23. Bosko at the Zoo (1932)

Release date: January 9th, 1932

Series: Looney Tunes

Director: Hugh Harman

Starring: Johnny Murray (Bosko, Ostrich), Rudy Ising (Lion)

Well, here we are! Our first entry into 1932. There would be 13 Looney Tunes shorts and 12 Merrie Melodies shorts, making for a total of 25 cartoons. Here we have Bosko at the Zoo, where Bosko and Honey go for a date at the zoo, but things don’t always go as planned.

Our lovebirds are happily singing along to the classic "Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-De-Ay" while cycling on a day out. Honey is not so safely perched on the handlebars with Bosko in control, occasionally hitting a rock and sending her flying. Each time he catches her, prompting her to chide “Careful, Bosko!” to which he sings some more, the gag repeating.

Their destination? The zoo. Honey is eager to go in, until she hears the sound of a lion’s roar. Bosko assures her that the lion can’t hurt her and drags her inside. I’ll say it once and I’ll say it again, I’m glad the voice acting is improving, little by little. It’s still pretty poor, but both Bosko and Honey don’t sound like nails on a chalkboard anymore. May it continue to improve! 

They pause to admire the lion, but any shred of Bosko’s bravery is lost when the lion jumps against the cage and shakes the bars. Ever so bravely, the couple runs away to safety near the aquarium. Honey croons “Bosko! Ain’t that cute?” and we watch as two fish engage in a game of leap frog.

Great visuals in this scene! I love that Bosko and Honey are looking into the tank, and we’re looking out from the perspective of the tank, rather than the opposite. A good way to immerse the viewer. The fish cease their leap frog and swim away in a hurry. We see a giant brute of a fish, who angrily blows bubbles in the face of the audience before going about its day. Tiny fish follow an octopus (above) and use it as a maypole, Bosko and Honey swaying to the beat of the music in the background. Again, the visuals are to be commended! This is wonderfully smooth and satisfying to watch.

Bosko’s enjoyment quickly comes to a stop as an ostrich steals his bowler hat. Bosko chases after the ostrich and leaves Honey in the dust for the rest of the cartoon. We don’t see her again. What a considerate, caring boyfriend! Using some spare rope as a lasso, Bosko wrangles the plucky ostrich closer to him... Ideally. Instead, the lasso loops around the ostrich’s neck, but doesn’t stop it. Bosko loops the rope around the tree and pulls, but he gets catapulted across the zoo, with some comfy porcupine quills to cushion his fall. The porcupine plucks its quills back from Bosko’s butt, putting it on like a coat. The classic coat gag, how overused you are, yet how I love you! 

Resuming the chase, Bosko pulls on the ostrich’s tail to stop it in its tracks. As ostriches do, the ostrich swallows his hat whole, prompting Bosko to grab it by its neck and drag it to a nearby nest, insisting “GET IN THERE!” 

Hesitant at first, the ostrich assumes its position, and we pan to Bosko, who’s tapping his foot and pacing impatiently. One of the few times I’ve laughed out loud watching a Bosko cartoon! The timing is spot on. Bosko’s frustration feels believable for once. The ostrich lays its egg, and out pops Bosko’s hat, safe and sound. Predictably hilarious! All of these gags in these old cartoons are predictable, but they weren’t at the time of their release, so I shouldn’t be so quick to judge. It made me laugh regardless.

Unfortunately, the ostrich is insatiable. It follows Bosko, who cries “BEAT IT!” after it tries to take another go at his hat. The ostrich becomes upset, but no matter! Pied piper Bosko is on the case. He plays a soothing tune on his pipe, and sure enough the ostrich is up and dancing in no time.

We have a shot of some other zoo animals dancing, including this kangaroo and a gang of beavers (animation borrowed from Big Man from the North. Fittingly enough, seeing as this is the first cartoon of 1932, and that was the first cartoon of 1931). We also focus on a pair of particularly itchy monkeys. One of the monkeys plucks a flea from its fur, and they fight over who gets to eat it.

For some reason, Bosko slips through the bars of the cage and follows the monkeys. He lifts up the instigator of the fight and declares “Uh-uh, naughty naughty!” 

Tt seems he didn’t learn from his experiences in Congo Jazz. Reusing the same animation, Bosko spanks the monkey for his crimes, only to be witnessed by the monkey’s mother, a menacing gorilla.

Bosko awkwardly places the monkey back down and whistles, but it’s too late. We have a scene where the gorilla chases after Bosko, cage through cage.

In the midst of the chase we get this beautiful visual of Bosko hanging onto a snake like a rope, turning it into a pulley and plummeting to the ground. This is some beautiful animation! Especially with the pattern on the snake moving so steadily. There are a lot of beautiful visuals in this cartoon with some nice, smooth animation! 

Conveniently, Bosko lands in a lion cage, and reusing footage from Bosko Shipwrecked! he runs from the savage beast. The ostrich from before recognizes the trouble and books it, using a walrus as a stepping stone, who also joins the chase.

We now have a chase between an ostrich, a walrus, Bosko, and a lion. How things escalate! The ostrich and walrus are cornered against a brick wall, with Bosko gingerly hopping to the top. Disaster narrowly avoids him as the lion smashes into the wall.

The lion, walrus, and ostrich all pop off the fence as one giant fusion. God, I love this! It needs to be framed in the Louvre. Nothing like some surrealism to brighten your day! Iris out on this horrendous beast.

1932 seems to be promising! This is a very high energy short, even if it’s particularly leisurely at the same time. This premise would be reused in Porky’s Picnic—the two shorts are rather similar, only porky has to dodge the ferocious jaws of various animals in order to protect a bratty baby who shows him love by whacking him in the face with a plank of wood. Some pieces of animation are reused, but it doesn’t seem glaringly obvious unless you’re me, who is binging all of these cartoons at once and thus watching years of gags in a mere span of days. Animation is bound to be recycled. The music score is LOVELY! Very jazzy and exciting, especially during the chase sequence! Glad to have a bit of a mood going on with the music. There are some beautifully fun visuals as shown above... not many downsides to this short! It would be nice if honey were in it longer instead of being hung out to dry, but what can ya do? Overall, very good for what we’ve seen! Probably tied for my favorite or second in line to Bosko the Doughboy. I recommend a watch!