Henpecked

Henpecked
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series
The bear tells Oswald to not make any noise.
Directed by	Walter Lantz Bill Nolan
Produced by	Walter Lantz
Story by	Walter Lantz Bill Nolan
Voices by	Pinto Colvig Walter Lantz
Music by	James Dietrich
Animation by	Bill Nolan Ray Abrams Manuel Moreno Clyde Geronimi Pinto Colvig
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	August 20, 1930 (1930-08-20)
Color process	Black and white
Running time	6:34
Language	English
Preceded by	Snappy Salesman
Followed by	The Singing Sap

Henpecked is a 1930 animated short produced by Walter Lantz that features Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.

Plot

Oswald was playing piano in his apartment room, singing a swing song. Just then, a disturbed bear from another room comes in and confronts him. The bear sternly tells Oswald to quit playing and ensure silence. Oswald hesitantly agrees to the demands. Momentarilly a frog from a glass bowl jumps out and lands on some piano keys before leaping out of the scene. In this, the bear picks up the piano and tosses it out the window. Before the bruin leaves, Oswald was given a reminder.

Hours later, Oswald receives a phone call. Speaking to him was a stray kitten who is a friend of his. The kitten was looking to come visit Oswald as well as bringing in a pack of other stray kittens. Oswald rejected the offer because of the deal he made with his grumpy neighbor. Nevertheless, the stray kittens marched towards the apartment.

To Oswald's dismay, the stray kittens came inside and began rough-housing. They jumped on beds, performed acrobatics on chandeliers, and even catapulted Oswald around with a blanket. As they were having their wild fun, one of them decides to play a prank on the bear by putting a clothes iron in the latter's trousers. Oswald tries to intervene but to no avail. The bear twitches in pain and frantically runs around before sitting in a bucket filled with water.

Minutes afterward, one of the stray kittens plays a trombone. As that tiny cat performs, the slide of his instrument started striking the ceiling, and its impact was felt by the bear who was bathing straight upstairs. Eventually, the floor of the bathroom crumbles and collapses. The bruin plummets to the floor below and figured this was the last straw.

Learning that they are in hot water, Oswald and the stray kittens locked themselves in an apartment room. Immediately, the bear came up with a successful method of sucking them under the door using a vacuum cleaner. The bear removes the vacuum bag and dumps it outside where it opened automatically somehow. Although they were excluded, the stray kittens had a good time and Oswald couldn't believe it.

Cast

• Pinto Colvig as Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and the Bear
• Walter Lantz as the stray kittens

Publicity flaws

The second edition of Jeff Lenburg's Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons mistakenly mentions Hen Fruit as the working title for this short. Hen Fruit is in fact, a 1929 Oswald cartoon. As a result, references to Henpecked were removed in the third edition.^[1]

See also

• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit filmography

References

External links

• Henpecked at the Big Cartoon Database