothing gets better - as Honey gets even more impatient towards Wilbur. Wilbur gets fed up with his violin lessons and shouts "I wanna play cowboy!", but Honey keeps on asking him to try again. After he tries again, she gets fed up and goes over to the phone to ring Bosko.

The phone is ringing, but Bosko is fast asleep but Bruno enters the scene trying to wake up Bosko by licking his face, but Bosko replies "Go away Bruno!", as he turns to the other side of his bed. Instead, Bruno runs to the telephone that's really desperate to be picked up. Bruno picks up the phone and barks. Honey recognizes that it's Bruno on the phone, and asks to put Bosko on.

Bruno drags Bosko out of bed and continues to bark, in which Bosko walks to the phone as Bruno leads him. Bosko picks up the phone groaning in a gruff voice "Hello", but as Honey answers "Come on over, Bosko", in which Bosko turns enthusiastic and replies - "Ok Honey". As Honey hangs up and returns to the learning room, she finds Wilbur standing on the piano keyboards playing some upbeat music on the piano. She claps her hands to Wilbur warning him to stop. Wilbur jumps off the piano and slides down as he continues his rather annoying violin lesson.

Bosko is cycling on his way to Honey's house as Bruno runs and follows him. Bosko does a trick while cycling as he jumps through Bosko's arms as he grabs them together like a loop. Without looking, Bosko bumps into a pipe, but as they exit the tunnel, Bruno is riding his bike as Bosko is running like a dog barking. Now that's funny as they are changing roles. As soon as they bump onto another pipe, Bruno is a dog again and Bosko is on his bicycle again. 

Bosko continues to ride but as soon as he gets onto a treadmill, the treadmill rides backwards as Bruno is running inside it like a hamster, and Bosko can't control himself to go forward. The treadmill lands on a gap where there is a river, so it stops and Bosko continues to run as Bruno catches up. Bosko then brakes with his bike, but bumps onto a gate which sends him flying into Honey's house.

Bosko pulls out a saxophone as Honey can hear the sound from upstairs. She steps out at her balcony and finds out that it's Bosko. There is now a dance on the balcony scene in which they start to sing the song, (We've Got to) Put that Sun Back in the Sky, but Wilbur doesn't appreciate their music talents. Bosko starts to do some step-dancing on the wooden walkaway. It seems amazing on how every new dance for Bosko in a new cartoon is sort of new each time. 

Wilbur continues to imitate Bosko and Honey (but he always has a special dislike for Bosko), so he grabs a bathtub full of suds, with the soapy water landing on Bosko. He thinks he is swimming after the water lands on him. Another one those shenanigans caused by Wilbur, but at least it wasn't as brutal like putting barbed-wire on his crutch.

They both are on the bicycle with Bosko cycling and Honey sitting on the steers. Bosko suddenly rides on an area with lots of bumpy stones which nearly makes the bicycle trip. As soon as the bumpy stones are gone, they continue to sing but then there is a bumpy rock that sends Honey flying but Bosko pedals faster for Honey to land safer on the bicycle. She tells him to be careful next time. They continue to sing and Bruno follows holding a picnic basket.

They end up riding in a farm: at first they ride inside a hen house with a hen running out of the scene. They still continue to ride totally unaware of the farm they are trespassing. They crash inside a barn, in which Honey is riding a bull (see, no udder), but then she falls off the bull.

Bosko steps out of the barn laughing at Honey because of the joke he pulled on her. She personally didn't take it as a funny joke and is rather insulted. Bosko laughs, "That sure was funny", with Honey's reply "Oh yeah??" She scowls at Bosko and turns her back on him. Bosko just whistles in innocence. You'll notice in the background that the clouds are getting darker, until lightning strikes. The lightning frightens them in which they start to scram.

It's good to see that Hugh Harman added some new animation into it like the farm scene for instance. Originally the sequence was just re-used animation sequence from Bosko's Holiday in which he eats the sandwich, and Honey scolds at him with the exact same animation.

Bosko and Honey run away from the storm, as there are thunderbolts striking as well. Bruno runs as well - and as a sign of cowardness; he hides at a rabbit hole with his bottom sticking out. Suddenly a thunder bolt strikes at his bot in which Bruno yelps in pain and Bosko & Honey don't return to save Bruno. Instead, they hide under an archway. He sings that no more water will pour on him, but a pipe right on top of him has water flowing out soaking Bosko completely. Well, the jokes on him when Honey replies "You're all wet, Bosko" - and that's all folks.

Comparing this cartoon to Bosko and Honey this cartoon was a real improvement to what Harman-Ising made before. In Bosko and Honey about 50% of the animation was reused that even Warner Bros. were aware of that and they wouldn't accept it. The animation in that was mostly reused from Bosko's Holiday and much of the animation in Bosko's Dizzy Date was actually the original animation from Bosko and Honey. I liked Bosko's Dizzy Date, I think there wasn't much animation - but to me I feel that the cartoon went on an expensive budget due to the new limited animation and the details in the background and characters - and the fact with new animation in it. But, I guess it would make it even cheaper that they recycled most of the animation from Bosko and Honey as it was being reworked - but this version is better, even though both shorts were exactly the same but with some slight changes.

45. A Great Big Bunch of You (1932)

Warner cartoon no. 44.
Release date: November 12, 1932.
Series: Merrie Melodies.
Directed by: Rudolf Ising.
Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger (associate).
Cast unknown.
Animation: Rollin Hamilton and Thomas McKimson. 
Musical Score: Frank Marsales.

The short starts off with an old timer sleeping in his cart full of junk, and he's riding a mule. The recurring gag, is that everytime one of the wheels bumps onto a rock, the hats all fly up and land back into it's same position. If you look very closely at the cart, you can see a manneguin sleeping in it. As soon as the cart stops at the edge of the "City Dump", all the junk fall down in the junkyard, with the manneguin landing on one of the legs. Is it me or does is the character meant to resemble Charlie Chaplin in his "Tramp" pictures, as it has the mustache and all?

As a cuckoo clock lands in the junkyard, and cuckoos at the dummy,  he sees a broken organ with no piano strings on it. He spots one, and attaches it onto the piano. Before that, he strucked a few notes on the keyboards but no piano sounds except sounds like clams opening and closing their mouths. He starts to play some music and then the dummy sings the title song. I must say that the title song is quite good actually, and I imagine it created a beat for the audience after the cartoon finished. Very catchy here.

A very good gag that evolves are a pair of shoes that dance, with the tongues of the shoes sticking out like actual tongues. Of course, it's more of a visual gag as you get tongues of the shoes in which you pull to make your shoe fit, and there's tongues in which the shoes stick out like what humans and animals do.

 

The mannequin then starts to dance and that he moves with his stilts rolling around. He then comes up to a hatstand and does a Maurice Chevalier impression at the hat stand - I guess that he does it to a hatstand because they both similar brands. All inanimate objects come to life as they clap as they think his impression was good. Now the mannequin does an impression of Ted Lewis and playing on a clarinet with a top hat on.

I've noticed that the mannequin's stilts are kind of curvy, since it's made of fun. But if he's leaning with just straight legs, then it would just fall to the ground on a side. I suppose we need to break the rules a bit and show some realism with the walking, even though we can't be so sure on how a mannequin walks.

We then go to a next bit of entertainment, with a grandfather clock (with the beard, too) starts his part with a dance, as he dances to the oven with a duck (skeleton-like) quacks and then the oven door closes. The grandfather dances with a group of alarm clocks, as they huddle together and start a merry-go-round by one of them holding on to a pendulum, but there wasn't five pendulums in there though?

There is now a dance routine going on with three Napoleon-looking soldiers who march down the junkyard, they shoot beer bottles with bullets. The soldiers then go to a portrait painting of a man on his rowing boat in the Arctic. The soldiers shoot at the boat, in which the portrait becomes animated as it sinks. The flag is only visible above the water, but then the captain and sailors come up with the drums as peace treaty.

 The mannequin then stands on a carpet, in which it turns into a magic carpet. The magic carpet arrives with a band that starts to play music as the mannequin starts to conduct the music with other mannequins. The grandfather plays the drums with it's pendulum, while another mannequin plays drums with a barrel and cutlery as cymbals. He also plays with the shower spray as heart strings, a gag reused from Sinkin' in the Bathtub.

A group of manneguin ladies start to sing the title song chorus, which is rather upbeat and fun to listen to. The same manneguin playing the drums also hits an owl that makes beat sounds. Two pairs of hatstands then come to life by dancing, holding onto canes and dancing the exact same movements at the exact same time. One of them kicks the other handstand in the booty.

 

The main mannequin character who was conducting the music with his band, when grabs an old vacuum cleaner, in which he plays it as bagpipes - but there is hardly any bagpipe sounds. An inanimate motor mechanical has it's engine nearly exploding. As the tramp continues to play on the piano, the motor mechinal parts fall on top of the mannequin, in which he pops up shouting "Is everybody happy?" (a Ted Lewis impression) - and that's all folks.

I'd say that this cartoon is acceptable as a Warner Bros. cartoon. The music is very upbeat and the song is very catchy to listen to - catchy in a positive way. It's a very ironic idea to have a main character as a mannequin (even though much of the time he doesn't look like one), but at least the junkyard looks like a very exciting place for music. It's very good to see that there are at least that there are hardly any animal characters in there, as there usually is. Typical cartoon or not, this cartoon was good enough for me to enjoy.

44. Bosko the Drawback (1932)

 Sorry folks, that I didn't post anything yesterday, I was busy yesterday by spending my entire evening watching a 3-hour performance of Les Miserables, and then at a Thai restaurant. I had no time to review, but I have some time now. Here is the Bosko the Drawback review.

Warner cartoon no. 43.
Release date: October 22, 1932.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Directed by: Hugh Harman.
Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Johnny Murray (Bosko).
Animation: Isadore "Friz" Freleng and Bob McKimson.
Musical Score: Frank Marsales.

The short starts off with a band marching and playing in the football stadium. It appears to be one of them high school football games, that happened on Freddy the Freshman. As the band leader is marching, the tuba blows the fur off his hat which reveals a bird cage. It's a funny gag, but I wonder where the bird bit came from. But again, it's shaped like a birdcage. Everyone is entering the stadium, and there is this dog who is hole-punching tickets with his round tooth. I wonder if that gag had any influence on Disney in 1933's Father Noah's Ark. There is a nice shot of the football stadium from a helicopter view, in which the Colosseum-shaped stadium looks rather empty, but then we see blobs that get bigger and bigger with a crowded stadium.

The band continues to march down the field, and there is even a part where there are these two dogs banging their drums, and they have cymbals on one side of their leg, and they shake their booties together to make a clash on their cymbals. There is also a tall caterpillar who has four snare drums strapped up that he plays, with his six arms.   

We fade in to find Bosko being given a massage from one of the American football players. Bosko seems quite relaxed with his massage (even though it looks painful), but then the person massaging him stretches his stomach and rolls it, which doesn't seem very relaxing at all, especially when he pulls Bosko's leg to a 90 degree angle, and then back down. The person massaging him, then moves his head sideways, in which Bosko's concern, asks "Be careful now!", and person massaging him tells him to relax, but instead almost cracks his neck, which could have caused him to be paralyzed or killed.

As we fade back to the marching band, we see this ostrich who looks like the referee, who looks at the audience asking, "Are you listenin'" Since I'm not aware of 1930's American entertainment culture, I don't understand the line - unless it's a line from a celebrity. According to Toonzone, it's a parody line of Ben Bennie. There is even a dog barking and cheering, with the fleas jumping and cheering.

As soon as the whistle blows, Bosko hears the sound as he gets ready and the painful massages are over. He jumps into his American football gear. He calls for is players to come out, as they rush out for a game of football (American football to them). As the game is about to begin, the man shoots with his pistol, but an egg comes out, which hatches with a bird blowing the whistle, and the football game begins.

I'm sorry, but I'm really not used to describing this game as "football" at all. Football is more popular term of "soccer" to what Americans or other countries say. The way American football is played, we mainly call it rugby - which is similar to American football but different rules. As I've said before, I know almost nothing on American football so I could get support on the rules of the games and the positions. All I know is that it's a very serious game in high schools.

The game begins with the football being shot directly at the camera (which was reused from Freddy the Freshman). All those heavyweight players are charging rightly at the camera (point of view - of the ball). Bosko, who appears to be in the "drawback position" of the team makes a grab for the ball, but the speed of the ball is so intense, that Bosko starts flying as he lacks weight himself.

Bosko gets help from his dog friend who forms a "V" shape to block all the other players trying to land on Bosko while he's trying to score. Suddenly, all the players collide together on top of Bosko, and the ball is no longer on Bosko's hands.

There is a journalist in the "press box" section who is typing like crazy, as if he has to get the whole details on what is going on and fully focus on the game. In fact, he types so crazily that he nearly beats up his typewriter, and the typewriter punches the journalist back. There is a kangaroo in the audience that shouts "Rah, rah rah" and even an old timer in the field. The old timer spins really fast as soon as the ball hits him, he spins by holding onto his crutches - a fine gag indeed.

There are shots that involve a vulture that flies around the American flag, as if that the vulture is waiting for the next injury or carcass. As Bosko kicks the ball to the same tall caterpillar, in which he starts to make a run. The tacklers tackle each part of the body from the centipede, in which is quite a good gag, as afterwards he doesn't even look like a caterpillar.The fans in the stadium create an image in which it forms a head shouting "Rah, rah, rah, etc." and then blows a raspberry at the centipede who stunk at his performance at the stadium.

We finally return to Bosko who is running on the pitch (as it seems a while that we haven't seen him), but then a rather tough, menacing-looking player runs directly at Bosko, with Bosko calling the player the "Hunchback of Notre Dame (??)", is he meant to look like Quasimodo with the lump or something?? Bosko continues to run down the pitch, until he makes a "hat-take" when a title card pops up the screen reading The Four Horsemen in which four sets of horses run down the pitch "neighing".

Bosko starts to run away from the four horsemen and "Quasimodo (?)", in which he ends in stretching on a dachshund that bounces him away, and he lands on signs every time that read "45, 40, 35" going down by 5, which are markers that marks how many metres the pitch is. Bosko then trips on a rock that causes him to go weary and he scores the goal and gets a touchdown. Everyone cheers. The recurring gag all along was not actually a vulture but a bird that lays an "egg" on the perch with baby birds born. Bosko cheers for his touchdown - and that's all folks.

I didn't particularly like that cartoon much, because it just stole too much on Freddy the Freshman (another cartoon I disliked), the whole concept of this short was based on Freddy the Freshman as it was related to American football, but not on high school. I guess that Harman-Ising felt that they could reuse their story as it was their own cartoon anyway. Of course, the cartoons were just meant to be entertaining, and no-one was meant to make a big deal about the reusing, except me. But, I admit there was some highlight as there were some new gags added there - but I have no idea what the "Hunchback of Notre Dame" name came from, is it the lump on the player or something?

43. I Wish I Had Wings (1932)

Warner cartoon no: 42.

Release date: October 15, 1932.

Series: Merrie Melodies.

Director: Rudolf Ising.

Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger (associate).

Cast unknown.

Animation: Rollin Hamilton and Paul Smith.

Musical Score: Frank Marsales.

The short starts off with a chicken inside a house in which it sleeps. The darkness of the room lightens as it's morning. I really like that effect that was created by Harman-Ising with the darkness of the room that lightens, it's a good achievement that they did - even though I bet other studios used that technique before. The chicken wakes up, as it crows for the new day. The chicken clenches his stomach while about to crow as a wake-up call. After a couple of attempts to wake up the sleeping chickens, it doesn't work. The chicken suddenly squawks in which all the chickens happen to wake up, and scram around the henhouse.

As the chickens have woken up, the angry rooster pulls off the perches of the sleeping ducks, and then orders them to do some type of assembly-dance that was reused from Hold Anything. There appears to be a shot of a chicken that's rather fat in which dozens of chicks run out from under the hen in which the hen gets thinner. Was that hen pregnant or something - don't they lay eggs though?

Meanwhile outside, there is a chicken with a stethoscope on, it seems to be that he's listening out for some worms (question is, how can you listen for worms?), so the chicken drills to the ground to find a worm, in which a bunch of baby chicks beg for the worm. The chicken places the worm in the meat grinder to make it fair for everybody in which every chick gets a worm.

There is a rather repeated chase sequence with one of the birds as a worm tries to get away, which is one of those chase sequences reused from Ain't Nature Grand? Practically, it's just all reuses, with that little worm escaping in that hole. Looks like Rudy Ising went too big on a budget there, and it was too short. Orders were probably, reuse something!

Meanwhile there is a hen that appears to be knitting while sitting down laying her eggs. Knitting? Well, it gives it some personality - so it's fine. The hen looks under to see if the eggs have hatched, and she's sitting on a hot water bottle to heat up the eggs quickly. Now that is a good gag, which explains the character's personality of her impatience with the egg hatching. Meanwhile, the father rooster enters the scene and notices that the hen was knitting. He demands that she hands in the jumper to see what it's like. As he sees the jumper, it looks great for the juniors and shouts "Whoopee!"

He runs out the hut to bring in the doctor to see if the eggs will be hatching, the doctor comes along who seems to look like a stork. The rooster waits outside the hut walking up and down worrying if his wife is alright. The stork arrives outside with a basket full of chicks, with the rooster's initial response "is it a boy?" A group of chicks jump out of the basket, with another chick with no wings that shouts in a Mickey Mouse voice "Hi pop!"

The chicks all hurry in a pile to a feeding trough, in which there is no room for the black chick, who is a mongrel to all the other ones that were hatched. He is rather upset that he can't find any food to eat, but at least he finds some leftover corn to eat. As he rubs his hands for the corn, all the chicks reach to eat the corn before he gets it. Well, rubbing hands is unfortunate timing. 

The bird continues to walk on rather sad, and also singing the title song I Wish I Had Wings, in which he wishes that he could fly and find some food he can eat instead of being trapped in a farm. He notices some corn hanging at the top of the poles, with birds "with wings" chirping. The bird then cries that he's hungry with nothing to eat, and wants to eat something outside but how's he gonna do it? As he hasn't got any wings, instead he's got arms.

The bird lands on a corset in which these chicks sing the title song in a chorus. The bird flies up in the corset, and lands on the chicken wire. The chick walks on to find a pair of underwear handing on a clothesline. He is now declared free as there is food surrounded for him to eat (not foods all over like buns, burgers, meat, etc.), but food like peas in a pod, in which he uses to swallow them one at a time down his mouth, with some good timing on the animation.

Meanwhile, a rather faceless scarecrow comes to life for some apparent reason. It's rather odd that scarecrows come to life, but that's alright. What really bugs me is that very gruff voice that he produces like "Shoo! Boo!", I know that it's meant to sound scary - but can the directors try something not too corny? There is then a chase sequence going with the bird and the scarecrow. The chick then hides on a wishing well, in which he pulls a rope in which the handle spins that hits the scarecrow in the face. He then goes flying and ends up rather dreary. The chick then grabs a lighter in which the scarecrow gets flamed immediately, that causes him to run off to the scene - and that's all folks.

This cartoon was a very bland cartoon, it was just a typical Harman-Ising cartoons in which the results usually are always the same. The storylines are just the same except it's a different setting. Although there were some interesting gags, but again there were some bad gags. The reuses didn't seem too much, but there was a sequence of reuses. It was just a cartoon that was very uninteresting and much of those Merrie Melodies were uninteresting cartoons. Hopefully, the next cartoon which will be a Bosko cartoon will be even better.