The Goofy Gophers | |
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Looney Tunes (Goofy Gophers) series | |
Directed by | Arthur Davis |
Produced by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Story by | Warren Foster (presumed) |
Voices by | Mel Blanc Stan Freberg |
Music by | Edward Selzer |
Animation by | Cal Dalton Don Williams Manny Gould J.C. Melendez |
Studio | Warner Bros. Cartoons |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release date(s) | January 25, 1947 |
Color process | Technicolor |
Running time | 7:10 |
Language | English |
Followed by | Two Gophers from Texas |
The Goofy Gophers is a 1946 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon released on January 25, 1947. It stars the Goofy Gophers with a cameo by Bugs Bunny at the end (whose voice in this film is sped up).[1] The WB animators, by this time, were now widely using Robert McKimson's version of Bugs's design.
This is one of the latest-released pre-August 1948[2] WB cartoons to enter the public domain, as United Artists (successor-in-interest to Associated Artists Productions) failed to renew the copyright in time.
The cartoon opens in nighttime with a Thespian speaking dog guarding a vegetable garden and falling asleep. Shortly after, he is waken up by some crunching noises, warning him of intruders. Using a rocket that creates a flare in the sky, the dog spots the Goofy Gophers (Mac and Tosh) eating some of the vegetables, so he disguises himself as a tomato vine (his nose looking like a tomato) and poses as the actual plant in the garden.
As morning dawns, Mac and Tosh go about the garden taking up every vegetable that looks interesting, including a real long carrot (that has Tosh whistling as if it were a sexy girl). Mac gathers up the "tomatoes" just as Tosh imitates Bugs Bunny saying "What's up, doc?" While Mac is studying the pumpkin, the dog blows his cover and after asking him if he'd tried the pumpkin, Mac throws it into his face. Mac then asks the dog if he'd had his daily iron, to which after the dog answers no, Mac hits him over the head with a shovel. The dog runs after Mac, but Mac dives into a hole and the shovel prevents the dog from pursuing him.
After gathering up a bushel of vegetables and posing as Southern speaking ladies, Mac and Tosh duck back into their holes. The dog tries digging them out, but Tosh squirts him with a tomato. The gophers then taunt the dog from many holes as he tries to decapitate them with the clippers. While the dog's back is turned, the gophers take the advantage to give him the ultimate "hot foot" (putting a whole boxful of matches at the dog's foot and setting it on fire), which sends the dog fleeing for the rain barrel to extinguish it.
Next, the gophers pull down vegetables to the tune of a Conga beat. The dog's first attempt to stop them only results in Mac punching him in the nose, so the dog ducks behind vegetables and disguises himself as the scarecrow. Right after the dog states how his "razor keen mind" aids him, he is pulled into the ground, but kicked out again, along with the scarecrow, dressed as a telegram man from Western Onion, complete with a note from the gophers which reads "We're vegetarians, you dope!"
Underground, Tosh tries to make choices on certain fruit and vegetables, only to have them turned down by Mac (Mac reminds him strawberries could give him a rash). The gophers then come across a celery, which has been bobby-trapped by the dog, but the gophers turn the tables on him by having the dog pull himself underground. Straight after, the gophers proceed to steamroll him into the ground and call him "Silly Boy!"
The dog manages to get out of the ground and reaches into another hole for the gophers. Mac, however, stalls him with a hand grenade, making the dog pull out the pin. Spotting the pin on his finger, the dog starts showing it off as if it were a class ring, but while passing over the grenade underground, the grenade explodes and makes him fall flat to the ground, looking worse for the wear.
Later, while the gophers are relaxing eating vegetables, an attractive Southern Belle gopher (the dog's paw in disguise) comes up, attracting the gophers' lovestruck interest. Mac takes the first opportunity to dance with the female gopher and allows Tosh to cut in. Tosh's turn to dance has him pull off the female gopher, exposing the dog's paw. The gophers then turn the tables on the dog again by tricking his paw into dancing straight into a mousetrap.
That evening, the dog takes a stick of dynamite, puts it into a carrot he cuts in half, and lights the fuse, but Mac cuts the fuse and Tosh fakes the explosion with a blown up paper bag. Thinking he's rid of the gophers for good, the dog celebrates by doing another round of guarding and then falling asleep. The gophers, however, put him on the rocket launcher and aim it for the moon. Next, they shove a stick of dynamite into the dog's mouth, light it, and Mac sets up a camera. As Tosh blows into a bird's whistle, the dog wakes up and poses for a picture, but the dynamite explodes, sending him flying into space and crashing into the moon so that it breaks into four quarter moons, rocking to the closing notes of the tune Rock-a-bye Baby.
Triumphant in their defeat of the dog, the gophers saw down the "Beware of dog" sign and rejoice. Just as Mac and Tosh gloat that they'll now have no trouble in raiding the garden, their moment of victory is cut short by crunching sounds. The camera reveals it is Bugs Bunny, having just eaten the gophers' stash of carrots, who says "Well, um, now I wouldn't say that," just as a closing iris ends the cartoon.