66. Bosko's Picture Show (1933)

We now reach the "final" Harman-Ising as well as the last Bosko cartoon - but it isn't the last as he did make more appearances later on at MGM in the Happy Harmonies series.

Warner cartoon no. 65.
Release date: August 26, 1933.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Director: Hugh Harman, Friz Freleng.
Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising, and Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Johnny Murray (Bosko).
Animation: Isadore "Friz" Freleng and Carmen "Max" Maxwell.
Musical Score: Frank Marsales.

The cartoon begins, outside the theater and we see that Bosko's name is in lights that does read Bosko's Picture Show. Inside the theater we see the stage, in which the Asbestos curtain opens, followed by a tatty curtain, and then a gate that opens separately, and we see the screen. A piece of paper enters the screen that reads, Presenting BOSKO at the Console of the mighty FURTILIZER Organ. The centre light approaches, and then Bosko rises at the stage through a door that lifts up to the floor where everybody can see him, he shouts to his audiences, "Howdy folks!".

He then chants to his audience "Let's sing", so Bosko begins by playing on his organ to the song Were in the Money and as he is singing (it doesn't sound like Murray to me, but I think it was someone else). He sings his verse of that song, and then he encourages his audience to have their turn. The audience then sing the song, and the lyrics are even printed onto the screen, and even shows the words being highlighted for every word they sang in timing. I do wonder if there had been some enthusiastic people singing to the song when it first aired? Bosko even finishes with him pulling firmly onto some chains, and even a type of "chain" that has the sound of a toilet flushing.

Bosko then releases the curtain in which the screen is now showing a newsreel. The newsreel is called Out-of-Tone News with the motto at the bottom Sees all - hears all - smells all. We see the logo with a person flying on his plane around the planet Earth. One of the main news in this newsreel is in Geneva, Switzerland - and it's about "World figures gather at peace conference", and it turns out that in this conference they are having some physical conflict in there from the country leaders, which is meant to be part of the joke.

Another newsreel takes place in Malibu, California with the headline "Sunkist Bathing Beauties enjoy California sunshine". The gag is that the reel shows a snowy beach in California, and there is a lanky woman dressed in a bathing suit, and she runs away from a huge tide that comes along, and it almost swamps up the entire beach, but the tides then come back, she returns to dip her foot inside a puddle before almost being run over by a wave.

Another newsreel shows the headline that says, Jack Dumpsey is training for his come-back at boxing, and as you can see - he is a retired boxer, who looks very frail and crooked. While he is training, he already is holding onto a walking stick, and there is an audience of animals all cheering on him.

Another reel takes place in Epsom Salts, England - where there is a dog "race classic". Epsom Salts? The joke is that they are using the town Epsom, as a spoof for "Epsom salts" which is actually "magnesium sulfate". But, Epsom do races there - especially famous for horse racing. We see the shot of all the other dogs running on the track, and behind the dogs is a dog (that looks like Bruno) that is sniffing. The Bruno-like dog then runs off from what he sees behind - the Marx Brothers are running on the track with their nets and they are dog catchers.

The next newsreel shows a "famous screen lover" on vacation in Germany. The "famous screen lover" term is of course, a famous movie star. It turns out that it is Jimmy Durante who is being chased by Adolf Hitler and Hitler is chasing him with a meat cleaver, and Durante is running away shouting "Am I mortified?" Of course, this would've been a very funny joke at the time - and I understand the gag. This short was released in August 1933, and back on January 30, (about seven months earlier) Hitler had been elected as Chancellor of Germany - and of course from the beginning, a lot of people knew about his hatred on the Jews. So, Hitler is assuming that Durante is Jewish (because of the big nose) and starts to chase him, when actually Durante was a Roman Catholic. Of course, this would be extremely politically incorrect today - but it's not making Harman-Ising or even Freleng anti-Semetic at all! The newsreel ends, with a shot (meant to be live-action) of a camera man rolling the film with a meat grinder and holding onto a sausage. The ending motto reads, "It squeaks for itself". Overall, the "Out-of-Tone" news was a spoof of Fox's Movietone News that also used the actual slogans, while the slogans were spoofed in this cartoon.

After the audience clap, Bosko announces, "This is only the beginning folks, only the beginning" and that was a Ted Lewis quote. Bosko then waves his hand, to show the next film to be shown, and good news is that it's a Laurel and Hardy short called "Spite of Everything". The short begins as we see Laurel and Hardy skipping through minding their own business, and they see somebody's back window with a fresh baked pie lying on the windowsill. Laurel points if he should, and Hardy nods. Laurel then grabs the pie, but Hardy snatches the pie off Laurel. They both start snatching it off each other, as an argument. Laurel then grabs the pie and drops it on top of Hardy's head, as he is now covered with pie. Laurel acts all innocent, and then Hardy gets his comeback by hitting him on the head with a pot, with the short ending with Laurel whining.

The audience all clap at the Laurel and Hardy short film, with Bosko's claim, "Is everybody happy?" another Ted Lewis quote. Bosko then starts to roll the film, as we now reach a feature film, that is brought to you by TNT pictures. The spoof shows the distributor (TNT) is an obvious reference to the MGM company, even with the trademark that shows the lion, who was the mascot for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer company. The TNT lion then tries to roar at the audience, but covers' its mouth before even trying - which I find a good way to spoof a classic MGM trademark. The name of the feature is called, He Done Her Dirt (and How!), and we see a shot of Honey (who is the lead actress) riding on her bike, with the Marx Brothers behind her singing the song Daisy Bell. Bosko who is playing the sweet, says "Ain't she sweet?"

Then, we see a title card that comes up reading "Dirty Dalton (The Cur!)", and we see a shot of Dirty Dalton who is creeping up on Honey. Bosko turns to the audience, and here it is folks: he says the lines that we all know, "The dirty fuck!". Of course, in my copy from the Golden Collection, Volume 6 the line was cleaned up and it sounded like Bosko says "That dirty fox!", and originally (or in the uncut version) Bosko definitely says "The dirty fuck!" Wow, this is something that cartoons would never dare use, and this is definitely Pre-Code. Some say, that Harman-Ising deliberately used that line as a farewell to Leon Schlesinger, and his associates at Warner Bros. as they had a budget dispute. But seriously, they really thought they were going to get away with that??

 

Dirty Dalton who is on his bicycle (that creeps secretly and sneakily) and Dalton sings the verse, "and you'll be sweet, upon the seat...", and then hides behind a very narrow tree. As Honey is cycling along, she is captured by Dirty Dalton behind the tree. She then cries for help, but Dirty Dalton ends up with Honey and jumps on one of the boxcars. It leaves Honey in double trouble, as Dalton is trying to grab her, and the boxcar is riding out of nowhere (oddly enough, for no reason). She shouts if there is a boy scout in the audience, but Bosko then shouts out "I'll save you!" Seriously Bosko, this is only a film! Bosko runs to the stage, where he sees Dirty Dalton, and he shouts "Stop! You cur!", and he jumps onto the screen through Dalton's face. Bosko pops out of the screen, and both him and Honey smile with glee - and that's all folks. It's all folks, for Bosko.

Well, folks - this is the end for Bosko; and that's all for the Harman-Ising cartoons. This cartoon (I felt) was a good way to end the era, as we saw some entertaining reels from Bosko, and it was a nice change that we didn't get to see Bosko very much, as he probably would've bored us with his singing and dancing. This cartoon deserves to be a triumphant in it's way, but I thought it was quite controversial - including the "dirty fuck" part, and also the Hitler chasing Jimmy Durante part.

I've got to say, that since I've not reviewed all of the entire Harman-Ising cartoons - I've certainly learned a lot from them, and even analyzed on what I've seen. The 1930 Bosko cartoons meant nothing, and it was just only "singing and dancing", but by 1931, there were some story that was reaching for the Bosko cartoons (but all of the singing and dancing routines still had to be shown). The singing-and-dancing routines were toned down in Bosko cartoons, when the Merrie Melodies series was launched, and they were going to do the singing-and-dancing shorts anyway, and it would've given Harman-Ising a more creative mind with just doing the one-shots.

The Bosko cartoons in 1932 (in my opinion) were at a very good streak (as well as some Merrie Melodies cartoons), and even some 1933s were doing well. Although, I think that most of their productions were just the same for me. I reviewed them all, and always gave them the same views on them, which was "mediocre at best", since their synopsis were mostly the same. I also learnt that in 1931, that they started to re-use some gags in there from their earlier productions in the 1930-1931 season. By, 1932 it was clear that just about almost every single cartoon they created featured re-used animation (with only some not reused). But I learnt that it wasn't their fault because they were subcontractors, and they couldn't go over-budget, and they were forced to reuse materials in order to keep the budgets low. 

I noticed a lot of better character development in Bosko by mid-1931, and he certainly improved onto 1932, and 1933, before that in 1930 - he was just nothing but a singer. The animation quality had certainly changed, as I noticed in 1933, that the production budgets seemed to go higher, with higher quality animation. I guess that Harman-Ising wanted their cartoons to go into colour, and was the result of why they left, because they were sick of those musicals they were creating. They had to use a lot of falsetto singing in which I found extremely annoying (especially in 1932) but I didn't hear much falsetto in 1933 - from the Merrie Melodies. I personally found that Harman-Ising did copy some of their work. If you don't believe me, then look at Congo Jazz - the shot of Bosko's body completely loose is just similar to what was seen in Steamboat Willie. The skeeleton dance in Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land is just like Disney's The Skeleton Dance, as well as Bosko's falsetto voice is a comparison to Mickey Mouse's voice. Basically, the cartoons were just like the early Disney cartoons (from 1928-1932), until they improved a lot, but nothing much ever changed in the Harman-Ising productions.

Well, as it is now - a farewell to Bosko, but I know that we are coming onto a new start - Buddy, and Leon Schlesinger Productions, so: bye-bye Bosko.

Bring on - Buddy.

64. Bosko the Musketeer (1933)

Warner cartoon no. 63.
Release date: August 12, 1933.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Directed by: Hugh Harman.
Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Johnny Murray (Bosko).
Animation: Rollin Hamilton and Robert Stokes.
Musical Score: Frank Marsales.

Our story begins with Bosko picking up posies in a field, and is having sentimental thought of his girlfriend, Honey - and is singing the verse "she loves me, she loves me not". Bruno follows Bosko on, and runs around a small tree (randomly) and then follows Bosko who continues to pull out petals off the flowers he is holding. Meanwhile, Honey is sweeping at down doing some dusting - and she is also humming to some sentimental music. As she sees a picture frame of Bosko, and immediately changes into an impression of Mae West, and says "You can be had!" Of course, the impression somehow seemed strange to me - but I wonder if Robert Stokes animated this part, as he animates Honey and Bosko skipping - which is similar to what he did animate in Bosko in Person.

Bosko enters Honey's house full of spirits and energy, as he is delighted to see her. Honey was sweeping a portrait of the 3 Musketeers that is on her Wall. She asks Bosko if the Musketeers "are grand"? Bosko chuckles and thinks that "it's nothing", and he pulls out an umbrella and he pretends that he is doing a sword fight with the umbrella, while Honey is singing in the background about Bosko being a brave musketeer. The background then fades from Bosko mimicking a sword fight with an umbrella into Bosko actually fighting the villains. Bosko then reaches a cornered point, and then he jabs his sword into the barrel of beer, and SWOOSHES the villains away. Bosko then enters a bar, and shouts "Howdy ho, etc.", we then see a title card that reads The Three Musketeers.

There is then a shot of the 3 Musketeers in the pub and they are all singing. Bosko runs along, and climbs onto a table, and he introduces to us who the musketeers are. They are: Athos, Amos and Andy - and obviously they were referring to Amos n' Andy which was a popular radio show at the time. Athos, was a character out of the 3 Musketeers (I think), but I find it extremely pointless that Harman-Ising only use one character out of the 3 musketeers, and name the other two "Amos and Andy", and it completely pointless, because there isn't a connection towards the other two names in the book, and the fictional character names themselves - but never mind let's pres son.

Bosko then raises his word and says the famous Musketeers line, "All for One and One for All", and the musketeers sing a song about it. Bosko then draws out his sword, and tries to break a table leg, but instead the blade gets twisted on the leg. Bosko pulls the sword out, and it looks like a cork opener, and he uses it to unscrew the cork of a champagne bottle. The bottle says "New Deal - 3.2%" (which according to TZ says that it was part of a deal that President Franklin Roosevelt as part of his promise for policies, and it happened at the end of the "prohibition". Bosko then brings along a glass of beer, and guzzles down the beer in one of the first musketeer's mouth (Athos), the 2nd musketeer (Amos) then lips his lips as if there is some type of assembly in this. The last musketeer (Andy) then does a "swallow" intimidation, and it is a fine gag - but I've seen it somewhere before in one of their cartoons. Wouldn't it be funnier if one of them burped? Anyway, their entertainment business managed to entertain the audience, and we see some bizarre Harman-Ising gags used as part of an applause like a man that honks his chicken like a horn??

We then see a shot of a thug (who is the main antagonist - I'm pressuming?) and he grabs hold of his nose, and shouts "Bah!", as if he didn't care about that bit of entertainment performance from the Musketeers and Bosko. He then starts to eat off parts of a chicken, and starts off with eating a turkey leg. He then puts the whole thing in his mouth, and then pulls the bones out showing that he ate the entire chicken in one bite. He appears to be so tough, and that he's the big man around here, that he uses a person's teeth (next to him) to unload the cork off the screw.

A door opens, and the crowd of people in the pub see Honey approach (and she's wearing modern clothing on?). Anyway, she shouts to her audience "Here I am you lucky people?" - Lucky, huh? How lucky? All of her audiene enjoy her tap-dancing performance that she performs (although it doesn't seem very exciting to look at) - and I think Bob McKimson did that scene, comparing to what his Honey looked like in Bosko in Person. Bosko is all "awe" about Honey's dancing and even asks the guy next to him, "Boy, ain't she keen?", and pats him on the back with his false teeth coming out - Ha ha, now that was something amusing.

The dancing movements seems to impress the villain who was eating the turkey from earlier. He comes up with a sneaky plan, and he rubs his hands to do so. He grabs Honey while she is dancing, and causes her to shout for help, and shouts "Bosko, help!" - is it me or is it that every fantasy land that's made up, she always seems to know Bosko? Anyway, I don't care - she knows him anyway in this story! So, the villain has captured Honey, and yet again here comes another comes another "villain plotting to capture girlfriend" sequence (Seen that before!).

Bosko runs into the scene and stops that from happening, and shouts at the villain, "Hey! You piper!", and then he draws out his sword, and they start a sword fight. But before they begin, the blades from both sword turn into hands and they shake each others'. They both perform a sword fight on each other, the villain then tries through Bosko's hat, and the plume is actually a chicken wrapped in feathers that clucks, but you notice immediately that there is another one after wards. The villain's sword is then badly damaged, and he calls a caddy to come and give him a spare and fresh sword, and he uses the caddy's beard to sand it. Bosko's sword is also damaged (as they clashed their sword into each other), so Bosko uses a pencil sharpener to give his blunt sword a sharp look again.

The villain then throws a dagger at Bosko by using it like a bow-and-arrow, but misses as Bosko manages to duck. Instead, the dagger ends up ripping off a lady's skirt and it is revealed that there is chickens and chicks in there, (which seems very wrong and very humorous). The sword fighting still continues, until Bosko ends up at a fireplace, (where he could burn himself), and he uses his foot to catapult some coal that lands on the villain's pants. The agony causes the villain to scream, and runs out of the pub never to be seen from Bosko again, and he won the duel.

 

Bosko then raises his sword with courage, and Honey runs up to admire him - and we cut back to a different background, with Bosko's usual outfit on, and the sword fades into an umbrella. Honey says, "Aw, Bosko - I don't believe that?" with Bosko's reply "Was you dere, Charlie?" and it is a dated reference from a radio character played by Jack Pearl - and that's all folks.

 Overall, this cartoon was very boring and it was basically a singing and dancing routine. In fact, the villain was very close to have captured Honey, but all we got instead was a very tedious sword fight sequence, which was just as bad as seeing the villain trying to ruin the picture. It seemed very low-budget in my opinion, and it reminded me of a reused story version of Bosko's Knight Mare but done differently. Well, with this Bosko cartoon now reviewed, we only have one more Bosko cartoon to review in this challenge, and also two more in the Harman-Ising era! Stay tuned and keep commenting!

62. Bosko's Mechanical Man (1933)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

60. Beau Bosko (1933)

Warner cartoon no. 59.
Release date: July 1, 1933.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Director: Hugh Harman, Friz Freleng.
Producers: Hugh Harman, Friz Freleng and Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Johnny Murray (Bosko).
Animation: Rollin Hamilton and Norm Blackburn.
Musical Score: Frank Marsales.

 The cartoon starts off with a foreign legion outpost in the middle of the desert, and the sun rises slowly as it is morning. One of the guards standing at the top of the outpost starts his wake up call by playing the "Revielle" tune.There are still animals in their barracks that are still sleeping and breathing in very heavily. There is a three-bunker bed in which they all breathe in that causes the mattresses to move up and down due to the stomach breathing. A funny gag is shown of a tough guy still snoring in bed, and he has a tattoo of a yacht on his chest. As he breathes in the wind blowing on the mainsail.

Then a bugler enters the dormitory shouting "Hey", as everyone is still sleeping in their beds. All of the troops in their beds sing altogether a verse of Good Morning to You, and then there is a Jimmy Durante type troop singing a verse "we're glad to see you". Then the commander is standing in the middle of uniforms in the center of the room. All of the troops crash in grabbing a set of uniform leaving the commander rather weary and inside a large hole on the floor.

Bosko, however, is still sleeping in his comfortable bed and is the last of the troops that is still sleeping. His uniform has to do the job by waking up and being animate. A reprise of the reveille is being played the second time, and the uniform continues to shake Bosko in his bed. As Bosko is still snoring, the uniform grabs out a trombone that was lying on a hook, and Bosko plays "Reveille" while still snoring, and wakes up as the verse was finished and rushes outside. We now know that Bosko's personality shows that he is a heavy sleeper.

Outside is an assembly of troops standing, and the uniform runs to where the troops are. Bosko runs as well, still in his pajamas and jumps inside the uniform so that he is all organized for the day. Bosko then opens up a troop's back pack where there is a small bath in there and he quickly rinses his face - but he's forgotten to brush his teeth. Then, the general walks through the headquarters and he has so many medals in his uniform. The general calls for Bosko and he arrives, and realizes that he's not wearing the appropriate uniform.

The general is assigning Bosko on a mission and shows him a wanted poster on who he wants to be captured. Bosko opens the scroll and finds a picture of an ugly face and his name is Ali Oop and he is tagged as The Desert Scourge, and orders Bosko to go and find the "scourge".

Bosko begins his search for Ali Oop, and he rides in his camel that he fetches from a stable. Bosko them goes riding on the camel and it is a rather "lumpy" ride for him. There are gags of Bosko riding the camel, as the camel jumps over a wall - while Bosko is only holding onto the reins. The camel then runs to the nearest lake to be seen and slurps the entire pond, with a fish suffering for water and complains to the camel. The camel spits out a bit of water for a fish so it can live - well, that's generosity for you.

Inside this desert market town we see that it is a very busy day there. There is a local snake charmer who is playing on oboe as the snake starts to dance, and then breaks the fourth wall by doing one of Jimmy Durante's "Ha-cha-cha-cha!" There is a homeless tramp lying down on a pavement who is snoring, and his front toes are twiddling each other, and there is a swarn of flies that are flying and nearly go into his mouth. But, as the tramp is snoring he breathes out that blows the flies away. There are a lot of snoring gags featured in this short already. There is also a fat, pompous man riding a camel and his body changes shapes as the camel rides.

Bosko continues to ride in his camel, and his attention is caught on a woman wearing a harem outfit, and that is Honey. Of course, the harem outfit is see-through and therefore it would be very inappropriate as Honey is nude - but hey, that's called the Pre-Code of 1934. Both of them kiss each other on the lips as they get warm feelings for each other. Suddenly, Ali Oop and his gang start to chase after Honey and Bosko and they both flee from Ali Oop's gang.

Ali Oop grabs out daggers that were on his jacket and he tries to aim them at Bosko and Honey - but misses. The daggers hit the walls, so both of them climb them up like going up the stairs - and they go through a window. Now, that is good thinking. Bosko then looks out of the window to see if they have gone, but they obviously haven't since a bullet has tried to aim Bosko's face but gets his hat instead.

As there are shooting going on, one of the soldiers is carrying a sniper, and as he shoots a bullet - there is a lump going through the gun and then fires. As he keeps on firing, the bullet then gets caught inside the gun, and he uses his hands to sqeeze it out and the bullet comes out. Bosko discovers a machine gun that he has, and fires outside, but misses the soldier but ends up shooting a pot that hits his head, and he tips his head, in which a row of pots start colliding with the biggest pot hitting a different shooter on the head. More gags are shown with the guns and including one with bullets going through pots of water, and the soldier grabs a figure with an umbrella to block the soldier from being soaked.

Ali Oop is then holding onto a palm tree where he is still firing, but Bosko aims at a coconut that hits Ali Oop on the head, and he lands on a donkey cart. Bosko then grabs out some spears and throws them at the cart that forms a cage where Ali is held hostage. Both Bosko and Honey jump onto the camel that leads the cart of a trapped Ali Oop - and that's all folks.

Overall, I did enjoy this cartoon and luckily that this wasn't even a reused cartoon in terms of reused animation. There were some fun gags that involved gun-shooting. I've also noticed that the animation looks much more realistic than before when it was all rubbery. The human figures is what I'm referring to in which it does look realistic. The name "Ali Oop" is a spoof of the word "alley oop" that people use when they are ready for something. Although I don't think that Honey's harem outfit was even censored and actually you can tell she's naked, but at least you can't notice anything.

58. Bosko the Sheepherder (1933)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

56. Bosko's Knight-Mare (1933)

Warner cartoon no. 55
Release date: April 29, 1933.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Directed by: Hugh Harman.
Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Johnny Murray (?).
Animation: Bob McKimson and Robert Stokes.
Musical Score: Frank Marsales.

The short starts off with Bosko sitting on his rocking chair and is happily reading a book, sitting by an open fire, while Bruno is on the floor snoozing in front of the toasty warm room. Bruno starts to scratch but Bosko then asks him to listen to Bosko's favourite part of the story. "Listen Bruno, and then the bold brave knighht...", Bosko chants with excitement while Bruno just razzes not even listening to Bosko. As it is 8 o'clock (according to the radio) Bosko doesn't like what he is listening to, and he switches to the next channel, where Bosko switches to the song Knights Are Bold that he enjoys listening to, but after rocking in his chair continuously through the song, he gets rather sleepy and goes off in a very long kip and dreams that he is a knight.

There is some good personality going on between Bosko and Bruno, and it's one of them cartoons where Bosko is in a deep sleep and goes off into dreamland where he is a knight. There is some pretty good personality animation on Bosko's dog Bruno - who is a favorite of mine in the Bosko characters. The voice of Bosko sounds very different here, it sounds like a very soft version of a Mickey Mouse voice - I don't think Johnny Murray did the voice there. I wonder why he wasn't - was Murray ill, or busy - and Harman-Ising were meeting deadlines and replaced another actor who did the falsetto voices.

The dream then dissolves in as we go back to Medieval times, and Bosko is on his horse and he is a knight - he continues to sing the song what was being played on the radio. Bruno is in the dream as well, and he is wearing a suit of armor. As Bosko arrives at the castle, he pole vaults off the horse with his jousting sword. He makes a groan groan so the guards can draw the bridge. The guards all welcome Bosko with their trumpet playing sounds, but their face masks of their knight helmets drop and as the face marks drop, much of the trumpet comes off, with the soldiers playing the trumpet in such a bad note.

Bosko and Bruno enter the castle as Bosko is singing his version of Peanut Vender - they both enter the castle with a groovy walk style. Interesting to find this Knight who lived in Medieval times to even use this dance method since it didn't even exist back then and the days before charisma. Of course, it makes it more entertaining and interesting to watch - a Knight doing a rumba in the castle.

Bosko enters the castle, and down the steps he finds the Knights of the Round Table in which is based on the famous King Arthur and his Knights at the Round Table. All the knights at the round table greet Bosko with a "hi ho", and they pull off their helmets and are revealed to be celebrities that were very famous at their time - the Marx brothers. They raise their glasses of beer and they sing. Bosko jumps onto the round table where he dances with the Marx brothers. Bosko starts his dance routine and there are knights clothing that even come to life too. Now looking at it, it really is a dream - where it shows very famous celebrities, and charisma.

Unfortunately in my copy that I'm reviewing, there is a section part but it was removed where we see caricatures of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy doing impressions as knights - but it was cut in Nickelodeon back in the 1980's (probably time wise?), but it's not in my copy and I don't know what else to say.

Meanwhile there is a knight that is singing the tune to Knights are Bold on his horse, and waits outside the tower of the castle, where he is waiting for a damsel - and that damsel is Honey who appears to be the princess. Honey looks out of the tower rather coldly towards the villain, which causes his anger and he starts to open the locked gate, by biting off the padlock with his very strong teeth. Honey then starts crying for help as she is trapped because of the villain ascending his way at the top of the tower. Bosko then hears Honey's cries as he is to the rescue.

Bosko starts to charge towards the villain, and he is running, but in front of him is his suit of armor that runs too, but Bosko jumps into his knight suit and runs towards Honey. Bosko then arrives at the tower where he run hear the sounds of Honey screaming, as the villain is ascending his way up the stairs. Bosko then quickly rushes to the top of the stairs, where he tries to act brave and stop the nasty knight. "Stop, you mug!", and then the knight closes his face mask, and using it as a lighter to light his chunky cigar. He blows smoke on Bosko's face and walks to Honey's room.

It is one of the many Looney Tunes stories in the early years (at least up to around 1934 or 1935), when there was a boyfriend and girlfriend story, and there was always a villain to steal the girlfriend, and it was up to the boyfriend to take him. I bet that the audience finally got ticked off with the same old stories and they were wiped out. Of course, this is a part of Looney Tunes history.

The nasty old villain then jumps out of the tower window with Honey on her hand, as he's got the damsel. The horse then prepares to get steady for being squashed by the fat knight. The knight causes a hole in the ground, with half of the horses' body stuck under as well. That is a funny gag, and powerfully executed. Honey then cries for Bosko (somehow in this story they know each other). Bosko then rides on a mule (different from what he rode on earlier), and his mule then doesn't move and becomes stubborn. Now, that is a great joke - once you understand it. There is a famous simile "stubborn as a mule" which is part of the gag.

Honey's cries continue to keep on screaming, in which Bosko then falls off his mule as hit halts by coming across a lake. Bosko jumps into the lake and his knight suit automatically turns into a submarine going fast underwater. This section has some great gags I have to say - the suit, the mule, and all.

The nasty villain holds Honey to his gloomy castle, in which he goes through, and Bosko enters quickly. The bridge then moves out (like a tongue) and closes it like closing your mouth. The villain ascends his way up stairs, and closes the door inside his bedroom. Bosko was hiding all along under the bed in which he uses a machine gun to shoot bullets at his bum (but his suit would be bulletproof). The villain's temper rises very fast, and he rolls up his metal sleeve (I like that idea a lot), and whacks Bosko that causes him to skid on a row of spears. Bosko lands on the bed, and Honey tries to wake him up by stroking his cheeks...

 ...and the stroking was actually Bruno licking Bosko's face in reality. Bosko then wakes up and he walks to a suit of armor statue that he has displayed in the hallway. He grabs an axe and he chops the suit of armor into many pieces (but how is that possible though). Bosko quickly skips to his bed, and then he lands on his bed that retracts to the wall - and that's all folks.

This cartoon was much better to review than my previous one (The Organ Grinder) and it was more interesting. I'd say that throughout the cartoon there were different stages on how the plot and overall cartoon went. The short started off like a normal Bosko cartoon, throughout the middle we saw some charisma with the knights and caricatures that somehow existed in Medieval times - and towards the end of the short we saw some great gags. So, it's been a very interesting showcase, and it was much easier for me to review it.