16. Bosko Shipwrecked! (1931)

After two Merrie Melodies cartoons in a row, we return with Bosko again and this time the cartoon is only directed by Hugh Harman. There appears to be a pattern that goes on since then; Hugh Harman directs the remaining Looney Tunes cartoons until 1933, and Rudolf Ising directs the remaining Merrie Melodies until 1933, before they both left for MGM, they still produced both Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Any way, here is the cartoon Bosko Shipwrecked.

Warner cartoon no. 15.
Release date: September 19, 1931.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Directed by: Hugh Harman.
Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger (associate).
Cast unknown.
Animation: Rollin Hamilton and Larry Martin.
Musical Score: Frank Marsales.

The cartoon starts off with a storm, with huge waves and thunderbolts through the screen, and even the massive waves wipe off the screen credits on the screen with the picture. It starts with a ship that is involved in danger, the ship goes through very choppy oceans, and there are huge waves, and then the waves gets smaller and the ship slides down.

The scenes cuts to Bosko who is steering the ship, and he is having some troubles in trying to control the ship, while there is a lookout on a  crow's nest, at one point the lookout is nearly blown off the ship, and he hangs on to the ship, and then the wind is  so powerful that his dungarees nearly blow off and we see his pants. Bosko is trying to catch up with the wheel and continue to steer the ship, and then his whole body turns and turns around the wheel, and he bounces off, and is pushed back at the waves from on the port and starboard sides of the ship, and then gets hit by the wheels in his crotch, and screams. The waves fill up the entire scream.

The next morning, it appears that Bosko was been washed up into an unknown desert island, and he is sleeping on the beach, he was shipwrecked. There are two monkeys from a tree, and they go down and investigate on what creature is that sleeping down there. The monkeys steal Bosko's hat, and the female monkey puts it on, and the male monkey tries to grab it, but she smacks his palm, and the boy monkey complains, and climb back up a tree and he blows a raspberry at her.

The two monkeys are dancing up in a tree with Bosko's hat on, and they are shaking the branch. They don't realize that there is an egg in a nest that falls off, due to the reaction of the shaking going on by the two monkeys. The egg falls off and lands in Bosko's face, Bosko wipes off the yolk in his face and wakes up and says "Where am I?"

Meanwhile there is an annoying parrot that continuously laughs at Bosko because an egg landed in Bosko's face, and then the parrot repeatedly shouts "Yolk on you!" at Bosko. The parrot continues to annoy Bosko with all the laughter that IS annoying. As the parrot is still laughing hysterically, he falls off the branch of a tree and lands into a funny shaped log and all of its feathers fall out, and the parrot is naked. The parrot puts back on the feathers, like putting on a jacket and then walks off.

That was in fact a rather random piece that turned up in this cartoon.

 Bosko laughs at the bird, in an attitude like "Serves him right", and after that; Bosko sees a silhouette lion that roars at Bosko. Bosko's in trouble as there is a lion that's going to eat him, and he runs off scared. There is a chase sequence between Bosko and the lion, and it seems in the shots that the lion is just very close to Bosko, but just never grabs him on time. There is some excellent animation going on where the lion turns around to chase Bosko (as Bosko turned around) and it's done during a close-up, and that's some good staging there. The shot of the lion chasing Bosko (in the framegrabs) was briefly used in the opening credits with a cartoon showing in a Futurama episode called Anthology of Interest I.

Bosko jumps onto a pile of stones while jumping through a pond, and the "stone" turns out to be a crocodile's head and he's about to eat Bosko, but he hangs in a limb from a tree, and the lion is about to make a jump, and the crocodile bites the lion with his huge mouth, with his tail sticking out. Bosko ties the lion's tail onto the branch of a tree with the crocodile hanging on. Bosko jumps out of the tree and lands onto a piece of land to see where he's going, and then he see s a rowing boat and he rows along, and then he sees a rock that leads him to land, and in order to jump safely (so he doesn't trip over while jumping over), he gets out an anchor and throws it at a "rock" that turns out to be a hippo screaming and the hippo screaming drags the anchor and Bosko to head back to land, and the hippo falls into a hole and leaves Bosko flying and curling and ends up in a village.

There is a lot of those type of gags when there is an object (a stone, rock) and it looks alike and then it's revealed to be an animal (crocodile, hippo).

Bosko lands onto a boiling pot and he screams, in which a tribe from one of the huts hear him scream and then a whole group of villagers around Bosko and they all want to eat him. Even a skeleton pops out of the cauldron and says, "Come in, the water's fine",  then laughs; and pops back into the cauldron. The villagers aren't very stereotyped looking (black looking) and appear to be some type of "inked creatures", however it's certainly better than watching Jingle Jitters a 1938 cartoon directed by Friz Freleng.

 

The village leader orders his bodyguard to bring Bosko to see him sitting in his throne, and then orders to "Boil him", and all the other tribes agree to boil him, cook him and eat him alive.Bosko remarks, "Oh yeah", and he brings out one of his guns and it turns out to be novelty, with a cork popping out. All the other tribes start to chase after Bosko.

The tribes start to chase after him, and Bosko goes back into the lake where he sees, what looks like a "rowing boat", and Bosko can't get it moving. As soon as the tribes are at the area where Bosko was, the rowing boat closed, into what appears to be a rhino's mouth closing and in threat to the other tribes, and then swims off. Bosko opens up a door from the rhino, and then he takes out the rhino's front horn, and he plays it like an instrument and - that's all folks!

This cartoon is not very interesting to watch when reviewing it actually. There wasn't really too much to say here, no specific gags involved, or anything bizarre happened. It was just a bland cartoon, with many of the gags where it shows a stone that reveals identity to an animal living in the water. What I have learnt is that since Merrie Melodies started, Harman and Ising separated in directing, with Ising directing Merrie Melodies and Hugh directing Looney Tunes with Bosko.

I'd also like to say that I'd like to thanks those who contributed to the site Toonzone - Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies: The Early Years where it has a lot of framegrabs and synopsis in all the Harman-Ising cartoons from 1930-1933, but it doesn't have any more on the later Looney Tunes cartoons, it's still worth looking at - and it prevents me from finding the character are actually saying, even when I can't understand a word.

15. Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! (1931)

Warner cartoon no. 14.
Release date: September 5, 1931.
Series: Merrie Melodies.
Directed by: Rudolf Ising.
Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger (associate).
Cast unknown.
Animation: Friz Freleng and Carmen "Max" Maxwell.
Musical Score by: Frank Marsales.

Well, this is the second Merrie Melodies in a row (as well as being the second ever Merry Melody), and it's also the second appearance that we see of Foxy and Roxy.

 The cartoon starts off with Foxy on the number 13 trolley, and he sings the title song, Smile Darn Ya Smile in a happy attitude, and he rings the bell a couple of times, while singing the song. While he hits the bell, a cat behind the trolley uses it's tail to hit the bell a couple of times. I've noticed that Foxy's voice changes in this short, as it was a bit of a higher voice last time (with the line "Oh lady, play your mandolin!"), the voice actor here is unknown and I wonder if anyone else knows? Also the indicator on the trolley joins into the tune.

As there is a fat hippo that walks along, and then Foxy appears to stop at a junction and shouts "All aboard!", and then the hippo puts her umbrella away, and tries to step onto the trolley, and since he's so massive she can't even fit into the trolley, and so Foxy has to step inside and try to push her in himself. As that didn't work (and the hippo nearly squashed Foxy), he pulls out a pin from her ha and jabs it in to her stomach and she burtss and gets smaller and thinner, and that her blouse doesn't even fit her. She complains to Foxy (and it's speaking English backwards) and she walks off disgusted.

 

 So, Foxy laughs at the burst hippo as he walks off, and so Foxy jumps back on the trolley,  runs with it, and then jumps on top of the car with wheels and jumps back on, and he gets back on with his job.

The next trolley stop has Foxy's girlfriend Roxy who pops along and joins with Foxy on the trolley trip along and they start to sing the song Smile, Darn Ya, Smile as well - as a singing duet. But at first they meet it each other, they sing a well-known song Good Morning to You, and they even say a line to each other "I'm glad to see you," feels very soppy to my tastes.

Even the advertisement billboards come to life themselves, with a dog from an ad. called "Narrow Collars", and then there are these two other animals in an ad. called "cough drops" that have a cold and then they sneeze so violently that the bird in the advertisement on their right - all of the bird's feathers come out. That is a very clever gag itself, and I like it very much. So, the bird hits the dogs in the heads with a bat one at a time with the word being sung "smile (bonk on the head) darn ya, smile (bonk on the head)".

There appears to be another dog in a billboard sign with the ad saying " Risk Tires", and laughs at the scene going on in the advertisements on their right, and then a skeleton from a grave in a billboard sign laughs at that as well, the slogon on that billboard said "Ask the guy who owns one!" Oh, I should point out that the billboard gags were by Bob Clampett, at least according to him in an interview by Michael Barrier and Milt Gray, and Clampett would've been 18 and his first screen credit as an animator didn't happen until 1934.

So, Foxy and Roxy continue to ride along the tracks and then they come pass a cow with spectacles that is just standing in the middle of the road just chewing, and Foxy wants him out of his way, and he brings the bell and nothing happens, until the cow spits at the trolley, and the front part breaks down, and then Foxy pulls it back up and fixes it.

 In the meantime, there are a couple of tramps who are just underground the railway tracks from the delayed trolley where Foxy and Roxy are, and the tramps start singing the chorus to Smile, Darn Ya, Smile and while they are singing the verse, there is one scene of a chicken in a pot singing and then the dog tramp hits him on a head with a kitchen spoon. I've noticed a background error, that in the layouts during the shots of the tramps singing, the first shot shows a pot boiling, and in another shot with the hobos - the pot isn't there, and then the next shot with them after that, the pot returned. Sounds like a mistake made by the crew.

As Foxy thinks that time is wasting, and is asking for the cow to move, and as the cow won't move, he steps out and thinks of an idea and then his idea comes, and that is to move the trolley to step back, and then make a run up and dive under the cow, and then they make it - even though the cow walks away uninterested, which is an often repeated attitude in a Harman-Ising cartoon.

 While Foxy and Roxy laugh at the cow, Foxy jumps his head on a cave and falls off the trolley, leaving no-one controlling the trolley, and Roxy is the only one inside and the trolley is going down a very steep hill, which leaves Roxy in serious danger and shouts "Help!" Foxy tries to get a piece of rope from the trolley, and tries to tie it up by a tree, but since the pressure of the trolley going down a hill is so strong, the the ropes pull out and Foxy falls back in the trolley.

 Roxy is still crying for help, and Roxy is trying his best to figure out how to control the machines to halt, and nothing is working at all, which leaves their lives in danger and that the trolley could crash any minute. Foxy and Roxy are in panic, and as they are going through different caves, it was reused from the short Box Car Blues, and as I got before in a comment; the tunnel scenes were from Trolley Troubles an Oswald cartoon by Harman and Ising in 1927. So, Foxy is now crying for help, and then in a shot, the tracks end at a steep cliff and the trolley falls off and Foxy screams, and his mouth goes right at the camera, and...

Foxy is back into reality, and all the danger scenes of him and Roxy were just a dream, and he falls off the bed that was part of the dream. The radio is still singing, Smile, Darn Ya, Smile and Foxy is sick of hearing that song, and he smashed the radio by ripping off one of his bedposts, and laughs with a quick iris out and that's all folks!

This cartoon was probably a better cartoon than Lady, Play Your Mandolin - it was actually a cartoon that I've heard of since I was 9 years of age, and I've always wanted to see that, and the Foxy cartoons - but it wasn't the best to my surprise when I did first see it. I've sort of always wanted to review this, and I have now.

I supposed that Harman-Ising had a directing habit of recycled animation, and it was part of the Great Depression where they saved money, and I guess some of it works and some of it doesn't work. The story has a similiar plot to shorts like Sinkin' in the Bathtub and Box Car Blues.

14. Lady, Play Your Mandolin! (1931)

As I've said, I'm going to be reviewing the first ever short in the Merrie Melodies series, as the past shorts was nothing but Looney Tunes, and that's how it originally started off at first. The name Merrie Melodies was an actual spoof name to a past series called Spooney Melodies (also produced by Schlesinger). The new series was used to promote new music for new pictures, and sort of "animated music videos" but with extra stuff inside it, Looney Tunes was now more of a series where it had adventures with Bosko. Merrie Melodies was made for that reason and with different multiple characters that were created.

 Warner cartoon no. 13.
Series: Merrie Melodies.
Release date: August 1931.
Directed by: Rudolf Ising.
Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger (associate).
Cast unknown.
Animation: Rollin Hamilton, Norm Blackburn and Bob Clampett (uncredited), Friz Freleng (uncredited), and Carmen Maxwell (uncredited).
Musical Score: Frank Marsales.

The main plot in this whole short show a lot of drinking and folks in a bar all drunk, and singing. This cartoon was made three years before the Production Code of 1934, and that's why the cartoon focuses on a lot of alcohol. According to the documentary, Toonheads: The Lost Cartoons the cartoon was never reissued to theatres, and wasn't shown around the 1990's since it's theatrical release.

The cartoon starts off inside a Mexican saloon and everyone is singing into Lady, Play Your Mandolin and there are a group of drunks that are singing as well, and even the waiter who appears to be a type of ape, who sings in a low voice, "I'm a sinner, too". He also serves beer to a type of duck. While the song is still going on, the ape looks at the screen, and we see the ape right at the camera just laughing - blimey, wouldn't that frighten the audience. There is also a duck that is playing the flute and stepping on the piano keyboards making a tune.

So, the ape goes through a line of drunks who are drinking, and the ape appears to be dancing to some dance move, and there is also one shot of some hungry hippo who seems to be screaming at the top of his voice for no reason - probably asking for more.

In the meantime, a new character from south of the border is heading his way and the character is Foxy, and it looks as if he's a gaucho. I supposed he was created as it's main character and somehow suddenly disappeared after the cartoon One More Time. Anyway, he appears to be in Mexico in the saloon with his sombreros and humming to the title song as well. Even the saloon building outside appears to be dancing to the music, which is sort of a spoof to the early Disney cartoons like The Gallopin' Gaucho. Foxy is sort of a similar design to Mickey Mouse, except the diffrerences are is the "fox ears" and the bushy tail.

Foxy also leaves his horse's neck tied up onto a bit of cactus, oh my - but wouldn't Foxy think of a better idea of leaving his horse and not have his neck jabbed onto a piece of cactus, because that's quite dangerous.

As soon as Foxy enters the saloon, and there are people celebrating him entering the saloon as if he is the man or something and singing I'm a Gay Caballero, and confetti flying across the room, and he also sings across the room, as if he is proud to be here and worshiped by those drunks.

Meanwhile, Foxy is welcomed to a table, and there appears to be a hatstand that comes to life and offers Foxy to take his sombrero and instead of Foxy having to get his sombrero and jacket to the hatstand, the object and walks off with his items. So, the ape waiter comes up to Foxy and asks for what drink that he would order, and then gives him a glass of beer and then Foxy puts money on the table for the waiter.

The waiter extends his chops and then puts the coin inside as if it was a cash register. Foxy starts to drink the entire booze in one gulp and then he rests his feet up on the table as there is a show which is about to start, by a bird who uses his sombrero as a trumpet for an announcement. The bird uses so much energy, that the bird gets thinner and thinner in body shape (another Harman-Ising gag used in a seperate series).

So, the curtains and there is a female fox who is performing tonight at the saloon (although the character is originally unnamed but in that show in the 90s called Tiny Toons - a show I've never watched; they had an appearance with that character and it was named Roxy), and the fox's name has always been referred to as Roxy, who is sort of a Warner Bros. take on Minnie Mouse. Foxy woos at Roxy, and shouts at the stage, "Oh lady, play your mandolin", and uses his hands to demonstrate Roxy playing a mandolin. Roxy says to the audience, "Oh baby, hear my song sin", and then she starts the song with "Lady play your mandolin - baby that that tune begin, when you sing that song of sin I'm a sinner too," and then Foxy repeats the verse "I'm a sinner, too", and then a fat hippo, and a mouse that lives in a tobacco spit bowl.

Foxy starts to singto Roxy back the lines to the song, and then starts to become a singing duet with Roxy in the song, and  whilst there is singing being heard outside, Foxy's horse (still attached on to a piece of cactus) razzies at the singing going on.

The horse then starts to untie itself from the cactus by pulling it's tail that brings his head back in it's usual body shape. The horse opens the saloon doors and starts to make irritating sounds inside (he's making trumpet sounds), and then Foxy walks by and hits him on the head with a beer bottle and knocks the horse wasted and drunk with alcohol, and uses his own body to play the trumpet. Foxy appears to be "singing the title song like Al Jolson".

In the meantime, Foxy and Roxy continue their song and singing along to Lady, Play Your Mandolin. While the horse is playing the trumpet using himself to play it, there is an old, fat dog who is dancing, and there is gags there - like a mysterious mouse popping by and playing music on his sombrero. The next gag is his white beard that turns into a type of body shape and the beard dances, and then his teeth extend taller, and his "teeth chatters" to the rhythm. It seems to me that the drunk old dog has some problems in his body.

 

So, the horse enters the saloon this time and is all drunk and wasted, and starts to drink through the beer bottle, and even walking around the bar surrounded by drunks too (like what the ape did earlier), and then the horse looks inside the mirror, and instead of his mirror reflections, he starts getting hallucinations of scary monsters roaring at the mirror.

While the horse is walking down in a line with his booze bottle where the crowd cheer on him, and for some strange reason, the horse ends up in flames for no reason (either because he could spit fire), and then he starts to burn up, and then the flames extinguishes itself, and the horse is all burnt. So, the horse, a hippo, the ape waiter and Foxy all go around the horse and sing the final verse as part of the finale "Play your mandolin!, and then a mouse pops out from the horse's pants and puts a bin lid on top of a spit bowl, and that's all folks.

Well, that's the first Merrie Melodies cartoon reviewed, and its' kind of an interesting cartoon to watch, and it's important because of the standpoint of it's history as being "the very first Merrie Melody", but the cartoon itself isn't that great, and it's just basically singing and dancing (like a music video but animated), and that's probably why Merrie Melodies was created for that reason.

This was actually quite tough to review, especially that it was singing and dancing, and that it was the first Merrie Melodies, I started doing this review since this afternoon and didn't come back on it since tonight, and I'm now finished with it. Next up: Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!

 

Article on Rochelle Hudson

Yesterday in one of my requests that if anyone knew more about the main stars in the Bosko series of Looney Tunes like Johnny Murray who played Bosko, and Honey played by Rochelle Hudson. Yowp has been very helpful by sharing his source in a newspaper article back in the 1930's, on Facebook, about Rochelle Hudson when she was roughly 14 (the newspaper article says she was 17). I do feel the need to share this:

Article property of Yowp.

This newspaper article explains about Rochelle Hudson who seems to be pursuing a movie career (probably on Warner cartoons) when she used to live in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It explains that she's been acting since she was four years old, and has acted in "schools, clubs, etc.", it seems that now she's pursuing a movie career, and yet this article doesn't say anything about her involvement in voice acting Honey.

Yowp confirms that this newspaper article was written in 1930 and Hudson was 17 at the time, and yet the death records lists her birth as 1916, and if she is 17 in that article, she would've been born in 1913. Although, I suppose that Yowp made a point that she most likely lied about her age to go into the film business as she was "legally too young to do stage work in Oklahoma". So, in that case she most likely made up her age.

Meanwhile, it's great to hear a bit more on Johnny Murray that he was Richard Barthelmess' singing partner, and died in August 1956, at the aged of 52 of leukemia. I checked on Social Security Index, and it confirms the death year and month, and also confirms his birth date around June 1904, so it means that he was putting on a falsetto voice of Bosko.

I just felt I ought to share this, and I hope it's ok if I'm allowed to do this.

13. The Tree's Knees (1931)

Warner cartoon no. 12.
Release date: July 1931.
Directors: Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising.
Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger (associate).
Starring: Johnny Murray (Bosko, Squirrel).
Animation: Isadore "Friz" Freleng and Rollin Hamilton.
Musical Score by: Frank Marsales.

 The short starts off with Bosko and he appears to be a lumberjack (even though he doesn't have the uniform - but there was a short later on titled Bosko the Lumberjack). He is walking through the woods with his axe and whistling. As Bosko finds a type of tree that he's eager to cut down, the tree comes to life and tries to stop Bosko from cutting down the tree, and then a squirrel pops out and begs to Bosko, "Won't you spare that tree", and that squirrel was voiced by Johnny Murray.

As Bosko decides to spare the tree's life, he celebrates by playing the harmonica, and all the small trees all skip around in a "Merry-Go-Round" style. Bosko says his typical line for "Ain't that cute?" which was used often in these early shorts.

So, as Bosko is about to walk past, a small tree blows a raspberry at Bosko, and then Bosko is offended of what the small tree does to him, and then there is a small chase sequence between Bosko and the tree, and Bosko finally grabs the tree's bark - and then the small tree becomes naked and then he shivers, as Bosko has his type of cloak and he refuses to return it and that he finally gives in, and returns the cloak to the shivering tree. So, the tree puts back on his cloak (another Harman-Ising gag) and then he walks off ignoring Bosko, and kicks him on the shin.

So, Bosko comments to himself "Well, suck my mouth" (a line reused from Ain't Nature Grand?), and then he walks off and finds other trees to cut down for him. I admit that the gags were that have been reused and the dialogue do kind of annoy me - I'm familiar that the cartoons were made during the Great Depresion, and that money was very scarce back then, but I did read somewhere that reusing didn't actually save money, and they could really start from stratch. Even the scene where Bosko walks along to find another tree and the leaves falling down were reused from the first shot in this cartoon.

Bosko looks up to a tree with a singing bird sitting on another branch, and there is a real life tree that is rocking a nest of little baby birds, and the mother bird is humming to Rock-a-Bye Baby and I must say, that is a clever and original gag that I've seen so far in this cartoon, the branches are the arms and is cradling the nest, I is pretty much, but not hilarious.

Bosko looks up at the tree and says, "Ain't that cute?" again. I'm now going to proclaim, that is was probably Bosko's catchprase at that point.

As Bosko says that line after wards, a bird (seen off-screen at first) spits at Bosko's hat, and I suppose there is a tease-type gag where the audience thought that it was bird dropping landed on Bosko's hat and then the next shot we see is just a bird who was spitting on Bosko's head.

Now that joke is merely quite funny there, because you'd think that the bird pooped on Bosko's hat, but it was just spitting, and yet that's still kind of gross.

As Bosko ignores that bird, and then he sees a passing butterfly flying through the woods and just doing what a normal butterfly would do. So, this catches Bosko's attention and then she follows the butterfly again and then he ends up in a type of waterfall (reused backgrounds from Ain't Nature Grand?), and yet the whole butterfly part was reused in that short, too. Darn, seriously?

So, Bosko starts off a rhythm with the woods beat and with some trees lined up, and then he starts to play them like a harp.

In the meantime, there is a tree that comes to life, and he has some roots sticking out on his trunk, on his right side, and then he pulls the leaves, with create violin strings and he brings out a stick from the ground and plays it like a bow on a violin. Meanwhile, the music is starting and then there is a "weeping willow" who seems to be weeping and it's kind of scary looking watching a willow crying, it's probably the hair - and the concept of her makes her look depressed.

The tree continues to play the violin, and then also used the bow to play with it's belly. There are other animals who appear to be dancing to the tune and singing, like a pelican and they open their beaks one at a time with another pelican.

There are two mice in this part and they are playing on a see-saw with a cutting saw, and with music that actually fit the music to the saw ride. One of the mice land into a pond, from a catapult, and as soon as the mouse is dragged out of the pond, the mouse is very fat due to the amount of water that is in his body. The other mouse lets all the water out of the fat mouse's body by pulling his tail, and more the water comes out, the mouse gets thinner and back to shape.

 

The next shows that both mice cut a slice from the log, and it is shaped like a record casette, and so, one mouth uses the other mouse to point his nose up and place the slice of the wood on top, and then the other mouse enlarges his mouth, and they play the log like a phonograph to play music. Ok, I must say that it is a clever gag there, and they use their tales to play the record player.

The next part shows a tree that comes to life and starts to boogie, and yet even pulls down some leaves as a skirt to dance around, and yet the skirt part is what does freak me the most. Bosko continues to play with the trees as harps, and the tree continues to dance through and waving her shirt and then that's all folks.

This cartoon ... well, it was just mostly reused, and I've noticed that in their cartoons that some of them tended to be reused more in their earlier efforts, and I admit that it's probably because of production costs and they were spending too much money, but the reuses puts me off the most. The cartoon is most of just like The Tree's Knees except it has trees, not much of animals. At least the next post (the very first Merrie Melody cartoon) will probably be more interesting than the other Looney Tunes when it was just all Bosko.

12. Bosko's Holiday (1931)

Warner cartoon no. 11.
Release date: July 1931.
Directors: Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising.
Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger (associate).
Starring: Johnny Murray (Bosko).
Animation: Isadore Freleng and Paul Smith.
Musical Score by: Frank Marsales.

This is the first cartoon where the title card had Bosko's name in it, and since then all the remaining cartoons (asides The Tree's Knees) the rest of the Bosko cartoons would be named like (Bosko at the Zoo, Bosko's Soda Fountain, Battling Bosko, etc.) and this was also the turning point when the singing and dancing in Looney Tunes were no longer in the Bosko shorts when there was more story coming along. The "singing and dancing" shorts would come along in the sister show Merrie Melodies (which would have been expected to be first released on August 1931, a month after Bosko's Holiday).

The short starts off with the telephone ringing loudly and even coming to life trying to get Bosko's attention to answer the phone, but the phone fails because Bosko is a very heavy sleeper, and it seems he has a holiday and is sleeping in late in his bed, or having a lazy day. While Bosko is fast asleep, the telephone sees his friend next to him - an alarm clock; also sleeping - so he hits the alarm clock to wake up Bosko early as he has a telephone call to answer. Notice how the clock snores with a "tick tock" sound - and that's how he snores, I like that gag idea.

The clock itself, tries to wake up Bosko by bringing a bell out of his head and shaking it hard with bell sounds to wake up Bosko, but Bosko is still sleeping heavily and can't hear a sound. The alarm clock also tries to wake Bosko up by holding onto a hairbrush and hitting his "bedpan". Much to the annoyance and frustration of the telephone and the clock, the clock uses one of his pointy clock hands to jab Bosko in the bottom and Bosko finally wakes by feeling something.

Bosko finally steps out of his bed after the jab, and he finally answers the phone - and the fact that he is very tired and can't really be bothered to answer the phone. But, he changes his mind when he realizes that it is Honey (his girlfriend) on the phone and asks Bosko that while they both have a day off, she suggests about having a day out together on a picnic. Bosko is happy about the idea, and then Honey asks him to make it quick on the journey and says goodbye, and then hangs up. As Bosko leaves to get ready and get changed, even the phone seems to ask him to get ready. Gee, could that be an early version of Voicemail ;-).

The dialogue between Bosko and Honey on the phone, the voices sound like children in recording booths that can't read their lines very well. Oh, just as I found out upon my research, Rochelle Hudson was only about 14/15 when she recorded her lines for Honey in this cartoon and obviously was a child. Johnny Murray, I have no idea when he was born and I don't know if he was an adult putting on a silhouette voice, or a child actor. If anyone has more information on Johnny Murray (the regular actor on Bosko, before being taken over by Carmen Maxwell), please make a note in my blog.

As soon as Bosko is ready and he jumps out the window, and he heads for his garage to go and fetch his car to head off to Honey's house. As soon as Bosko gets his car, and he gets the car ready (by using the same gag again - rolling the car like a cycle), and the car is sort of the same design from Sinkin' in the Bathtub. As soon as the car scenes, there are a bunch of tiny cars (children) and follow the car which would be their "mummy", and as Bosko notices them following them, he tells them to "go home", and they walk off scared of Bosko, and as Bosko sees them go he says, "Ain't that cute?" - those lines were reused from Ain't Nature Grand, and the concept of Bosko telling them to leave.

So, while Bosko is in the car, and it appears that the car is doing the driving while Bosko isn't doing anything. Bosko picks out his banjo, and plays some tunes in there, and while one of the strings loosened, and he replaces the strings by pulling out a mouse's tail which is an ornament in the car. The mouse comes to life, and is angered by Bosko's treatment of the mouse. As soon as Bosko arrives at Honey's house, the banjo strings comes off and then tries again to pull the mouse's tail off, but the mouse walks off in time and blows a raspberry to Bosko and walks off.

So, as Bosko arrives at Honey's front yard, and calls for Honey's attention as she arrives at her balcony and says "Hello, Bosko". It's kind of unsettling to see that the scene was actually reused from Sinkin' in the Bathtub, too. When they meet to get ready, Bosko extends his car to stretch and pick up Honey and they can begin their date by having a picnic. I always thought that frame grab (above) always somehow reminds me of the concept of Romeo & Juliett with Honey in the balcony, and Bosko on the grounds, you know what I mean.

 

Honey's dog follows Bosko and Honey in the automobile, and as the automobile tries to drive up a very steep hill and path, and with all the effort - the automobile simply fails to let Bosko and Honey go up the hill and they end up going downhill. Even Bosko tries to push the automobile up the hill by stepping out and pushing it from the back part, but he fails as well because Honey's dog is distracting Bosko by the barking, and Bosko didn't have the effort to push the car up.

As Honey's dog is sniffing the exhaust pipe and even biting part of the wheel, the dog produces a lot of helium and is now a balloon-shaped dog. Gee, does that sound familiar from a gag like that in Hold Anything? Well, Bosko bursts the dog and is now shaped like a bursted balloon before going back to its normal shape. I guess that gag is useful enough and not reused.

After that, Bosko and Honey step out of the automobile, and they cross a log through a river and sit on a broken log in the ground on where they are going to lay their picnic and enjoy the scenery. So, Bosko is enjoying his day out with Honey, and even rubbing her chin and trying to be romantic. He then whispers in her ear something (probably a dirty joke or something), and Honey doesn't like what Bosko said and ignores him in offence.

So, as Honey is cross with Bosko - and Bosko tries to stop Honey being mad and be more romantic with him again, so Bosko eats one of her sandwiches and complements on the way she makes food by saying, "Mmm - delicious!", I know this is a plan Bosko, but eat with your mouth closed!

While Bosko's plan to flatter Honey is working, in the meantime: Honey's dog pops his head up and licks Honey's bum and Honey is suspicious that Bosko is trying to do something sexual towards Bosko (very disturbing), and then she slaps Bosko claiming he's the criminal, and she walks off disgusted, the cartoon ends with Bosko's annoyed comment "Aw, shucks" - and probably thought that his flatter to Honey didn't work - and that's all folks.

There is an interesting story that I want to bring up. About two years ago, I was on a different cruise and there was a British actress named Sue Holderness and she mentioned that dogs often "ruin the show". The dog licking Honey in the bottom is one of the reasons that ruined Bosko's moments, and that they can ruin the show. I think that this is what the cartoon is supposed to be about, and that dogs do tend to ruin the show.

What's I've noticed throughout this cartoon is that the gags were reused, true. But also parts of the animation was reused. It was slightly better than Yodeling Yokels, and the gags like the telephone and clock gags were original I suppose, but they were still part of the gags where objects come to life, that was used all the time in Harman-Ising cartoons. The most interesting part of that cartoon was the ending part, because like I said, "dogs do ruin the show" - well, cartoon dogs with a personality and character wouldn't always ruin the show, but pet ones do though, you know what I mean.