364. Dog Tired (1942)

Warner cartoon no. 363.
Release date: April 25, 1942.
Series: Merrie Melodies.
Supervision: Chuck Jones.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Mel Blanc (Love Birds).
Animation: Phil Monroe.
Musical Direction: Carl W. Stalling.
Sound: Treg Brown (uncredited).
Synopsis: The curious pups, once again fighting over a bone, where they end up chasing each other into a city zoo. Once again, they experience more dangerous encounters.

A cartoon which marks the end of Chuck's period of making Disney-like cartoons, it all comes to an end with the two curious dogs appearing one last. They've already appeared in a couple of cartoons, none of them turned out good: but is six times the charm?

The short begins much like any other cartoon with the dogs: seeking for a bone or running away from trouble. This time they're digging for a bone; and they've dug quite a hole. They listen out for a motorcyclist who rides into the scene, with the dogs narrowly avoiding the vehicle.

This is some pretty edgy, sharp work coming from Chuck Jones--who has the motorcyclist ride in perspective, and the timing of the big dog dodging the vehicle is very slick. A very surprising turn for Chuck, which goes to show that he has already achieved his abilities but he uses it with boring characters. The big dog leaps high up across a wall which leads him trapped inside the city zoo.

Once inside the city zoo; the dogs spend the rest of the cartoon searching for the bone, but become delayed by strange animals which they are oblivious of. What you don' see often in a cartoon with the curious dogs is a sequence that contains satire similar to Tex Avery.


The small puppy is seen observing the features of the zoo, and watches the lovebird sanctuary. Up there is a pair of lovebirds, with the male bird embracing the female in the cliched romance style from movies of that generation.

The male lovebird expresses his lust for her by stroking her head, with cheesy dialogue along the lines of: "I love your eyes, your wings, your feathers and your beautiful little claws. I'm madly, deliriously, insanely in love with you." Once the male lovebird notices he's being watched he turns towards the pup irritated: "Ok bub, break it up".

The pup still watches with interest, leading to the lovebird to scream: "Scram, stupid!". As a sequence individually, it's an amusing piece of satire and Mel Blanc's take on the screaming lovebird is the icing on the cake. It most likely got laughs from the audience, and it sure stands out compared to the rest of the cartoon. In the cartoon however, I'm afraid it doesn't fit into the cartoon's setting. Of course, it already has a weak concept: the two curious dogs encounter strange animals in a city zoo. This scene would've worked better in a satirical cartoon, like in one of Tex Avery's travelogue parodies. You've got to give Chuck at least credit for trying to explore the exploring Warner Bros. humour, except it doesn't blend in the cartoon too well.

Most of the sequences in the short is the same as the previous cartoons. The big dog will have a dilemma, and the small one will have a different: before it clashes together.

Ken Harris certainly played a performance in animating a very complex and mechanical scene of the kangaroo hopping around the zoo with the dog stuck inside his pouch. The path of the zoo is laid out at different angles, and this requires the kangaroo to hop in different perspectives and size, judging from distance. Ken Harris was always given the most challenging scenes to animate, and he always did it well.


Not only is he animating a kangaroo hopping from different sizes, but he's also animating the dog dangling inside the pouch. The kangaroo skids to a halt as he pursues to smell some flowers. The big dog quietly escapes from the patch as he uses his tiptoes to avoid the kangaroo.

The big dog then copies the kangaroo's bounces as he begins to hop like one (also animated by Harris). The hopping is fun to watch, although the sequence feels more like an animation experimental scene rather than a sequence itself. There are some gags along the way that goes with it such as the dog hopping his way inside the tunnel, and the tunnel gets narrower until he bumps his head several times. Overall, it feels a little less of a gag sequence, why does the big dog hop like a kangaroo? Anyhow, at least it benefits with some inventive animation by Ken Harris.

As I had mentioned previously in my review of Conrad the Sailor, Chuck Jones' timing and pacing had already been achieved successfully in the cartoon, but he still suffered with a reliant of unnecessary pantomime. This cartoon is another prime example of that, but since Chuck was the master of pantomime in animation; some scenes still suffer from being slow here and there. On the bright side, there is a lot of scenes which actually show sharper pacing. Areas of Chuck's fun pieces of timing is evident in the porcupine scene when the big dog is jabbed from climbing down a pine tree. Another great scene is when the puppy scuffles with the turtle to return his home. Dust covers up the violence and it unveils with the turtle bare but spared by his briefs, and the puppy is caught inside his shell.

Chuck doesn't tend to focus on one sequence and let it drag for a minute or two. Instead he adds more sequences for the characters. Instead of having the puppy chase the turtle to carry on half the cartoon, the puppy encounters several different animals on the way, and surprisingly well-paced. Though, this will be observed later on in the review.

Sequences which did did tend to drag a little, which I reviewed earlier, was the lovebird sequence. In a Tex Avery spot-gag; Tex would've paced the scene evenly so the audience get the gist of what's happening, and have the lovebird shout out once. The palm tree gag also is a little slow in some places.

The big dog almost had an encounter with grizzly lions caught in their cages, after an attempt to get his bone back. Their ferocious roars were intimidating enough to scare the dog up the pine tree. He hopelessly barks at the lions until they become quieter and meeker. I suppose Chuck tries to add to the charm by adding a curiosu monkey into the scene, even though the monkey and the dog barely communicate.


The sequence drags a bit when the dog slides down the pine tree and gets jabbed by the porcupine. More barking continues. It's not a minor complaint, though it would've worked better if Chuck finished the sequence with the dog zooming up the pine tree.

The puppy faces another dilemma by trying to retrieve his bone which passed onto several animals. First an ostrich, then a turtle; and then a sleeping hippopotamus. The dog rushes inside the hippo's gut before being cautioned. We are displayed with an unseen gag which is reliant on Treg Brown to provide sound, in making the gag work. Treg meets the challenge well, in which the dog takes by rushing outside the hippo's mouth quickly before the hippo closes his jaws.

The cartoon also features some recurring gags to help carry the cartoon. One gag involves a laughing hyena who laughs at the dog's misfortune whether they experience humiliation or danger. The hyena doesn't play too much of a role other than making the dogs a laughing stock. He does however pay off at the end of the cartoon, which will be revealed at the end of the review.


Another recurring gag which doesn't have a conclusion is a stork who always meets collision whenever the dogs run past the standing stork. The stork has trouble keeping his legs adjust, and it doesn't help when he is knocked over by one of the dogs.

In one of the scenes of the big dog hopping like a kangaroo, he encounters the stork and the stork reacts to the dog's hopping. This leads to ruining the stork's image, and once more adjusting himself to the right position. It doesn't have a conclusion, and it's only used to help carry laughs in the short. Sometimes the scenes of the stork is amusing, but other than that; it doesn't have much purpose.

And so, the final scene leads to a climax. The dog walks back, and immediately turns back towards the hippo's cage to return his bone. The dog retrieves it successfully, and he rushes into mid-air due to the hippo opening his jaws on time. The puppy slides down the pine tree, past the lion's cage and then the stork with the big dog trapped inside. This leads to the final shot where both of the pups escape from the stork's bill, and right inside the kangaroo's pouch. Caught once more, they are reunited with the hyena who claims the bone. He laughs at the pair of them, placing his arms around them just as the cartoon draws to a finish.

This cartoon is a lot more evenly-paced than any of the other cartoons starring the dogs. Most of the scenes don't tend to drag on for too long, and some of the gags created for the cartoon are more coherent than what Chuck attempted to do before. For some the highlight of the cartoon might be the lovebird scene, but for me it's the kangaroo hopping. This is partly because Chuck was always so daring to experiment with animation, and to pull a scene which is difficult shows what Chuck Jones and his crew were able to pull off, and how he could get the best out of his artists. As the cartoon marks the last time he produces a cartoon in a Disney style, he would move on to greater things; and by making the household of Warner Bros. animation a great name.

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.

301. Stage Fright (1940)

Warner cartoon no. 300.
Release date: September 28, 1940.
Series: Merrie Melodies.
Supervision: Chuck Jones.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
No cast.
Story: Rich Hogan.
Animation: Ken Harris.
Musical Direction: Carl W. Stalling.
Sound: Treg Brown (uncredited).
Synopsis: Two Curious Dogs wonder around an abandoned arena; where they are fighting over a bone; but they face other problems: especially from a happy seal, and a high-wire stage.

The curious dogs; quite possibly the worst of Chuck's earliest characters, are beginning to be made a lot less, as it is evident Chuck was focusing on his new character: Sniffles...who was modestly popular. In 1939; Chuck had produced three cartoons with the dogs: Dog Gone Modern, Prest-O Change-O and The Curious Puppy. Now, up to the point of Stage Fright; they're only shown in at least one cartoon a year until Chuck finally abandoned the characters by 1943; but of course, the silent personas for the characters never died out; as he would use them much more successfully in his more established career.

Chuck really just relied on the monotonous formula; where the dogs encounter a place which is seen as odd to their point of views: it was done in a futuristic house, an abandoned magician's home, a carnival...here it is being placed in a theatre.

The sequences and story construction is just the repeated formula for the dogs: they try to retrieve a long on a wire-balance display; the dogs then gets trapped by a seal in its tank, but throughout the cartoon they are being outwitted by a bird whose appearance is shown to be almighty; much similar to the Minah Bird in the Inki cartoons.

The magician's bird walks into the scene in rhythm to a Stalling cue; with a particular angry walk; giving the bone back to the dogs, before walking back into his home; and the action is all repeated throughout the short. The seal is the only character who really has the personality of a seal biologically; whereas the dogs are obviously curious; and the bird has a more disgruntled personality.

Throughout the cartoon as well as the particular encounters the dogs go through in an empty stage set...Chuck Jones appears to come up with the whole bizarre concept where the bone always ends up inside the magician's hat, and an angry bird living in the hat just walks out to toss the bone back to the dogs and walk back into the house.

Whereas Chuck is giving the bird a particular little personality, and the musical walk is the cue for the magician's bird; it really is a disadvantage in terms of the cartoon's pacing. It's the wrong sort of music cue, as well as deliverance in timing to have it somehow appear funnier when shown throughout the entire cartoon.

The action is not funny, the timing is very slow, and the action is just monotonous and its lacking any subtle touches. The bird is used for climatical sequences; whereas in the final scene of the cartoon; his threatening gestures come to a conclusion, where he slaps both bones into the dogs' mouths before walking back into the magician's hat.

Chuck had used that little experiment with minor characters, in a few cartoons: one that comes to mind is in Roughly Squeaking; where an inquisitive bird misinterprets the action, believing he is going nuts. The action, the delivery and the wild takes were all wonderfully conceived in a humorous action; whereas the bird here lacks any form of comedy, and Chuck interpreted the action wrong. It's evident that Chuck was trying to get a kick out of the recurring gag; but still could not master the challenge. The bird's design resembles a tiny fraction of Henery Hawk; except both characters are completely different to one another; whereas Henery was more established, and the bird here just merely interrupts the action of the cartoon, slowing down the entire cartoon, by ruining the pacing. All he does is walk with a threatening posture.

Beginning the cartoon; the two curious dogs are fighting over a bone by wrestling it with their chops in hoping to gain full property of it. This ends up with the small puppy winning the bone; but the big dog chases the puppy towards the streets and then into an empty stage set which is displayed for vaudeville; as shown from the poster outside. Lots of sets back been displayed; particularly scenery made from cardboards; a water tank where a wet seal lives inside; it is all presented as empty, and somewhat shallow.

Just from after the first encounter with the angry bird; the bone is no longer property of the puppy; and end up fighting over the bone; until it reaches their first problem: stuck balancing on high-wire. Chuck creates a motivating point-of-view shot of how high the bone is seen from the high-wire; though a similar angle shot is displayed and laid out more effectively in High Diving Hare.

Up onto the diving board: the first problem with collecting the bone then begins.

Carefully and impulsively stepping onto the high-wire; hoping to get some balance...the big dog's balance has a very sloppy piece of control. The vibrating, wobbly effect is presented with some missing touches.

Of course, you can see some of Chuck's attempted bit of comic timing, but it's really missing Treg Brown's touches, and the music cue by Stalling overlaps the action of the animation which doesn't take advantage of the animation; and so the action is just a little dull.

The action with the weight board is a little humorous in terms of timing, though this then creates more useless dilemmas whereas the big dog is seen caught on top of the high-wire; and the little puppy scampers off to find the bone. Though; the camera angle shots are a little intriguing which saves from the poor action of the cartoon; and that Chuck was at least trying several attempts in punching it up..when it is already flawed.

The bone then ends up in another part of the stage set; the water tank which it is home of a seal. This follows on with the typical mushy-paced piece of character animation of the puppy and the bone interacting. Though, it may have been animated realistically, it shows Chuck is trying too hard in terms of pacing and interactions.

The seal, therefore, has the bone. The seal, though, has the instincts of the animal but nothing else. There is no personality for him, whereas the dogs are evidently curious (as its shown in their names); the magician's bird has an annoyed attitude; whereas the seal is just a happy-like creature having fun by using the dogs as objects to perform some skills.

The seal sequence really is key to the cartoon's poor pacing; and the whole sequence almost takes up the entire cartoon: except with fillers of the angry bird approaching the big dog with angry gestures.

The big dog, somehow, makes it down the high-wire act by crossing it; but finds his companion is swimming under the water tank for an efficient bit of time. Whereas the seal appears as a mimic through the window of the tank.

This then turns into a padded sequence where the seal tosses the fish into the dog's mouth, and then the dog's bone being retrieved...oh, and the magician's angry bird approaching the dog.

Then towards the end of the cartoon; the seal uses the dog for generic tricks such as spinning them like a beach ball on the tip of its nose. Though, the airbrush effect on the swirl shows some appeal, even though the timing isn't so crisp.

No matter how slow Chuck's timing is in the cartoon, and how bland the two dogs are: one great scene shows a staggering puppy, with a dizzy spell after his activity with the seal. A great little walk; which shows some great methodical working well as a three-dimensional feel in the works. After a great little staggering walk; his confusion then leads to extra 'padding' where he barks and growls at the bare bone he is facing towards. Ho-hum. Then this ends in a fight, the bird walking past to give back the bone: snapping them, so they get the share of the bone until he walks back into his hat.

Overall, Stage Fright was a pretty terribly paced cartoon, and twice as slow as even the poorly-paced Pluto cartoon would be. I'd nominate this short as quite possibly one of Chuck's most poorly-timed and padded shorts he has ever produced; as there is very little sequences of action taking place, and the action never gets to a point. The bird really lacked any form of appeal or even its similar manner like the Mynah Bird; being almighty, and even having his music theme (anyone know if this is a Stalling cue or song?). The cartoon itself indicates that Chuck still hasn't mastered the pantomime effect on character animation, and most importantly: his timing.