124. The Phantom Ship (1936)

Title card courtesy of Dave Mackey.

Warner cartoon no. 123.
Release date: February 2, 1936.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Supervision: Jack King.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Bernice Hansen (Ham and Ex) and Tommy Bond (Beans).
Musical Score: Bernard Brown.
Animation: Paul Smith and Don Williams.
Sound: Treg Brown (uncredited).

Ham and Ex are inside the living room as they are reading a newspaper article with the front headline reading:

BEANS TO HUNT FOR HAUNTED TREASURESHIP IN NORTH.

 Ham and Ex are jumping about inside the living room excited that their "Uncle Beans" is about to do a mission that probably hasn't been done before - at least in this story. Ham and Ex then rush outside to their garden where Beans is already setting his plane up by squirting the wheels with an oil can. It's one of them cartoon planes that have a face on it.
Beans then jumps onto the plane in which the plane takes off and his flight to the north for his ambitious trip begins.

 Beans flight to the North sequence shows up in the air speeding pretty fast. The meter in the plane that tells where Beans is standing was originally from New York; and there appears to be cut as it's sliding to the location; and Beans stands upon his plane doing the Hopak dance; so we can assume he's in Russia as it says in the meter. I wonder why it was cut?

The meter then changes position from Russia to Iceland. Boy; if that's where he REALLY is then he's obviously travelling very fast in such speed. Looks like he's probably the first to travel from New York to Iceland (travelling past West Coast, Asia, Europe, etc.) and yet it's taken him quickly. Beans must be just like Charles Lindbergh except it took him 33 hours. The thermometer stat when it reaches Iceland drops so rapidly that the thermometer explodes. Yes; I've seen thermometers explodes but I don't about that in cold weathers. Beans has already arrived at Iceland with icicles in his land (so; it's just going to assume that it's all ice just because it's called Iceland). Of course; when you see Greenland - you expect green - but that's basically all ice. Very ironic.

Beans then gets out his binoculars in which he looks out the window to find the ship abandoned in the middle of an ice field. Beans shouts "Hooray" as he's found it - in what; a couple of minutes? I really like that gag that shows the smoke coming out the plane and already evolving into ice.

The plane then starts to land at Iceland where it loops around as it's landing. Beans looks up at the ship where it's called "The Phantom" but the words are just printed on a bat that flies out of the scene. Beans steps out of his plane in which the boot opens with Ham and Ex shouting "Surprise, surprise!" with Beans doing a 360 degree hat take. Well; it appears that Ham and Ex were in the boot all along. Beans looks at both Ham and Ex wondering what he's going to do with both of them but makes his mind up as though he might as well have them for the trip.

Both Ham and Ex are giggling very childishly in which Beans is still confused as they both both onto his hands to drag him along. Beans then notices that a stair case drops to the ground where you enter the phantom ship. Beans leads Ham and Ex to follow him.

The stairs then start to move backwards where they struggle to walk up the stairs but a type of hands smacks them up and they are on top of the ship. Now we can already see that the ship is evidently haunted. It's a little creepy to see that the flags happen to have hands. As there is one hand that starts to grab Beans in which Beans turns terrified and tries to dodge the hand. The hand of the flag  then grabs Beans' tail in which Beans can't  run any further. The hand flag then tosses Beans in the air with another flag pole with a hand that tosses Beans in the air, too but drops him to the ground.

The ship is proved to be haunted as Beans hands on a folded up piece of rope and an anchor comes to life by punching Beans down the basement of the ship. Beans then starts to position himself in a John Sullivan pose and trying to start a fight, "He can't do that to me, etc." A lamp attached to the ceiling then comes to life by swinging and then hitting Beans on the head.

Ham and Ex are calling for "Uncle Beans" asking for his whereabouts. A skeleton pirate them pops out of the blankets of a lifeboat to shout "Pipe down!" Ham and Ex turn around to figure out who said that but both slam into each other in the face. Both Ham and Ex then hide under the blankets on the port side of the ship but get knocked by a lifebelt that drops on top of them. They both then try to run off but don't realise they're under a blanket.

Ham and Ex are therefore in blankets and of course they look like ghosts. As a matter of fact; since it's nothing but a blanket over the twins - it even scares the skeleton pirates. It causes a pirate to disappear by hiding; and another skeleton to jump overboard. The admiral skeleton then steps out of the lifeboat. Ham and Ex then crash into a pole, but the blankets stretch like a slingshot and wraps around the admiral skeleton.

The blanket then crashes into the door in which the door evolves into a tongue by licking Ham and Ex inside the cabin. So many creepy stuff in this cartoon and of course; this probably isn't a very exciting cartoon but the ideas are very interesting in which is haunted. The gags so far are fun - so this seems to be a fine production to me.

Ham and Ex roll inside the cabin in which Beans gets run over until Ham and Ex are out of the blanket and Beans is under there. Both Ham and Ex look at "the figure" under the blankets and mistaken it for a haunted creature, skeleton or a ghost. They both then start to grab out the paddles.

Both Ham and Ex use their paddles to whack "the creature" under the blanket. They both open up the sheet to see who was under there and it was none other but Beans. Ham and Ex gasp shouting "Uncle Beans" and both feel bad for hitting their uncle. They help Beans up in which Beans stands back up grumbling "Bah" and walks off. Beans opens a door in which to his amazement we finds gold; treasure chests inside the room which was his top target to search for in his expedition. Beans steps inside to feel the gold.

Ham and Ex then step into the room as they're also amazed to see a lot of gold in the room as they also want to help Beans to take it all with him. Both Ham and Ex then find the coins as they play a type of "Heads and Tails" game to see who keeps the join - so one of them wins; leaving (probably Ex) disgruntled.

Beans continues to be grabbing out the gold until he finds a group of frozen people sitting down by the stove as there is no fire. Beans scratches his head remarking, "Frozen stiff". Beans removes the chair of one of the lads sitting down; but he seems SO stiff that it wouldn't drop to the ground and that makes it unrealistic. But I guess animating a frozen body drop stiff was probably hard to animate and achieve well back then - unless they could assign it to someone like Bob McKimson.

Beans then throws the table into the stove. Beans then walks to the next frozen person on his right to take the chair off and throw it inside the stove. Beans then strikes a match to keep the stove warm since he's found a part of wood. The stove has now got fire inside in which it should cool up soon. Beans then sneaks out of the scene to let them defrost.

Beans then grabs out the bag of gold as he tosses it out of the window to place on his plane since he's got a lot to collect. The frozen figures then defrost in time as they come to life. The sailor then comes back to life; as well as the captain who defrosts in time. The captain then scratches his head as though he's been frozen for the longest time.

The captain then makes a sudden notice on Beans as he is stealing the treasure. The captain then stands behind Beans preparing to kill him with his sword without him noticing. Beans turns around in time in which he 'takes'. Ham and Ex are also frightened as they jump inside a barrel to hide from the captain.

The chase begins as the Peg  legged pirate has his peg stuck on the hole of the door in which he struggles to get himself off the floor. Ham and Ex look out of the barrel to see what is going on but are noticed by a dog sailor in which he creeps up to the twin pups. The sailor then chases Ham and Ex inside the cabin but the sailor is then knocked out by running into a pole. Stupid dope.

A funny gag then pops up when the captain is still stuck on the floorboard but as he pulls his pegged leg out; he tries to stand still but as he places his foot down the floorboard whacks him in the rear end - which is entertaining. The captain then flies out of the floorboard by whacking himself too hard; and lands on deck almost crushing Beans.

The captain of the ship looks at Beans giving him dirty looks in which Beans tries to hide in a cannon but his timing runs out of luck since the captain notices him inside and tries to pull him out of the cannon. The captain attempts to try and punch Beans through a window but does so successfully but the funny gag is that Beans flies out of the funnel in which hits the captain on the head. In some ways; it doesn't matter if the gag isn't  so coherent but at least it's fun.

Meanwhile Ham and Ex are are peril as he's being chased by the captain's assistant. They are trying to escape by using the ropes; but are left hanging and can't use their strength and start calling for "Uncle Beans". The sailor then starts to cut off the rope in which Ham and Ex are left swinging onto the rope.

They manage to swing safely onto the plane in which Beans is still in trouble by the captain. They start to fly the plane themselves to help save Beans. The captain then finds a barrel full of gunpowder in which he tries to throw it at Beans; but Beans manages to successfully dodge.

The barrel then starts to hit the pole and explodes as Beans manages to dodge it successfully. Some pretty neat explosion animation effects here as it is shown.

Ham and Ex are on the plane and they notice that "Uncle Beans" is seen flying in the air because of the gunpowder reaction. The plane then turns in which Uncle Beans lands safely. Beans is very happy to see Ham and Ex has saved them and kisses them on the forehead in return of gratitude. Beans, Ham and Ex then look down as they are leaving the ship. They have the gold with them in which they fly off into the distance.

Overall comments: I liked the idea on how that the synopsis of this short is about Beans on an expedition to a phantom ship where it's all haunted. It does make a great story; even though the cartoon probably isn't so exciting. This cartoon was thoroughly enjoyable at times; although it puzzles me on how that he could travel from New York to Iceland in like a matter of minutes - it didn't even seem very quick as well; from the speed of the plane and all. I've noticed that the character developments of Ham and Ex is different from than say; The Fire Alarm. They don't seem to be mischievous at all either because their butts being chewed out by Beans made them learn their lesson. I do quite like the haunted gags that have been presented here. Another Jack King short that is thoroughly decent at best. Jack King seems to have enjoyed working on expedition productions as he's written some like Buddy's Lost World or maybe; Westward Whoa - even though he's probably made very much.

123. Alpine Antics (1936)

Warner cartoon no. 122.
Release date: January 18, 1936.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Supervision: Jack King.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Billy Bletcher (Bully) and Bernice Hansen (Little Kitty).
Musical Score: Norman Spencer.
Animation: Riley Thompson and Jack Carr.
Sound: Treg Brown (uncredited).

Our cartoon begins in the Alps where it is all snow that is beautiful. There is an off-screen vocal group singing in the rhythm of She Was an Acrobat's Daughter but the parody song is called She Was an Ice Skater's Daughter. There is a cow skater who is skating in the middle of the frozen lake. If you think about it - I wonder if King got the cow idea from Clarabelle Cow by Disney? They certainly resemble each other via character design.

The cow is performing us some tricks on the ice rink in which she uses her tail to spin around the frozen lake. The animation of the cow dancing on the frozen lake is pretty good animation. It turns out the the off-screen chorus singers were a group of snowmen that are singing and dancing. The weird part is when the snowmen have legs to move - won't they wobble?! They appear to be ignorant since they walk past a campfire (why would there be a campfire in the snow? To keep people warm I guess?) The snowmen the sing off the last part of the song in which they melt in time.

There is a dog creature that is all wrapped up in a warm, furry coat. He snuggles up his face under the coat to keep warm. He appears to be keeping warm by a steaming teapot to try and keep his hands up as he is in fact shivering.

The teapot then starts to boil which shows that it's ready. The dog then carries the teapot with him to a cracked part of the frozen lake where it is a small pond.The dog pours the steaming water into the lake in which he takes off his coat to dive as though he's relaxing in a hot-tub or something. As the dog dives; he is covered inside an ice cube in which the water has proved not to be warm enough with just a small boiling teapot. Hah; no wonder there was a "Danger" sign next to it.

There are a group of cows that appear to he wearing a pair of ice skates with 3 skating shoes in one - there is also a little pup that skates beneath their legs. The music in the background is still "Acrobat's Daughter" and the animation of the skaters is good animation.

 We see some shots of more skaters dancing such as a turtle that is dancing in ice skates. You can see the reflection of the turtle underneath the ice in which the reflection comes to life. The reflection turtle then seems to notice that he's under the ice in which the turtle does a hat-take because of that gag.

Meanwhile Beans and Little Kitty are sitting on a sledge riding but Beans skids the sledge as he notices a notice poster that is hanging on a shed. Beans then approaches the poster as he wants to read what's going on in the Alps? The poster reads:

NOTICE Annual SKI-RACE Starts 1PM TODAY. $100,000,000 in Prizes or a Cool $2.00 cash to the winner!

Of course; $100'000'000 was a mega a lot of money back then (and how would those sponsoring the competition even afford that money)? You'd probably be thinking since this is set in the Alps and yet they're using American dollars. I'd say it's suitable to use it since we don't  want to complicate things further by telling us they're real currency at the time with the currency symbol.

Beans turns over to Little Kitty and tells her, "Big race today, Kitty". He walks to pick up his skiing board and declares "Oh boy. Watch me win this race". We then PAN onto the bully of the Alps walks up to Beans and Little Kitty. The bully looks like Peg Legged Pete here (Disney). Boy; I wonder if King was influenced with Disney characters for this short since he's clearly used some.

The bully then approaches Beans as he slides him off the ski board and flicks him out of the way. The bully then breaks the ski boards in half by snapping it. The bully shouts "Ha!" and then walks off. Beans now has a competitive, arrogant bully to deal with. Beans is very annoyed of the bully in which he really wants to pound him as he demonstrates on how to do it. He tells Little Kitty, "I'll show that big stiff!" Beans removes the sledge off the board in which he starts to use them as skii boards.

The race is to begin and Beans arrives at the start line on time. Beans just happens to be standing next to the bully who broke his ski boards earlier on. Beans then chuckles nervously. The bully then grabs out a firework since he's most likely got a trick for Beans. The bully then pulls Beans' hat down as he struggles to put his hat back up (it must be really tight then).

The bully then places the firework in Beans' ski board in which he tightens the firework with a watch so it won't  fly off. The bully then strikes a match in which Beans goes off..ZOOM!

Beans goes flying over the place as he zooms around an empty shed - crashing the roofs occasionally. That scene is pretty amazing and in such speed. It's only roughly three seconds when back then it would take longer and the timing would've been slower and unfunny. Beans hits the ground feeling rather weary.

Beans then gets back onto his feet in which as the bully laughs at his humiliated incident. The turtle  on top of a tree then starts to begin the race with is gun but as he blasts - the turtle's shell starts to spin around numerous times. The race then begins in which all the other contestants start the race but the dog delays itself as he's riding on some type of bike to go through the snow that does take effort to go through.The turtle's shell continues to spin but lands on the snow before the turtle's legs, arms and heads pop out as he is rather dizzy. Well; turtle gags are fun - no question.

Beans then starts to begin the race but the bully is already in the lead ahead of Beans.

There are other competitors that are in the race; such as the dog cycling; and (probably) a cameo appearance of Porky Pig riding on a rocking horse with snow flying on his face from the competitor in front of him. There are all kinds of strange competitors that are using a raft (plus a bellows for wind resistance), and also a duck riding a dachshund. Beans is skiing down the hill but does try to be careful. The bully looks back at to see Beans and laughs at him. The bully then slides down a hill which goes pretty fast (I like the animation of the background going forward even though it's just a cycle). The bully then skiis off the edge of the cliff and lands safely in a parachute.

The bully then skiis down to a tree to hide in. We know that he's probably "too competitive" and doesn't like losing. He has another trick up his sleeve. He finds a way of cheating by grabbing out a piece of rope and ties it to a ski pole. After that the bully then the bully aims his pole to another tree as he throws it like a spear. It causes trouble for the contestant as he trips over and lands backwards in the snow; still peddling. The next contestant is the pig on a rocking horse.

The bully continues to prank on many of the contestants as they still trip over the rope and a funny gag shows with three pigs landing on thick snow but their pig tails made bell sounds. The bully then sees Beans skiing through and laughs to think that he is going to be next.

Beans skiis past but only lands on the pole in which the ski pole is unattached to the tree and the ropes swirl around the bully leaving him tied up. It was a fine gag; but it's still one of the "impossible things" in which it doesn't work too well but it can be accepted. The bully gets angered as he steams up; his body builds up as the ropes snap - now that does work; as cartoons use it all the time except the timing is slow.

 The bully then starts to pick up the pace as he tries to overtake Beans' position. Beans is jumping from one cliff to another but his ski boards land on the edge of the cliff leaving him wobbling; and stuck. Probably the first cartoon to use one of Treg Brown's "boing" Jew's harp effect.

Beans is still stuck in the position as the bully has now overtaken his position. Luck comes by as a duck and a dachshund are still in the race; and they slide down the cliff and back up. Beans is no longer stuck on the cliff as the dachshund forms a loop with the duck running inside; like a hamster.

The duck and dachshund are close to overtaking the bully's position in which the bully blocks then from trying to past. The dachshund then changes standing position to trip the bully out of the way. Now the duck and dachshund are leading - until they crash into the tree with the dachshund standing in the wrong position; with the dog all tied to the tree. Beans overtakes the bully by sliding past his knocked down ski boards. The bully stands back up in which there is a sequence of Beans going over lumpy hills that leads him flying and the bully overtaking.

The bully is still overtaking Beans; and Beans doing his attempt as well. They are eventually both standing on each other (with the bully standing on Beans' head). They almost crash into a house but the bully skiis on top of the roof while Beans just goes through. Huh; no crash - was the door just open? The bully then trips on a branch but spins the branch around. Then; it spins back leaving him flying and overtaking Beans again.

The crowd are still cheering on the winning contestant to win but the bully finds itself hitting on thin ice in which the ice block turns over with Beans skiing past it and finally wins the race. The bully's head pops out of the ice underwater in which Beans trips and lands onto thin ice. It turned out that the bully had that last trick up his sleeve despite losing.

Overall comments: Beans has been used pretty often in the cartoons (well; he is the leader of the Beans gang - of course). There were some fine gags in this cartoon that did work and deserved to be accepted. Of course; this cartoon feels like watching a Mickey Mouse cartoon made from around 1932-1934 with the influences that show Peg Legged Pete; or Clarabelle Cow. Jack King must've had influence somewhere. I really like the use of sound effects here that appears to be used more often in this cartoon that worked well; well done Treg Brown. The animation was pretty good in this cartoon; particularly the beginning with the skaters. The speed is starting to improve; although the timing is still slow on the skiing race sequence. I thought it showed improvement of when Beans has the rocket in his ski board. Little Kitty has a minor role in this cartoon (as well as others); and hasn't had her own cartoon yet - but probably doesn't need one.

122. I Wanna Play House (1936)

Warner cartoon no. 121.
Release date: January 11, 1936.
Series: Merrie Melodies.
Supervision: Friz Freleng.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Bernice Hansen (Little Bears).
Musical Score: Bernard Brown.
Animation: Cal Dalton and Sandy Walker.
Sound: Treg Brown (uncredited).

The first WB cartoon to use the famous concentric rings in which it is the trademark of the WB cartoons; and would be used until 1964 in many, many cartoons. At least it shows an improvement on the designs for the titles; with those fancy rings.

 Our cartoon begins with a sleeping bear that is snoring taking an afternoon nap. We PAN to the right to see these group of bear cubs that are playing with each other frolicking around. The scene where they scatter around on the ground rolling has some pretty bad inbetweening - I have to say.

As they are playing; the black cub then starts to punch at the brown cub's face in which the brown cub begins to chase after the brown cub. The black cub then runs away from the brown cub but encounters a turtle as though he's never seen one before. The cub then starts to follow the turtle. Notice how the turtle walking is just a cycle but it's full animation as he turns his around to the cub. The cycle of the turtle is okay.

 The bear cub is sniffing the back part of the turtle to get the scent but what the cub gets instead is the turtle's head turning around the rear end and bites the cub in the nose. The cub runs off screaming loudly as the turtle walks off in the animation cycle.

The bear cub is crying after being bitten on the nose. The brown cub then laughs at the black cub's misfortune in which angers the black cub. The black cub then starts to retaliate by attempting to throw a rock at the cub but the brown cub dodges. The rock ends up hitting the parent of the cubs - I'd say it's their mother; even though the grunting sounds like a father; but the mother mammal often have the responsibility of looking after the children. The mother cub then starts to walk up to her cubs trying to figure out who threw the rock at her.

 Both cubs don't want to take the blame and then both blame one another both pointing at each other. We all know that it was the black cub's fault - if only this was some type of children's pantomime where an audience member would shout "He did it!".

Since the mother doesn't know who did it and both cubs are blaming each other - she starts to spit  out of his mouth and onto her hands. She grounds her fist to her hand where the spit will land; and will assume who's got the blame. Now that is not a fair way of doing that. The spit lands in the position of the brown cub in which he is given a smack in the rear end. The black cub then starts to creep out of the scene trying not to get involved in this situation. The black cub then runs off to hide by a tree. The brown cub is feeling the pain from his rear end in which he rubs it. He also walks to the tree where the black cub is standing.

 The two cubs then meet together again but the black cub then tries to bury the hatchet as he suggests, "Why don't you and I play hide and go seek?" The brown cub then agrees to play in which the brown cub is counting and the black cub is hiding. I don't know if the dialogue scenes are still Hansen but I know the brown cub counting is definitely her.

The cub then starts to run off as the cub is counting. I do wonder how much the cub will count up to since it hasn't been direct to how long?

 The cub then starts to run off pretty far in which he reaches the edge of the cliff where there is a gypsy cart at the bottom. The cub slides down the tree but also hits the branches. The cub is now on the ground and the starts to enter the gypsy caravan.

The cub is pleased to see that there is a lot of food prepared on the table as well as comfy bunk beds. This feels like a paradise for the bear cub. Meanwhile the brown bear cub is still counting and ends up counting past "500" by counting the numbers chronologically "501...502...503...504".

 The black bear cub is on the kitchen table preparing a feast for him by stuffing sandwiches with some meat, cheese, etc. The sandwich becomes very tall (after the bear places on olive on top). The bear then adjusts the sandwich to squeeze it downwards for normal size.

The bear is still eating his sandwich until he finds a bottle of cider and probably mistakes it for a drink that is non-alcoholic. The bear then starts to feel very weary and dizzy afterwards in which he almost passes out.

 Meanwhile the brown bear cub is still counting continuously (this time counting "15'010 ... 15'011 ... 15'012", now that is a pretty funny scene. The counting rate is just exaggeration but it shows some charm and probably amazing for a cub to count so high. Of course; you'd tend to count to at least "20-30" in Hide and seek; but I like how it is still counting in it's thousands.

Back in the cart; the black cub is clearly drunk as he hiccups. The cub giggles every-time he hiccups. We get a pretty decent point-of-view shot of the cub's view of the cart which shows the room being very wobbly and dizzy. One of those great point-of-view shots of a drunken person's eyesight. The cub hiccups again and it turns into laughter.

 Back at the same old tree; the brown bear cub is still counting this time up to one million. Okay; now the joke is just getting old - GET ON WITH IT. The brown cub then finishes counting at "1'000'002"; which is a very weird number to end counting in Hide and Seek. Did HE just set the counting time to that; or just waited until the black cub shouted "Ready?" or something. It isn't clear to me because when he turns around rather cross; and I don't know if it's the latter I said.

The black bear cub places a hat on top of his head but hiccups with the hat landing on his tail. The drunken pig is therefore singing the song (probably I've Got to Sing a Song Because I'm Gay but I'm not too sure). The song finishes with an interrupted tomato splat on the black cub that was caused by the brown cub.

The brown cub and black cub then meet each other again as they give each other dirty looks. They both then start to fight one another by punching. As they are both still fighting one of the cubs accidentally turns on a switch in which the clamps of the wheel is released from the cart and then begins a dangerous rides.  Now that's a sequence that we haven't seen since the Harman-Ising cartoons.

The gypsy cart is therefore rolling down the hill which the two cubs are in peril. They look out the window and they both don't know what to do.

They both then try to turn around the cart as they are on the road on top of a mountain. They turn the cart for the cart to skid like a car as they are reaching a turning point. They both can't bare the look on the fact that they are in danger and are at risk of being killed.

I do quite like the animation for the cart driving down the mountain but it moves like a cart and trailers don't do that. The next scene is a reused idea from old Harman-Ising productions where the cart is sliding through the trees; with it's wheels extending to show the legs - I guess.

The cubs inside the cart are running around in panic as to what is doing to happen. They both see the switch in which they decide to stop it in which the cart skids. The cart then starts to skid until the wheels fly out left with no wheels at all.

The skidding then ends when the cart crashes into a tree. The two cubs then step out of the cart with plates, cups and other items falling down crashing onto the brown cub in which he feels rather weary.

The mother bear then starts to notice the cubs in which she was looking for them all along. The mother then sniffs the bottle of cider and then recognises the smell of alcohol. The mother is very annoyed when she sees the brown cub walking very weary but takes it as a misunderstanding since the brown cub does look like she's walking drunk.

Ah-ha; it seems that he overall theme in this cartoon is "blame"; and the black cub gets away with mischief a lot just like when he threw that stone or when he was drunk.

The mother cub then starts to spank the brown cub in which it appears to yell like a monkey for some reason. The black bear looks at the spanking and realises that this is the penalty for misbehaving. The black bear then starts to walk out of the scene pretending not to have had any involvement in it whatsoever.

The black cub is still walking out of the way pretending to act all innocent and all. The mother bear has finished with the child; but the brown bear's behaviour has turned aggressive since he picks up a rock and throws it at the black cub. The black cub then feels the smack of being hit by the rock and hits the ground looking back at how had hit him?

Overall comments: Interesting theme throughout the short since the blame is passed on the innocent. The two cubs are as bad as each other; but the black cub is probably the most mischievous. The sequence of the black cub acting all drunk was pretty entertaining; as well as the brown cub counting for a very long time and counting too much; until it got to the point were the joke was boring. This cartoon wasn't particularly special that probably only had a few moments. Goes to show that Freleng hasn't been immediately influenced yet by Avery; although Avery had only just started so that's a fair comparison. Not a special cartoon; pretty forgettable and that's all I'm going I have to say about the cartoon.

121. Plane Dippy (1936)

Title card courtesy of Dave Mackey.

featuring "Porky"

Warner cartoon no. 120.

Release date: January 4, 1936.

Series: Looney Tunes.

Supervision: Tex Avery.

Producer: Leon Schlesinger.

Starring: Joe Dougherty (Porky), Bernice Hansen (Little Kitty), Billy Bletcher (Sergeant / Inventor).

Musical Score: Bernard Brown.

Animation: Sid Sutherland and Virgil Ross.

Sound: Treg Brown (uncredited).

The first entry of 1936. This is also the first animation credit for Virgil Ross who was one of the greatest animators in Golden Age animation of all time. Unfortunately this video that I have is a colourised version of the cartoon; as there isn't a black-and-white copy available on the Internet. So this will have to do. It's also Porky's first full-cartoon while he only played minor roles in the 1935 cartoons. 

Our cartoon begins with Porky as he is walking across the streets looking at posters that read Join the Army - Infantry Division. Porky then thinks logically in his head whenever or not to join the army but shakes his head "no" as it doesn't appeal to him. Porky walks to the next poster reading See the World - Join the Navy. Porky isn't eager to join the navy so he walks on.

Porky then walks on to the next poster as it appears to be a bunch of military posters being displayed. The poster that appeals to Porky is Learn to Fly - Join the Air Corps. Porky is interested to join the air corps in which he marches inside for applicant. So, it appears to be that Porky was marching in a streets with military posters and applicants about. Avery has altered Porky's design in this short since he was an adult in the last one. The design of Porky is better but his take on Porky isn't so appealing - I have to say.

Porky meets the sergeant of the room in which he shouts "Well"?! Porky announces but stutters very badly in that god-annoying Joe Dougherty stutter. "(stuttering) I'm gonna..." then he starts to spread his arms out pretending they're wings and making plane sounds.

The sergeant then asks for his name "What's your name?" in which Porky then starts to stutter his own name. The sergeant helps out Porky by handing him a small blackboard with a chalk to help write down his name so he doesn't have to take down stuttering it out, "Here, write it then!". Porky not only stutters while saying it but as he writes it down he is also stuttering while writing it. Now that is a funny gag that encourages me to laugh out since it's inventive and appealing since it shows that Porky can't even control his writing and stutter. it appears to be such an affliction. Bless. The song being played in the opening of this cartoon is I'd Love to Take Orders from You.

Porky Pig then starts to stutter the rest of his name as the blackboard is taken off him. It seems that Porky is exaggerating with his other names that appear to be gibberish or other names but I can't quite tell what he is saying clearly. Can anyone help? I know this was meant to be a gag; which I thought was funny but I didn't understand exactly what was said which was a little hard for me to understand the gag.

The sergeant then takes Porky away in which he brings him a back of uniform for him to try and put on. Porky then enters the dressing room in which the sergeant is waiting for him to get changed; and seconds later Porky is out there. The sergeant is surprised as he sees his uniform doesn't fit Porky. The sergeant then dumps Porky into a bucket of water in which the uniform then shrinks into the perfect size for Porky.

The next sequence dissolves to a title card that reads Dizziness Test. I love how the words then start to spin around like propellers to probably make an audience dizzy. The sergeant is in a test room with Porky tied up onto a long piece of rope. The sergeant then loosens the piece of rope in which Porky spin with those tornado speed lines.

A member of the air corps in the test room (could it be Beans?) then draws a line in the middle of the room but it leaves Porky spinning all over the place and not keeping his balance. It doesn't seem like a great gag to me because of the speed but this was just the 1930s back then. It still works.

The next sequence then shows a title card that reads Target Practise that shows bullets firing at the screen to print those words. The sergeant has a toy plane out in which Porky's job is to try and aim at it with a machine gun. It was simple for the sergeant to do it; and then he turns it over to Porky to do the job. Porky's attempt then fails in which he starts to fire all over the place. The smoke then covers the screen leaving the entire test room all blown up with the plane still in the air. Porky kicks the machine gun in frustration but then it shoots the machine gun which is funny since it took him all THAT effort to try and shoot it. Some good personality on Porky going on here - even though it's not quite like his known personality that we know.

The next title card then reads Ready for Duty and I imagine it means Porky has qualified his tests and is ready to begin his duty at the air army corps. The sergeant is giving out guns to the soldiers and those in the corps. The sergeant is throwing the guns at these lanky dogs in which they almost loose their balance and walk off.

Porky then turns up ready for duty but the sergeant disqualifies Porky for his shenanigans in which he has to do the job of sweeping as the sergeant gives him the duster and gives him a paper of "orders" to do. He is sent to do work inside a hut in which the sign reads Robot Plane - KEEP OUT! It appears as though that an automatic plane is being built. Porky enters the scene in which he whistles to see if anybody is in the room but the cloth flies out with a mechanical monkey in the scene leaving Porky flying with those tornado speed lines. It appears to be that Avery enjoyed using those twisted speed lines for Porky to spin that kept the timing fun although I wonder if that was assigned to a particular animator to do. I know that Virgil Ross would use that in later cartoons but he wasn't the one and only to use that. The monkey mechanic then shouts "Well?" The monkey then reads the note in which it reads:

TO Professor Blotz; This Helper O.K. for your robot plane tests. Sgt. Mc(?) His damn thumb is covering up the sergeant's name.

Professor Blotz then shows Porky a type of machine in which he shows him, "Get a load of this". Porky is holding onto the microphone in which the plane starts to fly automatically. The professor then gets the microphone in which he asks the plane to do a "loop" and the plane will do a loop. All these clever tricks that aren't invented...yet.

The professor then asks Porky to "try it" in which Porky asks the plane to do a "loop" but it takes him too long to ask the plane to do so because of his stuttering problem. Porky accidentally tells the plane to go "up" in which it is about to pop a hot-air balloon but then tells it to go down. The inventor then snatches the microphone off Porky in which he shouts "Get to work". It appears that the inventor is rather grumpy and grouchy. What really annoys me about him is the voice. If this is Billy Bletcher doing the voice then it isn't a very great voice that he puts on. He's better off as the villain; but at least it's better than Dougherty's.

Porky then starts to sweep the plane in which the inventor places the automatic projector on the window sill. Little Kitty then walks into the scene in which a puppy runs into the scene and licks her in the face as she giggles. On one thought; what is a puppy doing in the air army corps? Another person comes in who resembles Oliver Owl (but is more of a dog than an owl evidently). Little Kitty asks, "Can he do tricks". The dog then asks the dog to stand.

Of course; the dog is standing very near the automatic projector that controls the plane. Porky is inside the plane in which he is scrubbing and he can feel that the plane is standing or balancing doing what the dog is doing. Now this is where the fun part of the cartoon comes in. I imagine this was probably a lot of fun to animate. The Oliver Owl type-dog then asks the puppy to wag its tail in which the plane does the exact same thing as it wags the back part of the plane. Little Kitty shouts "Get the balloon" then the pup is after the balloon...

...and off the plane goes charging at the hot-air balloon in which it bursts. Now that is just a fun, executed gag since the hot-air balloon gag just works well and it was even featured earlier in the short. Porky then starts to wail that the plane is going all over the place and when I hear that wail - it sure sounds weird and horrible.

Meanwhile Little Kitty then asks the pup to perform more tricks by chasing it's tail. The plane then starts to chase it's tail but spins around and around. The plane then flies around a tall building in which the gag shows chunks of the building being demolished until all of it is destroyed except for the very top part that is now on the ground. It's one of the gags that had to be well animated to make the gag work. Well; this cartoon's main theme is the gags and most of them are coherence in the cartoon world and even appeal to the audience. The next gag then pops up as the plane flies into the circus and as Porky's plane flies out of the circus there are already aerobic people swinging onto the rope performing tricks deserves some laughs.

The plane then reaches the ocean in which the aerobic swingers are skidding onto the sea still holding onto the rope that looks as though they're water-skiing. A swordfish jumps into the scene in which cuts the rope. Porky's plane then swims all underwater where a swarm of fish fly out of the way. The plane is chasing after a particular fish (probably as though the puppy is chasing after a cat).

A cat ACTUALLY walks into the scene in which the Oliver Owl (dog) asks the puppy to chase after the cat; which appears to be a coincidence as I was just speaking about that. Unless that this was meant to be for the fish chasing sequence but it was just in the wrong part of the film or if I got this all wrong.

Porky's plane then shoots straight out of the sea in which it bombs straight at the purple plane and it causes a fight. Yes; it looks more like a cat-and-dog fight there. The parts of the plane have vanished in which the pilot of that plane falls down holding onto the propeller.

Porky's plane then slides inside a blimp that is advertising cigars in which it creates a tunnel inside the blimp that is very visible from the sky but doesn't fall down. There is a weird but wonderful gag that shows a cloud figure running away from the plane and hides into a cloud shaped of a house. I like the ideas of gags that Avery use. It's often hard for me to describe what is going on with these gags but I know what they're meant to mean. So I can just say; I enjoy watching them a lot. It's a shame that this isn't in black-and-white but the colourised version isn't bad.

Porky's plane then crashes into a cart with a haystack on top. As the plane flies through - it immediately forms into hats. At least the gag is very handy since the job is already completed for the horse cart but doesn't realise.

Another gag pops up which I don't understand fully well but it shows these row of planes that appear to "duck" as Porky's plane is zooming straight past. Then the group of planes pop back up again. This has proved to be crazy for Porky as a whole bunch of people are encouraging the pup to do tricks and it's very chaotic for Porky.

Porky's plane is still copying the exact movements; and we see about twenty seconds of the pup and plane moving around until it sort of gets to the point on moving on. The pup is then finally exhausted and puffed out. Well; that should be the end of Porky's wild ride. The Oliver Owl pup then says "You had enough?" and then takes his puppy home.

The plane then zooms straight down back into the army air corps. First of all; I sort of wonder why are there a bunch of children in the corps when there should be soldiers all over the base. The plane lands back into the room where the inventor had worked until it crashes a wall. Porky runs out of the scene in which he does that Tasmanian-Devil sound run as he runs extremely fast - and the speed is pretty good as we see multiples of his hands and feet.

Porky runs as fast as he could - although the movement isn't so great because it doesn't look like that he is speeding very much; although the movement is good; but not the pacing. Porky runs to the next part in which he changes his mind and wants to join the army in which he applies.

We then take a close up of the poster that dissolves into a group of soldiers marching - including Porky. Porky turns to the audience rather satisfied that he is in a better position in the army. (Update 7/8/2012: I've restored the colorized Looney Tunes into it's black and white formed and it will look like it's an actual film except it's got Cartoon Networks pooed into it).

Overall comments: This is basically Porky's first "full" cartoon where he was the star while he was just a supporting character in the previous shorts. This is clearly not his best cartoon since his design here may not be appealing; but at least it's not a bad start at all for him. I seemed to have noticed that this cartoon's main theme is "gags" and most of them actually are very good although they can be complicated to explain. I really like that wild plane sequence in which the puppy is doing all the tricks. It makes this picture really fun. Although I still wonder why there are children in the corps where the inventor is? I quite like Porky's personality (even though it hasn't been properly developed) but I liked how at the beginning he was rather foolish, clumsy and also the stutterer; when he couldn't write on the blackboard. The gags in there were inventive this time and I think this cartoon was an improvement to Gold Diggers of '49. Personally; I'd say that Plane Dippy sure was a pretty good cartoon as it's a good start to 1936. Tex Avery is already kicking in. The progress is slow but his cartoons are just coming in better and better - so far.