Buddy's Day Out

Buddy's Day Out is an American animated short film released by Warner Bros. on September 9, 1933.^[1] It is the first Looney Tune cartoon to feature Buddy, the second star of the series. It was directed by former Disney animator Tom Palmer, who created Buddy as a star character to replace Harman and Ising's Bosko, and was shortly thereafter fired from the studio. It was the first cartoon produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions. Musical direction was by Norman Spencer and Bernard Brown.

Summary

We are silently introduced to Our Hero, Buddy; his sweetheart, Cookie; Cookie's baby brother, Elmer; and a dog called Happy. We then find Cookie giving Elmer a bath & becoming quite wet in the process. Buddy merrily washes his car (the word "Asthma" strewn across it) with a hose, and steps away for a moment, leaving Happy the Dog alone to bark at the device and clamp on to it with his teeth: as the hose loses steady control, the car is blasted clean, but loses its roof; Buddy takes notice and shuts the hose. Cookie, meanwhile, readies herself for a date with Buddy, whom she calls when that she has adequately prepared. Buddy happily tries to start his vehicle that he might pick up Cookie, but the car begins moving in reverse, smashing through doghouses, clothes lines, and a greenhouse, and, because of the latter, arriving at Cookie's house with a decorative arrangement of flowers, in which she is well pleased. Buddy, suddenly arrived, holds the car door for Cookie; with Baby Elmer in the back seat, Buddy and Cookie set off on a picnic. As they drive, Happy the Dog tails behind, finally brought to the back seat by Elmer. The car loses control a bit on the country road, but felicitously is stopped, by a log, at an ideal picnic site. Buddy sets up the luncheon whilst Cookie takes up her guitar; Baby Elmer finds his way into the picnic basket, while Happy the Dog whimpers for some food. Elmer pounds a cake on to Happy's head, leaving the poor creature to run frantically around until the cake finds itself all over the baby. Cookie shames her baby brother, and Elmer, with Happy, stalks away to the car, where he starts the engine much to the fright of Buddy & Cookie, who must then chase the ungoverned vehicle in Elmer's baby carriage. Finding themselves atop a small building bordered by an operant train track straddled by Buddy's car, Buddy and Cookie move atop a nearby ladder, which drops from its height to form a tangent from the track just as a train appears, moving towards a sure collision with the car carrying Baby Elmer & Happy; the ladder miraculously becomes a spare piece of track on to which the train turns, and thus is Baby Elmer saved. Buddy tickles Elmer, who then naughtily sprays his brave rescuer with milk as the cartoon ends.

Uniqueness of the cartoon

This cartoon was the first and final appearance of Cookie's baby brother; it was also the last time Buddy owned a dog called Happy: in subsequent cartoons, Buddy (or Cookie) owned a dog called Bozo, and in others Buddy's friend is a larger dog called Towser (cf. Buddy and Towser.) This was also the only cartoon in which Buddy is so designed. (The image above misrepresents Buddy's appearance in this particular cartoon, and was a general opener for much of the series.)

Modern releases

Buddy's Day Out is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6. It is one of only three Buddy cartoons so honored, the others being Buddy's Beer Garden & Buddy's Circus.

On PBS

A collection of cels from this short was the focus of one episode of the History Detectives series on PBS in 2010.^[2]

References

External links

• Buddy's Day Out on YouTube (restored)