44. Bosko the Drawback (1932)

 Sorry folks, that I didn't post anything yesterday, I was busy yesterday by spending my entire evening watching a 3-hour performance of Les Miserables, and then at a Thai restaurant. I had no time to review, but I have some time now. Here is the Bosko the Drawback review.

Warner cartoon no. 43.
Release date: October 22, 1932.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Directed by: Hugh Harman.
Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Johnny Murray (Bosko).
Animation: Isadore "Friz" Freleng and Bob McKimson.
Musical Score: Frank Marsales.

The short starts off with a band marching and playing in the football stadium. It appears to be one of them high school football games, that happened on Freddy the Freshman. As the band leader is marching, the tuba blows the fur off his hat which reveals a bird cage. It's a funny gag, but I wonder where the bird bit came from. But again, it's shaped like a birdcage. Everyone is entering the stadium, and there is this dog who is hole-punching tickets with his round tooth. I wonder if that gag had any influence on Disney in 1933's Father Noah's Ark. There is a nice shot of the football stadium from a helicopter view, in which the Colosseum-shaped stadium looks rather empty, but then we see blobs that get bigger and bigger with a crowded stadium.

The band continues to march down the field, and there is even a part where there are these two dogs banging their drums, and they have cymbals on one side of their leg, and they shake their booties together to make a clash on their cymbals. There is also a tall caterpillar who has four snare drums strapped up that he plays, with his six arms.   

We fade in to find Bosko being given a massage from one of the American football players. Bosko seems quite relaxed with his massage (even though it looks painful), but then the person massaging him stretches his stomach and rolls it, which doesn't seem very relaxing at all, especially when he pulls Bosko's leg to a 90 degree angle, and then back down. The person massaging him, then moves his head sideways, in which Bosko's concern, asks "Be careful now!", and person massaging him tells him to relax, but instead almost cracks his neck, which could have caused him to be paralyzed or killed.

As we fade back to the marching band, we see this ostrich who looks like the referee, who looks at the audience asking, "Are you listenin'" Since I'm not aware of 1930's American entertainment culture, I don't understand the line - unless it's a line from a celebrity. According to Toonzone, it's a parody line of Ben Bennie. There is even a dog barking and cheering, with the fleas jumping and cheering.

As soon as the whistle blows, Bosko hears the sound as he gets ready and the painful massages are over. He jumps into his American football gear. He calls for is players to come out, as they rush out for a game of football (American football to them). As the game is about to begin, the man shoots with his pistol, but an egg comes out, which hatches with a bird blowing the whistle, and the football game begins.

I'm sorry, but I'm really not used to describing this game as "football" at all. Football is more popular term of "soccer" to what Americans or other countries say. The way American football is played, we mainly call it rugby - which is similar to American football but different rules. As I've said before, I know almost nothing on American football so I could get support on the rules of the games and the positions. All I know is that it's a very serious game in high schools.

The game begins with the football being shot directly at the camera (which was reused from Freddy the Freshman). All those heavyweight players are charging rightly at the camera (point of view - of the ball). Bosko, who appears to be in the "drawback position" of the team makes a grab for the ball, but the speed of the ball is so intense, that Bosko starts flying as he lacks weight himself.

Bosko gets help from his dog friend who forms a "V" shape to block all the other players trying to land on Bosko while he's trying to score. Suddenly, all the players collide together on top of Bosko, and the ball is no longer on Bosko's hands.

There is a journalist in the "press box" section who is typing like crazy, as if he has to get the whole details on what is going on and fully focus on the game. In fact, he types so crazily that he nearly beats up his typewriter, and the typewriter punches the journalist back. There is a kangaroo in the audience that shouts "Rah, rah rah" and even an old timer in the field. The old timer spins really fast as soon as the ball hits him, he spins by holding onto his crutches - a fine gag indeed.

There are shots that involve a vulture that flies around the American flag, as if that the vulture is waiting for the next injury or carcass. As Bosko kicks the ball to the same tall caterpillar, in which he starts to make a run. The tacklers tackle each part of the body from the centipede, in which is quite a good gag, as afterwards he doesn't even look like a caterpillar.The fans in the stadium create an image in which it forms a head shouting "Rah, rah, rah, etc." and then blows a raspberry at the centipede who stunk at his performance at the stadium.

We finally return to Bosko who is running on the pitch (as it seems a while that we haven't seen him), but then a rather tough, menacing-looking player runs directly at Bosko, with Bosko calling the player the "Hunchback of Notre Dame (??)", is he meant to look like Quasimodo with the lump or something?? Bosko continues to run down the pitch, until he makes a "hat-take" when a title card pops up the screen reading The Four Horsemen in which four sets of horses run down the pitch "neighing".

Bosko starts to run away from the four horsemen and "Quasimodo (?)", in which he ends in stretching on a dachshund that bounces him away, and he lands on signs every time that read "45, 40, 35" going down by 5, which are markers that marks how many metres the pitch is. Bosko then trips on a rock that causes him to go weary and he scores the goal and gets a touchdown. Everyone cheers. The recurring gag all along was not actually a vulture but a bird that lays an "egg" on the perch with baby birds born. Bosko cheers for his touchdown - and that's all folks.

I didn't particularly like that cartoon much, because it just stole too much on Freddy the Freshman (another cartoon I disliked), the whole concept of this short was based on Freddy the Freshman as it was related to American football, but not on high school. I guess that Harman-Ising felt that they could reuse their story as it was their own cartoon anyway. Of course, the cartoons were just meant to be entertaining, and no-one was meant to make a big deal about the reusing, except me. But, I admit there was some highlight as there were some new gags added there - but I have no idea what the "Hunchback of Notre Dame" name came from, is it the lump on the player or something?

43. I Wish I Had Wings (1932)

Warner cartoon no: 42.

Release date: October 15, 1932.

Series: Merrie Melodies.

Director: Rudolf Ising.

Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger (associate).

Cast unknown.

Animation: Rollin Hamilton and Paul Smith.

Musical Score: Frank Marsales.

The short starts off with a chicken inside a house in which it sleeps. The darkness of the room lightens as it's morning. I really like that effect that was created by Harman-Ising with the darkness of the room that lightens, it's a good achievement that they did - even though I bet other studios used that technique before. The chicken wakes up, as it crows for the new day. The chicken clenches his stomach while about to crow as a wake-up call. After a couple of attempts to wake up the sleeping chickens, it doesn't work. The chicken suddenly squawks in which all the chickens happen to wake up, and scram around the henhouse.

As the chickens have woken up, the angry rooster pulls off the perches of the sleeping ducks, and then orders them to do some type of assembly-dance that was reused from Hold Anything. There appears to be a shot of a chicken that's rather fat in which dozens of chicks run out from under the hen in which the hen gets thinner. Was that hen pregnant or something - don't they lay eggs though?

Meanwhile outside, there is a chicken with a stethoscope on, it seems to be that he's listening out for some worms (question is, how can you listen for worms?), so the chicken drills to the ground to find a worm, in which a bunch of baby chicks beg for the worm. The chicken places the worm in the meat grinder to make it fair for everybody in which every chick gets a worm.

There is a rather repeated chase sequence with one of the birds as a worm tries to get away, which is one of those chase sequences reused from Ain't Nature Grand? Practically, it's just all reuses, with that little worm escaping in that hole. Looks like Rudy Ising went too big on a budget there, and it was too short. Orders were probably, reuse something!

Meanwhile there is a hen that appears to be knitting while sitting down laying her eggs. Knitting? Well, it gives it some personality - so it's fine. The hen looks under to see if the eggs have hatched, and she's sitting on a hot water bottle to heat up the eggs quickly. Now that is a good gag, which explains the character's personality of her impatience with the egg hatching. Meanwhile, the father rooster enters the scene and notices that the hen was knitting. He demands that she hands in the jumper to see what it's like. As he sees the jumper, it looks great for the juniors and shouts "Whoopee!"

He runs out the hut to bring in the doctor to see if the eggs will be hatching, the doctor comes along who seems to look like a stork. The rooster waits outside the hut walking up and down worrying if his wife is alright. The stork arrives outside with a basket full of chicks, with the rooster's initial response "is it a boy?" A group of chicks jump out of the basket, with another chick with no wings that shouts in a Mickey Mouse voice "Hi pop!"

The chicks all hurry in a pile to a feeding trough, in which there is no room for the black chick, who is a mongrel to all the other ones that were hatched. He is rather upset that he can't find any food to eat, but at least he finds some leftover corn to eat. As he rubs his hands for the corn, all the chicks reach to eat the corn before he gets it. Well, rubbing hands is unfortunate timing. 

The bird continues to walk on rather sad, and also singing the title song I Wish I Had Wings, in which he wishes that he could fly and find some food he can eat instead of being trapped in a farm. He notices some corn hanging at the top of the poles, with birds "with wings" chirping. The bird then cries that he's hungry with nothing to eat, and wants to eat something outside but how's he gonna do it? As he hasn't got any wings, instead he's got arms.

The bird lands on a corset in which these chicks sing the title song in a chorus. The bird flies up in the corset, and lands on the chicken wire. The chick walks on to find a pair of underwear handing on a clothesline. He is now declared free as there is food surrounded for him to eat (not foods all over like buns, burgers, meat, etc.), but food like peas in a pod, in which he uses to swallow them one at a time down his mouth, with some good timing on the animation.

Meanwhile, a rather faceless scarecrow comes to life for some apparent reason. It's rather odd that scarecrows come to life, but that's alright. What really bugs me is that very gruff voice that he produces like "Shoo! Boo!", I know that it's meant to sound scary - but can the directors try something not too corny? There is then a chase sequence going with the bird and the scarecrow. The chick then hides on a wishing well, in which he pulls a rope in which the handle spins that hits the scarecrow in the face. He then goes flying and ends up rather dreary. The chick then grabs a lighter in which the scarecrow gets flamed immediately, that causes him to run off to the scene - and that's all folks.

This cartoon was a very bland cartoon, it was just a typical Harman-Ising cartoons in which the results usually are always the same. The storylines are just the same except it's a different setting. Although there were some interesting gags, but again there were some bad gags. The reuses didn't seem too much, but there was a sequence of reuses. It was just a cartoon that was very uninteresting and much of those Merrie Melodies were uninteresting cartoons. Hopefully, the next cartoon which will be a Bosko cartoon will be even better.

42. Ride Him, Bosko! (1932)

Warner cartoon no: 41.
Release date: September 17, 1932.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Directed by: Hugh Harman.
Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger (associate).
Starring: Johnny Murray (Bosko) and Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising (Cartoonists - live action)
Animation: Isadore "Friz" Freleng and Norm Blackburn.
Musical Score: Frank Marsales.

The short starts off with a wolf that howls as there is a full moon. We then see Bosko riding on his horse (that is rather tired and lazy) playing the guitar to the song When the Bloom is on the Sage. He pushes the donkey over a giant rock as it's in his way because the donkey is that lazy to do so. I must say that the singing is quite bad here. It's not very appealing than when Bosko sings (well, to be honest - none of the voices are appealing anyway).

We then see a title card on the screen reading Red Gulch - where men are men, nine times out of ten. It appears to be that "Red Gulch" is the name of a one-horse town that Bosko is going to. We see a long-shot of the town rather quiet, with a barn dance inside a saloon (silhouettes dancing), but we see a western outlaw running around shooting his pistols. There is a pig that walks past the saloon doors, but a arm comes out with a bottle that hits the pig that turns all weary and drunk after "hitting the bottle". There is even a very tall dog that walks past with bullets being shot at his body, in which he shrinks to normal size. Those gags were reused before, and it's just showing us how quiet this town is but yet so many things happen.

Bosko arrives at the saloon, in which he ties his horse stands outside the salloon rather exhausted and worn-out. Bosko walks right to the saloon (it appears to be that there are two saloons opposite each other). Bosko enters the saloon chanting "Howdy fellas" to his cowboy friends, they respond by shooting bullets at his hat, with the repsonse "Howdy Bosko!". Bosko, rather embarrassed says hello to them again, and picks up his hat. Hang on a minute, Bosko's hat just had bullets over it, but as he picks it up - the bullet marks are gone! Did they get the hat back to normal because of production time, as if the animators haven't got time to draw those bullet marks on his hat throughout the rest of the picture?

There is music being played inside the saloon, with Bosko doing some type of tap-dancing in there, and for some reason there are crowds in the background dancing that look rather ghostly to me. The tune being played on the piano is She'll Be Coming Around the Mountains - a traditional yokel song.

As the pianoman is playing the piano, he pucnhes the keyboards with his fist so that liquid of beer would fly and land into his mouth. He suddenly burns in flames, and acts rather gay and then walks off. Bosko then steps in taking over the spot, as he plays his usual tunes on the piano. Bosko then grabs out a pair of cards, with the King of Hearts, Queen of Diamonds, and Queen of Spades dancing and singing, but the Goopy Geer looking Joker starts to dance, but Bosko shoots Goopy right in the stomach, as he falls down flat in the card. Thank you Bosko, for killing Goopy Geer for me!

Another title card comes at the screen says The Deadwood Stage - (free wheeling) and we see a long-shot of a wagon rolling down a path, it's a rather wonky wagon, as the wheels keep spinning and changing postitions. Inside the wagon we see Honey dressed as some Texas women back in the folklore days. It's a rather bumpy trip for her which worries her, she asks the wagon rider "Please, be careful!" But the wagon moving doesn't make any difference after her response.

Meanwhile there are a group of outlaws riding in their horses, and they appear to be making a lot of dust while riding. One of the outlaws halts, but the horse does the sneaky tip-toe movements as the outlaw looks over the mountain. He finds a wagon coming round his way, but he hides behind a rock, as he plans to rob the wagon (with the treasure chest on top) and everyone in it, including Honey. The outlaw draws out his pistols, but the wagon rolls past, which leaves himself and the horse all braided and then looses itself out.

The outlaws start to chase after the wagon, when an old-timer riding it hears the gunshots coming directly at him, he starts to trying to escape as the wagon, himself and Honey are at risk. His sombrero keeps on getting shot as it blows away, but he catches his hat on time. The treasure chest falls off the wagon, as their are gunshots being fired. All the clothes come to life as they start to run out of the treasure chest and run for their lives.

There is now a action sequence going on, as the old-timer is riding as fast as he can. The ride makes it even bumpier for Honey. As the old-timer is trying to ride for his live, he bumps onto a rock in which he starts to fly out of the wagon. He skids on a cactus which makes it very painful for him. It means that Honey is in incredible danger as there is nobody riding the wagon. The old timer starts to ride on a fossiled-horse as it rides to town.

The old man runs into the saloon shouting that his stagecoach is robbed. He suddenly sinks and his whole body sinks in which only his trousers show. Bosko runs out of the scene to rescue his stagecoach and Honey. The man's arm comes out by grabbing a glass of beer and drinks it. Bosko runs outside and accidentally runs out on a stable to park horses, but then it starts riding like a horse, in which Bosko jumps out and rides on his actual horse.

Bosko starts to ride like mad as he's trying his real best to rescue Honey. He is now jumping over rocks to avoid himself from any further delays. Honey pops her head out of the stagecoach by shouting "Bosko, save me!".

Bosko cotinues to ride, as then we zoom back, and find Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising in a room working on the film, with Rudolf Ising (I think) slapping his laps for the sound effects. They then start slacking by saying "How's Bosko going to save the girl", and then one of them shouts "I dunno", but then they decide to go home, as they can't be bothered to finish the cartoon anymore, with Bosko hacing no actions on the screen - and that's all folks!

This part with the live-action and the cartoonists is probably the only part that was really good with the cartoon. It shows Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and other unknown cartoonist - and they are showing different personalities as if they can't be bothered to finish the cartoon and think it's lousy anyway, which it is. The carton was very bland, the animation was sloppy at times - and I quite like the idea for Bosko as a parody in Western films, but it wasn't until years later when they brought in excellent western characters like Yosemite Sam. A western parody at Warners, wasn't perfected until 1951's Drip-Along Daffy.

(NOTE: I'm actually staying a school weekend, and I've got Blogger and YouTube unblocked for my reviews, so that's why this blog's been pretty quiet - I will return more within next week with more reviews).

41. You're Too Careless With Your Kisses (1932)

Warner cartoon no. 40.
Release date: September 10, 1932.
Series: Merrie Melodies.
Directed by: Rudolf Ising.
Produced by: Leon Schlesinger (no Harman or Ising credited on iMDB).
Cast unknown.
Animation: Rollin Hamilton and Larry Martin.
Musical Score: Frank Marsales.

The short starts off with a bumble that lives in the grassy area, the bee is drunk and walks very wearily down the path. He ends up swinging onto flowers and also sliding onto the stems of the flowers. The bee enters the house very quietly, as he doesn't want to wake up his wife upstairs or even know that he is drunk. As the bee takes off his shoes, he sneakily tiptoes his way to the stairs, as the shoes walk itself. He hushes the shoes, as he is about to walk up the stairs. As the bee walks up the stairs rather wasted, he loses his balance as he's at the very top, and since there is no banister to support it, he ends up falling down on the couch with a cushion that springs him on top of the staircase.

The bee enters his bedroom as his wife is fast asleep, but unfortunate timing happens as he trips: the blinds open and the alarm clock rings. The wife wakes up immediately, and accuses his bee (named Wilbur) for out drinking "spiked honey" again. The wife starts sobbing as Wilbur tries to explain by saying "but honey", but the wife starts nagging him "Don't you honey me...". Oh, I get the joke "honey" as in bumble-bees, and "honey" referring to names to call wives or girlfriends - is that meant to be the joke?

The wife accuses him by saying the lyrics to the title song, is this meant to be a musical or something? She states that he's "too careless with his kisses" as he pucks her on the cheek whilst dancing. The wife undresses her nighties into her regular clothes and concludes that "she'll have to do the work for him", with the husband bee laughing. Okay, this sequence is quite odd to me - they sing the title song while having an argument. Okay, so Rudolf Ising had to add a song into it because back in the WB animation studio, the staff were forced to.

As the wife storms out of the house, she flies out to pick some honey out of flowers by using her abdomen to scoop up the honey on the flower and sticking it back onto her bottom. The title song You're Too Careless With your Kisses is being sung in the background anonymously. I have to say, since when did Harman-Ising have various singers singing the song during a sing when there was no character singing it, I don't think this was used before.

As the bee was collecting honey (which was supposed to be the husband's job), there is suddenly a storm and rain falls down the sky immediately. The bee runs into a nearby house (not the house where she and her husband reside), but a house with a broken window. The door is locked, and she begs to let somebody in. There is a huge spider that resides in the house that looks at the bee in a rather peckish way. The door opens, in which the bee enters for some luxury. The spider looks at her, about to eat the bee; as soon as she looks at the spider he closes the door, locks the door and swallows the key.

Looks like this is another type of story where a villain tries to steal the girlfriend in which the man has to save the say in order to have his girl back. Not only will those stories still be going in those Harman-Ising cartoons, but it pretty much continues on in Buddy cartoons.

The girl bee hides inside the closet behindthe  a bottle of poison, the spider closes the door in which causes a blackout with the spider putting on a radio voice. Boy, Harman-Ising sure loved using blackout scenes to make their pictures entertaining. The girl bee cries out the window for help (as we can now see the quality of the picture), a hand grabs the bee away. The husband (Wilbur) hears the sounds of his wife being captured. Once again, it's the bee's duty to save his girlfriend.

The husband jumps out the window, and slides down a stem. He grabs out a flower as a trumpet to spread the message that his wife has been captured, and to order a group of bees to support his attack on the spider. A whole town of bees charge at the spider; who looks out his house to see what is going on. The drunk bee grabs out a thorn and pulls it on the spider's crotch, which indeed looks painful - but one of those reused gags. The wife bee orders a group to go after the spider.

The spider runs away from the group of bees, and jumps onto a bucket lying in the river. The spider grabs out a shotgun to try and shoot the  bees away. But a whole battleship of bees flying to the spider like an aircraft doesn't give the spider any luck. The husband and wife bees use champaigne bottles to soak the spider with a accordion to shoot the champagne out. There are peas that use weapons like peas in a pod and they use peas like bullets. The spider uses other weapons to dodge the bullets and there is a shoe-shaped submarine.

Meanwhile, a group of bees fly up in the air holding a dynamite which drops on the spider, with the bucket exploding. The spider lands on a trap with the bucket pieces trapping him with his hands and head caught, he is caught prisoner. All the bees cheer, especially the husband and wife bee - and that's all folks.

This cartoon was actually not bad to watch at all. The gags weren't reused too much, and neither were the gags reused badly at all. There were some interesting gags used for weapons that the bees use. It's kind of hard to describe how good or bad this cartoon even was. It certainly wasn't bad, in my taste, but it certainly wasn't great. It was a stronger cartoon than the other Ising Merrie Melodies cartoons that have been made.

40. Bosko the Lumberjack (1932)

Warner cartoon no. 39.
Release date: September 3, 1932.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Directed by: Hugh Harman.
Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger (associate).
Starring: Johnny Murray ?.
Animation: Isadore "Friz" Freleng and Carmen "Max" Maxwell.
Musical Score by: Frank Marsales.

The short starts off with a loud "TIMBER" being called off-screen, as a huge tree hits the camera and wiping the credits off the screen. We see that the short is taking place in the woods, with a couple of lumberjacks sawing trees with two people sawing each tree. As one pair chop off a tree, the trunk of the tree suddenly crawls away like a worm. The trunk crawls up an edge and then falls down a small wagon ready to be cut again. We see other gags going on such as a woodsman cutting down a narrow tree; in which the pieces get stacked up into a neat pile. We also see some insects that are trying to chop down very small trunks, with a caterpillar cutting off the barks of the tree one by one with his hands.

We then see a scene of Bosko in silhouette cutting down a tree that looks incredibly huge, but instead we PAN towards Bosko cutting down a rather smaller tree. Bosko cuts off much of the tree trunk off with the trunk coming to life with the trunk wobbling and acting out a dramatic scene. Bosko then walks on as the tree dies, as he whistles while traveling. Bosko then notices a rock with some twigs sticking out, but as Bosko whacks it with his axe, the moose yells and starts to chase after Bosko. I think that ought to have been censored for a reason.

Bosko walks on to cut off another tree, but the tree is property to a skunk that hisses at Bosko for attempting to cut off the trunk. Bosko starts to run away from the skunk until he hits a tree in which leaves fall on top of Bosko. Meanwhile a woodpecker flies into the scene in which Bosko uses the woodpecker as a drill to drill a tree trunk to the ground. The gags evolving Bosko cutting down trees are quite fun to watch, especially the woodpecker part.

Until Bosko hears a shout "Oh Bosko, yoo-hoo" off-screen - you can immediately tell it is Honey. They both greet each other. Honey is holding out a picnic basket for both of them to have a picnic. There is now this reused scene of Bosko eating a sandwich with his mouth open (from Bosko's Holiday) and the scene is disgusting to watch, but as it's reused - it makes the situation more revolting.

Meanwhile, up in a log - there is this thug who is very tough looking. In fact, he is so tough that he cuts out who pieces of tree shavings and nails as his sandwich. That proves how tough he really is. Bosko continues to compliment on Honey's sandwiches until the thug looks down at Honey, and decides on a sneaky plan to kidnap her. 

The thug grabs out a rope with a hook at the bottom, which grabs Honey on the skirt that rises the thug up to his level. Honey is then taken away by the thug, with the thug smirking "Now, you give Pierre a big kiss!", he tries to flirt with Honey in a terrifying way. Bosko sees what has happened, and wants to get his revenge. He climbs up a ladder, and threatens to beat the thug for stealing Honey. The thug punches Bosko down the ladders with the steps breaking down. Bosko lands onto a log that is about to get sawed.

The thug threatens to take Honey away unless she doesn't give him a kiss. Honey grabs onto a rope with a steam whistle, she slides down, but ends dangling from the ground, but the thug slides down the ladder to take Honey with her. Bosko runs out of the log to try and stop the thug. The thug pushes down a tree with a tap that squirts Bosko in the face, quite a complicating gag to explain.  

The thug (with Honey) escapes inside a canoe, that he uses to walk to the river, and he gets away by sailing away. Bosko hears Honey's screams, and he jumps onto a log in which three mice pop out with Bosko's orders to stroke to be able to catch up with the thug in time. The log sequence was sort of reused from Crosby, Columbo and Vallee.

The thug holding Honey enters inside a cabin, with Bosko's loud banging on the doors shouting "Let me in!", and even a moose's head on the wall, shooting at the thug's rear to let him inside. Bosko enters the cabin, ready to "put 'em up", but the thug easily punches Bosko bouncing on the edges of the beams, and landing on a bedpan.

Bosko charges at the thug, but he knocks Bosko away with one fist aiming at him. Bosko ends up inside a stove, through the pipes, out the pipes and then inside a bear rug. He runs away inside the rug but gets wounded from a bear trap in which Bosko screams. The thug is charging right at Bosko, so Bosko grabs out an axe in which he goes to the next little - by chopping him. The edge of the axe is caught stuck on the barrel that traps the thug inside the barrel, before he passes out.

 Honey congratulates Bosko for being "the hero of the day", she kisses him on the cheek in which Bosko turns all weary and hits his head on the wall with a picture of Napoleon lands on his face, with Bosko's face sticking out of Napoleon's face. Honey salutes to Bosko and that's all folks!

This cartoon was in fact mediocre at best - the gags were reused often, the plot-lines were just the same as any other Harman-Ising cartoon. There was really nothing special about this cartoon, the only part which was good was the tree chopping gags, but nothing else. Harman-Ising seemed to have liked using a lot of thugs stealing the "girlfriend" in pictures which do get tiring and pathetic.

39. Bosko's Store (1932)

Warner cartoon no. 38.
Release date: August 13, 1932.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Directed by: Hugh Harman.
Producers: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and Leon Schlesinger (associate).
Starring: Johnny Murray (Bosko, Wilbur, Mouse).
Animation: Isadore "Friz" Freleng and Bob McKimson.
Musical Score: Frank Marsales.

This here is the first animation credit for Bob McKimson (exc. Bosko and Honey) and McKimson would later be the top animator for Warners, and later a director.

The short starts off with Bosko inside his store cleaning windows, and his store is simply called Bosko's Store. He is whistling whilst washing the windows at the same time. Suddenly the telephone rings while Bosko is on the job, and Bosko shouts "Okay Chicago!". The customer on the phone asks for some bologna, in which Bosko starts to cut the baloney into slices by turning on a fan to slice the bologna. It seems that Bosko's store is a butcher store.

The "Okay Chicago" was a line reused from The Queen Was in the Parlor in which Goopy Geer shouted out, but the impression was from Walter Winchell. Is it really that necessary just to reuse some dialogue from awful Goopy cartoons?

Meanwhile, there is this dog that enters the store and starts to sniff for meat inside the store. As the bologna slices are being cut by Bosko (the baloney slices are lined up in a pile) but the dog slaps one of the scales for measuring, and all the bologna slices land on the dog's stomach as he eats it all up. The dog continues to eat the slices as they are being cut. All the baloney slices are all gone and the dog's stomach looks like an accordion. Bosko is rather cross towards the dog for eating the bologna slices, but the dog tries to escape with his accordion stomach (with accordion music being played). The dog trips while attempting to exit the door, but Bosko guards the door.

Suddenly, the dog runs into the fan (not noticing) he gets sliced like pieces of bologna before the slices stick back together into the dog's normal body again. There is some good stuff in this part, the gags are complicating that it's hard to write them down while I'm reviewing them, so the gags were are quite complex - much like the other Harman-Ising gags.

 Bosko laughs at the dog that runs away from the store. The next thing Bosko does is he brings out a duster, and he starts to dance around the store sweeping up the eggs (with birds inside it), and Bosko sweeps the food. Hang on a minute; why would eggs with baby birds inside be sold at a market? Bosko also polishes a statue of a woman in an advertisement, but the statue comes to life as she giggles at the ticklish duster. The statue notices Bosko doing that, and whacks him on the head with her rolling pin for doing so. That gag is just badly reused from I Love a Parade but don't forget Warners reused gags all the time.

While Bosko is dusting his store - there is this mouse at a house that climbs up a telephone box that is dialling a number. Bosko picks up the phone - so the mouse and Bosko have a conversation through the telephone. The mouse asks Bosko if he sells dried fish: Bosko's reply was yes, but the mouse replies, "Well why don't you give 'em a drink." The joke would be funny for children's joke books, but since we can hardly understand what the voices say - the joke fails itself. We could blame the directors for those falsetto voices, but I don't know if it was orders from the producers. The mouse razzies at Bosko on the phone, so Bosko hangs up - knowing that this was a telephone prank call.

Bosko steps outside his store and decides to give his porch a bit of a sweep so customers can think of this store as a tidy store. The animation in this part is very strange to me because Bosko is sweeping the broom, but also dancing with the broom. The animation is very weird and it seems that Bosko has returned to his "singing and dancing" routines again. The weird thing is that he is dancing with a dog while he is also sweeping.

Honey and her spoilt cat Wilbur hop along the street, and Honey notices Bosko sweeping his store. Bosko also notices Honey and he runs across the road just to see her. Wilbur, who is rather grumpy mocks Bosko's voice - it seems to me that Wilbur has something against Bosko. Honey asks Bosko if he has a nickel so he can play the piano on it.

Bosko places a nickel inside the piano to play music. The coin slot appears to be rather hungry and chews the piano to get the music started. The piano is playing the music itself and there is the usual dancing routines Bosko and Honey dancing right in the middle of the short. I have to say, but I think that every appearance of Honey always has to have dance routines in the middle of the short. It's amazing on how Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising don't run out of ideas. They are singing the song How Can I Say No? (When All the World Is Saying "Yes").

The music stops (thank goodness) when Bosko spots Wilbur eating Bosko's bananas outside the store - considering the fact that Wilbur isn't paying for it. Wilbur squirts out a banana on Bosko's face that causes him to land in a basket. Wilbur starts to bully Bosko by pulling the wire that lifts the basket up and causes him to hit the wall. Bosko then knocks over a barrel of tar (called "molasses), but Bosko is stuck on the tar.

How could Wilbur do this to Bosko, that ungrateful cat. He tried to save his life at the beach, and this is how he repays him?? Oh wait, that was Bruno who saved his life (and Bosko's life).

Wilbur then tries to climb up a piece of wire to climb to the ceiling, but instead he lands on a meat grinder that grinds up Wilbur into tiny multiples. Wilbur forms himself back again into his normal shape. Meanwhile, Bosko is stuck on the piece of tar that won't release him. Bosko finally manages to escape - but in his socks, as the shoes are stuck on tar.

 Bosko tries to catch Wilbur who is on a ladder that rolls. Wilbur tips cans off the shelves that land on Bosko's head. Wilbur is now cornered, but Bosko finally grabs him - but Wilbur has one last escape plan in his sleeve. He jumps on top of a table and places the barb wire over Bosko's crotch in which he yells in pain - and that's all folks.

This is another short in which Wilbur spoils everything for Bosko, but yet he was not defeated by Bosko. This cartoon really reminds me of the earliest Bosko cartoons from 1930 and early 1931. It has the early singing and dancing routines featured in there. It was actually quite a weak cartoon itself, in terms of reused gags and the lack of a plot featured in there. The only climax stuff in there is the Wilbur scenes. Wilbur is such a spoilt brat and I really don't like him as a character, but he always seems to make the cartoons exciting, even if they are a stinker - like this one.