#one-three

The rest of L.J. Hayward’s Death and the Devil series finally came out in audio - the perfect accompaniment to drawing some chibi badasses.

Rating:  ★★★

This one’s really important, as far as the evolution of Warner Bros cartoons goes. It introduces Daffy Duck (not yet named), and with him, a heretofore unseen type of cartoon character. One that fought back against those trying to hunt him, one that ignored the cartoon’s ‘script’, one that acted in absurd ways just for the heck of it. In other words, it introduced the ‘screwball’ character, an archetype that would prove to be one of Tex Avery’s favorites, and one that needed to exist in order to eventually have the likes of Bugs Bunny around.

This is, of course, a Tex Avery cartoon. And it’s much more like what people expect from Avery cartoons than some of his earlier endeavors - gag-heavy and fourth-wall breaking. 

There’s some solid gags throughout, but the pacing still isn’t quite there. Some gags, like drunk fish rowing a boat and singing “On Moonlight Bay”, go on for entirely too long. Some gags, like a duck eating an electric eel, feel pointless. Some are references that have been lost to time, like a reference to old-school comedian Joe Penner. 

It’s the gags with the duck that would be eventually called Daffy that shine the most. Switching roles with the dog in the water, helping Porky with his gun, and, most noticeably and importantly, referring to himself as “just a crazy, darn fool duck”, and doing what would become his signature ‘whoo-hoo’ hopping around. It was something audiences hadn’t seen before, and it stuck with them, more than anything else in the cartoon.

Later cartoons would do most of what this one did, but better, so it’s not entirely necessary to bother with this one. But if you want to see Daffy’s true origin point, and the introduction of the ‘screwball’ character type, then this is the cartoon for you.

Rating: ★

This cartoon introduces a new character with a lot of potential that is immediately squandered. Mortimer Mouse is apparently Minnie’s ex, since he refers to her as “his old sweetie”, and the two seem to still be on good terms. But Mickey is, of course, absurdly jealous from the get-go, and then it’s quickly proven that Mortimer is, to put it lightly, a tremendous jerk.

Minnie's characterization is terrible, at first oblivious and then apathetic toward Mickey’s feelings, and Mickey doesn’t come across any better, instantly jealous for no good reason and then, once he’s given a reason to hate Mortimer, just a sullen grumbling jerk for the majority of the cartoon. Mortimer, at least, is an interesting foil to the normally pleasant Mouse, a cocky bully whose nature would have been better highlighted if Mickey hadn’t immediately been scowling at him.

But there are far bigger letdowns in this cartoon than bad characterization. There’s some racism, when Mortimer dons a terrible Mexican accent and antagonizes a bull on the other side of an open fence. Once he realizes he’s in danger, he hops in his car and runs away, disappearing permanently about halfway through the short. The remainder of the cartoon is then primarily composed of Mickey, Minnie, and Mickey’s car running away from a bull. It’s an utter waste of a new character, as though the creators had a great idea but then realized halfway through that they had no idea how to actually capitalize on it.

But the most egregious thing, for me, is the cars. For some reason, Mickey and Mortimer’s cars have faces and can do things of their own accord. Mortimer’s car barely does anything, but Mickey’s car gets entirely too much screentime. For one, at this point we’re past the era where it’s normal for Disney to be putting faces on cars. Secondly, no one cares about this car, making it absurd that we’re forced to spend so much time with it.

This is just a really sub-par cartoon, unfortunately, filled with bad characterization, half-baked ideas, and annoyingly expressive cars. It also killed the character of Mortimer immediately; he never appeared in another classic Disney cartoon, or in anything else for that matter, until the 2000s, when shows like House of Mouse revived him.

Rating:  ★★★

The last few minutes of this cartoon really make me want to give it four stars, but the sad fact of the matter is Pluto takes up a large part of this short’s runtime with largely boring antics.

Mickey, Donald and Pluto are going climbing this time around, for edelweiss flowers and eagle eggs, apparently. Why they brought Pluto is a bit of mystery, as he seems to only exist as dead weight (in both a literal sense, to Mickey and Donald, and a metaphorical sense, to this cartoon). Donald goes for the flowers and gets entangled with a baby goat, Mickey tries to take some eagle eggs and gets attacked by an eagle mother, and Pluto pretty much reacts to things and gets drunk.

Because of Mickey’s shenanigans, Pluto ends up dealing with a baby eagle, which is arguably his most interesting moment in the cartoon. Afterward, he falls below into the snow and gets unfrozen by a beer-carrying St. Bernard. He acts super gay, too, tbh - I’ve seen you make those same goo-goo eyes at lady dogs, ya bisexual pup.

Mickey doesn’t get to do too terribly much, but what he’s there for - upsetting mama eagle and a bunch of baby eagles - is fun enough. His role in the finale of the short is mostly just ‘gripping things in terror’, but again, fun enough.

Donald, for neither the first nor last time, is the true star of this one. His scenes shine, whether he’s trying to hit a baby goat with an ice stalactite, headbutting an angry adult goat, or charging a flying mama eagle, he’s a joy every time.

The finale of the short, when Donald tries to rescue Mickey from the attacking birds, is a high-intensity ride from start to finish, and it, coupled with Donald’s scenes, make me recommend the short, overall, despite the lackluster Pluto bits.

Rating: ★★

After “The Blow Out”, Porky became Warner Bros’, new big cartoon star, and so the pig starred in a huge amount of cartoons throughout the rest of the 1930s and into the early 1940s. This was one of the earlier ones.

This Frank Tashlin cartoon suffers strongly from an identity crisis. It can’t decide if it wants to be a cutesy farm short, an action adventure, or an absurdist comedy. So it tries to be all three, succeeding most at the comedic bit towards the end.

The first three and a half minutes of this short are excruciatingly boring. A rooster crows, we’re introduced to all the birds around the farm, and Porky feeds them. Finally, after that we’re introduced to the fact that chicken hawks have been nabbing a bunch of Porky’s chickens (who are framed more as his friends than his livestock).

Soon thereafter, a chick is nabbed, and it’s Porky to the rescue. When a normal gun fails him, he hops in a plane to give chase, and soon there’s a small army of chicken hawks fighting against him.

The absurdist comedy bit first starts when Porky and the hawks fly into some clouds, and then emerge with the hawks holding the gun of Porky’s plane. But it really takes a turn towards the absurd when the hawks start acting as though they’re football players, huddling up and tossing the baby chick to each other. The rooster even narrates as though it’s a football game!

A very uneven short, but with some surprising comedic gems toward the end. Looney Tunes are slowly but surely turning into the sort of series we remember it as.

Rating:  ★★★

Another Porky Pig cartoon by Frank Tashlin, and it’s a significant step up from the last. There’s a lot of good gags in here, even if the pacing is a bit off and there’s a significant amount of racism to deal with.

Porky is part of the French Foreign Legion this time around, but unfortunately for him, he’s just a camel scrubber, something his Commandant makes sure he’s acutely aware of. The rest of the legion leaves Porky at the base, and, of course, the evil Ali Mode chooses then to attack. Porky and his camel have to fend off the villains, in a short action sequence that’s the most exciting part of the short.

There’s good gags throughout, many of them based around the Commandant, and his fun character design. Porky also displays much more of a personality in this one than in the last Tashlin cartoon.

The two things that drag the cartoon down a bit, though, are pacing and racism. There’s several shots that go on way too long, especially in the beginning, stretching the short out more than was necessary. And then, of course, there’s the racism, which is expected given this is a 30′s cartoon set somewhere in the middle east. The depiction of Ali Mode is not great, from his appearance to the gibberish that he mostly speaks in.

The end of the cartoon, where Ali Mode assaults the base and Porky has to fight the villain’s forces off, is paced dramatically faster than the rest of the short, with quick cuts back and forth to fast gags. It’s got a great energy, and is honestly the main reason to give this cartoon a look, if you can deal with the racism.

Rating:  ★ ★ ★

Another Jack King cartoon starring Beans, but this time Porky’s along for the ride too, in King’s first use of the character. Though the characterization of both of them falls pretty flat, overall it’s my favorite Jack King Beans cartoon so far. There’s some genuinely amusing and inventive gags, a fairly focused WWI-era war plot, and some decent animation. It takes almost three minutes for a recognizable character (Porky) to show up, but those first few minutes are fairly enjoyable anyway. There’s some light fat shaming of Porky in the middle of the cartoon, and possible ableism in the first part (I’m not totally sure what’s going on with the guy hitting himself in the face with a toy gun). It’s not a great cartoon, but it’s certainly not an awful one.