75. Buddy and Towser (1934)

Warner cartoon no. 74.
Release date: February 24, 1934.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Supervision: Friz Freleng.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Cast: Jack Carr (Buddy).
Animation: Jack King and Bob McKimson.
Musical Score: Norman Spencer.

Our cartoon starts with a rather snowy night at Buddy's house, and Buddy is standing at his front hall looking at his pictures of his chickens as a reminder for him to whistle for his dog, Towser. Wait a minute, Buddy now has a different dog? Earleir he had some terrier named Happy - what happened to him? Did Buddy put him to sleep? Did he run away, was he sold to another answer - so many questions pop to my head which never has beenr revealed.

So, Buddy calls for Towser, and Towser arrives, Buddy talks "Now you keep an eye out on those chickens tonight," in which Towser replies with a bark as though he will do it. Towser runs out of the door in which Buddy closes it. He runs into his bouncy bed to turn off the light. I hope that Buddy isn't acting all boastful by being in his warm bed, so that Towser will have to sleep in the cold shack looking after Buddy's chickens. For some very strange reason, Buddy turns on a shower spout in which the candle goes out. Why would anyone ever use a spout to put out the --- oh never mind, so Buddy goes to sleep.

Once all the lights are out, there is a chicken inside the hut that puts a milk bottle out for the milkman to come out - I guess that it's funny as though the milkman has to collect chicken's milk, but since when do chickens even drink milk? Inside the hut, we see many chickens inside the hut sleeping, sleeping, sleeeeping, zzzzz. One of the gags shown I guess is a chicken that is snoring in front of a sleeping chicken, he can feel the coldness from his breath and then puts on a jacket.

Another gag that is shown was a hen with her chicks, and one of the chicks then chirps to take her youngest child to the toilet. She wakes up one of the older chicks to take its sibling to use the toilet, but the black chick refuses. The impatient chick then takes him along, waits until about 3 seconds later - the chick has done a crap and that's that done. OH COME ON FRIZ, this is the type of crap gags that Hugh Harman or Rudolf Ising used, and yet you're using it for your Buddy cartoons?? My goodness, I've only started reviewing the 1934 cartoons and here I am grumbling about it!

Meanwhile there is a hungry fox that steps into Buddy's garden (not strange - I get foxes in my garden all the time at night), but the fox looks at the hut off screen and seems to know that there are chickens that live there. The fox manages to enter the hut easily, and then starts to chase one of the hens that starts clucking for help. The hen gets to the point of being cornered, but as the fox grabs her - the hen then kicks his face with her feet. Other hens then start to help out, by using a saw as a slingshot to put their eggs on it. Why use their eggs? I know that they want to get rid of the fox, but what about the chicks that they were hatcing? :/

Othr hens and chickens then start to throw their own eggs at the fox, and the fox runs off, but manages to avoid getting hit by a egg. The fox then locks himself outside. Hang on a minute, isn't Towser meant to be inside helping the chickens? Oh wait, Towser is in his kennel of course - DUH! But why can't he be inside the hut where the chickens therefore he could scare the fox out immediately.

Towser wakes up inside his dog kennel, and doesn't realize that he has the rope attached to the kennel, with the rope attached to his neck. They start chasing each other around the chicken house, and after a few laps around the hut, the fox then jumps on top of the kennel while Towser is still barking. Buddy steps outside his his candle to see what the commotion is, but it turns out to obviously be his dog in trouble because of a pesky fox. Buddy shouts, "Hold him Towser!", but the door slams, with a bundle of snow falling on top of him from the roof because of the door slam. Buddy is almost locked out of the house but manages to get back in.

As the chasing is going on, Buddy puts on his hunting uniform and pulls his shotgun out to shoot the fox out of the way. But as Buddy is about to run out of the door, the shotgun blocks his way out of the door, causing him to spin around numerous times, but then falls out of the house. Towser then chases after the fox but the fox has a cunning plan to run through a fence that is missing a plank of wood, since Towser has a dog's kennel strapped to his neck, so as he tries to go through the narrow path of a missing plank in the fence, he can't go any further because of the kennel.

Towser then squeals, until Buddy arrives at the scene and grabs out a penknife so that Towser is set free to catch the fox. As they have almost lost the culprit, Towser goes to an investigation by sniffing for the fox's tracks, Buddy's gun does the same. Towser thinks that he has found what he has sniffed, and then digs up a big pile of snow. What turned out to be in the "big pile of snow" was a grizzly bear, in which Buddy and Towser both run for their lives. Buddy turns to shoot the bear, but after the blast comes another bear. *Spitting out water from water* WHAT?!?!?! I repeat, WHAT?!?! You can't shoot a bear and then produce another multiple - how did you come to THAT conclusion. Of course, what you might be thinking is that Buddy shot the bear, and another multiple was made from his body so that the bear got slightly smaller. Nope, the bear is still the same size! My goodness, who created these gags - was Friz Freleng convinced to use Tom Palmer's gags and follow an encylopedia of them (all of whom are awful)?

Buddy continues trying to shoot more bears, in which a THIRD bear comes out - okay, does Buddy have some type of gun that creates multiples? Buddy and Towser then run into a cave where the three bears follow them. Buddy and Towser step out once that they are safe again, and no more bears chasing them, but Buddy double checks as he pulls down the zip so that he WON'T be chased. The fox from whom we've seen earlier returns, and then uses these icicles on a branch of a tree as a slingshot that jabs Buddy and Towser. As Buddy starts to chase after the fox again, he starts blasting with his gun but instead he starts going all the place because of that.

The fox then hides under a tree hole, in which Towser barks as though he's found where he is. Buddy then places his gunt through the hole on the tree, in which the bullets goes through this weird looking branch that shoots out at Towser's behind, that causes him to yelp in pain. The fox is at the top of a half chopped tree, but blows a raspberry at Buddy. Towser then cools his behind in a lake, and furiously chases after the fox.

The fox then ascends up a hill, as Buddy and Towser follow. The fox then looks back at Buddy and Towser, but stupidly bumps into a tree in which he rolls down the hill forming into a snowball. Buddy and Towser both make a 'take' to the giant snowball and they descend down the hill quickly trying to avoid that snowball. The snowball then jumps from a lump in the snow, and is now in front of Buddy and Towser - which is good news to them, for about a few seconds, until they're behind the snowball again. As they run for their lives, Buddy ends up being caught in the snowball, and the same for Towser. The snowball then goes through a fence, in which the snowball is split in three.

The snowball split in three then crashes into a hut,  in which they are all weary. Buddy and Towser both look at the fox next to each other, they both pick up a paddle but the fox leaves early, but Buddy and Towser hit each other on the head by accident which makes them even more weary - and that's all folks.

This cartoon was just awful to watch, pointless gags - plotless cartoon. Buddy is just as bland as ever, and I don't understand why that ther had to be another dog, unless Happy the dog was too ugly for us audiences. Towser is sort of a similar design to Bruno from the Bosko cartoons, except that Towser is much, much more blander while Bruno was much more cuter. I mean practially this cartoon lose it's synopsis - I mean, Buddy told his dog Towser to watch the chickens for the night, and we only see about three minutes of that happening in that short, while the rest of the film was just wasted of a chase sequence from Buddy and Towser in the woods chasing over a damn fox, man. Why not chase it out of a garden, and not go out there in the woods for the whole time - get a hobby.

74. Honeymoon Hotel (1934)

Warner cartoon no. 73.
Release date: February 17, 1934.
Series: Merrie Melodies.
Supervision: Earl Duval.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Cast unknown.
Animation: Jack King and Frank Tipper.
Musical Score: Bernard Brown.

I'm going to be reviewing the first Merrie Melodies cartoon in colour (Cinecolor), this cartoon and Beauty and the Beast are produced in Cinecolor, then we are get to black-and-white until the Merrie Melodies series is stuck to colour permanently late in 1934.

The cartoon begins with these bugs that are on wooden scaffolds, and they are singing a town about Bugtown (what is it their anthem or something) and one of the bugs has a paintbrush and paints the lyrics to the audience, so that we can probably sing to the unfamiliar song?! The song is basically telling us to come over to Bugtown? Bugtown, how can I go to bug town - I might stampede all those bugs with my bare feet. Come to think of it, it might be fun.

The whole citizens of Bugtown are all dancing and prancing gayly as though it's such a happy town (must have been Duval's influence on the Disney cartoons). There is a busy taffic going on in Bugtown too. What we do see is that Bugtown seems to be an overall busy place where bugs actually use their time up (in a good way), with meetings, lunch bars, steam trains, etc.

The park seems to be a very popular place in Bugtown (especially for lovers) and there's no annoying little brats to shout out "lovebirds" in the middle of the park (like I get all the time!) We then a specific lovebug couple that are strolling around the park and the male finds peas in a pod, and tosses the peas out to form a canal. The male is so gentleman like, that he does the oaring so his fiancee can have such a great time relaxing. Why couldn't be all be like him (and as for girlfriends/wives/fianancies why not be as releaxed and happy as the lady bug - and never contstantly nags ;-) Only joking, folks. They both snuggle up with each other, and kiss each other on the lips.

 After the canal scene comes the wedding day, both Mr. and Mrs. Bug (shall we call them Bug-smith since Smith is a popular surname?) are now officially married. They both step into their car, with a banner on their car reading "Just married".  Well, there is some nice sentiment going on here with the love couple - I hope nothing will happen with a completely random story JUST LIKE in Pettin' in the Park.

The honeymooners then park their cat at a very fancy hotel named "Honeymoon Hotel". Mr. and Mrs. Bugsmith (Okay, I'm not going to go into that habit no more) enter the hotel, but the car whistles to them. The car seems to make a gesture as if they are a sweet couple - or a congratulatory note on being married. The couple walk in together romantically with a caterpillar who is the bellboy of the hotel walks in carrying the luggage, saying "I think I can carry all this luggage, because I work at Honeymoon Hotel. I see all the kissy and the huggage, Many other names as well." We then see the receptionist, who has a book with names that read "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" three times. Wait a sec, I said "Mr. and Mrs. Bugsmith", and then it says "Mr. and Mrs. Smith"? OH MY GOD, I jinxed it - how spooky is that?? I'm not making this up, but watching it through I completely forgot about that damn register book.

Meanwhile, up in the elevator they are still romantic with each other and they reach their floor with the caterpillar still holding their luggage. They arrive at their room - with the male bug tossing a coin to the caterpillar as though his part of the job is complete. 

Meanwhile there is a rather creepy looking hotel manager who seems to enjoy peeping through people's hotel rooms - (and yes, I've heard a story about that recently, a hotel manager drilled a hole in two 16 year old's rooms, with one of the boy's poster damaged). He spits on the floor as if what he will do is dirty, but very nosy. He peeps through the keyhole, but there is a fisher hook that comes up from the top window above the door, and moves the doorknob to the very top. He continues doing so at other people's doors, but instead the guests all take their revenge on him by using the doors to push him, with even one of the doorknobs that punches him like a fist, and both doorknobs turn into hands to shake them. 

Mr. and Mrs. Smith (still think Bugsmith would make more sense) are both sitting on the couch, the male bug tries to get his wife to snuggle up but is too shy to do so. Just as they were about to get settled, they are interrupted with the sounds of knocking - that gives them a sign to not go any further. Instead, there are these steward bugs and stewardesses that walk in with two glasses of wine, some ice and tea. The stewardesses walk in with pillows, sheets, etc. and they are singing the title song Honeymoon Hotel. The couple then want some privacy time together, and they go to song:

Husband Bug: "This is quite disturbing, why don't you say goodnight,"
Wife Bug: "If you only leave us, I'm sure we'll be alright.

The stewards and stewardesses then wish them goodnight while singing (Don't worry, they were used to use some singing in their shorts). The close the door, but it turns out that the stewards are in fact still looking through the door such as holes drilled, keyholes, the window above, and a telescope. As they are about to snuggle up again, a moon then looks at them acting nosy. So the husband bug then pulls down the blinds, but comes back up again with the moon still looking. The moon then goes to song, but sings that he can see then from hear, but the bug turns off the light, so that the moon won't see them. The moon suddenly turns red, for some particular reason.

As the bugs are kissing, but no reason even explained, the temperature suddenly rises where it gets to the point of fire.Although I must say I like the effects for the fire drill, and the temperature rising but why wasn't it even explained. Mike Barrier was extremely right in his book Hollywood Cartoons that the cartoons lacked coherence. So there is now a fire alarm in which the fire brigade have to arrive. Such as a caterpillar being the fire engine, and a comb as the ladder. They arrive at the burning hotel and they manage to rescue a couple of guests as they jump out of their windows and land on the parachute. 

Meanwhile back inside the hotel, the love-bugs (Mr. and Mrs. Bugsmith) are still inside their room that is burning with flames, and they are completely surrounded with flames and smoke. They then hide in their door bed, in which it closes on them. The fire effects is similar to what the Disney effects guys would do, but I must say that the smoke effects are just atrocious, it's just typical drawn smoke with nothing realistic, but I guess that's called the early 1930's animation to you. The firemen are still doing their best to put the fire out, but for some particular reason there is an explosion in which the hotel is mostly damaged. Okay, but there IS NO EXPLANATION as to why the hotel suddenly exploded. I mean if I go out and try to burn a fire, I'll find out and see if it suddenly explodes - nope nothing happened.Any

Anyway, the fire is out, but there is still such awful damage to the building. The male bug then places a "do not disturb" sign on the door and slams it. He then gets back to bed, but instead the bed moves back into the door (meaning that they will get laid), and the calendar with a February page of a baby winks at us meaning "You know what's going to happen?" What, was this cartoon made for adults and not for kids??? and that's all folks.

Well, of course this was the first color Merrie Melodies, but I feel that Earl Duval has declined slightly in his past three cartoons that he directed, but I wonder if this cartoon was actually made after Earl Duval's alcoholic rant with Leon Schlesinger or did Earl Duval finish production early with someone else like Friz Freleng taking over, because this cartoon really resembles to Freleng's cartoons that he made at THAT time. Unless, Earl Duval started off using that bland style for Merrie Melodies (although this doesn't remind me of Earl Duval at all), but maybe Friz Freleng reworked it with Earl Duval still getting screen credit. This is sort of an adult-themed carton, in which Earl Duval was known to do, so there is elements there that relate to his direction. The animation fire effects were pretty lousy, but I guess I can't blame them. The voices annoyed me rapidly, but back then there were annoying voices back then, but Bernice Hansen's voice back them and even carrying on through the 1930's annoys me even more (but I don't think she works on that short)!

73. Pettin' in the Park (1934)

Warner cartoon no. 72.
Release date: January 27, 1934.
Series: Merrie Melodies.
Supervision: Bernard Brown.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Cast unknown.
Animation: Jack King and Bob Clampett.
Musical Score: Norman Spencer.

Bob Clampett's first screen credit at Warner Bros. where he's credited as an animator, but I imagine from at the time it was made (late 1933) that he must've only been 20 years old as an animator. A lot of people say that the supervision by Bernard Brown isn't him and that it was Frank Tashlin who directed it, but is there any evidence at all is Brown directed it or not, I mean in Hollywood Cartoons Mike Barrier writes that Brown directed two cartoons.

Our cartoon begins at a City Park, where it appears to be springtime, and also the birds are being "twitterpated" - Whoops! Too early to reference Bambi. There is a bird up in a tree who is trying to snuggle to a female bird, but shoves him away - blushing. He then picks out a flower from a tree and pulls the petals off the flower which means (she loves him!). They both kiss each other. There are these two woodpeckers, with one of then drilling holes on the tree with his beak that forms a love heart, which both woodpeckers kiss each other.

We then see these shots of thisp polcieman and a maid sitting in a bench at the park, where they appear to be ready for a romantic setting. The birds up in the tree are singing the title song, Pettin in the Park. The maid is too shy to snuggle up with the cop (Well, cops can be brutal - y'know). The cop even sings to her why is she too shy, and it seems to turn into some fued, with the baby even complaining that he's been waiting for a long time and "why don't they get started?" suggesting that to snuggle enough already. More singing comes from the birds up the tree, and some gargoyle in a water fountain that gargles. The maid blushes with these spastic colours that keep on flashing on her face.

We then see a penguin chasing after a flittering butterfly, and tries to snap at it, but trips instead. The penguin then sees the butterfly located on the maid's bottom, and nips it. She squeals in time, when I see her jump out of that bench = Jesus, what horrible timing - Frank Tashlin couldn't have done something as bad as that. The maid then slaps the policeman on the face and then over the bench. The maid walks away with her baby in his pram, the baby blows a raspberry at the cop by blowing bubbles into his milk bottle. Jokes on the policeman, as the maid thought he was sexually harrassing himself, or trying to get in trouble with the law - which was a misunderstanding.

The maid then takes her pram with her and, there is a young handsome man (wouldn't say handsome through cartoon design), but soophisticated if you would call it. He greets the maid, in which she has her attention on him. She steps into the car, and the man turns on the radio that sings Pettin' in the Park. From the time this was in production, radio in car was very brand new back then, and was rarely seen in cars, even though we get them a lot today easily. Both the new couple peck each other on the lips, which turns out to be love at first sight.

We get more singing coming from the birds that are in love such as owls, an ostrich in his cage dunking his hand under the sand and pops out. The police officer who is still confused stands up and walks in some protested attitude singing the song, with a bird folowing him. We walks to the car and about to ask the guy that he had the maid first, but got punched by the man and the car drove away. WHAT? The policeman let him get away with that - that's called assault there, you can't let them get away with the law?! Whatever, let's just get this through.

A bird then walks to the centre of the park, and playing its beak like a trumpet coronation sound - and we see these group of birds. Just one question, but where did all these birds come from? I know that hey have owls (why are owls awake at that time of day?), bluebirds, and -- an ostrich in a cage? But seriously, where did the penguins, pelicans, etc. come from - what are they in cages too? Why are they loose?? None of this is even sense to me!!

They are reading the poster that reads, ANNUAL WATER CARNIVAL DRIVING AND SWIMMING CONTEST - OPEN TO ALL CONTESTANTS. And what? Did it specifically mean birds too? There is then a kooky parrot up in a tree who appears to be the host of this tournament for all contestants - makes...sense...to...me. We get a few birds that are jumping off diving boards, either because they're warming up or something. One of the birds then lands on a rubbish bin, but actually - that's not a funny gag - WHERE DID THAT BIN COME FROM? They used different scenery immediately, what happened? Did the lake have a drout or something, and then came back? Explain, movie director, explain! I really am unsure but I have a feeling that Bob Clampett worked on that parrot, as it seems to be kooky.

The face begins with all the birds swimming, once the cannon has been launched, by a penguin who jumped from the very top of a flag pole. The race seems to be going well so far, as there is no cheating going on. Wait a minute, the first half of the short featured lovely dovely stuff, and now it's just a tournament. Aw man, I wanted to be the sentiment stuff. The ostrich of the race appears to be running from under water, since they have long necks. We see these chicken in the race that are kayaking, a goose with (for some reason) incredibly long legs riding on a bicycle.

Meanwhile, the parrot and the penguin decide that they want to join in the race but they're going to do that by cheating. Such as using a bathtub as a speedboat so that they can outfast the other swimmers. Their plan has worked, but even more than that - they've distracted the birds in the race, such as the chickens kayaking and they are caught in a log from looking. The goose with very long legs then tries to speed up in the races, but fails to do so and ends up almost drowning underwater, but instead - the bubbles come up and the goose is caught inside the bubble with shorter legs and is cycling.

The parrot and the penguin then use the pumper to pump faster away from an incoming pelican, who is gobbling up the fish that comes out from the water. The pelican then accidentally swallows a clock, in which his beak starts moving sideways. The ostrich seems to run at a slow speed (comparing that ostriches can run at roughly 60mph). Anyway, the ostrich is then caught at a draw that was tossed in the lake in the past. Therefore, it struggles to go any further. The bathtub then surpasses the fast swimming swans but they end up stuck in a very muddy area. The parrot steps out, with the penguin pumping the mud to the swans that blocks them from winning the race, in which a boot, birdhouse and girdle is on top of each swan's head seperately.

 

 The swans are then chasing after the penguin (I'm surprised that the park is so empty). The penguin then goes through a spinning (thing?) that I say the name of the item, but both the swans crows in, in which the wheel spins and they lose their hair and are completely naked. The penguin has won the race, then giggles to the audience - and that's all folks.

There is two seperate plots that goes through here, they're better off not being in one short. No wonder that an unexperienced artist like Bernard Brown directed that short. There were many parts in that short that compeltely didn't make sense to me, but especially those birds. To be honest, the contest scenes were screwed up, and I much preferred to see the love scenes at the beginning and to hold it throughout the short. But no, it didn't. BTW, have you noticed that ever since I've Got to Sing a Torch Song that animator Jack King has been credited on EVERY SHORT and still is?? How long will this last, and why was he credited on every short - was he like the top animator there or something?

72. Buddy the Gob (1934)

Title card courtesy of Dave Mackey.

Warner cartoon no. 71.
Release date: January 13, 1934.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Supervision: Isadore "Friz" Freleng.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Jack Carr (Buddy) and Bernice Hansen (Chinese girl).
Animation: Jack King and Ben Clopton.
Musical Score: Bernard Brown.

This was Friz Freleng's first directorial credit (and first time he solely directed) - but a very slow start to Friz before he became a very great director who found his style of directing much, much later on. Also, the first review of the 1934 year. I should point out that throughout this review, that the only copy on the Internet has a timer on it, and at times the screen looks extremely fuzzy - unfortunately. So, this will have to do. Even the title card looks bad, that I have to borrow it.

Our carton begins with an army of battleships sailing the seas, they are sailing through very choppy waves, there are these whistles that are making whistling sounds as well as cannons. Meanwhile, inside the ship is Buddy who is actually an American sailor in this navy ship (gob is a slang for a sailor), and he is inside doing some laundry by scrubbing a pair of long underwear. The long underwear then rinses itself off like a dog shaking after jumping onto a lake/river/beach/bath, etc. Buddy then hands the underwear a towel and dries off with a towel. Okay, if it's like a dog, then why need to dry with a towel - dogs can't do that.

Buddy looks out of his window and he sees a view of China, and he shouts "Oh boy, China!", and he runs out onto deck, then jumps down on to a lifeboat to sail to the shores of China. Boy that lifeboat sure is rubbery - unless this a "collapsible" lifeboat (not the long that does collapse). We take a look at what appears to be Chinatown in China (don't know why I had to say that). But the Chinese town looks very busy from what we see. There is this Chinese woman carrying a water carrying stick in which they hold of quartet of babies (two on one side, and two the other).

Buddy then stands around the corner of the street where he sees a poster, but there is also a man who is reading a Chinese poster and ends up stretching to read the writing which is done in bottom corners. Okay, I know that is a joke about Chinese writing - but for someone to watch that today would think that's racist, but who would ever have thought of that back in the time?

Buddy is then reading the poster and he is stumped because he cannot understand the writing at all, but SOMEHOW THE WRITING IS TRANSLATED TO ENGLISH? What?! EXPLAIN, how will something like that work - I mean how does a poster with foreign writing just translate in English? How did this just, is this some type of digital poster that can translate English or something. I mean even Buddy can understand it when it's translated (unless he thought of it), but c'mon that part doesn't even make sense! Anyhow, the poster says it's a celebration of a 150th anniversary of a dragon and one of the Chinese girls is going to be sacrificed by the dragon, we even get a close up that reads A Beautiful Girl Will be Sacrificed to the Dragon which I guess is one of Freleng's efforts with those camera shots, but it feels as though he's presenting it to us that the audience are stupid and wants us to get the picture - I ain't saying it's true, but it feels that way.

Buddy then goes to the show and he tries to jump up through a big crowd but he can't see the parade in the streets. Buddy looks at a different direction for a different idea, as he sees these Chinese people lined up from height, and he stands on them like going up the stairs, and then jumps into the front row of the crowd. We then see the band leader who is leading the parade of the dragon, and he shakes his belly moving upwards and downwards. Another part we see is these group of mice standing on a snare drum with two Chinese guys standing on it.

We then see more paraders coming by and even those who are band members who play some tunes on the piano. We see a drum player who is playing cymbals on little children's Conical Chinese hats and the inside of their hats played like a different type of percussion, okay - now that joke is just politically incorrect, even though it was just meant to be a gag. Then we see a parade of those wearing these type of masks, and it appears to be one of them wearing a Jimmy Durante. Okay, this Jimmy Durante gags are never going to end - those gags have been used for YEARS, I tell you.

We then see the beautiful Chinese girl who is inside a cage but is bursting into tears, as she doesn't want to be sacrificed. She cries for someone in the crowd to save her, and Buddy is very willing to do so - as he is a very emotional person to a female. Huh, I looks like Jack King did that scene of Buddy saying "I'll save you!" as he was known for his hat takes. As for the entire sequence, in this copy that I watched; this sequence was very blurry and fuzzy that it blocked much of what was on the screen, but I did my best to see what was on the screen.

The cage is then taken inside a palace, and Buddy runs up the stairs to try and save the girl, but he's too late to make it through since the doors close too soon. Buddy then bangs on the doors loudly that causes one of the guards to toss him away with a spear. Buddy is attached to a spear that hits a wall, but his pants is torn off the spear, and then he hears screaming from the girl coming up from the upstairs window. Buddy tries to come up with a neat plan, by pole vaulting with a spear but fails to do so, which wobbles and he hits a gate.

Buddy then takes off an entrance gate, and he uses the spears as a bow and arrow, in which the spears turn into steps where he will be able to go up the stairs - okay, good thinking crew. You've come up with a good plan on how Buddy would go up there, no matter how cartoony the gag might be.

Meanwhile in prison, the girl is tied up in a chain, and a guard locks up the chain on her foot with a padlock, and swallows the key, and closes the door. She is very scared when in that cell opposite her, is the fire breathing dragon where she will be sacrificed. Buddy enters the scene, but he realizes that she is locked up in a chain. Buddy has an idea, in which he locks on the cellar door, and carries a barrel in which the man walks in and Buddy traps him inside the barrel. Buddy then kicks the man in the buttocks in which the key comes out (Of course, Buddy saw him swallow the key from the window - does it show enough coherence?).

Buddy then unlocks the padlock and the Chinese girl is now set free. They are both glad, but they are both in danger (even Buddy) as the cage of the dragon has been set free. Both of them jump from the window sill, with the girl jumping to the cart safely, and Buddy is about to jump, but instead a fire-breathing dragon fires at Buddy's ass.

Buddy and the Chinese girl then escape in a cart with a Chinese slave riding them (just wondering, but did they really had Chinese guys riding cartwheels?) Anyway, due to them leaving, this annoys much of the public who want to see the girl sacrificed, and they up chasing after them. As the man riding the cart is running away fastly, he ends up bumping into rocks in which the cart ends up in different positions, which the gag doesn't work, as though the character riding it lacks so much weight itself. In this part, there are these very blurry shots that come back again.

The Chinese guy continues to run fast, until he finally bumps into another rock and trips. He then moves in a position like a horse, and he is stereotyped like a horse, and oh my - that is just wrong, racist joke - but was that meant to be the intention - no.

Buddy and the Chinese girl then get off the guy, and they cross a bridge, but Buddy uses a knife to cut off the first half with the planks falling off one at a time, and NO - it doesn't work that way. Why did Buddy do that, I mean he should've crossed the bridge fully, and then cut off the other edge - use your thoughts writers! The locals are then very angry that they have won this battle, but an angered man then throws a spear. Buddy and the Chinese girl both laugh but duck behind the spear. But the spear then realizes that the spear went the wrong direction and stabs Buddy in the butt. Okay, now this time Friz Freleng is using impossible ways to make Buddy hurt - inanimate gags ruined it. So, Buddy screamed as he was stabbed in the buttocks, falls down and that's all folks.

From what I've heard, that cartoon did in fact get people pissed off from several religious institutions, but I think that this cartoon was mostly politically incorrect at times, and the Chinese stereotypes weren't funny, but weak. This cartoon just did the impossible things that just don't work - it's not natural and creepy, such as that poster that translated in English, I mean - who would ever DO THAT? The Chinese girl is cutely designed, I must say - but the other characters are just bland as they would appear in this era.

Of course, you shouldn't forget that this cartoon was Friz Freleng's first cartoon where he was the director (on his own). Yes, his first cartoon (Buddy the Gob) wasn't even a good start to Freleng's career and pratically his first few years as a director weren't even good at all, and he didn't even turn in any worth watching cartoons AT ALL. But we all should know that everyone in the business had to start somewhere, Friz had to start off with just working on one-shot Merrie Melodies which proved to be failures, but he contributed to the creation of Porky Pig in I Haven't Got a Hat. Also, I think that when he returned to Warner Bros. from MGM in 1939, he was a better director by then, and continued to be for many, many years. So, we will be watching Freleng's start, and we will be getting higher and higher up those stairs - gradually.

71. Sittin' On a Backyard Fence (1933)

 

Warner cartoon no. 70.

Release date: December 16, 1933.

Series: Merrie Melodies.

Supervision: Earl Duval.

Producer: Leon Schlesinger.

Cast unknown.

Animation: Jack King and Don Williams.

Musical Score: Norman Spencer.

It's been a while since I reviewed a Merrie Melodie (well, last week) but this is the last review of 1933, and as Sittin' on a Backyard Fence was released on December 16, 1933 - it turned 78 years only yesterday. Pretty spooky, huh?

 The short begins with a couple of inanimate objects that are sleeping, such as a clock that is snoring, a telephone that is also snoring but the line is off of course. We then see a shot of books that causes the pages to flicker, and then we pan to see a glass with false teeth inside that snores too. We see these good gags of inanimate objects snoring that is good, but also bizarre.A man is snoring loudly in his bed, with his dungarees waving from the snoring air - fine gag, but used many times. So, as the man is fast asleep, a female feline sits on the window sill, and finds another cat sitting on a backyard fence, and they meow to each other. The female cat then jumps to the backyard fence where they both sing.

A bunch of cats then follow her, and from what I've noticed the designs of the cats now seem to have a cartoon style to it, as it was blandness designs by Tom Palmer. Again, this is why I feel Earl Duval was showing promise as a director, he's giving his characters some design and drawing style - he seems to be actually trying. The cats then walk through the fence and it looks like they are walking through some type of X-ray moon where we can see the inside of their bodies. At the bottom of the fence, we see these posters of a bull and cows, and it seems the bull is flirting with the female cows in the other posters but they sing the title song Sittin' on a Backyard Fence, which I find a little strange and so far this cartoon is crazy.

We see a dance routine that is being performed by a long pair of underwear which just spooks me because they remind me of ghosts dancing or something paranormal. They also do some aerobics on a laundry wire up in the apartments. The cats themselves get dancing as well, with some old barrels, brooms, etc. and turn it into a type of swing band. More singing is coming from the backyard fence (more of meowing) from the male and female felines, and it seems that the female cat is trying to snuggle up with the male cat playing a weird type of string instrument.

Meanwhile, there appears to be some type of homeless cat that is licking Kat nip that is lying on the dirty grounds, and then he puts on a record player on with a cassette inside, and I don't know what the cat is doing but it looks like as though he's trying to do an impression of a celebrity that I don't even know, and the reference is too dated for me to know on my own. The cat with the eye-patch does it to the female feline on a backyard fence was was engaged to the male, but instead she jumps off and dances with the eye-patched cat. Due to jealousy, the male cat jumps off the fence and wants to seek revenge on the cat. 

The female cat turns out to be a two-timer when dancing off with another cat, and is more interested. There are these quartet of cats that tap their tails to the rhythm. During the song, and they sing a verse where it mentions "tic tac toe", and we see these cats using their tails on a bucket of paint and paint on a wall while playing tic tac toe. As one of the cats gets his "o's" in a diagonal line, and wins the game - the cat blows a raspberry at him which I really like that comeback. As the new cat couple are dancing, the other cat uses a bin opener and opens it with a brick flying into the cat's face.

After that, the cats then start to chase each other (I'm starting to find the plot is sort of similar to Springtime for Thomas a Tom & Jerry cartoon made 13 years later). However, the chase sequence to begin with is pretty slow and unentertaining, as they tend to skid and run through fences, but it gradually gets exciting as they jump onto mirrors. But one of the cats seem to run around a power pole, in which we see these early use of speed lines which isn't achieved yet.

Both of the cats then climb on top of the telephone power pole, in which they start chasing one another, and sort of a puss fight on top of the wires (lucky that they aren't electrocuted). This riot turns out to be nail-biting for the female who is very worried about them. While they are fighting, a rolling pin coming out of an apartment window flies out, and their tails are caught on the rolling pin in which they get a ride through the wires, and they keep on bumping at every edge. They both continue fighting with each other, until they are covered in tins and pots, and they look like some type of robots to me. I don't particularly like the fighting stuff because their characteristics are just like real cats, and they are being attacked which doesn't work to me, while in a "Tom & Jerry" cartoon where you see Tom in pain, it is shown in a way to amuse people. 

They are then being chased by a type of bulldog, and the female cat catches them from up in a telephone pole looking rather curious on what's going on. They run to a fence, where they open the door with the bulldog running past it. They block the door, and the bulldog comes out of a narrow part that is missing a plank of wood, and the bulldog then beats up the cats. After the bulldog walks past, the door opens with the female cat who seems to be engaged to another striped cat but it looks an awful lot like a tiger, it is revealed that they made babies (had sex so quickly?) and there are kittens that comes out. One of the kittens blows a raspberry at the cats. The two cats then look at each other, shake hands, faint and that's all folks.

There is then a scary looking cat who says "So long, folks" to us audience - but truth is that back in 1933-1934, each character who played a role in a one-shot Merrie Melodies got a chance to say "so long folks", but that cat is so freaking creepy. 

Well, I thought that this cartoon was particularly strange and bizarre. Of course, it's interesting to find out what cats are up to when the adults and owners are asleep. There is certainly a plot going on - while the other cartoons in that era had really no plot. It's definitely more coherent that watching I've Got to Sing a Torch Song. The whole cartoon was just bizarre to me, but I guess that Duval was experimenting. The animation was in fact quite good, and there certainly was character personality gone on here, such as jealousy. 

If Earl Duval stayed longer, then he would've probably been the guy who starting kicking things up, and showing potential, but don't forget if he stayed longer, the Looney Tunes would've probably been very different if there was no Tex Avery or Bob Clampett around. But for what the Looney Tunes used to be, the cartoons would've hopefully improved with Duval stayed longer but it would be completely different to what we know. This was Earl Duval's first Merrie Melody and the final year in 1933 - it was a pretty poor end, as Harman-Ising did turn in some fine cartoons (a few fine) but as Leon Schlesinger took over with a completely new staff - it just weakened.

70. Buddy's Showboat (1933)

Warner cartoon no. 69.
Release date: December 12, 1933.
Series: Looney Tunes.
Director: Earl Duval.
Producer: Leon Schlesinger.
Starring: Jack Carr (Buddy) (?).
Animation: Jack King and James Pabian.
Musical Score: Bernard Brown.

The short begins with Buddy's show boat sailing through the river, and Buddy is playing around with some whistles. The atmosphere is rather jolly, the sound effects sounds like some ice cream van driving and attracting kids. As Buddy is blowing the whistle, the whistle doesn't make anymore sounds, and appears to be blocked, so Buddy grabs out a hanker-chief and blows the whistle's nose. After that, Buddy continues to happily play music through the whistle.

The next shot shows these group of black stokers and fireman dumping coal into the steam engine, and it is stereotyped here. The designs here are stereotyped, and this was censored from television but there is an uncensored version - I do not own it. They are singing a different musical number called Swanee Smiles while dumping coal into the engine. Notice how the engine has teeth? We then see these two men that are sleeping and holding out a fishing rod, and there are these two dachshunds walking on a rudder with sausages attached to the rod - alright, that was rather random, what's the joke?

Cookie is inside cutting off potato skins off potatoes, and is happy at the job. The tough guy (who we have seen in Buddy's Beer Garden) is using his knife to chip his toenails, and spits then into the river with a fish spitting water at the tough guy - that showed him. So, the tough guy is now a continuous character in the Buddy series? He has been used again. We then see some interesting animation of the tugboats that have faces on them - did this inspire anything on Little Toot ;-).

The show boat docks at a pier, with an inanimate sleepy anchor coming to life and dives into the water, with the anchor sleeping underwater. Meanwhile, there is a parade that is going on in town. We see a parade of soldiers, we see these type of jokers that are doing some type of aerobics with the snare drum and one of whom is reading some type of comic called "Fooly". Even a lady wearing a dress and his playing the saxophone, her dress falls down and it's revealed that she is riding a tricycle, with her girdle showing, and an entertaining gag. Then, we see a donkey and a rider with a huge drum, and ending with a parade of walking birds.

After the parade, Buddy is at a ticket liner selling tickets for people to enter his show boat for a popular show that features his girlfriend, "Mlle. Cookie, Capt. Buddy's Show Boat Star". Cookie is in her dressing room putting on some perfume, and blows a kiss to Buddy on a poster. The next room we pan through is the tough guy in the dressing room that blows a kiss to Cookie on the poster, which means he has a plan already. Buddy goes to the phone on the ship, and rings Cookie in her dressing room. Buddy picks up the phone with "Hello, sweetheart" and kisses the phone box, in which it signals through to Cookie's phone with kisses on her lips, Cookie does the same. That is a nice gag that works well.

The tough guy is standing behind Buddy, and as Buddy is finished with the phone call and walks out happily - the brute has his chance to try and impress Buddy. As his kiss has signaled to Cookie, Cookie signals back with a fist coming out of the phone and punches the brute in the face. Now that is just a classic gag - and that makes me think that Earl Duval had potential as a director.

After that incident on the phone, the show finally begins as there is a swirl that goes right to the camera, and to the umbrella shot of Cookie and Buddy. I really like that early swirl that was created, and something really unexpected of the Schlesinger shorts back then - and that's why I feel Earl Duval did show promise of great cartoons (even if it wasn't yet to be achieved). Anyhow, both Buddy and Cookie perform a duet dance sequence to themselves, where they are singing Under my Umbrella. Huh, Rihanna - did you get influence at all by this ;-) - only joking. We then see these can-can dancers in the background that look like ghosts - and alright, the animation of them isn't very good, and very discolored. Wait a minute? Singing and dancing; Buddy and Cookie? Looks like Bob Clampett was right about Buddy being a "Bosko in white face".

The next act in which Buddy introduces is some type of tribe that does an impression of Maurice Chevalier, and I can't make out the words that he is singing but it appears to be that he must be reciting some song or poem. The animation of the Chevalier animation is done pretty accurately, but I doubt it is McKimson as he probably hadn't returned from his brief stint at Harman-Ising. We then see the shot of a kangaroo playing the piano, with a baby joey under it's patch playing some piano, too. I don't know where the kangaroo part came from. The beginning shots of Buddy introducing the black tribe was censored.

Cookie is standing behind the curtains looking at what is going on, and she is dancing softly to the music. The brute is standing behind her, and uses a crook to capture Cookie, and oh boy - we are back at the "brute chases girlfriend" routine again, and don't worry - you'll be expecting it. Buddy enters the scenery on his boat and shouts "Stop! Unhand her!", but his response is a fist being smacked into his face, and his whole body ends up spinning onto the steering wheel. But Buddy flies, and hits the tough guy's stomach in which he lands onto something electrical that burns his bottom and yells in pain.

 

 The next trip that Buddy uses is a wooden lifeboat, and crashes it on to the tough guy, in which he crashes open a cage where a seal lived. The seal then chases it after it, and grabs it by doing tricks on the brute by using it's nose. The seal tosses the brute down a hole, in which Buddy uses a hook to grab the brute, and place it on the rudder where he is in pain. Buddy and Cookie are happy again, with the seal bowing to the audience - and that's all folks.

Well, this cartoon was a point for me that Earl Duval was showing real promise and potential that he could become a great director, and the first pictures may have not been excellent, but when you watch it you can tell he showed promise. There were some fun gags here, and the animation wasn't half bad, but he did of course needed to work on the characters more, as they had no character personalities. Larry Tremblay had the uncensored print in his YouTube account, and used them for the review and screen grabs, and thanks to him for posting the uncensored print.