Author: Dr. Foolio

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Bosko the Talk-ink Kid

“Well here I is, and I’s feel good!”

This… is what started it all. When Harmon and Ising went to pitch their idea to make their own cartoons to Scheslinger, they brought along this beauty. It’s essentially the Looney Tunes pilot cartoon. It was made in 1929 and combined live action and animation well ahead of its time. (Warner Bros was good at that.)

It starts with Bosko being born. (Drawn.) The animator asks him to show us what he can do and Bosko starts doing some dances. (One is quite racist, but only by today’s standards.) He notices the audience and learns that he is supposed to make us laugh. The animator gives him a piano and some musical gags occur. Bosko sings (badly) and the animator sucks him back into the pen. Bosko pops out of the inkwell and promises us he will return. (Then he blows a raspberry at the animator.)

Happy Halloween!

Personal Rating: For most, I’d give this a 2, but if you can appreciate how good this early example of live action and animation coexisting is, I’ll bump it up to a 3.

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Devil-May Hare

“I don’t even know what a Tasmanian devil is”

While spring cleaning, Bugs finds himself in a stampede of animals. Wanting to know what is going on, he stops a turtle (with a shovel) and learns that THE Tasmanian devil is on the loose! (What exactly does that mean? Was he in a zoo?) Bugs looks it up in an encyclopedia and the creature corners him in his lair. To keep his hide alive, Bugs offers to help him find plenty of other food. Groundhogs, chicken, pigs, and deer.

While the devil is falling for Bug’s tricks, a real deer comes up. (where is his “I am not Bambi” sign?) Taz shows up and says that he is done being fooled and will not fall for another fake animal. To spare the creature, Bugs lies and says that the little deer is made of straw. Taz reasons that Bugs is not, and tries to eat him again. Bugs only choice is to call Tasmania for a Tasmanian-she devil. The two fall in love and get married. A happy ending!

Personal Rating: 3

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The Tasmanian Devil

Another post in a day? Yes siree pop, you lucky Looney-tics you.

This guy actually never had a name to begin with. He was just a Tasmanian devil that most people figured was an animal that the animators had just made up. It took a long time for him to be created: 1954! Also, despite his popularity, he only appeared in 5 shorts. (4 of which were with Bugs Bunny.) He was created because the animators wanted a new character and realized the only thing they had not used was a t.d. This design looks nothing like the real creature and that is part of his charm. I don’t know where they got his spinning skill, though. (Still, it’s freaking cool.)

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A Broken Leghorn

“Its gotta be that kid, or me.”

Today is the day! Prissy is going to lay an egg! However, the other chickens mock her and overhearing this, Foghorn decides to do probably the best deed he ever has done. He steals an egg, and slips it under the elderly hen. It hatches into a young rooster, and since their can only be one on a farm, Foggy plans to kill it.

Pretending to train the chick to be a proper rooster, he gets it to retrieve a ball in traffic. (That’s why the chicken crossed the road: to have a ball.) Not thinking he did it right, the chick asks Foghorn to show him how. As to be expected, he is hit by two cars. Various methods including dynamite, rifles, and land mines all result in pain. Deciding the only way to settle this is to talk to the farmer in charge (old Mcdonald) and let him pick who leaves. We end with Foghorn being carted off to a poultry plant.

Personal Rating: 4

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Prissy

Given the fact that lately,  I am talking about characters that appeared in Foghorn shorts, I figured I should talk about another one.

Prissy is a chicken who debuted in the Porky cartoon “An Egg Scramble”. Since then though, she seems to have moved to Foghorn’s barnyard. From what I have seen, this poor gal has never laid an egg or been married. This does not deter her though; she keeps on trying on both accounts. She also would be pretty cute, but that bonnet and her voice make her seem too old, but apparently she is young enough to try and woo Foghorn. Or, perhaps most likely she is just desperate.

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Early to Bet

“So remember folks, the gambling bug will get you if you don’t watch out!”

This is one of those shorts that was a one shot. That did not make it any less hilarious, though. It opens with an nature documentary sort of thing. We are introduced to the Gambling Bug. (Hemipterus addictus.) An insect whose bite inflicts anyone with a need to gamble. Today, however, the bug thinks he needs a vacation, so he goes for a walk in the country. He witnesses a dog ask a cat to play cards with him, but the cat refuses. Perhaps it’s because every time the cat loses he must face a penalty?

The bug decides that this is a job for him, and gives the cat a bite. As to be expected, he loses and we see his penalties range from sneezing while being forced to chew bubble gum, to being forced to roll out a barrel of gunpowder. Finally the dog decides that the cat is too unlucky and if they play more, he’ll die. (Ruining the dogs fun). Feeling bad the bug plays the cat… only to promptly lose and have to face a penalty: being swatted.

Personal Rating: 3

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Daffy Duck Hunt

“B-B-Benedict Arnold!”

Porky and his dog, the Barnyard Dawg are out hunting. Cue duck. Daffy empties all the shells and taunts Porky and his dog with some french dancing. Porky tells the dog to get him and the dog decides that a trick will help him win. He begins to cry and Daffy asks what’s wrong. The dog explains (lies) that if he does not catch a duck, Porky will torture him. In a rare moment of selflessness, Daffy says they will pretend he was caught. After the dog brings Daffy back to his master, Porky decides that one duck is enough for dinner. They go home and put Daffy in a freezer.

Porky goes to sleep whilst the dog hears thumps in the freezer. His two consciousnesses appear and try to make him choose to let Daffy freeze or at least warm up for helping him. Choosing the right choice, he puts Daffy in the oven to get some heat. Daffy tries to leave but is explained that he is not going to leave. Daffy makes a lot of racket and Porky storms in to see what is going on. Daffy jumps in the dog’s mouth and the poor mutt gets beaten.

More of this zaniness follows. Finally, Porky says that if the duck is not in the freezer then the dog dies. Opening it up he allows Daffy to jump out, dressed like Santa and has them sing “Jingle Bells.” Porky then notices the calendar says April, and gets an axe to finish Daffy. However, he is stopped by the patch on Daffy that says, “Do not open until Christmas”. Daffy figures that by then, he will have figured a way out of the mess he got himself into.

Personal Rating: 3 (but it teeters dangerously towards the “4” category)

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Barnyard Dawg

This is the dog I pity the most. The poor guy tries again and again to beat Foghorn and half the time, he loses. Plus, when he does get one i,. I feel bad for Foghorn. (It’s complicated.) Still, he has had other appearances as well. Being Porky’s and Elmer’s dog, for example. In those cartoons he is the character who usually wins against Daffy. (Or at least not getting his hindquarters paddled.)

Sorry for lack of updates. School sucks.

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The Foghorn Leghorn

“Still trying to prove you’re a chicken?”

Don’t I pick the most creatively titled cartoons to review?

It starts with Henery Hawk begging his dad to let him go chicken hunting with him. His dad says no because chickens are vicious monsters. This does not deter Henery in the slightest and secretly follows his pop. At the chicken farm Henery’s father gets beaten up by Foghorn. Having witnessed this Henery asks if that was a chicken. Not wanting to admit he was beaten by his prey, Dad identifies the rooster as “a loud mouthed schnook”

The dad goes away for the rest of the film and Henery tries to catch a chicken on his own. Finding a chickens “cave” (doghouse) he ventures in and easily nabs a “chicken.” Seeing this, Foghorn claims that he himself is a chicken while accidentally beating the farmyard Dawg. Henery does not believe and of course the dog calls a rooster a schnook as well. Eventually, after many failed attempts and many beatings of the dog. (Who thinks Foghorn is the one bothering him) he finally calls the chicken a chicken. Henery hears this and carries the rooster off. Now Foghorn identifies himself as a loud mouthed schnook.

Personal Rating: 3

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Foghorn Leghorn

So today, I was trying to think of a character I had yet to talk about. Glancing at my calendar, (which is Looney tune themed by the way, as is nearly everything I own) I said to myself “That’s, ah say that’s it!” Unless you posses the intelligence of a cnidarian, you probably guessed by now that I am indeed referring to Foghorn Leghorn.

He got his start in  a cartoon called “Walky Talky Hawky” which starred Henery Hawk. The rooster was not supposed to be the star. However, he was way funnier and he had a great personality. He won’t shut up and he thinks he’s the greatest. (That is flattery by the way.) Robert Mckimson did a good job with this leghorn (type of chicken for you simpletons) and I would, ah say, I would love to meet this fowl-mouthed fowl.