343. The Brave Little Bat (1941)

Warner cartoon no. 342.
Release date: September 27, 1941.
Series: Merrie Melodies.
Supervision: Chuck Jones.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Margaret Hill-Tabot (Sniffles), Marjorie Tarlton (Batty).
Story: Rich Hogan.
Animation: Rudy Larriva.
Musical Direction: Carl W. Stalling.
Sound: Treg Brown (uncredited).
Synopsis: Sniffles' car breaks down in the middle of the country, and he is left stranded. Sheltering beside a mill, he encounters a little bat, who is by the name of "Batty".

The last of what was likely the original run of the cutesy, Sniffles cartoons, before the character ended up appearing sporadically until 1946. Just as Chuck Jones is very gradually attempting to keep up with the style and humour of the Warner Bros. shorts, as well as blending him his own style of agenda, the results don't meet well.

It appears this time he is inspired by the blabbermouth characters which were used on several occasions by all the directors: mostly Ben Hardaway and Bob Clampett, but also Tex and Friz had their share. Chuck attempts to have a blabbermouth character appealing and entertaining, but it proves to not work, as blabbermouth characters are more annoying than likeable, as they slow down almost the entire cartoon.

The "blabbermouth" characters never fully died down after about 1940, and Chuck Jones at least attempted to chatterbox persona even as far as 1946, by turning Sniffles into an obnoxious, blabbermouth character. It is rather ironic for Sniffles, who is encountering a chatterbox bat-like character, and yet Sniffles would become of that personality in his last few cartoons (The Unbearable Bear, Hush My Mouse), and suffice to say: Marjorie Tarlton voiced Sniffles in the last two cartoons.

Watching the start of the cartoon, Sniffles is seen driving in his little motorcar, singing In a Little Dutch Kindergarden. The following scene shows Chuck Jones' attempt at comic timing, but it really doesn't hold up well in this cartoon, and it feels somewhat uncanny and not well executed.

Sniffles' car breaks down in the middle of the countryside, which is presentable in terms of opening up a cartoon plot, but the gag execution wasn't well conceived, and plus slowing the scene down, too.

Sniffles' car wobbles vigorously several times, until Sniffles loses control of the car. It feels like there is an unnecessary number of filler for that gag, that it would have been more coherent if Chuck made the comic timing for a single motorcar explosion to work. Instead, the small car just breaks down into single pieces. The engine springs out, the body and wheels of the car also break down, and the car seat itself even breaks down, leaving Sniffles in a swirling effect. In all, it wasn't a well delivered gag as it didn't flow so smoothly and, it goes to show how Jones wasn't quite as ready to leave the slow timing from his cartoons behind.

The following scenes afterwards do make up for the poor gag delivery as Jones presents an intriguing atmosphere in the short. Already from the start of the short, there is a rather mystic atmosphere in the backgrounds that makes the countryside look rich in the sunset view.

The overlay of the clouds joining together is also a glamorous effect, right down to the frame. The clouds part together, and it rains throughout the countryside. Sniffles covers himself slightly, and attempts to seek for some shelter, "I better get out of this".

From Sniffles' point of view, he spots a remote-looking mill, which to Sniffles' advantage is the right place for shelter and comfort. From the Jones unit, the effects animation which, to an extent competes with the rich effects animation which was being experimented at Disney, precisely at this era.

Sniffles wriggling some of the rain off his hat and his clothes is rich in texture and painstaking realism. The interior scenes of the mill are well-established layouts, and the use of colour is in the right place to emphasise on the darkness of an isolated mill. Sniffles also lighting the match expresses a decent piece of decent fire effects animation, which in terms of texture is no easy feat.

The main problems with the short all appear during Sniffles' confrontation with the bat character. From the ambiguous introductory scene of the character, the bat character looks somewhat daring in his mannerisms. The darkness overshadows the character to hide his identity for the sake of ambiguity and suspense. After the established silhouette of the bat, the outcome is a little disappointing. As I expressed, the bat character, "Batty", who has a striking resemblance to Sniffles, is just another blabbermouth character who lacks appeal and taste.

The whole sequence merely are shots cutting back and forth of the meeting of Sniffles and Batty. The blabbermouth is merely just annoying, and the character does anything his way to make the cartoon unwatchable. He slows down the whole short, and the obnoxious, chatterbox dialogue just refuses to let a scene play, or just useless filler.

Useless pieces of dialogue centers when Batty exclaims about Sniffles' appearance and name, "That's a funny name. Why is your name Sniffles? What's a mouse? I'm not a mouse, am I? I'm a bat, aren't I?, etc., etc." It just gets ridiculous to the point where the character will ruin the rest of the short with just nonsense. Despite such nonsense, the sequence sort of pays off with a wonderful, suspenseful piece of timing from when a suspecting cat enters its cue, and almost catches Sniffles and the bat. The timing for the cat's arrival was right on the beam, and thus emphasises on the cat's dangerous instinct.

Despite the problems with the blabbermouth characterisations centred on the bat character, there is some great contrast expressed in subtle ways that contradict Sniffles and Batty. It mostly appears in the scenes of Sniffles and Batty on top of the rafter. There is some great differences in identifying their instants that the characterisation works well in those scenes. Batty on the other hand, has no trouble on top of the rafters, and he walks freely. Sniffles, however, struggles.

Another great use of subtle character animation in contrasting the two characters appear in another where they reach an end of the rafter, and they have to cross towards another. Batty expresses no trouble and flies smoothly over to the edge. Sniffles, on the other hand, is crawling and holding onto the rafter, and has to struggle his way to cross the rafter. If there were more charming moments in the shorts, by cutting out the blabber mouse material, I would have considered the cartoon  passable.

And so, a plot device which Chuck Jones used frequently in his early days, was a device involving vulnerable characters standing on top of danger, before going onto a double take. Just as Sniffles and Batty are about to jump down to another edge of the rafter, the cat manages to climb on top of the rafter, and corners the vulnerable Sniffles.


Batty, steps down on the cat's head without realising, but goes into a double take before discovering that he is dealing with a dangerous cat, and therefore steps back meekly. Sniffles, on the other hand is more naive and foolish, and the cat makes the situation more perilous for him.

By opening with mouth, with teeth and other textures looking powerful and striking, Sniffles is still oblivious to learning he is confronting a cat. Upon realising he is dealing with a cat, he looks at Batty for help, who ends up walking back hesitantly. The beautiful, POV angle shot of Batty walking back is wonderfully staged and it surely has a "cornered" atmosphere towards it. Batty makes up excuses such as, "Well, goodbye Sniff. I gotta be going now. I got a very important engagement at the dentist." He meekly laughs before flying away, not giving any thought in sparing Sniffles.

Just as Sniffles tries to escape for his life, the suspense becomes more lethal for Sniffles, as the cat lifts up the piece of plank Sniffles is standing on. The bat character, realising Sniffles is in trouble, has a change of heart and saves his friend from the cat.

Though, the suspense still ticks as the cat inspects the piece of plank by tuning it on its axis, in finding more intriguing ways of eating Sniffles, thus giving the cat some personality.

The action scenes that follow feature some frantic pacing where the shots go back and forth between the cat, who is at the edge  of eating the mouse, and Batty who is flying for Sniffles' life. Saving Sniffles, who was just spared, they rush back on top of Batty's small home, as they watch the cat's fate. The cat walks away from the mice and falls off the rafters clumsily. The camera pans vertically downwards, where the cat is caught stuck on a piece of glass, and thus this finishes the cartoon. The eery expression on the cat's face, is as rich and striking an expression as Chuck could have created anywhere.

Chuck's slow pacing didn't exactly help out the cartoon, and Sniffles' misadventures was still all-round consistent as like his other cartoons. Attempting to perhaps blend in humour with blabbermouth characters? This is no exception. The blabbermouth personality just ruins the cartoon, and deliberately created to assault the audience's patience. The dialogue sequence with Sniffles and Batty communicating back-and-forth really sidetracked the short, that this ruins perhaps more opportunities that weren't included because of running time, and thus not creating more charming little subtle characteristics of the bat character, such as in the scenes with the pair on top of the rafter.

Being the last of the Sniffles in its original run (not the LAST Sniffles short, mind you), before appearing sporadically, as well as an altered personality, my overall thoughts on the character mostly ranges from hit-and-miss. The character was a tad too cutesy for me, though admittedly the shorts themselves appear to have an indescribable effect towards me, and I don't believe they're as bad as how they're interpreted. Despite being slow and cutesy, they have a divine, subtle quality towards them that make the shorts special. A short that I find striking and attractive would be Sniffles Takes a Trip, as it has a quality that feels unlike a Warners short or even Chuck Jones, in terms of scenery, atmosphere and its nature. Indeed, they're worth watching for Chuck's work was personified differently compared to his greater works.
However, I find that the Sniffles cartoons were rather much Jones' style personally, despite having lengthy filler sequences. Comparing them to years later where he only directed very great cartoons, but Jones had writers like Mike Maltese or Ted Pierce, who provided the Warner Bros. humour for him, and thus Jones kept up the pace. Those shorts, I felt, expressed Chuck's personal side of animation.

Rating: 2/5.

340. Snowtime for Comedy (1941)

Warner cartoon no. 339.
Release date: August 30, 1941.
Series: Merrie Melodies.
Supervision: Chuck Jones.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
No cast.
Story: Rich Hogan.
Animation: Bobe Cannon.
Musical Direction: Carl W. Stalling.
Sound: Treg Brown (uncredited).
Synopsis: The two curious dogs are seen sliding along a frozen river, attempting to retrieve a bone, but it all ends up causing havoc.

What appears to be evident in the short, despite my hatred for the two Curious Dogs, the animation as well as the character designs are beginning to look a lot more slicker than how Chuck had really interpreted them previously. Previously, they were drawn just as realistically as how Chuck Jones preferred to have had the style.

Around this time, Chuck had already started to become more liberal with his drawing style, as the likes of loose animators like Bobe Cannon joined his studio, and thus the animation in his shorts were becoming a lot looser and sketchier, and this is noticeable with the dogs in the shorts.

The stories and circumstances are still mundane and monotonous, and here in the short it doesn't change anything from the formula that Chuck had given them. Chuck is still relying on experimenting several sequences, with the dogs having Pluto-like mannerisms. Whereas previously, they've encountered surrealistic experiences involving secluded areas like a futuristic house, a hollow stage theatre or an amusement park, here; their misadventures occur at a secluded lake area during winter, where the entire lake is frozen, and the entire short is spent on the dogs dealing and struggling with the ice.

From watching the opening of the short, the establishing shot of the two curious dogs shows potential from an artistic perspective. It's a more visually fulfilling opening than any of the short the two dogs have appeared in. It begins with a very complex layout and scenery of the village, with the large dog chasing the pup all in perspective. A very complex scene to layout, and it looks intriguing on screen.


The entire opening sequence in the short starts off rather artistically with again, more complex and intriguing camera angles and pacing. The puppy comes to a stop, when he reaches dead end: an ice chute. From the puppy's perspective, the chute is steep and dangerous.

The clumsiness of the large dog results in, indeed, slow pacing with weak anticipation of the dogs soaring in mid-air, but these noteworthy camera angles and camera pans definitely make up for the poor timing.

A favourite shot of mine in particular would be the extreme down shot of the puppy soaring after the bone. The perspective and anticipation of the scene is wonderfully executed in terms of animation, and the unique camera shot really stands out wonderfully. Admittedly, the use of colour for the sky in the short really sticks out like a sore thumb, and this is putting it bluntly. The colours for the snow effect are indeed decent, but the colour code of the clouds matching the wintertime slush is all wrong. It looks rather polluted, and for a short which the background theme is winter, you'd expect a more suitable combination between the snow and the sky.

What tends to be noticeable in the Curious Dogs shorts would feature an incoherent running gag that would consistently leave audiences confused for the gag showed no purpose, such as the canary bird living in a magician's hat in Stage Fright, or even a magician's bunny in Prest-O Change-O.

Here however, there does appear to be an actual gag which isn't left to ambiguity, though the fact they re-occur throughout the entire short makes the recurring gags flaw somehow.

During the business the big dog is dealing with, such as slipping through ice, the dog would either crash through a completed constructed dam built by a beaver, or the dog would crash through some snow, hitting a tree, and thus causing the squirrel to take from the crash effect.

Whereas the recurring gags to pay off to an extent in the ending scenes, there doesn't appear to be any bigger build-ups in terms of gag anticipations. Meaning, there doesn't appear to be a gag topping on top of the previous gag, meaning the same gag routine is just repeated, and therefore: the charm and humorous opportunities, unseen by Rich Hogan, are wasted.

And so, much like you'd expect from a dog featuring the dogs, each of them encounter a separate dilemma which would clock in for a majority of the short, with Jones' molasses timing, and constant padding. The puppy's first dilemma is with the pup standing on small pieces of ice patches centered around the frozen lake. The animation of the pup struggling to survive standing on an isolated ice patch is rather enjoyable as well as well-crafted.

To make the sequence appear more suspenseful for the pup, the ice patch begins to break apart in two, leaving an awkward position for the pup whose feet are standing each on the ice patch, and this is another dilemma for the pup, making the suspense more intriguing. The pacing is slow in terms of Chuck's standards, though I do find however the suspense and the cliffhangers being built up to be rather enjoyable in how the pup will get out of the patch alive. Though I find that most of the circumstantial situations pointless in how Chuck plans them out for his characters, I find this sequence however, an exception for it does build-up, whereas in previous situations, they are poorly padded and unwatchable.

 The sequences involving the bigger dog, however, is unwatchable for its poor padding, as well as making the circumstances appear anti-climatic. The bigger dog, who is already experiencing problems with the slippery ice, accidentally knocks his head onto the tree stump, covered in snow.

Once he exits the foot of snow, the sequence turns to nonsense involving the dog acting very weary from the head damage. He discovers the dog bone, but struggles to retrieve it cue to the weariness suffering in his head. Some of Chuck's comic expressions for the weary dog are passable.

The sequence shows some very beautiful character animation of the weary dog (likely animated by Ken Harris), but the continuous padding is already off-putting, as it just doesn't let the scene play, or at least move onto to another climax.

And so, the climax heightens, but with another dilemma, making the next dilemma anti-climax. The dog has the rear half of his body blocked by a chunk of ice, and the dog attempts to think of solutions to fight his way out of the chunk of ice. This once again ends up with another uninspired Pluto-like sequence, with the outcomes looking flat and unfunny.

Once the puppy makes it out alive from the dilemma he faced with the ice patch, he encounters more circumstances, and thus this DOES lead up to a climax, unlike the padded sequence with the dog and the chunk of ice. Once the puppy lands back onto slippery ice, he encounters a new problem.

The ice is beginning to crack, meaning the dilemma is already building up towards a bigger problem than the previous issue the puppy had. This leads to the puppy running away from the ice frantically.

This is rich material for the puppy, who without doubt is the character given the juiciest sequences in the short, despite having identical personalities with the larger dog.

Note when the puppy breaks the beaver's dam, the gag involves into a gag which is likely inspired from a Donald Duck short, The Hockey Champ. In that short, Donald frantically crashes through a wall of snow, which covers him completely, but covering him is a steam-locomotive gag to emphasise the speed he is racing. The gag in this short is almost parallel, except the puppy is sprinting in the style of a steamboat, disguised by the dam logs. This time, after crashing a tree, the build-up finally arrives for the squirrel, who encounters a new problem: the tree is splitting.

Just as the climax is going to build up, the pup chases the bone which ascends its way up the ski lifts. Once the bone drops from one of the lifts, it lands upon a very steep hill which becomes perilous for the pup once he retrieves the bone.


In a long shot pan, the dog trips slightly, but as he rolls down the hill, he transfigures into a giant snowball in the shape of a dog. The other dog, who is still struggling with the ice, watches the snowball and mistakes it as a monster figure.

And so, the dog runs off frantically: resulting in a action chase sequence. And so, the recurring gag of the beaver's dam pays off when the snowball figure crashes the dam, but transfigures into a snow-built dam. With the havoc over, the puppy and the dog stick their heads out from the snow, though the bigger dog finds the chunk of ice caught in his head: meaning he has more problems, as the cartoon ends.

Comparing this short to the other cartoons featuring the Curious Dogs, I'd consider this short to be one of the more better shorts, but only a little better. I'd say this short is at least close to being 'passable', but it still hasn't quite merit that level. The unique staging and camera angles were rather effective to start off as a camera opening, that as a rarity, it caught my attention, especially from an early Chuck Jones cartoon, whose shorts I tend to struggle to keep my attention-span focused. The dilemma with the puppy was also great stuff, as it built up with more suspense as well as some good action which did pay off. Nevertheless, there was still a lot of flaws which makes the short still not a passable short, the situations with the older dog was very clumsily paced and uninspiring, the recurring gags weren't inventive or creative, and it felt wasted. It's saying a lot to say this is a short I'm tolerant of watching, as to say the least, the Two Curious Dogs have produced some of the my least favourite shorts ever made. Perhaps, this could be foretelling Chuck Jones' developing and improving on true talents he would later on master.

Rating: 2/5.

335. Inki and the Lion (1941)

Warner cartoon no. 334.
Release date: July 19, 1941.
Series: Merrie Melodies.
Supervision: Chuck Jones.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
No cast.
Story: Rich Hogan.
Animation: Philip Monroe.
Musical Direction: Carl W. Stalling.
Sound: Treg Brown (uncredited).
Synopsis: Inki, while on the hunt for the Mynah bird, he becomes endangered by a ferocious lion for attempting to spear its cub.

The Inki cartoons tend to show a patterned formula which is almost identical in every short. The shorts would begins with Inki hunting more vulnerable animals with his spears, but the Mynah bird catches his attention. The Mynah bird, whose leitmotif is Fingal's Cave, hops and walks in sync to the score.

The bird is symbolic in the Inki shorts, having a supernatural ability of being undefeatable. Inki would turn his attention towards the bird, but at some point in the short, he would face a more terrifying animal, which is usually a lion (an exception would be Inki at the Circus).

Despite having the exact same formulas, Chuck would attempt to make short slightly different whether it would mean using different scenarios or different deliveries in terms of gag approach.

This short, is mostly a repeat of Inki's first appearance, The Little Lion Hunter, in terms of story but Chuck invents some new situations and approaches along on the way. According to Mike Barrier's Hollywood Cartoons, the first Inki short happened to be successful amongst audiences, that Leon Schlesigner requested Chuck to produce another short. You could say this formula is almost prototype compared to the Chuck's Road Runner shorts, where the scenario and situations were no different each short, but just varying gags and ideas. This short is very much a repeat from its predecessor.

Watching the opening of the short, Inki is seen chasing after a monkey who hides on top of the canopy of a tree. Inki rushes to search for the monkey, relating to a gag where both heads are out but don't meet one another. Besides the opening formula being repeated, notice how Chuck Jones' timing and the animation being produced in his unit is becoming more liberal.

Jones shows a more comical approach for Inki such as the spear gag, where he vibrates rather jerkily.Chuck's timing is evident when Inki hears out for the rustling, crashing noises resulting in an appealing airbrush effect to emphasise his speed, when he rushes behind a tree.

When the rustling and violent effects from the shrubs continue, notice how the animation is much more broad and comical, which shows how Chuck is attempting to make his animation more humorous than Disney-fied. And so, the rustling from the bushes only lead up to a gag that actually pays off for Chuck. The Mynah bird approaches and does his hitch step, which only emphasises on the power he has, for such a tiny bird in comparison.

Chuck Jones also appears to try and find a comical approach in terms of power as well as force, which only pays off in some aspects. In the first part of the gag, Inki is seen hunting out for a baby cub who is licking its paws beside a tree.

Inki prepares to aim his spear towards the cub, but finds a larger lion's hands hold onto the spear, and knocking Inki over to the ground.

The gag itself is a little clumsy in terms of timing, as the approach isn't delivered well, as Inki didn't use enough force in order to achieve that effect, making the gag not realistically effective. The other gag, however appears much later on in the short's ending shot. Inki and the Minah bird shake hands, but the Minah bird's hand show a very firm grip which takes complete control over Inki's body, and leaving him to the ground. This was a more better approach as this once again emphasised on the Mynah bird's power, and the whirling effect made the gag more believable in devilry, whilst the spear gag didn't.

Following from the spear gag, Jones uses a great opportunity which would make up from the poor gag delivery. Inki's encounter with the lion is artistically rich in terms of Inki's point of view shots. The lion faces him upside down, but as Inki turns his head, the lion turns 180 degrees to its normal angle, thanks to the geniuses behind Smokey Garner's department.

Both Inki and the lion then respond to one another with a sheepish expression which only Chuck could master. Inki responds first with a sheepish grin towards the lion, but the lion's grim shows a much more intimidating grin, due to the largeness of his teeth, and gums. Whoever animated the scene, certainly captured the fear of this perilous encounter, the lion's teeth are very intimidating in terms of proportions and realism, and there is a great contrast in terms of size between those two characters. Inki, standing up sweating with fear, then makes a little twirl his foot before he skids out of screen. Another trait from the Warner directors, especially Chuck, where a character would attempt to act innocent by curling their foot before leaving, it makes great character animation.

The following sequence is another equivalence involving a vulnerable character standing on top of danger, a formula that Chuck loved in his early years. This time, Inki is standing on top of the lion's head, unaware of the danger he is standing on top of.


Believing that he has escaped from the lion, he proceeds to climb down the lion's head, but finds that his foot is touching the lion's tooth from his mouth. The rich character animation and gloss is evident in the scenes, to add tension.

This is a challenging scene to animate, as Inki has to act through his foot. Inki grabs hold of the lion's skin where he places it over the lion's tooth, in hope that he would be able to escape easily, despite being in a perilous situation. Inki then turns towards the right and then exits on top of the lion's head. This time he is hiding on top of a log, with the Mynah bird standing on top of his head. Inki now turns his attention towards the Mynah bird, in hopes of capturing it with his spear.

The cave sequence, without doubt is one of Jones' longest-paced sequences, where the action occurs for "long periods of time". To start off with, Inki was following the Minah bird who ends up walking inside the cave. Trying to trap the Minah bird, Inki uses the huge stones to block the entrance of the cave.

After a series of crumpling up stones to block the entrance, Inki weirdly mistakens the lion's behind as a stone in which he attempts to  push his behind to the last gap from the cave. The gag itself is flawed because of the terrible contrast with colour between the rocks as well as the lion.

Had the cave and stones been painted like soil, then the gag would have probably worked better. Unaware of his danger, the lion looks Inki smugly, in which Inki's double-take leads him inside the cave.

Inside the cave, Jones only uses the eyes and teeth putting a lot of emphasis of black-and-white to emphasise darkness inside the cave. The animation itself is communicated well, when most of their body is in silhouette, and the sheepish expressions they make really work well. Inki then rushes outside the cave again, scrambling all the stones frantically, but finds he's been outwitted by the cunning lion. The scene then follows through a very confusing and somewhat incoherent sequence where the lion is attempting to entice Inki to walk inside the lion's mouth. The incoherent part follows when Inki ends up somewhat in a trance, and walks straight towards the lion's mouth. The gag itself doesn't pay off, having no indication or a source that casued Inki to almost go in a trance.

Only the Minah bird can stop Inki's trance from the lion's enticement. The Minah Bird breaks open the rocks from the cave, hopping to Fingal's Cave, and the lion stares at Inki out of curiosity. After the Minah Birds hops out of the scene, the lion turns towards Inki, cornering him by the wall. The lion, attempting to charge at Inki without mercy, finds however he has the inability. The supernaturalness and the power of the Minah Bird has prevented the lion, as his tail is revealed to be tied to a tree stump, therefore making Inki safe. Inki, realising the Minah Bird had saved his life, walks over to thank the Minah Bird who, as mentioned earlier, responds with a firm handshake to leave Inki whirling, emphasising his powerfulness. Though the Minah Bird doesn't have much other action other than his hopping routine, the handshake feels somewhat acceptable, and in character.

The short is very much parallel towards the first shot, so it is nothing much different in terms of story, except just new gags along the way. It feels somewhat typical to name the short Inki and the Lion, as it's no different to the previous short's title. Artistically, Chuck Jones does manage to keep it rather fulfilling, not only the animation, but the use of camera angles like the POV shots, as well as the use of colour contrast, even though it worked well in some areas, and others it didn't. The opening sequence I felt showed a lot of promise of a much, improved Chuck Jones when looking at his comic timing and liberal movement in animation. After the opening, however, it felt too slow and much like Chuck's usual cartoons he was making around that era. Overall, the short is nothing new from Chuck in terms of gags and story, and it feels as though I've already seen this short only two years previously.

Rating: 2/5.