93. Those Beautiful Dames (1934)

Warner cartoon no. 92.
Release date: November 11, 1934.
Series: Merrie Melodies.
Supervision: Friz Freleng.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Cast unknown.
Musical Score: Bernard Brown.
Animation: Paul Smith and Charles "Chuck" Jones.

The first cartoon in which the Merrie Melodies "color" scheme goes permanent. Hopefully that the quality in those will make me understand the cartoons better.

The cartoon begins with a little orphan girl who is standing outside looking rather miserable in a blizzard. The girl looks at all the lovely toys that she would love to get if only she could afford it and had parents. She walks forward away from the shop in which the blizzard gets stronger and she struggles to walk forward. As she is caught in the strong wind, her pants are stretched open and a bit of snow from the roof lands on it in which she squeals. Haw-haw-haw, a orphan girl gets snow stuck in her pants that's, that's - bad treatment. I guess that what is being expressed here shows how unlucky she is being an orphan and that we ought to feel sorry for her.

She walks into the shed where she stays for shelter. There is hardly anything in that shed. Except for a mouse in there who looks very skinny and is likely to starve to death. The mouse tries to see if there's any bread in the bread box - but nothing in it. The little girl is trying to keep her hands warm in that useless stove. Hang on a minute, I'm trying to remember; the orphan girl standing outside that snow looking at the toyshop = a boy standing outside in the snow, looking at toy-shop and finds shelter - I'm remembering it clear as day. Oh my does that SOUND familiar?!

The girl is putting in some effort in trying to warm up the stove. She sees a tiny flame inside that stove and she tries blowing at it so that it could warm up. As the flame slowly gets moving, an icicle inside that stove drops and the flame extinguishes. The little girl then falls asleep on the chair feeling rather cold. Once the little girl is fast asleep; all the toys come inside the shed. Where did they come from? from that toy shop I guess. How? God knows.

 Of course, since she's in a heavy sleep - the toys then secretly creep near her as though they're going to give her a surprise. All the toys run quickly through the sleepy orphan girl - including that little toy duck. What doesn't make the quality look great in this cartoon is that the color is in 2-strip Technicolor where the colors are pretty dark and not so visible, but hey; back then this was a treat for the audience and Friz Freleng must've been happy to get his cartoons into color.

The toys start to decorate the wooden shack by getting out some wallpaper. As time flies on; to midnight. All the toys crowd together to wake up the orphan girl for a happy surprise. She wakes up with such amazement, astonishment, self-satisfied, delighted - okay, I think I've over-did the adjectives but they are fun. The dolls then start to sing the title song Those Beautiful Dames. All of the other toys start to sing the choruses to the song (well, I don't mind the dolls singing voices at all). True, this is also another rip-off from The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives but the difference is - no Santa Claus.

The elephant who was standing on top of the armchair then turns off the lights. Hang on a minute, where did that armchair come on and since when did the orphan girl have light-switches - did the toys just somehow construct and decorate the house in all that night? Anyway, the elephant then turns on the light from a lamp and moves the lamp as a stage light. The beam then shows to these set of curtains and we see these two jack-in-the-boxes and they do a type of entertaining dance in which they are just moving their body's up which are accordion-like.

While the dance is still going on (how long will it last) we see a type of bulldoze toy that uses it's crate to eat some of the chocolate cake layed on the table. What? He's not going to let the orphan girl have its share. But as that truck continues to eat the cake - a doll enters the scene tapping her feet not impressed. The truck walks off in a shameful mood. Well, at least that's that gone.

The little orphan girl then walks to the gramophone and tunes up some music and starts to dance (notice the black lipstick - where did that come from?!). The gramophone (in closeup) is apparently called a "Kiddie Phone". Inside the gramophone are these illustrated bears that are singing their version of the Dames song. The orphan girl then starts to dance to the song herself, and yet the animation is pretty bad for it - you really can't feel her body moving to the music and feels rather stiff. Meanwhile there are these two soldiers who play the trumpet and they almost turn very skinny - they then exit...

The girl is then brought to a big and happy surprise when all the toys have arranged a type of midnight feast for her where there is a huge chocolate cake made for her layed in the middle of the table. She walks past the chairs where all the toys are seated at and are waving and cheering for her. Since she is wearing a crown - she sits at the "queen's chair" at the far back in the front. She then encourages her guests to start eating. All the others then start to eat - even with a bulldozer who is picking up crates of food to place into the other toy's mouths.

The girl is delighted to see that everybody is in fact having a fun time, but as she is about to take a scoop of her jelly - the trap was that there was a jack in the box in there the whole time. All of the other toys start to giggle at the practical joke that was made and so does the little orphan girl who has a sense of humor - and that's all folks.

This cartoon was just another take of The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives but actually since both cartoons are pretty unknown and forgotten - who's going to care?! When a member of the audience sat down and watched that cartoon in 1934 when it was released; he/she aren't going to think that "Hey, I've seen this from a cartoon before", and actually - who's going to care? I thought the opening of the cartoon of the orphan girl was quite a good setup - the musical score by Bernard Brown was lovely. We got to see her struggles, and of course when the toys arrived the cartoon was just weaker. From my Shanty review  - I actually wrote down that my feelings were that the toys arriving made the cartoon tedious and boring. But this cartoon was just made to cheer the audience up - nothing harmful was supposed to be made. Of course, it was the first color in Merrie Melodies to stay permanent - and only the colors made the cartoon look rich - but the designs and characters are still as bland as ever.

92. Buddy the Woodsman (1934)

Title card courtesy of Dave Mackey.

Warner cartoon no. 91.
Release date: October 20, 1934.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Supervision: Jack King
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Jack Carr (Buddy) and (Cookie) (?).
Animation: Paul Smith and Don Williams.
Music: Bernard Brown.

Our cartoon begins with that lovely animation of a tree trunk falling - which a great camera shot. There are several lumberjacks that are cutting that trunk with their axes. But there are are two lumberjacks using a two-man saw. We PAN through to see a tough guy who is cutting off big chunks of the bark of the tree on the side. On his right is a rather lanky fellow who is only cutting useless parts off and slacking his job. He secretly prances away and chops off a small part of a tree - which must mean he's either a weakling or a slacker? You pick. Vote now.
(Ringtone music)
Thank you for voting - the popular vote was "weakling". Of course he is a weakling - he could barely cut off that small stick of that tiny, skinny tree - but as he only manages to cut it off they fly about and then they drop on top of his head that makes it look like he's wearing antlers.

We see a few gags of sawing the tree such as two lumberjacks sitting on each side of the two-man saw and they are sleeping but still cutting. Another guy is just using a blade to chop the pieces of wood carefully that looks like he's forming some type of circled-shape. Another guy is on his tractor but is also sawing the trees which are by his side. He, of course saws off the tower where a warden is sitting without noticing.

We then next see Buddy who is about to chop a tree - and as he takes a whack at the tree - we see these lines that swirl up to the top of the tree with it's bird's nest on top. Ahh, this was the era before speed-lines would've been greatly achieved, and not just "lines". The speedlines do look horrible but don't forget that this was before they had that beautiful swish brush effects. Buddy finishes chopping down that tree, in which he dances on top of the tree stump. He then starts to walk off and whistle cheerfully. He jumps on top of a chopped-down tree by getting a lawn mower and mowing the barks of the tree off - a strange idea but it's a good gag. What he was doing was in fact mowing the tree which would turn into tooth picks as he is placing them in a manufacturer vehicle.

Buddy then walks to the next part of his job as he is springs from a saw and jumps on top of a tree. He uses his two-man saw and jumps with it like playing skiprope. As he is doing that - there are big lumps of tree stomps being chopped off. Another gag that Buddy pulls out of his sleeve is when he comes across a tree trunk that is pretty high from the ground and his job is to cut it in half. He walks up to the goat and kicks it. He runs away, and jumps on top of the trunk patting his rear end encouraging the goat's anger. The goat then cuts the wood in half with his horns.

We see a random shot of a totem pole being chopped (what was the reason?). Buddy walks down to the part of the woods carrying his pile of wood. He accidentally trips on a stone in which all of the sticks then bundle up together very neatly. Buddy walks rather annoyed as though he has to pick them all up - but is happy to find that it's all been stacked together. He grabs out two axes and starts to play the piece of wood like a xylophone (Oh god, how much gags do WE need?!). The totem pole starts to dance but they all collide and appear to be Indians who are doing a Indian dance. The designs are pretty conservative in my opinion as they're just exactly the same but with different colors.

The call for "lunch" is ready and every woodsman rush to that hut for something to eat. Every worker has their head rinsed in some type of washing tool to wash their faces. They dry their wet faces by using a conveyor belt (Notice how that there is a dog inside there who is running like a guinea pig). Everybody is in the room all chanting "I Open the Old Northwest". They appear to be demanding for their lunch to arrive. Meanwhile, Buddy and Cookie are singing together while Buddy is playing the piano.

Wait a second, Cookie is back to being blonde again - but actually; I doesn't matter to me because this must've been from an earlier production number but it was somehow released late. Cookie walks in as she is tossing the fellows some spaghetti on their plates, and they immediately begin and are eating like pigs (what are they going to do with the spaghetti in the middle)?

Meanwhile, there is a bear sitting on top of a branch. Hang on a minute; what would a BEAR be doing up a tree? Do they even do that?! If so, since when??? The bear can smell the lovely scent of spaghetti and slides down the chimney and starts to sniff for some food. As the men at the table are singing delightedly, the bear then finds the spaghetti on the table. The bear stands on the table and eats the spaghetti leaving this complex gag of the men falling inside the wood planks that is TOO complicating to explain.

Cookie notices the bear trying to lick the food and asks the bear to "shoo, get out of here". From the voice I'm hearing of - it definitely doesn't sound like Bernice Hansen doing the voice AT all - another unknown actress. Buddy then walks to that bear and punches him in the face. The bear falls off the table and lands near the fireplace with a pipe stuck on his nose.

Buddy gets out a "Red Hot Pepper" shaker and starts to throw it at the pipe stuck on the bear's nose. The bear is about to sneeze but does so in which all the plates are stacked up in their shelves neatly. Another fine gag that works. We see some more gags to be shown of the sneezing bear chasing after Buddy - and Buddy is sneezed off his pants (that also runs). My goodness, this cartoon is just packing itself with gags, all these type of gags they do just get tiring throughout the cartoon, and you've got to admit that.

Cookie grabs out a shotgun in which she fires directly at the bear's anus. The bear then starts to sneeze ever so violently that the pipe then falls out of his nose, and lands onto a moose head sculpture's nose. The moose then starts to violently sneeze, but the stovepipe falls back into the right position of the fireplace.

The bear starts to chase after Cookie in which she cries for Buddy. Buddy grabs out a piano stool in which he throws it at the bear. The seat starts to heighten up and spin in which the bear falls out of the roof (but breaks it). Buddy and Cookie both play the piano as they watch the bear run out afraid - and that's all folks.

My overall output of this cartoon was that it appears to be that Jack King was just too desperate for gags in this cartoon. Although the gags do work well in those cartoons but they just suffer with too much in the cartoon that tires the audience from watching too many. No, Cookie hasn't gone back to a redesign - just made earlier than Viva Buddy (with the modern Cookie). The speed-lines on that tree swirling up earlier in the film are just bad to look it comparing today's standards with great speed-lines but maybe somebody in a 1934 audience might have liked it. I didn't mind the gags in there and all of them were pretty good, but as I said - NOT TOO MUCH in one cartoon that tires me out. Oh, and I should point out that there was a censored scene cut when a Chinese guy shouted "dinner", but we only saw a quick shot of him ringing the bell.

91. Rhythm in the Bow (1934)

Warner cartoon no. 90.
Release date: October 20, 1934.
Series: Merrie Melodies.
Supervision: Ben Hardaway.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Cast unknown.
Musical Score: Norman Spencer.
Animation: Rollin Hamilton and Ben Clopton.

Instead of Friz Freleng who directs all the Merrie Melodies - Ben Hardaway appears to cover briefly. Hang on - he hadn't directed since Buddy of the Apes which was already released about five months earlier, what happened to him? Different production order?! This is the last Merrie Melodies to be in black-and-white and then it turns into color permanently. Looney Tunes would have to wait until 1942's The Hep Cat.

Our cartoon begins with a couple of hobos who spend their lives living in the train. One of them is pretending as though he's riding in a racing car - steering the wheel and touching the horn - but it's revealed that it's a pretend as he's on top of a box car with a duck quacking on top of the steering wheel. The "515" steam train is steaming very fast - and there is a tramp who lives under the train - who is sharpening his knife with the wheels - and it's showing the life of a homeless person. The tramp also gets to do some cooking.

We see many of these weird gags of what the homeless do on the trains. One of them has a string attached to a bucket and tosses it into a river to fill up some water, and then pulls it back up the train. He uses the bucket of water to clean his face. After finishing off his face; he then starts to bring out a violin and bow to play some sweet violin music - actually, I wouldn't say "sweet" would be the word - not sure what to describe his violin music.

The hobos then start to go into song as they are going to sing the title song Rhythm in the Bow. We see this tramp who is sitting on a sidecar by the train that also is singing the song - why is he on the side car for? Couldn't he not climb those steps to join the rest of the hobos? Whistles are then being blown on the train, and there's another hobo skating on the tracks (wonder why he isn't electrocuted) as standing on rails is dangerous. We see more of these homeless people who are still singing and they pop their heads out of pipes. The smoke from the steam train then covers their faces, and then revealed as black faces. Ahh, racist tendencies. ;-)

Meanwhile there appears to be a man (can't tell if he works in the train or is another tramp) but he jumps into a box car and kicks out a homeless person for playing the violin. He is then kicked out of the box car and lands into a small pond where ducks were happily seated. Much of the water is then splashed out - but a little bit is remained for the ducks to swim in. The tramp then walks out of the pond and walks out of that part of countryside. He sees some birds on the tree that is singing happily. He continues to walk down the path singing merrily. WOW! This cartoon is so boring to watch and review - and I really don't feel like reviewing the rest of it. I'm off.

...
...
...

Well, it turns out that as I've tried to run out that door, I've been dragged back in by the locals who are demanding me to finish this review! Aw nuts!

Anyway, back to the review. There is a dog by the gate who is barking at the tramp as he is halted. The tramp with the violin then plays some music.Why? I don't know - maybe to quieten down the dog or something. The tramp's violin playing doesn't seem to tone the dog down, so he thinks of another idea to play some sad, devastating music. It makes the dog cry and howl. My, that timing and syncing of the dog crying is just awful. Although the animation is pretty good. The tramp then slams the gate in which the dog's neck is stuck - so that he can continue playing the music he loves to play. Now, that is just cruel to do that to the dog - sure it may be grizzly but it doesn't deserve to be suffocating.

The tramp then approaches a type of village for homeless people in which it's crammed with homeless people. There is a local singing the song Singing in the Bathtub. There is more tramps to be seen; such as one who appears to be sleeping and doing hitchhiking movements. I'm completely lost of those gags - and even in the signs they're barely show the entire sign - and it's just pointless. Although there is a "Free Library" sign which is visible, and there's a fly that flies into the scene trying to pull the tramp's toes - but his other foot flicks the fly away.

The whole part appears to be a tramp's paradise for the homeless person as he slides down the railing and bounces onto the homeless people's stomachs one at a time. Well, finally this cartoon is starting to get moving as it's been tedious so far. He sits by a the lake, and appears to be relaxing his feet by unrolling the back parts like unrolling a can of sardines. He dips his feet into the river and starts to play some lively music that he did in the boxcar earlier on. All the other tramps start to sing the song he's singing - whatever the song is called. There is these tramps that are doing singing and dancing. Oh come on, even if they caricatured Charlie Chaplin to do the dancing for this cartoon then it would've probably been a bit more entertaining. But, I don't mind saying that their dance routine isn't so bad, I guess.

The dog's neck is still stuck on the gate and there is a thought bubble that pops out with the hobo playing the violin. The dog manages to break the gate open - but bumps into a tree. The dog then starts on the run to find that hobo. The dog goes around trying to sniff the tracks for the homeless person (again, with that thought bubble coming up - I've no problem with the bubble). The dog reaches the edge of the cliff but then jumps down in a river and starts to swim like a human would swim. Why? Dogs don't swim like that - they do a doggy swim - it's just creepy and unnatural if they swim the human way. The dog then reaches that fishing pier and growls at the homeless - uh oh, trouble - so then a chase starts.

The dog starts to chase the poor tramp around and then on top of the high railways. They then pause to see an incoming steam train - and it turns out to be the SAME steam train from earlier on - how did the tramp arrive there in such speed? It IS a steam train - it has a "515" number on it - and if it's meant to be a reuse of a different train - then it's presented badly. They both start to turn around from the tracks, but the dog's leash is caught on the rails in which it starts to yelp for help. The tramp wants to save the dog's life so he gives up his violin, kisses it and tosses it away. The tramp grabs out a knife and cuts out the rope - they both jump down the river when the train passes by. The dog returns the tramp's violin in which he's happy - they both become friends, the dog licks his face - and that's all folks.

This cartoon was just nothing but boredom to me, and yes - Ben Hardaway directed some very bad cartoons from that period (1934-1935), but he did come back later to direct some better cartoons and was great for writing Woody Woodpecker cartoons. This cartoon had such boring animation, character designs and the story itself. I know that an audience wouldn't mind watching it considering they probably wouldn't have to analyze - but this is painful for ME. Well, since this is the last black-and-white Merrie Melody - good riddance. Although I know that color will bring some appeal at least - but I won't immediately change the stories.

90. Shake Your Powder Puff (1934)

Warner cartoon no. 89.
Release date: September 29, 1934.
Series: Merrie Melodies.
Supervision: Friz Freleng.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Cast unknown.
Animation: Bob McKimson and Bob Clampett.
Music: Bernard Brown.

The cartoon begins with a barn with animals enterting it that has Broadway lights reading: BIG SHOW TONIGHT. Everybody else is in the audience sitting down waiting for the show to begin. You can hear the sounds of the orchestra tuning. As the orchestra have finished tuning - a pig then plays the trumpet to welcome the orchestra conductor. The orchestra conductor steps out of a slip-door piano (oddly enough for some reason). He walks to the stage sophisticated and the audience applaud for his appearance.

All of the audience who are about to watch him then start to hush the audience so that they can hear the music. The conductor is rather distracted with those "shush" sounds, and turns around rather annoyed. He taps his conducting stick so that everyone has his full attention. They play the quiet, peaceful William Tell Overture. Everyone else is playing rather peacefully and it's all going well. The animation is rather pleasant to look (even though not subtle). Maybe Bob McKimson did those opening scenes? Okay, but I'm going to be doing these "games" on "I bet McKimson did that" - anyone want to join in?

The turtle starts to bang his shell like a drum. The conductor then starts to conduct rather more fiercely by playing Poet and Pleasant Overture.The conductor starts to jump up and down numerous times for the beats, but the planks on the stool break apart and he falls. After that very entertaining and very good gag, we see more fun gags such as a duck quacking the music - and the mice playing on the xylophone. Some cymbals then crash on the drums. The next fun part we see is a sleepy audience who jumps at each beat in the overture. What really fine and worthy gags displayed here.

In fact, this is even before The Band Concert. The conductor then finishes the last part of the music with serious conducting. After the audience applaud for that part (it REALLY goes deserve it), the orchestra leader bows to the audience. He looks at the orchestra as he still hears orchestra playing, but then they stop meekly. The audience still clap - I think that shot of the audience clapping was reused in Into Your Dance - will wouldn't be released until 1935.

The "Asbestos" sign then rises and we then see another part of show which these three bunnies singing the title song Shake Your Powder Puff. We see those bunnies "shaking their powder puff" and the song is in fact pretty good. We see the behind-the-scenes crew moving some type of scenery for a sea effect. We then see these ducks in a tub - as they are pretending to sail in it which makes it look real. I know that I get really frustrated with "abundances of singing and dancing" but I actually really do not mind this part of the cartoon overall. It's pretty fun. The ducks then sing their line for the title song, then they walk off with the bunny ladies and the curtains close.

The next show which is about to be shown is these two goats who look like their dressed as lumberjacks - it's hard to tell when looking at poor TV quality. Considering that they have a bit of weed sticking out of their mouths - rednecks perhaps? Anyway, they do a rather funny dance - which is sort of ridiculous at the same time - but I guess that the characters they're stereotyping is meant to be for fun - or it still works well at the same time. I'm really glad to see that there are some really fun "singing and dancing" to go along and it appeared that they had some fresh inspiration and ideas here - while the other shorts where they sing and dance are rather dull with no fresh ideas in their mind.

All of the audience applaud at their performance, but there is a rather drunk looking dog that "boos" at the performance who is also holding a bottle of alcohol. While he's still booing at the audience, the usher of the show then throws him out of the barn for his unnecessary behaviour. He storms back into the barn - but then we see nothing on the screen but gets kicked out, which is still mere entertainment.

After being kicked out, there is another performance inside being played which are these pigs also singing Shake Your Powder Puff and the gag of this show is meant to show these three pig singers and both have different heights and range themselves in a number of size (shortest to tallest). Meanwhile, the dog tries to disguise himself by calling himself "Jones" but he's still get kicked out of the audience, that proves the usher is not a fool.

The dog then spots a bellows and stuffs pepper in it to try and make the usher sneeze so that he can get back inside - I assume. Nope, he doesn't - what he is actually doing is that he is climbing on top of the barn - and looks through the window on the roof. He see a lovely point-of-view shot of the chickens that are dancing. Instead, the drunken dog wants to cause trouble. He then pumps the bellows in which pepper sprays and lands at the spiritual audience. The audience are then about to sneeze and they do, blowing off all the feathers onto the naked chicken. See, this is some really fine stuff in this cartoons - Friz Freleng (again) make a really good cartoon to watch. I can see a turning point on some of his cartoons (even though it's possible that it could be just luck).

The dog up that window then does the funny chuckle - see Friz has gave him some character; so there really is some effort in this cartoon. The dog falls down that window and lands onto the stage. The audience are angered by his shenanigans and they start to toss fruit, vegetables and other foods to the dog. The asbestos curtain has to be drawn down to block the dog from being attacked again. The curtain rises again - with the dog shouting out Ted Lewis' line "Is everybody happy" ending with a tomato splat on his face - and that's all folks.

I must say that this is really good entertainment, I like this much more than The Miller's Daughter - I don't really have a genuine problem with this cartoon at all. There were some very fun gags to look at, character personalities - I like the orchestra leader a lot. The drunken dog was also pretty entertaining too. I thought the opening was presented out probably the best - I love the gags used for the Poets and Pleasant Overture. Of course, the story may have changed completely when the drunken dog just "booed" but it halts the amount of singing and dancing that presents this cartoon a very good balance. So yes, Bravo to this cartoon. I'm glad that something really good has turned in the 1934 reviews. Don't agree with me - no need to argue. I like this cartoon so end of review.

89. Viva Buddy (1934)

Warner cartoon no. 88.
Release date: September 25, 1934.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Supervision: Jack King.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Cast: Jack Carr (Buddy) and Billy Bletcher (Pancho).
Musical Score: Norman Spencer.
Animation: Frank Tipper and Cal Dalton.

Our cartoon begins with Buddy who appears to be in a Mexican one-horse town walking along the street wearing his sombrero playing his guitar and singing a Mexican song. I'm not sure what the song is called but from what I can hear in the lyrics - it does sound Mexican alright. Buddy is walking on top of a donkey-cart but steps down and accidentally steps on a duck's neck but quacks and scatters away. Buddy walks around door to door through these streets - and it appears to look like what Mexican streets in the desert do - rather dull. As Buddy is (randomly) walking and singing all over the place, he is standing on top of a banister on a balcony. He falls down and lands on a man who has about a dozen sombreros on his head and Buddy slides down the sombreros in which it forms into a long sombrero, but they all go back into original size.

Buddy is then about to enter a cantina and we can hear some snoring sounds inside. As Buddy is about to enter the saloon doors; they are snoring too so they try to blow Buddy away. Buddy still has problems with trying to get through the saloon doors and instead climbs on top of a window. Wow, it really turned out to be a problem for Buddy? We see these interior shots of the Mexican locals inside the saloon just snoring as though it's a rather depressing atmosphere. We see a gag of a man snoring (with a chicken standing on his stomach) but the man almost blows his feathers off.

Another gag which I don't particularly mind at all is these men snoring while playing a game of chess - and they somehow must be very good at the game by sleeping and using their mouths to do the playing. Buddy enters the scene and sees a sleepy fellow (Well, they're ALL sleepy) sleeping on a piano seat. Buddy appears to grab out one of his "jumping" beans that he got - and there was a shot of a close-up of his bucket reading that - before he used them which is just poor pacing and got mixed around with the shots.

Buddy places the jumping bean onto the sleeping guy who uses his feet to play the piano with some funky tunes. Some of the folks then start to wake up and yawn. Finally, with one of Buddy's 1001 Skills; he's managed to keep the bar alive when everyone else appears to sing and cheerfully raise their mugs. There is a Mexican band that sings (and for some odd reason the leader is playing a type of mannequin as a guitar - why??). We see some Mexican dancing and then Buddy steps into the scene and does his guitar dance which is rather entertaining - I'd have to say. The guitar sometimes evolves with hands and legs and then back into it's normal shape - and the dance is pretty cool, I'd have to say.

Meanwhile outside the quite, sleepy one-horse town there appears to be a rather mean-looking bandit who is riding on his horse named Pancho - Oh yes; I understand it's like the outlaw "Pancho Villa" very funny (not). (We see a random shot of these other outlaws in some broken down vehicle but splash into a fountain - weird). So Pancho is then shooting with his gun onto bells that create some type of music pattern - interesting gag. One of the weirder gags pops up and it actually is kinda funny - is a sleeping guy sleeping beside a wall and on top of him is a poster that shows a glass of beer. So, the bullets shoots at the glass of beer on the poster in which beer runs down onto the lazy man's mouth. I must say, you've got to love Billy Bletcher's evil laughs - he's a genius at them.

Pancho then shoots at a local who is balancing with a vase on top of his head - but the water runs out and suddenly flowers grow - a nice sentiment gag. The mule that he appears to be riding is reluctant to stay and wants to leave (Oh yeah - "stubborn as a mule" heh-heh), but Pancho grabs the mule's tail and places it through the hole on the pole to tie it up. Before he does that - he cleans up his tail so that it looks thin enough to get through the hole. Pancho opens up the saloon doors as he's ready to cause as much trouble as possible. All the locals inside the bar hide as well as the bartender. Every time Pancho shoots a bullet at an object; there is a human head that pops out shouting out his name with horror. Yep, we all it's Pancho. Even the Marx Brothers make an appearance when he shoots a door-bed in which they all shout their names one at a time.

Pancho shoots at Buddy's banana that he was about to eat - but of course; he's not afraid of Pancho. Buddy tries to stand up to him by shooting a banana at his face. Pancho then asks him to play a song in which he is forced to do so. Cookie enters the scene - WHAT?! That is Cookie?! What, this is like the 3rd character design for her - weren't the guys at the studio indecisive or something - since they couldn't make their minds up. All I can say is that she looks more attractive here. So anyway; Cookie is doing a type of Mexican dance and it's the EXACT SAME ANIMATION ROUTINE FROM THAT DANCING CRAB!!! Remember that dancing crab in How Do I Know It's Sunday? Well, this is just about the exact same routine! I mean; were they running out of ideas, and they're just reusing that dance over and over again?! I knew the crab would return again - but I didn't think it would be reused with Cookie dancing, at least she looks better dancing at it.

The audience clap at that entertaining dance (well, in my opinion - this deserves a clap for good dancing - but certainly not a clap for it's reusing!). Pancho then wants his name to shine as he is going to do a type of skating sequence around the bars - (no Sleeping Beauty music being played in the background). He is using his spurs to skate around, and he then skates around Cookie who is not impressed with his dancing. As Pancho is about to make a grab for Cookie - she slaps Pancho away. Pancho is stuck on a wall, but a goat uses it's horns to jab him back into the saloon. Buddy shouts "That big Bozo", in which he uses a double bass and a fork to jab at Pancho's rear end in which he screams. He mutters "I'll kill you to pieces", but Buddy brings out a candelabra to block Pancho's pistols from trying to blast.

Meanwhile there is all this physical fighting, and for a while it's nothing but punching Pancho's stomach that makes me wanna yawn. Pancho then grabs hold of Buddy and they hold onto a lamp from the ceiling. They start to spin and spin until they fly off the lamp and crash onto a cupboard. Both Buddy and Pancho immediately become friends with Pancho's line "I was only foolin' Buddy!", they both laugh - and that's all folks. Hang on a minute, Pancho was just KIDDING all along - when he was just joking around - when he was trying to seduce Cookie's girlfriend - well, I see his point since that he wasn't trying to steal her and I guess he did pretty much pull a prank.

This is probably the shortest Buddy cartoon that I've known ever (and so far) it's only just about 6 minutes long. It wasn't bad in a short amount of time - parts of it I quite liked. I didn't understand on how that crab dance just had to be reanimated with Cookie doing the dance. Cookie has already been through another character look. I find the ending rather funny in a way since he was "only foolin'" and I guess it's meant to spoof the other "villain chasing girlfriend" (Whoops, I've jinxed it). I feel that the redesign of Cookie looks much better and looks more flapper-like when the 2nd one just looked too child-looking. Hopefully, things will turn out for the better. They say this cartoon came out in December 1934, but I still go with September as I find Dave Mackey's title card site very reliable, and I borrow through it chronologically.

88. The Girl at the Ironing Board (1934)

Warner cartoon no. 87.

Release date: September 15, 1934.

Series: Merrie Melodies.

Supervision: Friz Freleng.

Producer: Leon Schlesinger.

Cast unknown.

Animation: Frank Tipper and Sandy Walker.

Musical Score: Bernard Brown.

Considering that today is Friday the 13th - let's hope I won't go through any "horrors" of watching it.

Our cartoon begins starting at the Laundry store - oh; what a suitable place to start it - I'd imagine it would be tedious inside. There is already singing going on in the backgrounds singing the title song The Girl at the Ironing Board. Inside the laundry store are these ladies ironing some dresses; they then sweep the iron. Hang on a minute - from the animation I saw with my eyes - did they just touch that bit of iron - don't they know how dangerous and painful it is to touch it - or is it just poor animation. We then see these middle-aged ladies scrubbing long pieces of underwear with a washboard and tub will of soapy water. Another gag to be seen is a lady who is pulling out a long piece of underwear that is extremely fat - but she unbuttons the pants flap in which mountains of water fall out.

The next part we see is a long sheet that's covering the screen but parts of the layouts is seen and we think that we see a pair of feet (with socks on) that looks like they're actually dancing - but as the sheet is removed it turns out to be these ladies with their socks on their hands performing the technique. The gag appears to be influenced and reused from I've Got to Sing a Torch Song - what?! Friz Freleng was influenced with that crap?

We then see the next shot that appears to be in a factory that makes clothes. One of whom appears to be trimming a type of sheet that makes sleeves in the "Collar Sharpening Dept." The next part we see the "Button Breaking Dept." where we see this fat man who is hammering buttons off shirts - what's the purpose? Well I guess it's because it's called a button breaking department. As the clock strikes 5 o'clock - the raven in the NRA poster - hang on a minute? Is this the NRA or a clothes making factory or what?! The raven in the poster then blows a whistle as a signal that work is over. Some ladies in the laundry shop then use their time cards for when they're leaving and sets it to when they will go to work.

The next part we see is a title card that reads: AND THEN - (K)NIGHT FELL. We see a shot of a statue of a knight who falls off his statue and onto the ground. Hahah! Now that is a really funny gag - probably the funniest gag I've seen so far in any of those Harman-Ising cartoons. It even has the humor that Friz Freleng would add into his later and even more better cartoons. Oh my goodness, and it even works! Y'know what, I have a healthy feeling that this cartoon is going to be fine, after all.

We then see a rather handsome-looking man deliver his clothes into the laundry shoot, and then a woman enters the scene to deliver her laundry into the shoot. It immediately then becomes "love at first sight" for them as they wander off. Inside the laundry room the parcels unwrap themselves in which the laundry clothes come to life - and they're both from the opposite sex and immediately fall in love. So what, that was about two minutes of nothing then at the beginning? This is the part when the real story starts, and instead the beginning showed folks doing their laundry - did they do this to lengthen the short - or just wait to use that great "(k)night fell" gag to come up?!

Anyway, they both go into song where they are singing about each other (who'd want to hear a "popular song" about laundry?!) The clothes (that move like a human) then sing about their love - while the female piece of clothing suggests that he's "quite a flirt". The female then suggests that he should "come up and see him sometime" as the male clothing admires her figure, and all sorts.

The "clothing couple" then enter the other laundry room where they are greeted by other parts of clothing. We see these washing gloves hanging on a washing line playing the piano. We then see a long pair of underwear stand on some piece of iron as though he's wearing them as shoes and he's skating through the ironing board, which does seem quite good to animate, and animating with just clotheslines must've been a bit hard to animate back then - and actually, the animation isn't bad to look at. I wonder if they must animated through model sheets - or if they were drawn with human body parts but they were cleaned-up with only the clothes showing. It's a dumb guess - but only a thought.

We then see the couple clothesline that do a very dull waltz together that it's so boring and it's completely not worth clapping to while the other clotheslines are clapping to it. The next part shows these long pieces of underwear that then perform some type of vaudeville act. They then walk to these barrels flipped over and they use their pants flap to pat them on the barrel for rhythm. Now that is even more entertaining to watch than the couple dancing - at least there's something I'm enjoying here.

We then see another pair of long underwear (x2) and there's also a junior-sized one. They act like parents and live the junior long underwear a diaper change. They all then peg themselves back together in the wash line and that was a rather random gag - in my opinion. More vaudeville dancing continues from those two pair of long underwear. Meanwhile there is a rather evil-looking fellow who delivers his laundry through the shoot. The parcel then unfolds with it's uniform coming to life (notice the mustache there, too). He looks like he's bad news.

The long piece of underwear then opens the door to find the clothing couple dancing with each other. He unloosens the male clothing's belt in which he runs out of the screen with embarrassment. The female then tries to tell him off "Oh you nasty thing" and tries to smack him - but why? He HAS NO HEAD. The evil clothesline then steals the female and then--- (Nope, I'm not going to say it, I'm too tired of having to say the same 3 words over and over again - and you know what I mean).

The female clothing then starts to scream for "Help" just typically and the villain jumps onto the ironing board and then starts to ride it like a horse. The male clothing then straps his belt back on and starts to chase after his girlfriend again. They both then both hit the pole in which the villain feels rather weary. There is then a fight going on physically between the villain and the male. My goodness, this cartoon is just getting worse and worse - looks like "Friday the 13th" really has come to haunt me with all this repetitive fighting.

The villain clothing then trips onto a bucket of soap water, but is kicked back in there by the male clothing. But instead he is punched again as he starts to fly at another bucket, but instead it "closes". As the male clothing starts to lock it up in some type of vault - whatever it's called. The lady then walks to the man to admire him in a "My hero" attitude. The villain then steps out rather confused, but is pushed back into the barrel again - and that's all folks.

Well, I now feel haunted by this rather bland, worthless piece of animation and it's one of those cartoons that I'm going to forget completely once it's published. I can't believe that Friday the 13th really has come to haunt me. I ought to be more careful next time when reviewing an awful cartoon. The designs were just bland (though probably difficult) and it seems that the directors were just going to come up with every single idea of using every object for a new feature - but again; I guess he was just trying to repeat Harman-Ising's footsteps only because it worked when they did it - but it doesn't work when Friz did it - in my opinion. It simply can't be because of small budgets, right? Well, I must admit the animation at times was in fact pretty good and there were some highlights in that short such as the vaudeville dancing pair of underwear, the clothing skating with iron shoes and also the "(k)night fell" gag. I admit that I did quite like that very much - so there is still a chance for some improvement; slow improvement.

Look at what I wrote earlier on: 

Y'know what, I have a healthy feeling that this cartoon is going to be fine, after all.

What a loser. ;-)

87. Buddy the Detective (1934)

Warner cartoon no. 86.
Release date: September 15, 1934.
Series: Merrie Melodies.
Supervision: Jack King.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Cast: Billy Bletcher (Mad Musician), Jack Carr (Buddy) and (Cookie) Bernice Hansen?
Animation: Paul Smith and Don Williams.
Musical Score: Bernard Brown.

 The cartoon begins at a haunted house in the middle of nowhere, and in this area there is a storm outside, a storm that tells us this house is bad news. We truck inside the house (I'm scared) and we see a mad musician  playing some haunted tunes on the piano. We then see these branches pop through the window and they are also playing the piano - which looks even spookier. But the branch is playing a lively tune called Shake Your Powder Puff that the mad man despises, and almost rips his hair "Bah! Get out!", the mad musician feels that he's not writing good music and shouts "I need inspiration!", and laughs evilly.

Well kiddies, do you think this guy is REALLY frightening and scary??
- Duh?! I've been scarier like that demon in 'Paranormal Activity' or the 'Blair Witch Project'.
Yeah, I guess you're right. :L

The mad musician then walks to his small table and grabs out a bottle and cup. He pours the bottle in the cup which has a frog that falls into it. He grabs out the frog into his hands, and uses his hands to hypnotize the frog and declares that the frog will now play some haunted music for him. He throws the frog onto the piano - but then the frog picks himself up and do we hear evil music? Well, instead the frog happily plays Amaryllis on the piano which drives the mad musician mad. The frog then jumps onto a picture frame of a pond that splashes - you know, magic?

The frustrated mad musician then walks around to other portraits such as one that features Napoleon, and hypnotizes him to come to life and "play" some tragic music. Instead he plays some jolly tunes again - which angers the mad musician and his fiddle is destroyed. I must say that there is some wonderful character personality of the Mad Musician here - at least Jack King has made a bit of effort.

Meanwhile, the mad musician starts to think of an idea. But then we see a cut to Cookie's house where she is reading a newspaper article that says "Mad Musician Escapes" - what did he escape from an asylum or something? Back to the evil house, the Mad Musician then goes through a telephone directory and blocks his eyes with his hands on who he will choose to hypnotize by random. The Mad Musician finds the name he's chosen and that's "Cookie" of 00 1/2 Cornbread Ave. In the directory; you can find two Schlesinger employees here which is Bob Clampett and Ben Clopton, I believe Manny Corral is another one who was a cameraman at the studio.

Cookie runs to the window and closes it thinking there will be a storm. The telephone rings, and she picks up the phone and answers it. The mad man then uses his fingers to hypnotize Cookie by signalling it, he declares "Come to me my little Cookie". Cookie asks him to "stop it", but the hypnotizing still goes on. The mad musician then breaks the forth wall and admits, "She's a tough customer, I'll have to give her words!" Afterwards, she feels rather weary and then walks out the house like a zombie.

Bozo, Cookie's dog (as apparently that's his actual name in later cartoons), then starts to sniff the phone in which he turns almost hypnotized. He barks at the telephone and then hides under the cushions in the sofa. The dog then reaches to the telephone and blows a raspberry at it, then out of the house. The dog starts to run through the streets and then to Buddy's house who was sitting down in his armchair leisurely looking at his picture of Cookie. Bozo runs into his house and runs over his chair, and has a fishbowl stuck onto his head. The dog starts to bark but then breaks the fishbowl to try and signal Buddy what is going on by what's happened and even in the picture of Cookie. Buddy realizes that Cookie's "in trouble". He then puts on his jacket and hat and is off to inspect. How about we say that Buddy is Sherlock Holmes and Bozo is Watson; heh-heh - no!

Meanwhile, Cookie is inside the mad musician's house and she is being ordered by the mad musician to play some haunted and cold music on the piano. In the meantime, she then plays some jolly tunes on the piano that causes the mad musician to scream. He then uses his hands to order her to play tragic music again. Buddy and Bozo are then detecting as Bozo leads to where Cookie's whereabouts could be - which is in that haunted house. Buddy can't seem to open the front door, but instead thinks of a better idea. Instead he uses a torch on his magnifying glass to open up a patch on that door that he crawls through. So far, Buddy has seen some scary encounters (a spider lands on his magnifying glass), but as he uses his torch there appears to be these type of scary ghosts that appear out of nowhere. Does Buddy seem good enough for a detective - well; he is pretty much an every man.

Buddy then starts to run in the hallway, and notices a skeleton walking out of a door and he secretly follows it to see what the skeleton is doing. The skeleton is drinking some water from a water machine. Buddy watches the skeleton's activities in which it's just getting out a broken umbrella to go out for a walk (considering that there are other skeletons behind him) will this be explained or what?! Oh that's great - we see Bozo's howling as he is chasing after a skeleton and he bites off one of the skeleton's legs. The skeleton chases his leg back but instead Bozo is then climbing up the stairs (that appear to be broken) and the skeleton has no chance of chasing him. The skeleton then falls down the basement in which it breaks into pieces, Bozo's tail is caught on one of the blinds and starts to run out with the blinds stuck on his tail, Buddy is skidded on top of it as Bozo runs. Okay, but I thought they were on the hunt for Cookie but instead they're mucking around with skeletons and other stuff.

Buddy then finds Cookie upstairs, and he tries to climb up the banister of the stairs, but the pendulum on the grandfather clock then kicks Buddy up there. Buddy tries to open the door, but gets slapped by the mad musician. Buddy already used his torch beam to melt the patch on the door with his magnifying glass - why couldn't he just to the same here. Buddy then moves another door through the same wall on the door next to it. Buddy notices the mad musician standing at the door but instead he kicks his bottom, but his fat bum bounces off and smacks Buddy. They both then start to fight (Okay, I've got one vote for Buddy, going once; going twice - eh, I like to do these things).

Buddy then crawls behind the mad musician, grabs his robe and swings him around and around until he hits the wall - and appears to be week and defeated. There is a stool on top of him, Buddy swings it up to the ceiling so it blocks the mad musician from going anywhere. Cookie steps out of the piano by surprise. To give the mad musician some more torture they play some jolly tunes to make up for it, while it drives the mad musician nuts - and that's all folks.

This cartoon was not a bad cartoon - and it seems that Jack King has fallen into the influence as what Friz Freleng or Ben Hardaway did when it was those incoherent cartoons. I liked parts of the cartoon such as the personality of the mad musician, and yet Billy Bletcher's cartoons are always great to listen to. The music here is not so bad - but I can never see Buddy just acting like Sherlock. We just pretty much saw the first 3 minutes of this cartoon without Buddy - and only showing the mad guy trying to get people to get inspiration to get evil music, all really works. Then the cartoon gets to the point where it's weak since Buddy is detecting and just wasting time with skeletons that we didn't bother having to see.