Cartoons About Cartoons (Part 22)

More self-referential fare, mostly from 1954 and 1955 today. All the majors seem to be represented excepting Walter Lantz. Numerous prominent cartoon stars participate, along with some surprises from a few relatively-unknowns in lively outings for Terrytoons.

The Tall Tale Teller (Terrytoons/Fox, Phoney Baloney, 7/2/54 – Connie Rasinski, dir.) – A surprise return in Technicolor for a character that hadn’t been seen since the black and white days in the late 1930’s – still with his original voice from the sound of it. Phoney Baloney was a stereotype Irishman, with a chronic habit/talent for perhaps stretching the truth a wee might. He had appeared in some quite funny early outings such as “Devil of the Deep”. “Robinson Crusoe’s Broadcast”, and “Frozen Feet”. Sometimes (and often) the tales he would verbally spin would be considerably contradicted by the visuals we would see – frequently providing the source of the comedy, as to how the same phrases could conjure up a desirable image in the listener’s mind’s eye, yet be so accurate in an entirely negative way in real life. In at least one instance, Baloney painted himself into a corner, weaving a yarn about being captured by cannibals, then having no remaining alternatives to end the story except to announce from the stage that he had been eaten for dinner. Yet at other times, as in this present episode, some small grain of truth might seep into his jabbering, that seems so preposterous as to be unbelievable like the rest, yet proves to be absolutely true. All in all, he was a worthwhile character, who probably should have seen more appearances.

Today, we find him being hauled in by an officer of the law, clutching to what appears to be a public water fountain. Baloney protests his innocence, telling the cop, “Let me go, or I’ll have the law on ya’.” Baloney is placed on trial before the local magistrate, on the charge of trying to sell water from a public fountain. “It’s a lie”, shouts Baloney, asserting that what he has is the fountain of youth – and he risked his neck to get it. Baloney says his tale began in Washington, D.C., before a meeting of the society for prevention of old age. TV prints appear cut for time as to the contents of the meeting and its delegates – anyone with access to a complete print is invited to provide any of the omitted details. Baloney claims he was picked as the right man for the job – although he is seen being booted out of the meeting hall. He lands on the end of the bayonet of a military M.P., who Baloney claims quickly escorted him to the fastest means of travel for his quest – in actuality, loading him into a military cannon, and firing him off to parts unknown. Baloney in no time asserts he had his feet planted firmly upon his destination – though in fact he lands head-deep in the sands of Florida’s Miami Beach. Baloney passes by several shapely bikini-clad babes on the beach, and asserts he had found the youth, so the fountain must be close at hand.

As Baloney reaches the fringes of the Everglades, he realizes he has mislaid his compass. (Another cut for time in TV prints possibly denotes his reaching into his pocket to find a pawn ticket for the object). So Baloney takes his bearings from the stars – tossing a large rock into the air, and allowing it to hit him on the head, then staring at the resulting circle of stars in wobbly fashion through a telescope. Baloney treks through the jungle for days, weakened and without food, until “a large tropical bird took a friendly interest in me” – a vulture, armed with steak knife and knife sharpener. A fight cloud erupts, but Baloney claims the bird met with an unfortunate accident – leaving Baloney sitting at a campfire, chewing on roast vulture drumsticks. A lightning storm breaks out, but another kindly animal offers him shelter – as Baloney boots a turtle out of his own shell to get a roof over Baloney’s head. After the storm, a river swim places Baloney close at hand to the powerful jaws of an alligator, which Baloney refers to as merely “attracting the local wildlife”. The gator tries to chomp on Baloney’s skull, but gets nowhere, with all his teeth falling out upon impact. Borrowing a catch-phrase from Hal Peary as the Great Gildersleeve during his periodic radio and movie encounters with Jim Jordan of “Fibber McGee and Molly”, the gator speaks up: “You’re a hard man, Baloney.” Baloney finally locates the fabled drinking fountain, but claims to have been outnumbered by Indians – an attacking party of one. A lucky shot with a bow and arrow catches Baloney by the seat of his pants, lifting the Irishman, along with the fountain clutched in his arms, high into the air. The amazing shot propels Baloney all the way to New York City, into the heart of Central Park, where he and the fountain land in a public square – and the arrest was made. Back in the present, Balonet concludes his tale before the judge. It sounds so ridiculous, the cop moves forward, as if to let Baloney have it with a baton. Baloney turns in defense, and sprays the cop in the face with a spritz of water from the fountain. The cop instantly shrinks – to a crying baby!. The judge can’t believe his eyes, but receives more firsthand evidence from Baloney, who douses the judge with water too. The judge himself becomes a toddler, and raises his gavel, uttering in a falsetto baby voice, “Case dismissed.” Baloney now demonstrates that he is fully aware of the theater-goers who have been watching this case unfold, as he turns to the audience and states: “And you good people will find a fountain like this in the lobby. Take a drink of ir on the way out, and good health to ya’.”

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One throwback to a past cartoon overlooked is here coupled with discussion of a parallel cartoon concurrent with this article’s chronology. Wackiki Wabbit (Warner, Bugs Bunny, 7/3/43 – Charles M. (Chuck) Jones, dir.), weaves the tale of two shipwrecked sailors, adrift aboard a raft, and famished to the point of hallucinating, envisioning each other as hamburgers and chicken drumsticks. When they sight land in the form of a tropical island, they encounter native Bugs Bunny – or as they more cordially address him, “FOOD!” Bugs disappears into the jungle, then reappears in native dress, welcoming the “white men” with flower leis, and speaking to them in his exotic native tongue. Bugs’s ad-libbed grunts and groans (including an integrated “B.O.”), are accompanied by superimposed subtitles on the screen for translation. A mile-long series of guttural noises translates as merely, “What’s up, Doc?”, while a two-secont burp produces the three-line subtitle, “Now is the time for every good man to come to the aid of his party.” One of the sailors responds in English, “Well, thanks.” The subtitles, eager to simplify things for all audiences, suddenly provide a native translation of the sailor’s words, reading “Ofa eno maua te ofe popaa.” The second sailor, with more awareness than anybody that he is standing in the middle of a subtitled cartoon, peers down at the letters which have appeared on the screen, then calls the first sailor’s attention to them: “Gee, did you say that?” All Sailor #1 can do in response to the lettering is shrug his shoulders, having no idea if he did or didn’t.

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Similar situation occurs in Popeye, the Ace of Space (Paramount/Famous, Popeye, 10/2/54 – Seymour Kneitel, dir.). In this, the first of two 3-D “Stereotoons” produced by the studio, Popeye is abducted from his convertible car by aliens dropping an outer-space version of a plunger upon his head, the handle of which develops helicopter blades, which fly him into the hold of the invading saucer. He is transported back on Mars, where a group of green Martian heavies perform a series of tests on Popeye to determine the vulnerability of Earth men to attack.

The aliens’ dialogue is heard only as lines of gibberish (or in some cases, real words) played backwards on the audio. Since it cannot be understood, subtitles are provided on the screen for translation. As an announcer describes the subject of the imminent experiments, Popeye, aware of what is on the screen, bends down to read the words “Typical Earthman specimen.” He is encased in a glass tube, and bombarded with the rays of a Cosmic Ager, advancing his age to 125 years. He looks like a stoop-shouldered version of Poopdeck Pappy, but a can of spinach reverses the process – so much so that the age meter on the Ager rolls back to only two years old. Popeye realizes he has taken too much, and spits out a mouthful, reverting to his rightful age of 40. An Atom Apple Smasher is also unable to emerge victorious over the effects of spinach, which strengthen Popeye’s Adam’s apple to a miniature rock of Gibraltar, splitting the falling mammoth device in two. Popeye comments that that merely tickled.

An Electronic Disintegrater is the final test. Popeye’s feet are locked in place on a pedestal, as the ray is aimed and activated. Seeing the beam of energy approaching him, Popeye playfully holds out his pipe into the beam, remarking, “Thanks for the light”. However, the pipe and his hand appear to vanish. Within a few seconds, all of him seems to have evaporated, save for his spinach can, which rolls out from his vest pocket. One of the Martians realizes that this mysterious weed is the source of the Earthman’s power. Another grabs at the can, as the subtitles read “Gimme some.” More Martians battle for the can, as subtitles begin to become more and more informal, with phrases such as “Sez you”, and a series of typographical symbols arrayed in the traditional style of comic-book swear words. The room erupts in a fight cloud as the Martians brawl, all unaware that the can they are battling over has been ejected from the cloud, and rolled over to the podium where Popeye once stood. Or perhaps still stands, as an invisible hand reaches down to pick up the can, and invisible lips begin devouring its contents. Once again, spinach is the cure-all, restoring Popeye to visibility, and breaking his bonds. Popeye leaps into the fight cloud to make the Martians peaceable, and socks the Martians into their own scientific equipment, portions of which are converted into a giant Maypole, around which the Martians dance effeminately. Popeye ends the film flying the alien saucer home, and toots smoke from his pipe dimensionally toward the camera, which transforms into the lettering “A Paramount Picture” for the reappearance of the studio’s mountain logo and the fade out.

• Watch POEYE THE ACE OF SPACE by CLICKING HERE.

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The Reformed Wolf (Terrytoons/Fox, Mighty Mouse, (disputed dates of 7/9/54 or 10/1/54 – Connie Rasinski, dir.) – A clever and well-written comic installment of the series – even including some Jim Tyer animation that’s better-crafted than usual and seems to fit the on-screen action. Echoing some of the mood of a Warner production, the tale begins with the usual big bad wolf (named Wilbur), peacefully reclining at the foot of a tree, crunching a carrot. Another street-smart wolf in a tough-guy cloth hat and sweater (named Irving) passes by, and does a double-take at the sight of his buddy eating such fare. Wilbur declares he is strictly a vegetarian now, and off all meat – especially lamb chops. Irving thinks he’s got to be kidding, but Wilbur insists that Irving would be one, too, if the same things had happened to him. We discover the reasons for this dietary change in flashback. A pasture with a flock of sheep is the setting. “It looked like a set-up”, says Wilbur. “The dog in charge was a real square.” A dopey and small sheepdog performs a recitation of his creed of duty. “I am a noble sheepdog. I’ve never lost a sheep. I’m always on the hob, I am. I never stop to [yawn] sleep. Alert to every danger, I’m always wide awake. I’m strong and bold, do what I’m told…” The wolf, who has been passing repeatedly in the background to abduct sheep, completes the dog’s sonnet with a suggestion: “Oh, yeah? Go jump in the lake.” True to his word, the dog does just what he is told – splash! The wolf loads a stewpot with sheep, then carries the cauldron back to his home, placing the pot atop a large cast-iron stove. But his moves have been observed by someone else behind the shrubs – Mighty Mouse, who (without a word of dialogue throughout the picture) determines to take a hand in this affair. As the wolf turns from the stove to fetch seasonings for his stew, Mighty slips inside the wolf’s cave home, lifts the stove and pot into the air, then holds them above the wolf’s head. When the wolf turns to find the stove gone, Mighty drops the whole heavy affair upon him, then exits, carrying off the wolf’s stewpot and the sheep. From under a stove lid, the wolf’s head pops out, asking the question that has perplexed wolves in many a Mighty Mouse cartoon. “Wha’ happened? Who did that?”

Back at the lake, the dog, still standing in the water, is involved in another recitation. “The sheep are safe when I’m in charge, for I’m a champion born and bred. I’m strong and bold, do what I’m told…” The wolf passes in a rowboat loaded with sheep, and again finishes the rhyme. “Oh, yeah? Go soak your head.” Back goes the dog under the water for another dip. The wolf rows for the opposite shore, but the lake’s water suddenly drops out from under him, leaving the boat teetering atop a previously-submerged rock. Mighty stands at the shoreline, sucking up all the lake water through a straw. The sheep begin escaping the boat, making a retreat across the dry lake bed. Then Mighty emits a powerful exhale, returning all the water into the lake, in the form of a tall tidal wave. The wolf abandons his boat, outraces the wave to the shoreline, and up the banks into his cave home, slamming and bolting the front door. The door vibrates violently, as small amounts of water seep across the door jamb. Then all is quiet. The wolf, perhaps in search of a towel, walks inside to the drawer of a bureau and reaches in. He is met by a powerful gush of the flood water, which has somehow found a route within. The blast shoots the wolf out of the house, upon a fountain through the stovepipe in the roof. The water finally runs out, and the wolf falls – but not before Mighty strategically places a potted cactus underneath for the wolf to fall upon. The wolf is next seen minus his pants, his rear end covered in bandages, and plucking cactus needles out of his trousers hanging upon a clothesline. Again, he remarks that something funny is going on, that he can’t understand.

The dog is back in the pasture, still reciting. The wolf tries a new approach. Appearing at the top of a hill, he grabs up a sheep, compresses it into the shape of a ball, then bowls it down the hill. The rolling sheep has the effect of a snowball, gathering up other sheep that catch in its wool, entil the ball has grown to include half the flock. The wolf picks up the ball, and attempts a getaway. Finally, the dog recognizes the foe, and gently warns the wolf not to try any of his tricks. “With my keen ears and eyes, no wolf has a chance.” All this is said while the wolf places one end of a rope into the dog’s hand, then runs around him to tie the dog to a stake. As the dog keeps talking, the wolf takes up a sledge hammer, driving the stake and dog into the ground. But the wooden stake somehow develops a U-curve, its point rising from the ground behind the wolf – and riding atop the point as it emerges is Mighty Mouse. Mighty plucks the hammer out of the wolf’s hands, and remains still, unseen behind the wolf’s back. As the wolf looks upwards to see what happened to his tool, Mighty places the head of the sledge hamer atop the wolf’s head, then gently taps upon it with a smaller hammer. The slightest tap from Mighty’s super-muscles drives the wolf into the ground. The wolf pops out of terra firma a few feet away, with a lump on his head. “Who’s doing this to me?”, he shouts. Suddenly, the tip of his tail makes contact with the figure of Mighty, still holding the sledge hammer. After the wolf’s tail feels out the competition, the wolf quickly turns, grabs the hammer, and smashes Mighty into the ground. The head of the hammer pops open as if hollow, and Mighty pops through, delivering a light sock to the wolf’s face – that knocks him halfway across the pasture. The wolf takes it on the “lamb”, shoving the entire grazing flock sideways, with the sheepdog in the middle of them, onto the flatbed of a convenient nearby truck.

The wolf jumps into the driver’s seat, and slams down on the accelerator. But Mighty is again one step ahead of him, lifting the truck bed off its connections from the cab, leaving the wolf driving without a cargo. To further frustrate the wolf, Mighty flies ahead, pulling the pavement of the concrete road into a curve into the tunnel-like trunk of a hollow tree. The wolf follows the road, riding up inside the trunk and into a large branch, where the truck cab gets stranded, and the wolf is ejected from the limb, holding only the steering column, for a crash landing upon a hill crest. Spotting a huge boulder, the wolf dislodges it from the hill, sending it hurtling down the slope toward Mighty. Mighty takes it in stride, as the camera pulls back from the shot, presenting a well-crafted gag unique to Terry. The entire scene us seen as a panning shot on a screen within our screen, the outer sides beyond the picture’s edge being a mere blank shade of gray. Mighty steps out of the box of the interior picture, then pivots the entire smaller frame by 90 degrees, reversing the slope of the image within, so that the boulder changes direction, and rolls rapidly back toward the wolf. The wolf is swept off the hilltop by the impact of the boulder, and the camera returns to a full frame view. For no particular reason, the sheepdog is now seen standing alone in the pasture, holding the handle of a large dog-catcher style net. As usual, he is reciting. “I always know what’s happening. I’m the smartest sheepdog yet. No wolf can get by my very keen eye…” With a plop, the wolf drops in. “My goodness, there’s one in my net”, says the dog, for once completing his own rhyme. The scene dissolves back to the present, with the two wolves under the tree. Irving thinks the story is preposterous, declaring that there’s nothing to catching sheep. “I’ll show ya’”, Irving boasts, and in mere seconds, has snitched a wooly lamb from a nearby field. “It was easy”, saus Irving, showing off his prize to Wilbur. The head of the “lamb” suddenly pops off, to reveal Mighty in disguise. The mouse socks Irving into unconsciousness at the base of the tree, then flies back to his guard duties. “See what I mean?”, says Wilbur, proven right after all, as he breaks his carrot in two, placing half of it in the hands of the unconscious Irving, who will need it for his next square meal.

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Grand Canyonscope (Disney/Buena Vista – Donald Duck, 12/23/54 – Charles Nichols, dir.) – Ranger J. Audubon Woodlore, in his only solo without Humphrey Bear, receives the new assignment of chief ranger at the Grand Canyon instead of Brownstone. (His performance record in this film is likely what got him demoted back to his old position by the next cartoon.) In this, Disney’s first widescreen Donald cartoon, Woodlore lectures a number of tourists along the canyon edge, the members of which are all bunched together as a little group. Self-aware of his new film medium, Woodlore tells the crowd, “Spread out there, folks. This is Cinemascope” – and the tourists dissolve into a wider single-file line. (TV prints re-recorded the line as “This is a big canyon.”). Among the group is Donald Duck, who is impressed when he hears the canyon is over a mile deep. He decides to test it by dropping a rock over the cliff edge. Woodlore quickly catches the falling rock with a long-handled net. “If we all threw rocks into the canyon, pretty soon there wouldn’t be a canyon.” Donald continues to nose around, attempting to join a native Indian in creating a sand painting. “Please”, interrupts Woodlore. “Don’t bother the Americans.” Donald also performs a Charleston in an Indian rain dance outfit, producing a brief cloudburst, and sneezes at Echo Point, resulting in a chorus of repeated sneezes and one “Gesundheit!” Woodlore begins to realize he has a pest on his hands.

Descending into the canyon by burro, Woodlore pauses the group at Halfway Point. Donald asks the ranger to take his picture, and Woodlore pushes the camera button – lighting a flash right into the eyes of Donald’s burro. The burro’s irises contract to where he can’t see straight – and the nearsighted steed stumbles his way down the trail, and out over fragile rock formations like stepping stones, straddling precarious drops. “He’s sure sure footed”, says Donald, getting marvelous camera shots. When the burro’s eyes return to normal, the beast runs for his life, dropping Donald further into the canyon, where he catches up with Woodlore, landing in the ranger’s hand. “And where is your burro?”, Woodlore inquires. “He’s up there”, says Donald. Rules require a burro, so Woodlore asks the tour group to wait while he and Donald find the runaway mount. Above, Donald spots a long tail sticking out from behind a rock. “He’s hiding”, Donald thinks aloud. Woodlore takes charge, grabbing the tail and dragging the animal out – except that the dark brown “burro” now wears a shaggy coat of yellow – in reality, a mountain lion. In delayed reaction, Woodlore responds in shock. “A lion?? Why that’s impossible. The last lion seen in the canyon was during the Civil War. So that couldn’t be you – – or could it?” The lion produces a Johnny Reb cap from the Confederate army. Woodlore attempts pacification, by saluting and whistling “Dixie”. The lion is not impressed, and a madcap chase begins. “A lion”, yells Woodlore as he passes Donald. “Where?”, says Donald, aiming his camera – and taking a flash photo inside the lion’s gaping jaws. The lion pursues the duck down a curving canyon path. Woodlore appears alongside, slowly drifting down into the canyon with a parachute, cautioning them, “Speed limit on the trail – rigidly enforced!” While the duck and lion briefly slow their pursuit, Woodlore passes the tour group below, saying “I’ll be delayed a little longer, folks.”

The lion chases Donald back and forth over stepping stones in a canyon stream. Donald attempts to stop the lion’s progress by picking up the stones. “Put those rocks back!”, yells Woodlore, arriving on the canyon floor with his chute. The lion follows again, chasing Donald and Woodlore into a pueblo cliff dwelling. Donald reemerges and places a ladder in front of the doorway to trap the lion – but the beast bursts out – and suddenly lion, duck, and ranger are caught together in pivoting sections of the ladder, careening down the trail like a fire truck. “I should have stayed in the postal service”, Woodlore complains. At every turn, one or the other of the characters knocks away some portion of the canyon walls. Passing the tour group again, Woodlore calls out, “Don’t wait any longer, folks. Run for your lives!” A few shots of animation are borrowed from Pluto’s “The Legend of Coyote Rock” (1945) (from which musical themes are also borrowed resembling the sound of Ferde Grofe’s “Grand Canyon Suite”) of tall rock towers falling over like dominoes – then, a shot of tourists and burros climbing out of the canyon seems to borrow an additional piece of animation from “Fantasia”’s “Rite of Spring”, mysteriously having a T-Rex climb out of the canyon. A cloud of dust envelops the scene. In a final sequence, Woodlore addresses the repentant duck and lion, against a surprisingly flat background. “Well, I hope you’re satisfied. You two have in a matter of minutes, messed up what it took Mother Nature millions of years to create.” Pulling a book from his pocket, the ranger continues: “The National Park Rule Book states, and I quote, ‘When a natural object is marred or defaced, it must be restored to its original state.’ So…”. handing to the duck and lion a pair of shovels, “…START DIGGING!!!!!!” The camera pulls back to watch a tiny duck and lion digging away at the humongous filled hole that was once the canyon, not waiting around to see just how long this will be going on.

• Watch GRAND CANYONSCOPE by CLICKING HERE.

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When Magoo Flew (UPA/Columbia, Mister Magoo, 1/6/55 – Pete Burness, dir.) – It’s hard to say what kind of consciousness (if any) Mr. Magoo ever had that he was a cartoon character. For that matter, it’s hard to tell if Magoo ever really had a cognizance of anything going on around him. Yes, he usually peered through the “O”s of his title card as if they were reading glasses, but never showed any sign that he knew it was a title card, or could see an audience even when looking through the makeshift spectacles. Yet somehow, he picked up an awareness of the existence of animated cartoons, and of at least one character in them – despite the fact he can’t remember the character’s name, and the further fact that he can’t recognize the character as – himself! Tedd Pierce, along with one Barbara Hammer (any relation?) provides the slightly introspective and inside-referential script for an Academy Award winner, while soon-to-be Hanna-Barbera mainstay Hoyt Curtin receives credit for the offbeat musical score. Credit sequence for the film is unique, though no true indication of the film content which follows, depicting Magoo flying in low in an old biplane, with the credits on banners in tow from ropes trailing behind the plane.

Magoo is off to the movies (which must be part of his regular regimen, as he doesn’t even know what’s playing). He seems to find the theatre easily enough, but passes right by it without recognizing it. The real item on the marquee is “The Tattle-Tale Heart” starring Theodora Parmalez, in Panoramic screen and Stereophonic sound – “No Glasses Needed”. (This was an in-joke at the studio, ribbing management’s decision to pull from 3-D release their production of James Mason’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”.) Still looking for the theater, Magoo makes the usual mistake of entering the busy terminal building of the local airport. Inside, Magoo somehow interprets a posted ad regarding flying to Hawaii as a lobby poster for a 3-D movie. He walks up to a “your weight and fortune” machine, looking in a mirror at himself, and assumes it is the ticket booth, inserting his cash to receive the fortune stub as his ticket. He joins a line of passengers preparing to board a plane, lining up behind the drummer of a band called “Spook Jones and his Gone Goons”. This allows for him to gain mistaken entry, when he announces to the stewardess “Orchestra, please”, and is permitted to go inside as one of the group.

Magoo settles down in a front row seat near the entrance doors to the passenger cabin. Beside him is a nervous-looking moustached man carrying a briefcase, and Magoo attempts to strike up conversation with him. As the cabin lights dim, a sign over the door lights up, reading, ‘Fasten Seat Belts”. Conveniently (for the writers), Magoo is somehow able to read this, and comments, “Funny thing, great run of airplane pictures lately. Never fly myself – – My arms get tired.” He believes the 3-D effect is working, as he claims he can actually feel the plane taking off. On what Magoo presumes to be the “screen”, a trench-coated cop slips in, and converses with the stewardess about looking for “a man”. “Me too”, replies the stewardess, sharing similar life goal. The cop and stewardess describe Magoo’s seating partner to a T, and Magoo assumes the desired culprit to be a bank teller with a briefcase full of stolen Liberty bonds. Meanwhile, the seat next to Magoo is suddenly vacated, only the briefcase being left behind. While Magoo hates to miss any of the picture, he attempts to locate his missing friend, on the chance that the neglected briefcase might contain something important.

Approaching the emergency exit door, Magoo opens it, believing it to be “elevator to Lobby”. Despite the likelihood of a pressurized cabin, Magoo is not swept outside by the air flow vacuum, but neatly steps into open air for his “elevator”, dropping about four feet onto the surface of the wing. “Watch those sudden stops”, he cautions an operator who isn’t there. Looking around outside, Magoo comments that the lobby is a “big place – and they’ve got their Christmas decorations up already”, looking at the starry night sky. He passes the engine pods, and complains that the theater’s AC is “blowing a gale”. The aileron of one wing pivots upward for a turn, and Magoo trips over it. Believing it to be a loose board, Magoo stomps the metal plate back to flat position, and mutters that someone better nail that down, or there’ll be a lawsuit that’ll close up the whole works. Failing to find his friend here, Magoo decides to try the smoking lounge. He turns toward the plane’s tail, walking along a narrow rim of metal on the side of the fuselage. He looks into one of the cabin windows, where a startled woman shrinks into her seat upon his view. “Oh no, no. Not television”, comments Magoo. “They’ll run it into the ground.” Reaching the tail, Magoo pulls upon the rudder, thinking he is opening the door to the lounge. The plane makes a sudden turn into a circular path, flying through a cloudbsnk, which Magoo mistakes for cigarette smoke. “I seem to be going in circles”, concludes Magoo, deciding to turn the briefcase in at the box office and get back to the picture. Believing himself on the fourth or fifth balcony, he takes a backwards look from the tail at the countryside below him, and comments, “Oh, that wide screen. And no glasses!”

Magoo trots along the top of the plane, headed for the nose. A pilot inside the cockpit, noting the plane’s irregularity in steering, tells his co-pilot, “I’m turning back, Jim. There’s something wrong with the controls.” At that instant, Magoo slides down the cockpit windshield, and hollers unheard complaints at the pilot through the window. The startled pilot takes emergency measures, extending a cargo ramp from the underside of the plane’s nose to catch Magoo before he falls into oblivion. Inside again, Magoo somehow finds his way back into the passenger cabin, and finds his man, dropping the briefcase into his hands just as he is trying to explain to the cop that he never had a briefcase. Magoo returns to his seat, and watches what must comparatively be an uneventful “picture” for the rest of the flight. The final scene finds the plane back at the airport, with Magoo disembarking. He tells the stewardess, “Splendid program. I enjoyed every thrill-packed minute of it. Only one complaint – No cartoon.” As he walks away, he pauses for an afterthought to the stewardess, inquiring whether they ever show cartoons featuring that “ridiculous nearsighted old man”, then turns, headed in the direction of the boarding ramp of yet another plane, for the fade out.

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Beanstalk Bunny (Warner, Bugs Bunny, 2/12/55 – Charles M. (Chuck) Jones, dir.) – A slightly-medieval Daffy, cast in the role of Jack, is perplexed at what has happened before the film even commenced. “Now there goes a salesman”, he observes, having just been traded out of a Grade A homogenized Holstein cow for “three stupid beans.” “Jack, you’re a jerk”, says Daffy in loathing of himself, carelessly tossing the beans away. Instantly, a towering beanstalk erupts into the sky. “Odds my bodkins”, reacts Daffy in deliberately-read underplay, as if bad-acting from a written script. After further deliberate and bad reads, Daffy breaks into normal voice. “I’d better get to work climbing that thing, or we won’t have any picture.” On the way up, Daffy dreams of the “solid gold goodies” he should find in the clouds in this well-known story, on account of he’s Jack. However, he slams his head on wooden boards, discovering the beanstalk has picked up a passenger from below ground. Bugs Bunny, still asleep in his bed, which is caught on one of the stalk’s leaves. Bugs slowly awakens, asking his usual “What’s up doc?” Daffy assumes he knows full well about the gold and jewels that are “up”, and declares that there isn’t enough for the two of them. “Off ya go”, shouts Daffy, kicking the bed off the leaf and over the side. The bed crashes, but Bugs remains clinging to one of the stalk’s tendrils. “I don’t remember any rabbit in ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. But there’s gonna be one in this one”, vows Bugs, following Daffy in his climb.

As Daffy emerges into giantland, who should make his appearance as the giant but Elmer Fudd. Scales of movement are kept nicely dimensional, with Elmer moving in a natural, normal gait, while Daffy scrambles at double-speed. Bugs arrives at says, “Let me handle this.” Addressing Elmer, Bugs attempts to straighten things out. The giant in “Jack and the Beanstalk” wasn’t looking for a wabbit. He was after Jack. And the duck is Jack. “It’s a lie”, shouts Daffy. “My name is Aloysius. He’s Jack – Jack Rabbit!” The usual battle of words commences between Bugs and Daffy over who is Jack. Elner, unable to sort the whole thing out, calmly decides “I think I’ll open with a pair of Jacks.” He grabs up both of them, uttering the usual line about grinding their bones to make his bread, and takes them to his castle. There, he finds a giant-sized pepper grinder, which he concludes will grind their bones very nicely. Daffy and Bugs are trapped under a glass serving lid atop a silver plate on Elmer’s table. In silent pantomime, as no sound emits from under the lid. Daffy pleads for Bugs to do something to rescue them from the situation. But Bugs stands resolute and deadpan, paying Daffy no mind. In desperation to bring about some reaction from the rabbit, Daffy is silently seen, screaming into Bugs’s ear. Bugs never moves a whisker. Daffy sulks into the same deadpan expression as Bugs, until Bugs, in a gesture that seems no more than a twitch, displays an object concealed in his hand. A glass cutter. Daffy is so ecstatic, he actually kisses Bugs. When Elmer turns, he finds two holes cut into his glass lid, in the precise outlines of Bugs and Daffy.

Bugs and Daffy dart under a door as Elmer passes, and Bugs heads for a large hole as a hiding place. Daffy yanks him out, insisting this will be his own hiding place. The camera pulls back, to reveal a wider view of the hole – in the side of an old-style round multi-hole mouse trap. The trap springs with Daffy inside. Daffy returns to Bugs, with his midriff bent at right angles where the trap bar hit him. “You could have stood up for your rights, you know…you milksop”, scolds Daffy. Elmer approaches, and Bugs and Daffy board corks in giant champagne bottles. “Fire one.” “Fire two”, they each shout, riding the corks into a pocket of a coat of Elmer’s hanging on a hook. Elmer reaches into the pocket, first finding Bugs, sneezing inside a giant snuff box. “Gesundheidt”, says the reflexive reply of Daffy, still within the pocket. Elmer reaches in, producing a switchblade penknife, from which Daffy emerges, uttering a verbal “Click” as he pops out. Our two heroes run up Elmer’s shirt sleeves, then into his respective ears. They collide within the empty blackness inside Elmer’s head, Daffy shouting at Bugs to watch where he’s going. Elmer decides to smoke them out, attempting to light up a home-rolled cigarette. Bugs and Daffy somehow creep unnoticed through Elmer’s mouth and into the butt of the cigarette, popping out the other end at intervals to blow out Elmer’s matches.

Elmer removes the cigarette from his mouth, and compresses one end between his thumb and index finger, forcing our heroes to appear at the top end. “He’s Jack”, says Daffy, still pointing at Bugs. Both out heroes race downwards through Elmer’s shirt, tickling Fudd silly, until they emerge out the side of his shoe. Elmer pursues again, but Bugs, in the same impossible act performed in a previous Jones cartoon, “Sniffles and the Bookworm”, hides around a corner, and trips the giant by merely extending one of his minuscule feet (without either being stomped upon or having his leg fractured upon impact). Elmer falls face-first with a thud, knocked cold. Bugs is ready to make with the feet for a fast getaway, but Daffy won’t leave, still determined to get his solid gold goodies. Bugs exits without him, running to the far reaches of the giant’s property – and finding something equally irresistible that makes him also not want to leave. A garden of giant carrots. By nightfall, Bugs’s belly is stuffed, and he settles down to sleep at the base of one of the carrot tops, wondering how the duck ever made out with the giant. Within the castle, Elmer realizes it’s bedtime too, and reaches into his pocket for a gold pocket watch to check the time. Within the glass watch face stands an imprisoned Daffy, performing the standard services of a Mickey Mouse watch in pointing his hands at the time. He provides his own sound effects for the curtain line. “Tick, tock, tick, tock…It’s a living…Tick tock…”

• Watch BEANSTALK BUNNY by CLICKING HERE.

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Mention should be made of the developing career of Chuck Jones’s Road Runner. While Wile E. Coyote had not yet taken in great degree to communication by holding up signs (something that will be approached in later installments of this article series), the Beeper expressed a degree of awareness right from the start that there was an audience to address out there. In the original Fast and Furry-ous (Warner, 9/17/49), a final scene has Wile E. realize for the first time that vehicular traffic can duplicate the same sounds as the Road Runner with their horns. The coyote leaps from behind a billboard, armed with an axe – only to step directly into the path of a commuter bus. The coyote is mowed down, and as he rises from the road bed to look, observes the Road Runner, resting in the back window inside the bus, and sticking his tongue out at him. The Road Runner pulls down a windowshade inside the bus (is it for Wile E.’s benefit, or to communicate with the audience?), with lettering on the front reading “The End”. In Stop, Look, and Hasten (8/14/54), after Wile E. has smacked into his own trap of a steel wall rising from the ground, the Road Runner turns to the camera, sticks out his tongue and honks his “Beep Beep”, then zips across the desert, spelling out the words “That’s All Folks” in the trail of dust he left behind. (Who said Roar Runners have to stick to the road?) Ready. Set. Zoom (4/30/55), finds Wile E., in its final sequence, in full body costume as a female road runner. His utterance of a “Beep Beep” attracts attention of a different variety than expected. From over the rocks and ridges of the canyons pop the heads of dozens of look-alike coyotes, all smacking their lips in anticipation of a tasty treat. (Has the Road Runner ever had separate adventures with any of these desert denizens?) Wile E. is pursued down the road by this ravenous pack, with a half-size coyote bringing up the rear, armed with a large steak knife. As all disappear from the screen, the Road Runner pops into the scene in the foreground. It is now crystal clear he is communicating to us (as no one else is around), as he carries a sign on a pole reading “The End”, beeps, and disappears off screen for the iris out. We’ll visit from time to time with more trick endings from the series as these articles continue.

• Watch FAST AND FURRY-OUS by CLICKING HERE.

• Watch STOP LOOK AND HASTEN by CLICKING HERE.

• Watch READY SET ZOOM by CLICKING HERE.

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Foxed by a Fox (Terrytoons,/Fox, disputed dates ranging from 5/55 to 8/55 – Connie Rasinski, dir.) is Terrtyoons’ answer to such films as “Duck Amuck”, or perhaps more closely, “Herman the Catooonist”, in that a cartoon character, rather than the man at the drawing board, takes control of the art supplies and the on-screen mayhem. A new character in the form of a small fox is seen on the original opening art card, carrying a large pencil. (In his second and only follow-up in a subsequent season, the character was given the name “Spoofy”.) The little guy has spunk and a degree of vindictive imagination, and perhaps has a few drops of Screwy Squirrel plasma running through his veins. He would provide the studio with two lively episodes. Too bed he didn’t stick around for longer – likely because the writers couldn’t keep up this pace forever.

The film opens with a typical Terry scene – a fox, being pursued through the woods with a foxhound nipping at his heels, and a hunter close behind. But things don’t stay normal for more than a few seconds. “Stop the action. STOP THE ACTION!!”. shouts Spoofy. The background stops panning, and the dog freezes in place. Spoofy slowly paces back into the frame, briefly deep in thought, then turns to look upwards. The camera angle changes to a longer shot, revealing Spoofy as a character on a flat background atop an artist’s desk. Spoofy looks up from the drawing at an unseen animator above, and utters his complaint. “I’m sick and tired of always being a victim in these cartoons. Gimme that pencil.” The hand of the animator (standard 2-D drawing) obliges, handing him a pencil that is twice as long as Spoofy is. “I’m takin’ over this production. There’s gonna be a lot of changes around here.” First change in order is to erase the motionless dog’s legs, then replace them with outline drawings of tiny little feet. (To Terrytoons’ credit, they seem to have scooped MGM on this gag, which Hanna and Barbera would borrow in a subsequent season for their blueprint art in “Designs on Jerry”.) “Try and catch me now, Shorty”, Spoofy taunts the dog. The cartoon’s action returns to forward gear, as the dog continues the pursuit, but now looks more like a yellow sausage flip-flopping on the ground like a landed fish. The hunter catches up behind the dog, and sees a solution, taking hold of the dog’s tail, and manipulating it like the handle of an auto jack, propping up the dog’s legs higher and higher.

When the hunter lets go, the dog is now too tall, and his limbs flap around in gangly form, more closely resembling flailing strands of spaghetti. The dog stops in front of a tree which Spoofy is hiding behind. With a metallic sound as if the release of the jack handle, the leg gag is ended by the dog’s legs reducing to normal size. Spoofy’s hand emerges from behind the tree, and draws with the pencil the image of a boot on the tree trunk. The boot promptly kicks the dog in the rear. Spoofy next modifies a gag from “Herman the Catoonist”. First, he draws on the ground a flea to attract the dog’s attention. Then, he ties an eraser to one of the dog’s feet. When the flea hops on the dog, the dog instinctively scratches with his hind foot – erasing his own midriff. The dog howls, as his rear half goes running off without his front, and his forward half pursues. The hunter, spooked by the strange sight, plants the barrel of his gun into the ground, then hops up atop the stock, cringing above from the circling dog halves like a housewife climbing out of reach from a mouse. Spoofy pops up, burrowing out from a nearby hole in the ground. “Surprise”, he says, pulling the trigger of the rifle, to launch the gun and its owner in an arc over a nearby hill. The dog meanwhile solves his being “beside himself” by positioning his front half in the path of his rear half, letting the two halves collide to mold themselves together again into a solid whole. Spoofy remarks to whoever cares to hear it, “I never knew I was such a cad. It’s fun, though.”

The barrel of the hunter’s rifle touches the back of Spoofy’s head. “Oh oh, company”. Spoofy observes. Spoofy quickly produces a small pen and inkwell from an invisible pocket in his fur, and begins drawing extended lines from the end of the gun barrel – which twist and curve like a roller coaster all around trees and adjacent scenery, the lines finally coming to an end directly behind the head of the hunter. “What a crazy piece of artillery this is turning into”, remarks Spoofy to the camera. The drawing ready, Spoofy clears the hunter to let his shot fly. As the bullet leaves the original barrel-length of the gun, the hunter’s eyes follow it in zig-zag course through every loop and curve Spoofy has drawn. Then, his eyes finally fall upon where the barrel ends up. Cleverly, the hunter pinches the outlines closed at the barrel tip, preventing the bullet from exiting upon him. The trick causes the bullet to briefly pause in its progress, then reverse direction, retracing its steps along the crooked path. The hunter makes a gesture at Spoofy with the thumb of one hand placed in his own ear, as if to say “I fooled you”. But the bullet returns to the gun stock – and explodes right in the hunter’s face. The visible result of the explosion is a charred outline of the hunter, burnt clear through the paper of the cartoon background, leaving a gaping hole. Spoofy jumps through the hole as the dog returns, sniffing around. Spoofy’s hand emerges with the pencil again, drawing roller skates upon the dog’s hind feet. As the dog steps backwards, he clumsily loses balance upon the wheels, in an awkwardly-animated Jim Tyer shot that doesn’t feel like it fits with the rest of the animation. Suddenly, another surprise. The Mighty Mouse incident from “The Reformed Wolf” is integrated into the film, as the lower-right corner of the background is elevated by Spoofy, who appears off the paper and propping up the paper’s visible edge in the corner of the screen, yelling, “TILT!” The change in angle causes the dog to roll helplessly downhill across the background paper. With another “TILT!”, the angle of the paper is reversed, and the dog rolls back in the direction he came. The hunter returns, emerging through the paper hole, only to have the rolling dog collide with him. The hunter is carried atop the dog to the edge of a cliff, which the two hurtle over They begin to fall, but the hunter, just happening to be prepared for any emergency, pulls upon a ripcord inside his hunting coat, releasing a parachute for he and the dog to float gently down. Mimicking the parachute gag from “Duck Amuck”, the pencil point appears from an unknown position off-screen, and extends the outlines of the parachute, transforming its fabric into the shape of a living elephant, which promptly flattens hunter and dog on the ground below.

The hunter and dog rise, searching the terrain for Spoofy. As both disappear behind the same tree, the unseen hand of Spoofy appears to be doing dirty work out of camera range, and the two characters emerge to complete their lap around the tree, with their heads and torsos interchanged as each other. They zip back behind the tree to get themselves straightened out, while Spoofy appears in the foreground, drawing a trail of fox tracks for them to follow. The hunting pair pursue, but suddenly hear a tearing sound. Spoofy appears from top of screen, tearing away the right side of the background paper, allowing the hunter and dog to fall into a gray-white void comprised of the unpainted page of background paper below. The camera pulls back, to reveal Spoofy standing atop the animator’s desk near some bottles. “Hey, that scene needs some color.” Spoofy begins throwing bottles of paint at the blank background paper. The bottles smash, leaving unsightly color blobs on the paper. To the hunters’ shock, one blob comes to life, its extensions moving in menacing form, something like a liquid octopus. The blob pursues the hunter and dog, until all reach the edge of another forest background. The hunter and dog successfully climb into the new background, while the blob fails to enter, splashing into obliteration at the paper’s edge. The hunter and dog rest against a rock. More surprises, as Spoofy shouts, “Comin’ through!” pushing one background out from under them, and replacing it with an ocean background, the rock now transformed into a giant fish looking for dinner. With further shouts of “Comin’ through”, Spoofy begins putting his pursuers through locale changes greatly similar to the opening scenes of “Duck Amuck”. The ocean changes to a city street, where the hunter and dog are run down by a car. Then, they are underwater in the arctic, being fished out on the fishing line of a walrus. They dive through a snowbank, converting to snowmen, until another background switch places them in the Egyptian desert, pursued by the Sphinx. The two characters climb out of the background and cling between the edges of two sheets of background paper to avoid being caught. Then Spoofy pushes the two backgrounds apart, allowing his pursuers to fall upon the ground of the same forest setting where they started. Spoofy jumps into some shrubbery, and while the hunter attempts to part the brush, Spoofy’s pencil appears again, drawing a small thunder cloud above the hunter. Lightning strikes near the hunter, making him abandon the gun. The dog points out a hollow tree to hide in, but the small cloud follows them both right into the tree, jolting them with shocks that light up the tree interior as they climb to the top of the tree trunk, where a final blast explodes hunter and dog out the top like a cannon. Believing the hunters are now disposed of, Spoofy tosses away the pencil, which he declares he won’t have further use for. Don’t speak too soon, Spoofy. The hunter reappears, creeping up behind Spoofy, and draws a net around the little fox, suspended from a small crane in the bed of an outline truck, which the dog and hunter climb into, hoisting away with the crane to lift Spoofy from the ground. The outline vehicle drives away, as Spoofy protests, “Hey, cut it out. This ain’t cricket. Lemme go!” He should’ve learned from Heckle and Jeckle – that other cartoon characters can do some thinking themselves.

NEXT WEEK: Bugs, Woody, Tom and Jerry and the Road Runner provide most of the action next week.