22. Red-Headed Baby (1931)

Release date: December 26th, 1931

Series: Merrie Melodies

Director: Rudolf Ising

Starring: Johnny Murray (Napoleon, Jack in the Box, Old Man), Ken Darby (Santa, Spider), The Rhythmettes (Chorus)

The last cartoon of 1931, can you believe it? 1931 gave us 17 cartoons, where we were introduced to Merrie Melodies, and characters such as Foxy and Piggy. The quality of cartoons has continued to increase over time—it’ll be interesting to see what’s in store for the 25 cartoons in 1932! This time, we end the year on a musical number where a spider kidnaps the titular red-headed baby, and it’s up to her toy soldier boyfriend Napoleon to save the day.

Considering this cartoon was released on December 26th, it’s only fitting that we open with Santa tinkering away in his toy shop. He’s fiddling with a cute little dolly when he’s cut short by the chime of a clock—bedtime.

Once Santa leaves the room for the night, the doll pops to life and runs to turn on the radio. All at once, life fills the room as all the toys dance along to the music. This is our first actual “inanimate objects coming to life” short, where it isn’t limited to just trees, plants, and animals. Another popular trope would be books come to life, utilized by Frank Tashlin (1937’s Speaking of the Weather, 1938’s Have You Got Any Castles?) and Bob Clampett (1941’s A Coy Decoy, 1946’s Book Revue) to name a few.

We’re launched into our titular song number, “Red-Headed Baby” sung by our grayscale-headed baby. The vocals aren’t the greatest, no offense to Rochelle Hudson (I believe). Berneice Hansell would truly be the master of the baby voice as we’ll see in a few years, but it just doesn’t work for Rochelle. Her voice acting HAS gotten better though! And she was only 15 years old which is hard to believe (and I don’t even know if this is her to begin with, just a guess). [EDIT: Keith Scott has confirmed that this is not the work of Hudson; the identity of the eponymous red-headed baby remains unknown.]

Napoleon, a toy soldier, comes into play as the doll (we’ll call her “Baby”) flirts with him. Together they finish out the rest of the song, interrupted briefly by a jack in the box that Napoleon shuts up with a shot in the face by his pop gun.

There’s also a shot on the three wise monkeys as they remind us to see no evil, hear no evil, blow raspberries no evil. Clearly, they aren’t a fan. The wise monkeys would be used as a gag in a few cartoons, so as common as they were for a quick laugh, it still amuses me nonetheless.

No cartoon is complete without a menacing villain! This time it’s a spider, singing “Red-headed baby, you’re going to be mine!”. He lowers himself to the ground by turning one of his legs like a crank.

Baby and Napoleon notice the spider, and Napoleon immediately engages in a sword fight. I love these camera angles! Getting right up in their faces instead of a simple side view. It’s not much, but it’s something, especially for 1931 animation. Napoleon slides beneath the spider’s legs, giving him a hearty stab in the ass.

Napoleon uses a nearby jack in the box as a weapon, springing it in the spider’s face, who becomes dazed. Unfortunately for Napoleon, the jack in the box hits him on the head and knocks him unconscious.

Rushing to his side, baby cries “Napoleon, oh, Napoleon! Speak to me! SPEAK TO ME!” She turns to the audience and begs “Is there a doctor in the audience?” Our first usage of that ever so prevalent catchphrase! It gets me every time.

To Baby’s oblivion, the spider is right behind her. He snatches her away, her terrorized shrieks rousing Napoleon to consciousness. Abiding the laws of cartoon physics, the jack in the box crushed the bottom half of his body, which he inflates with a train whistle. Look at that animation of the spider kidnapping Baby! It’s beautifully smooth and bouncy. Animating all of those legs was no easy feat, especially with a doll squirming around in his clutches! 

The spider hijacks a toy train, with Napoleon chasing behind. More stunning animation! Again, not easy to animate, especially with the train going one way, baby and the spider another! 

Under pressure, napoleon thinks of how to save his sweetheart. He spots a little pull string duck toy, which he uses as a lasso. He loops the rope around the spider’s neck and pulls, effectively choking him.

Napoleon and Baby reunite, while the spider, clinging onto a balloon for safety, gets burned on the ass as he floats over some candles. To top it all off, Napoleon sends a cannonball hurtling towards the spider. The cannonball pops the balloon and sends the spider crashing to the ground.

All is well! The toys in the workshop celebrate, and baby sings another round of “Red-Headed Baby” (with some dolls behind her that look eerily like Bosko and Honey).

Even Santa joins the antics, coming downstairs and giving a joyous shout of “Yippee!” before another iris out.

What a fun way to end out the year! This cartoon is very cute. The first time we actually see a definite human! The short itself is rather predictable, but at this point I go into every cartoon with that in mind. Once you accept that, you’re able to enjoy it more. It’s more so cute than funny, but so be it. The music is catchy and fun as always, and there are some great bits of animation (like the spider kidnapping baby). It’s not my favorite Merrie Melody, but it certainly isn’t bad. Just standard.

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