71. Sittin' On a Backyard Fence (1933)

 

Warner cartoon no. 70.

Release date: December 16, 1933.

Series: Merrie Melodies.

Supervision: Earl Duval.

Producer: Leon Schlesinger.

Cast unknown.

Animation: Jack King and Don Williams.

Musical Score: Norman Spencer.

It's been a while since I reviewed a Merrie Melodie (well, last week) but this is the last review of 1933, and as Sittin' on a Backyard Fence was released on December 16, 1933 - it turned 78 years only yesterday. Pretty spooky, huh?

 The short begins with a couple of inanimate objects that are sleeping, such as a clock that is snoring, a telephone that is also snoring but the line is off of course. We then see a shot of books that causes the pages to flicker, and then we pan to see a glass with false teeth inside that snores too. We see these good gags of inanimate objects snoring that is good, but also bizarre.A man is snoring loudly in his bed, with his dungarees waving from the snoring air - fine gag, but used many times. So, as the man is fast asleep, a female feline sits on the window sill, and finds another cat sitting on a backyard fence, and they meow to each other. The female cat then jumps to the backyard fence where they both sing.

A bunch of cats then follow her, and from what I've noticed the designs of the cats now seem to have a cartoon style to it, as it was blandness designs by Tom Palmer. Again, this is why I feel Earl Duval was showing promise as a director, he's giving his characters some design and drawing style - he seems to be actually trying. The cats then walk through the fence and it looks like they are walking through some type of X-ray moon where we can see the inside of their bodies. At the bottom of the fence, we see these posters of a bull and cows, and it seems the bull is flirting with the female cows in the other posters but they sing the title song Sittin' on a Backyard Fence, which I find a little strange and so far this cartoon is crazy.

We see a dance routine that is being performed by a long pair of underwear which just spooks me because they remind me of ghosts dancing or something paranormal. They also do some aerobics on a laundry wire up in the apartments. The cats themselves get dancing as well, with some old barrels, brooms, etc. and turn it into a type of swing band. More singing is coming from the backyard fence (more of meowing) from the male and female felines, and it seems that the female cat is trying to snuggle up with the male cat playing a weird type of string instrument.

Meanwhile, there appears to be some type of homeless cat that is licking Kat nip that is lying on the dirty grounds, and then he puts on a record player on with a cassette inside, and I don't know what the cat is doing but it looks like as though he's trying to do an impression of a celebrity that I don't even know, and the reference is too dated for me to know on my own. The cat with the eye-patch does it to the female feline on a backyard fence was was engaged to the male, but instead she jumps off and dances with the eye-patched cat. Due to jealousy, the male cat jumps off the fence and wants to seek revenge on the cat. 

The female cat turns out to be a two-timer when dancing off with another cat, and is more interested. There are these quartet of cats that tap their tails to the rhythm. During the song, and they sing a verse where it mentions "tic tac toe", and we see these cats using their tails on a bucket of paint and paint on a wall while playing tic tac toe. As one of the cats gets his "o's" in a diagonal line, and wins the game - the cat blows a raspberry at him which I really like that comeback. As the new cat couple are dancing, the other cat uses a bin opener and opens it with a brick flying into the cat's face.

After that, the cats then start to chase each other (I'm starting to find the plot is sort of similar to Springtime for Thomas a Tom & Jerry cartoon made 13 years later). However, the chase sequence to begin with is pretty slow and unentertaining, as they tend to skid and run through fences, but it gradually gets exciting as they jump onto mirrors. But one of the cats seem to run around a power pole, in which we see these early use of speed lines which isn't achieved yet.

Both of the cats then climb on top of the telephone power pole, in which they start chasing one another, and sort of a puss fight on top of the wires (lucky that they aren't electrocuted). This riot turns out to be nail-biting for the female who is very worried about them. While they are fighting, a rolling pin coming out of an apartment window flies out, and their tails are caught on the rolling pin in which they get a ride through the wires, and they keep on bumping at every edge. They both continue fighting with each other, until they are covered in tins and pots, and they look like some type of robots to me. I don't particularly like the fighting stuff because their characteristics are just like real cats, and they are being attacked which doesn't work to me, while in a "Tom & Jerry" cartoon where you see Tom in pain, it is shown in a way to amuse people. 

They are then being chased by a type of bulldog, and the female cat catches them from up in a telephone pole looking rather curious on what's going on. They run to a fence, where they open the door with the bulldog running past it. They block the door, and the bulldog comes out of a narrow part that is missing a plank of wood, and the bulldog then beats up the cats. After the bulldog walks past, the door opens with the female cat who seems to be engaged to another striped cat but it looks an awful lot like a tiger, it is revealed that they made babies (had sex so quickly?) and there are kittens that comes out. One of the kittens blows a raspberry at the cats. The two cats then look at each other, shake hands, faint and that's all folks.

There is then a scary looking cat who says "So long, folks" to us audience - but truth is that back in 1933-1934, each character who played a role in a one-shot Merrie Melodies got a chance to say "so long folks", but that cat is so freaking creepy. 

Well, I thought that this cartoon was particularly strange and bizarre. Of course, it's interesting to find out what cats are up to when the adults and owners are asleep. There is certainly a plot going on - while the other cartoons in that era had really no plot. It's definitely more coherent that watching I've Got to Sing a Torch Song. The whole cartoon was just bizarre to me, but I guess that Duval was experimenting. The animation was in fact quite good, and there certainly was character personality gone on here, such as jealousy. 

If Earl Duval stayed longer, then he would've probably been the guy who starting kicking things up, and showing potential, but don't forget if he stayed longer, the Looney Tunes would've probably been very different if there was no Tex Avery or Bob Clampett around. But for what the Looney Tunes used to be, the cartoons would've hopefully improved with Duval stayed longer but it would be completely different to what we know. This was Earl Duval's first Merrie Melody and the final year in 1933 - it was a pretty poor end, as Harman-Ising did turn in some fine cartoons (a few fine) but as Leon Schlesinger took over with a completely new staff - it just weakened.

70. Buddy's Showboat (1933)

Warner cartoon no. 69.
Release date: December 12, 1933.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Director: Earl Duval.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Jack Carr (Buddy) (?).
Animation: Jack King and James Pabian.
Musical Score: Bernard Brown.

The short begins with Buddy's show boat sailing through the river, and Buddy is playing around with some whistles. The atmosphere is rather jolly, the sound effects sounds like some ice cream van driving and attracting kids. As Buddy is blowing the whistle, the whistle doesn't make anymore sounds, and appears to be blocked, so Buddy grabs out a hanker-chief and blows the whistle's nose. After that, Buddy continues to happily play music through the whistle.

The next shot shows these group of black stokers and fireman dumping coal into the steam engine, and it is stereotyped here. The designs here are stereotyped, and this was censored from television but there is an uncensored version - I do not own it. They are singing a different musical number called Swanee Smiles while dumping coal into the engine. Notice how the engine has teeth? We then see these two men that are sleeping and holding out a fishing rod, and there are these two dachshunds walking on a rudder with sausages attached to the rod - alright, that was rather random, what's the joke?

Cookie is inside cutting off potato skins off potatoes, and is happy at the job. The tough guy (who we have seen in Buddy's Beer Garden) is using his knife to chip his toenails, and spits then into the river with a fish spitting water at the tough guy - that showed him. So, the tough guy is now a continuous character in the Buddy series? He has been used again. We then see some interesting animation of the tugboats that have faces on them - did this inspire anything on Little Toot ;-).

The show boat docks at a pier, with an inanimate sleepy anchor coming to life and dives into the water, with the anchor sleeping underwater. Meanwhile, there is a parade that is going on in town. We see a parade of soldiers, we see these type of jokers that are doing some type of aerobics with the snare drum and one of whom is reading some type of comic called "Fooly". Even a lady wearing a dress and his playing the saxophone, her dress falls down and it's revealed that she is riding a tricycle, with her girdle showing, and an entertaining gag. Then, we see a donkey and a rider with a huge drum, and ending with a parade of walking birds.

After the parade, Buddy is at a ticket liner selling tickets for people to enter his show boat for a popular show that features his girlfriend, "Mlle. Cookie, Capt. Buddy's Show Boat Star". Cookie is in her dressing room putting on some perfume, and blows a kiss to Buddy on a poster. The next room we pan through is the tough guy in the dressing room that blows a kiss to Cookie on the poster, which means he has a plan already. Buddy goes to the phone on the ship, and rings Cookie in her dressing room. Buddy picks up the phone with "Hello, sweetheart" and kisses the phone box, in which it signals through to Cookie's phone with kisses on her lips, Cookie does the same. That is a nice gag that works well.

The tough guy is standing behind Buddy, and as Buddy is finished with the phone call and walks out happily - the brute has his chance to try and impress Buddy. As his kiss has signaled to Cookie, Cookie signals back with a fist coming out of the phone and punches the brute in the face. Now that is just a classic gag - and that makes me think that Earl Duval had potential as a director.

After that incident on the phone, the show finally begins as there is a swirl that goes right to the camera, and to the umbrella shot of Cookie and Buddy. I really like that early swirl that was created, and something really unexpected of the Schlesinger shorts back then - and that's why I feel Earl Duval did show promise of great cartoons (even if it wasn't yet to be achieved). Anyhow, both Buddy and Cookie perform a duet dance sequence to themselves, where they are singing Under my Umbrella. Huh, Rihanna - did you get influence at all by this ;-) - only joking. We then see these can-can dancers in the background that look like ghosts - and alright, the animation of them isn't very good, and very discolored. Wait a minute? Singing and dancing; Buddy and Cookie? Looks like Bob Clampett was right about Buddy being a "Bosko in white face".

The next act in which Buddy introduces is some type of tribe that does an impression of Maurice Chevalier, and I can't make out the words that he is singing but it appears to be that he must be reciting some song or poem. The animation of the Chevalier animation is done pretty accurately, but I doubt it is McKimson as he probably hadn't returned from his brief stint at Harman-Ising. We then see the shot of a kangaroo playing the piano, with a baby joey under it's patch playing some piano, too. I don't know where the kangaroo part came from. The beginning shots of Buddy introducing the black tribe was censored.

Cookie is standing behind the curtains looking at what is going on, and she is dancing softly to the music. The brute is standing behind her, and uses a crook to capture Cookie, and oh boy - we are back at the "brute chases girlfriend" routine again, and don't worry - you'll be expecting it. Buddy enters the scenery on his boat and shouts "Stop! Unhand her!", but his response is a fist being smacked into his face, and his whole body ends up spinning onto the steering wheel. But Buddy flies, and hits the tough guy's stomach in which he lands onto something electrical that burns his bottom and yells in pain.

 

 The next trip that Buddy uses is a wooden lifeboat, and crashes it on to the tough guy, in which he crashes open a cage where a seal lived. The seal then chases it after it, and grabs it by doing tricks on the brute by using it's nose. The seal tosses the brute down a hole, in which Buddy uses a hook to grab the brute, and place it on the rudder where he is in pain. Buddy and Cookie are happy again, with the seal bowing to the audience - and that's all folks.

Well, this cartoon was a point for me that Earl Duval was showing real promise and potential that he could become a great director, and the first pictures may have not been excellent, but when you watch it you can tell he showed promise. There were some fun gags here, and the animation wasn't half bad, but he did of course needed to work on the characters more, as they had no character personalities. Larry Tremblay had the uncensored print in his YouTube account, and used them for the review and screen grabs, and thanks to him for posting the uncensored print.

69. Buddy's Beer Garden (1933)

Warner cartoon no. 68.
Release date: November 18, 1933.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Director: Earl Duval.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Cast: Jack Carr (Buddy) (?).
Animation: Jack King and Frank Tashlin.
Musical Score: Norman Spencer.

Tom Palmer has been kicked out of the Studios due to his poor cartoons, and ex-Disney employee Earl Duval takes over the cartoons for a short period of time. Buddy has an even better look, but I feel that Tom Palmer must've started early production work on that cartoon, but was fired right at the start, with Earl Duval taking over production. Interesting to find Frank Tashlin animating in this cartoon, as he would later become a great director for Warner Bros. and even a live-action film director for Jerry Lewis.

The cartoon begins with as we see the entrance to Buddy's Beer Garden (also the title name), and they are all swining their mugs singing, and Buddy walks into the scene singing the song 'Auf Wiederseh'n (We'll Meet Again)') and the patrons at the beginning were singing 'Ach, Du Lieber Augustine'. Buddy is holding onto a tray with two glasses of beer with his dachshund walking with him carrying pretzels on his tail (is that meant to be Happy)? Buddy drops the glases of beer onto the table - with the beer flying right on the glasses. He then pulls the table cloth off in which the beer doesn't tip, shaves the cloth and swishes it back in there. It seems that Buddy must have skills to do something like that. Buddy then walks back singing.

Notice that Buddy has changed through his original Tom Palmer design, he looks even better than the Palmer one - when it was extremely bland and unappealing. Here, the version designed by Earl Duval; Buddy looks more appealing, and has a style look - although the character animation still seems to have Palmer influence (where the humans look very rubbery and comic-strip like, I wonder if Tom had any involvement in that cartoon, and started off production but was fired with Earl Duval taking over.

We see some German band members playing some music (with notes attached to a trombone - and a flute player moving its head to follow the notes). There is a tuba player playing, and then a clarinet player pops out of the tuba playing it's part. We then see a bartender, who is pulling different beer taps on different mugs, and as he places them on the table, there is a trombone player who moves the fotolia of the trombone in which the beer glasses slide down the left side of the table. Buddy is putting some foam on the beer as the beers come by, and it's sort done like in an assembly line. Cookie is making pretzels while the dog salts them with his tail, with all the pretzels coming to life and all jump onto the dog's tail.

We see another shot of these tongue sandwiches with actual tongues sticking out, and these inanimate mustards come to the tongue sandwich and sit. The tongues then lick on the mustard - lovely. From what I've seen in these shots and the looks, the setting looks as though this was set in Germany, with the band playing members, and the bartender - but I know that beer gardens were originally from Germany.

Meanwhile, there is a thug who is banging loudly on his table "Where's my beer?!", and then a small waiter runs into the scene with a huge glass of beer for him. The tough guy grabs the waiter, and guzzles the entire beer in one gulp. I believe that Frank Tashlin animated on all the scenes that showed the tough guy. At least there is some character in that scene.

More singing is coming from the patrons who are having a good time at the beer garden. We then see an entertaining gag that was from a patron who blew the foam off his beer mug, and the foam gets stuck on a bald man's head, in which he starts to comb his hair. Another shot features a guy who takes off the spaghetti off his plate and plays them like a harp. These two beer mug faces come to life and they kiss each other - which is just extremely odd to me in my opinion. Buddy then plays some music by playing on the beer lids, that makes it sound like some xylophone sound he's playing.

Cookie is working as a waitress for Buddy's beer garden, and she seems to be doing other jobs such as acting as a cigar lady, who is asking for any guys for some cigars. As she is walking, the tough guy from earlier asks what's her name, with her reply saying she's called Cookie. He replies that it is a sweet name, and he tosses a coin to Cookie, and takes a cigar and puffs. Did you see that? I actually thought that he was going to try and steal her (just like in Bosko cartoons), but instead he acts like a gentleman.

More music is being played from the band, but the genre of music changes when a guy coming out of the tuba plays the maracas. Cookie enters the spotlight in the middle of the beer garden and performs a sexy dance to the guys. Personally, I don't think it's very erotic, since she isn't quite as attractive, but her design hasn't changed, but her animation is better. Other creatures come to life and enjoy the entertainment, such as a goat in a poster that shows it's horns, the dachshund (Happy?) bouncing pretzels and even a piano that is dancing - which I meant is a good cartoon piano. Even the tough guy is intrigued with the music, and copies the movements of Cookie, which makes him look like an idiot.

Buddy continues to do his job working as a waiter, and playing around with the beer inside the bottles, and performing tricks, such as these barrels that are whistling to "Hi Lee Hi Lo". We then see a random shot of the tough guy who is chewing on these olives and spits them into a spittoon, with the last olive hitting the drum before landing on the spittoon. Buddy is busy with chopping some knives such as baloney and bread, and stacks them neatly together into a sandwich.

Buddy walks out with a tray of sandwiches balanced on his head, and is carrying two bottles of beer. He lowers his head, and the tray slides down his bottom and onto the gentleman's table, in which he gets a coin in return. While walking along, there are these two mugs come to life, and call each other "mugs", which is meant to be a joke. As Buddy is walking, another man walks past and the tray of mugs is swapped to his head, which surprises Buddy. The animation of the mugs speaking to each other was gone very well, and some neat timing on Buddy here, the hookah players.

Buddy enters the scene, and shares his spotlight, and announces: "Hold it folks, a big surprise. This will open up your eyes, introducing someone grand - give the girl a great big hand!" The audience clap, and Buddy runs out. We see a model of Mae West who is walking past (drawn with huge breasts and a huge bum, obviously a caricature), she is singing the song: I Love my Big Time, Slow Time Baseball Man the voice of West isn't very good, and completely out of tune. The tough guy is extremely interested her, and used his hands as if she's the perfect figure for him.

The tough guy walks extremely drunk, and Maw West is still singing, but the tough guy ends up hiding under the table. After the song is finished, the guy shouts "Ah, hello baby - give me one great kiss." He puckers up his lips, and the goat poster comes to life with the goat stabs the tough guy in the behind, in which he goes off flying, that sends Mae West stuck up in a tree branch dangling. The tough guy keeps flying away, and crashes into a window. What I find extremely weird is that goat coming to life, and overall the gags were very weird, and Duval seemed to be very influenced by Harman-Ising here, but I guess it is slightly more lively than their cartoons.

 

After falling down the tree, it turns out that Mae West was in fact Buddy dressed in disguise, with the wig falling apart, and Buddy is wearing a birds' cage strapped to his behind and some type of fake bra, he walks off very embarrassed. The parrot looks around and says, "Am I mortified?" and pulls on a Jimmy Durante voice, and then the caricature that features his big nose - and that's all folks.

Well, from watching this cartoon - this is a slight improvement from the first two cartoons by Tom Palmer. There is in fact some influence in the animation from Palmer, such as the rubbery-balloon like animation. Earl Duval made a slightly better cartoon, but this was just extremely weird, with some bizzare gags and he seemed to have been heavily influenced in Harman-Ising gags. I wonder if he created this cartoon due to his love for alcohol. Well, it was a nice Pre-Code cartoon that featured drinking, and acting drunk - as well as Buddy dressed as Mae West. 

There were some animation expressions from the tough guy that were slightly amusing, but the animation was only alright - to say the least. Personally, I feel that in the next Earl Duval cartoons he made, he had potential and promise to make good cartoons for Warner Bros. this was his first cartoon, so there wasn't much to say about his directing, even though it was some Harman-Ising influence, but he gave Buddy a much better design, and even had some style for the characters. The dog went into a different design and being a dachshund, notice that baby Elmer is no longer here in the cartoons, and Happy. Anyway, let's see what Duval does in the next following cartoons.

Sanek has created a mosaic with his claims on who animated what in Buddy's Beer Garden and with animation estimates, and I will post that sometime during the week.

68. I've Got to Sing a Torch Song (1933)

Warner cartoon no. 67.

Release date: September 30, 1933.

Series: Merrie Melodies.

Supervision: Tom Palmer.

Producer: Leon Schlesinger.

Cast unknown.

Animation: Jack King.

Musical Score: Bernard Brown, Norman Spencer.

Sound: Bernard Brown.

Synopsis: A parody of radio listeners are depicted all over the world - along with some celebrity caricatures to go along with it.

[REVISED VERSION: 19/05/2017].

While Buddy's Day Out remains a failure in achieving humour and coherency, Torch Song suffers from a wide range of problems in the same vein of Tom Palmer's previous cartoon. The first Merrie Melody cartoon after Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising's departure; the newly-formed Schlesinger staff attempt to parody radio, to fit alongside their mandatory policy of promoting popular songs. 

Although this might seem predictable and easier to approach amongst fresh artists - successful results are likely depending on its execution. Tom Palmer, once again fails to achieve this. Torch Song's overall construction remains very inconsistent in its premise. The cartoon is very indecisive by focusing on caricatured celebrity performing on radio - or gags involving radio listeners. The finished short is a mashup of the two, and it's evident how insecure Palmer was as a director. 

Not only is the short inconsistent in its content; but also in animation style. Judging by his two directed cartoons for Warners - Palmer appeared to be attracted to cartoon spark line effects, a trait Ub Iwerks took pride with in his cartoons. Although Ub used them effectively, Palmer wasn't creative with them. In a scene featuring an elderly woman caressing her radio set is another duplicate of the bun-headed woman who appeared several times in Flip the Frog cartoons.

Understandably, the new Schlesinger studio consisted of green artists who hadn't quite settled in their new environment. None of them had blossomed and they were still milestones away from creating cartoon masterpieces.

The opening scenes indicate some potential, as far as creative styles go. Palmer applies a brief montage of several hands switching on their radio set. Many cartoons produced in that era were fairly pretty and unambitious in composition - to see a montage effect at the opening shows some promise. In comparison to Buddy's lacklustre debut, it's a step forward.

Unfortunately, Palmer's brief stride of creativity slides into an abyss. The following sequence lead to a series of gags featuring radio listeners exercising in time to a fitness radio program. Much of the gags remain largely uninspired, and are further hampered by weak animation.

The animation of the scene featuring a millionaire reading his stocks from a ticker tape machine, whilst exercising, is poor. The weight of the millionaire pulling his stocks is poorly handled, and the clarity of the gag isn't matched. It's a prime example of how poor animation can ruin a conceived gag.

One gag that might have gained laughs from audiences is a scene of a caricatured George Bernard Shaw boxing. Instead of exercising with a punching bag, he's punching the globe. The globe swings back by striking his face and knocking him out. Shaw garnered major controversy in the U.S. for his admiration of the Soviet Union government in the 1920s. The globe itself is represented as a visual metaphor of Shaw's battling against the world.

For a large portion of the cartoon, Tom Palmer is too reliant on pan/truck shots for gag delivery and payoff. Admittedly, some of it work when it's called for - like the scene of a man exercising by pulling the strings of a large woman's corset, as revealed in the pan. The gag itself adds more content to the fitness instruction: "One, two, breathe deeply."

Some gags are more unpredictable and absurd; like a closeup of a duet dancing, but the camera trucks out to reveal Joan Blondell and Jimmie Cagney using their hands as shoes. Both stars often paired together during this era - most notably in the Warner Bros. musical Footlight Parade. I'm curious whether or not Cagney punching Blondell is a reference to Cagney's infamous grapefruit scene in The Public Enemy?

In other sections of the short; it's used somewhat lazily. In a scene featuring a sloppily caricatured Ben Bernie - he announces a broadcast orchestration, with his dialect and mannerisms ("Yowza") captured. This soon follows with a pan shot of Bernie "conducting" the music from a record player.

The gag standalone isn't bad, especially it's purpose is to parody Ben Bernie's radio orchestration. However, Palmer's poor use of staging in the scene marred the gag.

Palmer's reliance of camera pans make gags very predictable in delivery. At an African locale; a cannibal switches on a cooking program. He follows the ingredients as instructed - but a pan shot reveals the caricatures of the popular double act, Wheeler & Woolsey. Scenarios of humans trapped in a boiling pot have been illustrated numerous times beforehand in cartoon form - that the delivery goes without saying.

The majority of the worldwide sequence suffers from weak gag development - and for the most part, poor animation skills. A sequence featuring an unimpressed sultan watching a harem dancer is indeed unimpressive. The dancer's limbs are ludicrously rubbery in design, indicating an animator's lack of understanding of anatomy; and intimidation of breaking the joints.

The sultan shouts "Bah!" - and switches on his radio to listen to  Amos 'n Andy instead. Wouldn't anybody do the same whilst sitting through this cartoon?

At times, it appears Palmer is trying too hard in conceiving visual gags. In one scenario, an eskimo is ice-fishing at an Arctic locale. An incoming whale advances towards the eskimo, and eats an entire ice block - including his radio set. The whale reappears above the surface, and the audience discovers the radio sitting on top of the whale's blowhole, as the whale swims away dancing to the music as he swims.

One of the largest faults of the cartoon is the animation itself. For the most part, the caricatured celebrities are animated shockingly below the standards of that era. Admittedly, caricatures weren't as sophisticated in the early 30s, as a lot of them would be drawn by animators instead of stylised caricaturists like T. Hee or Ben Shenkman later that decade.

One of the more painfully ludicrous sequences features a trio of iconic stars like Greta Garbo, ZaSu Pitts and Mae West, singing the cartoon's titular song. Garbo's appeal and glamour isn't taken advantage of through drawing and movement; and the timing of ZaSu Pitt's arms spastically moving is amateurish.

Overall continuity is also very inconsistent. Why is Pitts staged behind a different background compared to Garbo and Mae West? I'm not sure whose impersonating the voices of these iconic stars - but the overall results are very jarring and awkward in execution and delivery.

Much of the mannerisms of these stars are still in place, like Mae West's sex appeal or Garbo's melodramatic motions. Animating caricatures is a challenge itself; but none of the animators at the newly hired Schlesinger studio were solid enough draftsmen to tackle such a feat. They were still years away from mastering it.

Tom Palmer applies a running gag throughout the cartoon; but the overall result doesn't amount to much of a gag at all. Throughout the cartoon, Ed Wynn consistently announces it's "eight o'clock" throughout the cartoon - firing a pistol, and later a cannon.

I imagine it was an attempt in capturing Wynn's wacky mannerisms on radio. Such a gag could work fine; depending on how it's handled from every department. It's biggest flaw is the voice impersonation. I'd nominate it as perhaps the worst Wynn impersonation to ever appear in animated cartoons.

Towards the end of the short; Wynn fires his cannon at the strike of "eight o'clock". The impact of the explosion backfires, causing Wynn to fly past multiple buildings - away from the studio. He soon crashes into a bedroom - and discovers that the occupants of the be are all Ed Wynn lookalikes, who all shout "Ohhhh" in unison. The overall payoff lacks coherency, despite the fact the running gag itself wasn't funny to begin with.

Torch Song is at least a step above Buddy's Day Out, but only marginally. The premise shows more promise for gag opportunities, but the way it's handled puts the cartoon down. It's one of the most oddly conceived cartoons turned out by the studio's legacy. Not only does the short fail in entertainment values, but also consistency. Tom Palmer was not a director with a strong point of view. His insecurities and indecisiveness is all too evident in this short. Palmer would leave the studio after his two cartoons - briefly returning to Disney before heading over to Van Beuren with Burt Gillett. In hindsight; Torch Song is an important piece of history that only shows how far off the Schlesinger studio was, but also how green the artists were to the industry. As remembered by Bob Clampett, it was "like a gold rush town".

"Dat's ALL, folks!"

Rating: 1/5.

67. Buddy's Day Out (1933)

[REVISED VERSION: May 2nd, 2017].

Warner cartoon no. 66.

Release date: September 9, 1933.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Supervision: Tom Palmer.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Cast unknown.
Animation: Bill Mason.
Musical Score: Norman Spencer, Bernard Brown.
Sound: Bernard Brown (uncredited).
Synopsis: Our new hero, Buddy takes his girlfriend Cookie for an outing; along with his younger brother Elmer and pet dog, Happy. Little does he realise trouble is ahead.

Courtesy of Tralfaz.

Throughout the first part of 1933; Leon Schlesinger was in turmoil. His creative team of artists under the leadership of Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising walked out on Leon's contract in the hopes of producing more ambitious cartoons. They hoped to work with budgets larger than what Warner Bros. were willing to provide - attributed by the studio's shaky financial grounds in the early thirties.

Rubber-hosed Bobby Bumps?

Harman-Ising took Bosko with them, leaving Leon Schlesinger with only the titles. Determined to fulfil his contract, Schlesinger set up his own studio on the Warners lot at Sunset Boulevard. Searching for artists to produce new cartoons; Leon raided talent from other studios - namely Disney, and some of Harman-Ising's people.

By June 10, 1933, it was announced on Film Daily that Schlesinger had completed his staff, and had conceived a new character: Buddy - a blander replacement of Bosko, who bears a Boy Scout persona. Although his staff might've far from perfect - Schlesinger's own formation of a cartoon studio was probably his greatest achievement in hindsight. Although it got off to a slow start, its immortal legacy was unthinkable in the eyes of Leon.

Here is the Film Daily advertisement as announced on that date:

Hollywood—Leon Schlesinger has completed his staff and started production of the "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies" cartoons for Vitaphone's 1933-34 program. Thomas A. Palmer is production managers; J. Patton King, head animator; Norman Spencer, head of music department; Bernard Brown, sound department; Earl Hurd, chief of layouts. Forty animators are at work. Schlesinger has obtained copyright on the characters "Buddy," "Cookie," "Elmer," and "Happy," the dog, for "Looney Tunes." Mythical characters will be used in "Merrie Melodies." 

Caricature of Tom Palmer at Disney
by Jack King, c.1931.

Both Tom Palmer and Jack King were undoubtedly the most experienced animators Schlesinger raided from Disney. Other Disney artists Schlesinger hired like Bill Mason or Paul Fennell were only junior animators at the studio, working under Ben Sharpsteen's supervision. Despite the experience, both animators weren't as highly reputable in comparison to Norm Ferguson or Les Clark.

Today, Palmer is remembered and universally criticised for his lack of creativity and humour on his only two directed cartoons at Schlesinger. The quality of both shorts were in severe condition that extensive changes were called for in order for Warner Bros. to finally accept it. No doubt, the extra reworks cost the cartoons extra dollars - a bad deal in the eyes of Leon Schlesinger; and a possible attribution to Palmer's firing.

Buddy, introduced by Tom Palmer, was already established in the same vein of a Mickey Mouse persona. Like Mickey, Buddy had a recognisably human girlfriend, Cookie - whom, in her earlier appearances bore a resemblance to a flapper girl. However, according to Bob Clampett, it was Earl Duvall who created the character.

Again, like Mickey, Buddy was to have a pet companion, a dog named Happy, whom appears to have been replaced with another dog in later Buddy shorts. But unlike Mickey, Buddy had a baby brother, named Elmer - in his one time appearance only.

All the characters are introduced individually in the opening scenes with their names and identities printed on them. These scenes pay homage to movie trailers (and occasionally opening credits) of that time era, that featured individual shots of stars featured. While the effect worked to establish the scenario of the picture - here, the opening is riddled with awkward character animation, like Buddy looking at his audience weirdly.

For the most part; Buddy's Day Out suffers from extremely thin gags spread across the cartoon. Most of the gags were poorly conceived due to incoherency and amateurishness. The opening scenes of Cookie bathing Elmer, but spanking him back to the tub to stop him from leaning over to grab a sponge is an example of weak imagination. Perhaps Tex Avery didn't arrive soon enough.

One of the more illogical, preposterous gags occurs later in the cartoon's climax. Elmer and Happy had carjacked Buddy's vehicle as they ride through rail tracks - unaware of a locomotive heading straight towards their path.

What should be a satisfying resolution; it's implausibly resolved by Buddy and Cookie, who use a ladder to route the train off its tracks and through a shack. And in the following shot, the train is somehow routed back to the rail tracks.

Preposterous gags suitable for animated cartoons? Without question, as long as it's reasonably executed - which the short fails to do. Not only is the train gag sluggishly pulled off - but it's a lazy, unsatisfying closure to a locomotive climax.

A lot of the cartoon's gags remain unfunny and inconsistent in tone. The only gag featured in the short that feels justified, is featured in a scene of Buddy's vehicle animatedly shaking off water in the mannerisms of a dog. Gags like those are in the spirit of surreal animated gags, popularised by many animation studios in the early thirties. It's a pity the cartoon didn't wind down that path.

Although incoherency played a huge part in weak gag development, some of them is also hampered by weak characterisation - which is showcased with Buddy. The introduction scenes of "our hero", Buddy already establishes the character with such blandness and mediocrity.

He is portrayed with a "boy scout" persona, which greatly limits audience appeal for Buddy. Gag-wise, he is very constraint. In one sequence, Buddy calls out to his girlfriend across the neighbourhood and shouts, "I'll be right over, Cookie."

He starts the engine of his vehicle, but begins to malfunction. Buddy's car drives backwards; crashing into his neighbours' yards. His car is accompanied with a quarrelling cat and dog, but once the vehicle crashes through a greenhouse - it's garnished with flowers as it stops by Cookie's front porch.

Elaborate gags like this could potentially have entertainment value, but it depends largely on how strong characterisation is. Since Buddy has little personality; the gag comes across as generic and forced, in a desperate attempt to make Buddy seem charming with the accidental decorum of flowers.

It appears Tom Palmer wasn't confident on building a personality for "our hero" Buddy. For his cartoon debut, he is in the foreground a lot of the time - especially in the picnic sequence. In that scene, the audience experience an awkward romantic moment between Buddy and Cookie on the hammock.

Buddy asks, "Woojie, woojie, woojie?" to Cookie - in which she declines, by responding: "No, woojie woojie woojie" nonsensically. Judging by the context of the Pre-Code era - I'm curious whether it's an implied innuendo.

Character designs are reminiscent
to some of Disney's early
Silly Symphonies - namely
BUGS IN LOVE (1932).

The scene cuts to a series of individual shots of courting bugs and bullfrogs, repeating Buddy's cringeworthy "woojie" dialogue. None of the individual shots are taken advantage of by gags - which is virtually absent. The shot of the bullfrog couple comes close to one (the scene itself feels premature Clampett-esque), but it has no payoff or coherency. The female frog denies his request for "woojies" by simply slapping him off a log, and beating him with a cattail.

The shot of the critters feel too sidetracked compared to the rest of the cartoon and there's no reason to include it - as it's just a pointless piece of filler. It indicates Palmer's lack of creativity and imagination for sequences centred around his cast of characters. Was Buddy's "woojie" dialogue so funny, that an encore of critters repeating it was called for? Bernard Brown recalled Palmer at story meetings in Michael Barrier's interview, where Palmer said, "And now we do a funny piece of business", without explaining what the gag was. The sequence is a prime example of that.

Although a lack of screen time for Buddy might be beneficial; it must be supported with stronger entertainment values - especially amongst side characters. Even in blander Mickey Mouse cartoons featuring Donald or Pluto, their sequences work standalone.

One sequence in this cartoon is devoted to Happy and Elmer. The concept of a dog and a baby playing off each other could show some merits - but here, the action is very generic and underwhelming.

Although the behaviour of both characters craving for food is believable enough - it's another showcase of not featuring any cartoonish gags. Elmer, at one point tosses a cake that completely covers Happy's head. Happy runs around, barking wildly across a field.

The action is dull, predictable, and the 'gag' doesn't escalate to make the animation more compelling. It only pays off when Elmer's bumps into a small stump, causing the cake to fly and land on Elmer's head - setting him up for mischievous, messy behaviour.

One of the most jarring elements of Buddy's Day Out; are the cartoon sound effects by Bernard Brown. The most misplaced use of it are featured in anticipation gags. In one scene, Cookie is drying Elmer with a bath towel. She lightly tosses him in the air, as Elmer lands safely on the towel - with a bell ring sound applied to it.


The sound is used several times in this short, but for that scene it ruins not only a forced bit of delivery - but also the illusion of cartoon fantasy. Another poor sound effect applied is heard in a scene of Elmer pestering Buddy on their way to the picnic. Elmer strikes Buddy's head with his bottle - with a sound similar to rocks being smashed.

As mentioned, the cartoon sound effects are very weak. Brown isn't creative with sound ideas to enhance the atmosphere of an animated world. I express no disrespect to Bernard Brown by all means, considering the fact he's contributed sound to numerous live-action films, as well as Oscar nominations to his name - (Brown would win an Academy Award for Best Sound in 1939 for When Tomorrow Comes).

Whether poor direction or working under a very tight schedule was a factor in this short; I'm not sure. Brown specialised in many different areas of sound, so cartoon shorts were only a small portion to his schedule. As Bob Clampett recalled in Barrier's interview, he could "just ooze in any hole that needed filling." He might not have been innovative with cartoon sounds, like Treg Brown; but for the most part, his sound work was competent and in style throughout the later Buddy cartoons.

After Cookie criticises' Elmer's mischievous behaviour at the picnic, he dejectedly walks to Buddy's vehicle - but knowingly starts the car's engine by stomping on the pedal. Soon, this follows into a climatic sequence of Elmer carelessly riding the vehicle - with Buddy and Cookie pursuing him.

The sequence is pretty unremarkable, as far as direction and staging is concerned. None of the action is embellished with any fast cutting or creative dynamics to create the illusion of danger - which remains absent.

A scene featuring a layout of the vehicle driving along a curved road is kept very straightforward and basic - without making the action more daring and spontaneous for a supposedly frantic scenario.

Gags are supported throughout the action sequence; but they're very standard and somewhat predictable (like Elmer and Happy crashing through a haystack, but come out sporting a beard made of straw).

Seeing animation pioneer Earl Hurd's name on the Film Daily ad is something of a surprise. I'm not sure how long he stayed at Schlesinger's, or if he stayed long enough to work on this cartoon. Either way, the layout work remains generic and unambitious as far as dynamics go. Very occasionally are the layouts creative in visual style - like the three-quarter down shot of Buddy and Cookie looking down at the rail tracks (whilst riding a pram, complete with a rotary washing line spinning like a helicopter - !!). The ending goes quite simply: Buddy and Cookie implausibly change the route of the train - resulting a happy reunion with the characters.

After revisiting the cartoon, I'd almost forgotten how difficult reviewing poor animated shorts are - especially to avoid saying "that's not funny" repeatedly. It's clear that some of the artists at the newly formed Schlesinger studio were starting to get their feet wet - and how much there was to learn and discover. Today, Buddy's Day Out remains a mess that's below the standards of most animated cartoons produced during that era. At Disney, Tom Palmer was a competent animator - but as a director he doesn't have a strong point of view. Gags are very vague in their interpretation - a problem attributed by Palmer's indecisiveness. Sometimes, the cartoon shows striking resemblance to an Ub Iwerks cartoon - like the usage of spark lines. Otherwise, Palmer hasn't developed a coherent or interesting style for his shorts. How much of the cartoon was actually reworked remains a mystery, but it's clear it didn't do justice to an overall unfunny short. Apart from the cartoon's significance it holds in Warners' history, there really isn't much to recommend in this cartoon.

[March 28, 2018 update - info on animator Bill Mason]: born as William Henry Mason in Manchester, England in 1910 to parents Herbert Mason and Isabella Ferber. Had two brothers, Arthur and Harold. The latter, known as Hal Mason, was also an animator at Walter Lantz in the early-to-mid 1940s, and later creating characters for commercials, such as Mr Clean. Bill begun his animation career in 1931, working as a junior animator at the Hyperion Disney studios. Soon afterwards, Bill left to work for Ted Esbaugh on independent cartoons like The Snowman and The Wizard of Oz alongside ex-Disneyite, Frank Tipper - another native of England.

Once Leon Schlesinger opened up his own studio after the Harman-Ising fiasco, Mason landed a job there during Leon's major head-hunt. Despite his only WB animation credit on this cartoon, it's unknown how long he remained on the Schlesinger payroll. Once Bill left Schlesinger's, he found employment as an animator for Walter Lantz in 1934/1935. Bill married Miriam Ellen Lewis, daughter of Disney musician Bert Lewis, on November 25, 1936. Mason remained employed at Walter Lantz, until his tragic death on July 21, 1937 of a heart ailment. His younger brother, Hal, would follow his brother's footsteps - by working for Lantz in the early 1940s, and remaining active in the animation industry until his death in 1986.

If anyone reading this has any further information on Bill Mason, please feel free to leave a comment or drop me an e-mail].

Rating: 0/5.