Buddy's Day Out

Buddy's Day Out
Looney Tunes (Buddy) series

A screenshot of the cartoon.
Directed by Tom Palmer (as "Supervision")
Produced by Leon Schlesinger
Voices by Jack Carr
Bernice Hansen (both uncredited)
Music by Norman Spencer
Bernard Brown
Animation by Bill Mason
Studio Leon Schlesinger Productions
Distributed by Warner Bros.
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date(s) September 9, 1933 (USA)
Color process Black-and-white
Running time 7 minutes
Language English
Preceded by None (first in Buddy series); Bosko's Picture Show (1933)
Followed by Buddy's Beer Garden (1933)

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

Summary

Viewers are first silently introduced to the hero of the film, Buddy; his sweetheart, Cookie; Cookie's baby brother, Elmer; and a dog called Happy. The scene shifts to Cookie giving Elmer a bath and becoming quite wet in the process. Meanwhile, 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 soon readies herself for a date with Buddy, whom she calls when she has adequately prepared. Buddy happily tries to start his vehicle so that he might pick up Cookie, but the car begins moving in reverse. The car proceeds to smash through doghouses, clothes lines, and a greenhouse, and, because of the latter, arrives at Cookie's house with a decorative arrangement of flowers. Cookie is well pleased with the flowers.

Buddy suddenly arrives and holds the car door for Cookie. The date begins; 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 for a bit on the country road, but is felicitously 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. Elmer manages to start the car engine, much to the fright of Buddy and Cookie. The young couple 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 and 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.

Production

The film was directed by Tom Palmer and was one of only two films completed by him for the Schlesinger studio. According to animation historian Michael Barrier, Palmer's approach in directing Buddy's Day Out was rather loose. In the story conferences which determined the contents of the film, Palmer would suggest adding "a funny piece of business", a visual gag. He failed to specify the use of anything particularly funny. According to later interviews with Bernard B. Brown and Bob Clampett, Palmer's original version of the film was virtually devoid of gags. The Warner Bros. studio rejected this version and the film had to be reworked extensively. [2] Barrier considers the finished film, with gags added, to also have been "desperately unfunny". The gags were neither as well conceived, nor as well executed as those found in the animated short films of the competing Walt Disney Productions. [2]

Uniqueness of the cartoon

This cartoon was the only appearance of Cookie's baby brother, as well as the only 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.

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 and 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.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Maltin, Leonard. Of Mice and Magic: a History of American Animated Cartoons. Von Hoffmann Press, Inc., 1980. p. 405.
  2. 1 2 Barrier (2003), Warner Bros., pp. unnumbered pages
  3. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-03-23. Retrieved 2011-11-20.

Sources

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