The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound
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The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound is a 1988 animated telefilm by Hanna-Barbera, starring Huckleberry Hound and featuring several other Hanna-Barbera cartoon stars. This movie was one of the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10.
This feature is a parody of western movies; the title is a take-off of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and a major plot point is lifted from High Noon.
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[edit] Synopsis
During the California gold rush of 1849, Huckleberry Hound — referred to throughout the picture as a “mysterious, steely-eyed, and silent-type stranger” — rides west on his “faithful horsie” to start a small pig-and-goat farm. His journey takes him to the small western town of Two-Bit, California, where Hokey Wolf is the mayor; Snagglepuss plays the piano and entertains the customers in Rusty Nails’ Saloon; Quick Draw McGraw and Baba Looey run the bank; and Yogi Bear and Boo Boo, who’ve run away from Jellystone Park, live on handouts.
Two-Bit is being terrorized by the outlaw Dalton Brothers. Their leader, Stinky Dalton, has been caught and imprisoned, but the three remaining brothers — Dinky, Finky, and Pinky — are robbing and bullying everyone they come across. Indeed, as Huck approaches the town limits, the Daltons race past him and swipe his horse, saddle, and western outfit.
Entering the saloon, Huck tries to buy a drink with a large gold nugget (that the Daltons somehow overlooked); seeing this, the brothers coerce Huck into a poker game, hoping to win the nugget from him. After Huck accuses them of cheating (due to the fact that each Dalton has four or more aces in his hand), they challenge him to a fight in a boxing ring; Huck wins in the 705th round, with the aid of an anvil concealed in his glove.
Having won back his horse and possessions, Huck goes to deposit his nugget in the local bank, where he’s presented with a fountain pen for being their first customer in ten years. Moments later, the Daltons rob the bank, stealing Huck’s nugget and pen.
Meanwhile, in the nearby town meeting, Hokey and the citizens are being informed that Stinky has broken out of jail and will be coming to Two-Bit to kill the sheriff. And if there is no sheriff, Stinky will kill the mayor. Fearing for his life, Hokey quickly decides to appoint a sheriff (their last one was killed by the Daltons) to handle the threat, and just as he and the citizens are wondering where they’ll find someone dumb enough to take the job, in walks Huckleberry to complain about the bank robbery; he’s unanimously appointed sheriff on the spot.
Sheriff Huck goes after the three Dalton Brothers and, after a number of confrontations, successfully jails them... by using a crane to drop the jailhouse over them. The people of Two-Bit throw a party to celebrate Huck’s victory, but when Huck asks for help against Stinky (who’s coming on the noon train), everyone runs out on him; in fact, Hokey, Yogi, Boo Boo, Snagglepuss, Quick Draw, and Baba all take a trip to Tahiti until things calm down.
Stinky arrives on schedule and looks forward to gunning down the sheriff, but Huck disarms him by using a giant magnet to pull the revolvers out of Stinky’s holsters. Stinky then tries and fails to kill Huck with explosive “gifts,” but succeeds in breaking his brothers out of jail. The four Dalton Brothers are pursued by Sheriff Huck, in a classic cartoon chase in which they can’t escape him no matter where they go, but once they realize that they have him outnumbered they turn on him. The Daltons tie Huck to a homemade rocket and launch it towards the moon.
Hokey and company return from Tahiti to discover that the Daltons have completely taken over Two-Bit, which the brothers have renamed Daltonville. Run out of town on a freight train, the former residents of Two-Bit realize that they’ve only themselves to blame for what’s happened to their town and to Huckleberry.
Huck, however, is still alive; the rocket crashed down near a tribe of Native American hounds who look just like him, except for their yellow fur. Desert Flower, the chief’s daughter, looks after the recuperating Huck (who has amnesia as a result of his injuries), and the two of them quickly fall in love. Huck proposes to Desert Flower, but her father disapproves of her marrying outside the tribe. To gain the chief’s approval, Huck agrees to undergo a two-part initiation test to join the tribe, even though failure to pass either part would doom him to “a long walk off a short cliff.” Desert Flower begs Huck not to take the test, for nobody has ever been successful in passing the test, but Huck is determined.
The first part is a test of intelligence, in the form of a quiz show; by sheer luck, Huck answers every question correctly. The second part, however, is a test of strength consisting of wrestling with the biggest, strongest member of the tribe, and Huck is defeated. But before Huck is forced to pay the “penalty,” Desert Flower falls in the river and is swept toward a waterfall, and Huck jumps in and rescues her. Grateful and impressed, the chief gives his blessing for the two of them to marry.
The wedding ceremony is interrupted by Huck’s horse, who’s finally found his master. The horse — who’s able to talk, but had no reason to until now — restores Huck’s memory by telling him his name, and Huck realizes that he has to go back and take care of “unfinished business” with the Daltons. Promising to return and marry Desert Flower, Huck rides off on his faithful horsie (whose name is Bob) to find the Two-Bit residents who’d abandoned him before.
Hokey and the others are trying to support themselves by operating a wild west circus, which is doing miserably. Huck offers them the chance to redeem themselves and take back their town, and this time they stand with him.
Using a ghostly disguise and a train rigged with special effects, Huck and his allies trick the Daltons into believing that Huck’s ghost has come back to haunt them. The terrified brothers quickly return Huck’s gold nugget, but when the “ghost” orders them to go to jail, they refuse. The former residents of Two-Bit, however, chase after them, and the Daltons run into what they think is their secret hideout... but is actually the state prison in disguise. Later, the governor of California congratulates Huck on capturing the Daltons, and Huck says he couldn’t have done it without the help of his friends. A boy asks for Huck’s autograph, and Huck takes his pen back from the Daltons in order to sign it.
In the epilogue, the heroes of Two-Bit have all moved on to other things: Snagglepuss became an actor on Broadway, Quick Draw and Baba became the new sheriff and deputy of Two-Bit, Hokey opened the first used-wagon dealership in the west, and Yogi and Boo Boo have moved back to Jellystone. Huckleberry, meanwhile, had returned to marry Desert Flower, and the two of them have settled down on a little farm to raise goats and pigs... and a family.
[edit] Cameo appearances
In addition to the characters mentioned above, the following characters appear in the movie:
- Peter Potamus, captain of the ship that takes the Two-Bit residents to Tahiti.
- Super Snooper, Muttley, Yogi Bear, and Doggie Daddy, who are in the “audience” when Huck is trying to decide which prize to accept from the bank.
- Magilla Gorilla and Mr. Peebles, who appear as a reporter and the person being interviewed, respectively.
[edit] Trivia
- When we first see Huckleberry, he’s singing Oh My Darling, Clementine, which has been a signature trait of this character since he first appeared in 1958. The song is about the daughter of a Forty-Niner, and this movie is set during the 1849 gold rush.
- The constant references to Huckleberry as a “mysterious, steely-eyed, and silent-type stranger” (despite the fact that Huck’s just being himself) are probably an homage of sorts to Clint Eastwood’s famous film character, the Man with No Name.
[edit] Availability
In the early 1990s, this movie was released on VHS videocassette in the United States; as of this writing, however, this videocassette is out of print, and the movie has not been released on DVD.
