08. Ups 'n Downs (1931)

Release date: April 26th, 1931

Series: Looney Tunes

Director: Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising

Starring: Bernard Brown (Bosko, Hot Dog, Villain), Rudolf Ising (Race Starter)

Ups ‘n Downs poses as more of a story centric cartoon as opposed to the musical focus of the previous cartoon, Ain’t Nature Grand! In it, Bosko, working at a hot dog stand at the amusement park, competes in a nearby horse race against an abrasive jockey.

Bosko is selling hot dogs, exclaiming “Hot dogs! Get ‘em while they’re hot, folks! Hot dogs!” (in almost identical fashion to Mickey Mouse’s fated first words in Disney’s The Karnival Kid from 1929.) 

After some cutaways to show off some cheery music and animation synchronization, including a cow serving as a roller coaster and some dogs playing leap frog on an elongated wiener dog, a customer (a dog) approaches Bosko for a hot dog.

Right before he indulges himself, the hotdog comes to life and screams “mammy!” in an impersonation of Al Jolson, a (very uncomfortable now) gag that would be reused in many cartoons to come. The dog kisses the hotdog and the odd couple skip away hand in hand. How morbid! I love the absurdity of this scene! It’s probably my favorite in the cartoon. The Al Jolson impersonation and blackface hotdog makes it hard to appreciate, though. It comes off as uncomfortable and makes me cringe, but would’ve been a good gag otherwise.

Bosko sneaks away from his shift and arrives at a padlocked shed. Warily he unlocks it, making sure so as not to be seen. Before we see what it is he’s hiding, we cut away to some horses getting all limbered up for an upcoming horse race.

Cutting back to Bosko, he brings out a mechanical horse. Bosko gives the horse’s tail a few cranks, and we find out it’s a rather unstable contraption, its head spinning and its body sputtering and eventually springing Bosko into the air.

A bird blows on a trumpet to indicate the start of the race. I love this little gag— certainly trite and insignificant now, but it’s hard not to appreciate the giant mass of pants beneath him as his body turns into that reminiscent of a pipe cleaner.

Bosko makes his way to the starting line on his measly excuse of a horse, with a big, grizzly man (identical to the villain in Big Man from the North) laughing at Bosko. Bosko settles the argument like a man and blows a raspberry in retaliation.

The race begins and everyone leaves Bosko in the dust as he struggles to get his contraption started. In fact, the horse goes the opposite direction and ends up exploding into bits and pieces.

With some charming, melty animation, Bosko scoops up the remains of the horse and mixes it like a cocktail, pouring the horse together and riding back into the race.

Evidently a good cocktail mixing is all a mechanical horse needs, because Bosko, already majorly behind in the race, passes a few jockeys and even has a hippo in the crowd yelling “CMOOOOOON, BOSKO!” the grizzly jockey who had made fun of Bosko earlier notices Bosko’s resurgence and does all he can to hold him back, such as spitting and throwing a grenade at him.

There’s a nice shot where Bosko and the horse trade places (another Looney Tunes staple), and unharmed by the explosion, debris of the horse fall back into place with Bosko on top as he nears he finish line.

Finally, the mechanical horse does some good and proves it wasn’t in vain after all, extending its neck to break the ribbon and granting Bosko the title of the winner. Bosko proudly takes a few bows before getting catapulted into the air one last time by a spring coming loose from the horse. Iris out.

This cartoon was decent! A bit bland, but there were some lovely pieces of animation (I love that scene of Bosko mixing up the horse like a cocktail, very creative and smooth). I enjoyed the absurdity of the hotdog and dog falling in love (yet I would’ve appreciated it more without the uncomfortable blackface gag. But really, all of these Bosko shorts are uncomfortable since he is a minstrel caricature after all...). The music score is lovely as always, I especially enjoyed the jazzy score during the climax of the race scene.

All in all nothing remarkable stands out to me, but it was enjoyable nonetheless and, like all the other cartoons, very cheery and happy.