LOONESSEY IV: ONE MORE TIME (1931)

One more hippo

Today it's One More Time, another cartoon featuring Foxy, Foxy's ladyfriend, and a stretchcar-driving hippo. This time around Foxy has abandoned his role of train-conductor in favor of a beat cop, but unfortunately the change of profession does not diminish the nightmarish quality that was so pronounced in Loonesseey III: Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! -- in fact it's enhanced because this short is not, in fact, a dream. Here we find Foxy prowling through a terrifying city-scape, waving a floppy baton at rushing traffic, while the landscape slips under him in that vertiginous, old-timey cartoon way.

Eventually the "story," such as it is, wanders into more recognizable Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies territory by briefly pitting Foxy against a gang of bestubbled dogs who have abducted Foxy's vulpine flame. This escapade lasts for about 20 seconds, though, before the clip ends with Foxy being shot by a tommygun-toting crow (the criminals are well-armed: at one point they chuck a grenade). Something about cartoon machine guns really lends itself to slapstick. The most charming bit is certainly the appearance of the girlfriend's dog (see picture) who, for some reason Foxy dislikes. But the creepiest sequence also features the same dog, whom Foxy turns into a player piano for an uncomfortably long time. Foxy doesn't come off as a terribly likable character in either this or Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! I think the character-designers hadn't quite hit their stride. He doesn't have the goofy, cocky-unselfaware nature of Daffy, or the coy, cocky-selfaware nature of Bugs. He's just selfish. And rather dull. Bear in mind this is 1931, so it took the better part of a decade to even get the prototypes of genuine characters going. Def a slow process.

Piano Roll

I was browsing Wikipedia for info on Hugh Harman/Rufolf Ising (they directed the short). Ising apparently did a short  featuring a trio of kittens who sail to the Milky Way in a hot air balloon in search of milk. This I must see. It even won an Oscar. Also, Harman's post-apocalyptic 1939 Peace on Earth'd be interesting for historical reasons.