Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Ain't Nature Grand? (March 1931)


Summary
This cartoon is about a fishing trip Bosko takes. He is followed by a dog that he sends away. He then can't bring himself to kill the worm he brought, so he lets it go and improvises. The worm gets chased by a crow but is able to handle the threat. Bosko then catches a fish who does not appreciate Bosko's attitude about it. The singing and dancing then begins with bees, spiders, frogs and bugs getting into the act. Some apparently gigantic bugs drop what I thought was an olive, but turned out to be a boulder on Bosko's head. They then shrink and attack Bosko with a beehive machine gun, chasing him into a fountain.
Notable gags
  • Using the letters NO from the " No Fishing" sign as worms.
  • When the worm is being chased by the crow, it rolls into a circle to get away
  • After the crow gets the worm, the worm stretches through a few holes and then pulls the bird through. Classic trope of someone getting dragged through a tangled situation.
  • The crow puts his feathers back on like a coat
  • After catching a fish and being nice to it, Bosko gets spat on for his trouble
  • The bugs use a flower as a propeller, on a bug that can already fly
  • The flying bugs turn a beehive into a machine gun
Commentary

This cartoon is interesting to me for a few reasons. First, there was relatively little singing and dancing. we are continuing or journey away from the strictly musical nature of Looney Tunes. Although I have to say I regret the lack of plot. Second, I think this is the first time, at least for WB, that we see the "Threading" trope. (Not and official trope, but it's when a character is tied to a string that is threaded through a lot of obstacles, then pulled through). Lastly, we see some truly wanton and unprovoked violence. The multi-sized bug attack on Bosko has no rational cause. I won't say this is the beginning of Heckling, but it is certainly in the same vain. Overall, this is no where near my favorite Bosko cartoon, but I have to admit the relative lack of musical silliness was encouraging.

--Jack

No comments:

Post a Comment