36. Bosko at the Beach (1932)

Release date: July 23rd, 1932

Series: Looney Tunes

Director: Hugh Harman

Starring: Johnny Murray (Bosko, Wilbur)

On to Bosko at the Beach! There isn’t much to say in terms of background information. Bosko, Bruno, Honey and Wilbur take a trip to the beach that nearly ends in disaster.

Open to our hero selling some hotdogs at the beach, similar to Ups ‘n Downs. Mickey Bosko calls “Hotdogs!” while his seemingly sentient hotdogs play jump rope with each other. Elsewhere, an octopus is followed by three seahorses (who are neighing, cheesy and overdone as it is, I love my visual puns). A Harman-Ising staple, the octopus perches itself on a rock and turns into a merry go round. As overused as that gag has become, it’s still cute, though not as surprising to me.

Bruno’s sniffing the sand as he trots along his merry way, until he suddenly stops and shrieks in pain. Bosko identifies a nail in his paw and plucks it out with ease. All is well, and Bruno expresses his grievances by growling at the dislodged nail. Very Disneyesque, but I think describing the entire Harman-Ising period as Disneyesque would be an understatement.

Coincidentally, Honey and Wilbur are also at the beach. Honey’s skipping along, Wilbur teetering behind her. Repeatedly, Honey has to pick him up to keep him from drowning as the waves knock him down. The waves are animated beautifully in this short! It makes me wonder who did them, Friz Freleng maybe? I’ve noticed that all the better animated cartoons have him credited. They’re definitely a highlight and soothing to watch.

Wilbur’s free to play in the waves while Honey plucks out some notes on a shiny new ukulele she found. Bosko, who’s still quite the established hotdog vendor, spots her silhouette from behind the umbrella (I love that staging!) and interjects “Hot DOG!” Honey overhears him and darts to a changing station to get dressed.

Together, the lovebirds sing a duet of “Ain’t We Got Fun?” (which proves itself to be quite catchy), occasionally interrupted by Bruno, who wants to play. Bosko sends him off on his way by throwing a stick. Bruno returns with a slightly larger stick, which Bosko throws again. Once more, Bruno returns with a log, and, with some difficulty, Bosko tosses it.

And, of course, Bruno returns with an entire tree. Another instance where the looniness of Looney Tunes is slowly trying to break through! Definitely a highlight of the cartoon. Bruno drops his giant hunk of wood, which lands on a jar of jam, landing conveniently on Bosko’s head.

Wilbur has been periodically playing near the waves, running each time a wave crashes to the surface. This time, he isn’t so lucky (more karma for his crimes in Bosko’s Soda Fountain?) and gets swept away. He cries for help, and our brave hero runs to the rescue, diving straight into danger...

...and aimlessly doing a few strokes in the sand. Another instance at some looniness trying so hard to poke through, definitely parallel to the gags we’ll be seeing in the Looney Tunes we know and love! Bosko gives it another shot and dives straight into the waves.

A shot of Wilbur in the (beautifully animated) rolling waves. In the midst of his struggles, he turns to the audience and shouts “IS THERE A BOY SCOUT IN THE AUDIENCE??” I have to add, the music score is especially beautiful here! It’s panicked and rushed, but in a way that’s humorous and carefree. The visuals of Bosko paddling on the curling waves are beautiful, too, sliding off of them like butter. He and Wilbur attempt to meet in the middle of the hump of one of the waves, but they both slide down to opposite sides.

Man’s best friend realizes man is in trouble. Bruno darts to a nearby gift shop and steals an electric fan. That giant log he brought to Bosko earlier comes in handy! He ties the fan to his tail like an engine and turns it on (the fan has a cord... I didn’t know logs had outlets now?), whirring through the waves.

As Bosko and Wilbur keep trying (and fail) to meet in the middle of a wave, Bruno sweeps in and scoops them up on the log. All’s well that ends well! 

Very cute Bosko cartoon! The opening was a little slow, comprising mainly of reused gags, but things got up to pace. Music, as always, was a plus! Wilbur wasn’t nearly as much as a brat as he is in other cartoons, which is both a relief and a disappointment. I love my obnoxious characters. Lots of funny gags, like Bruno bringing back sticks increasingly growing in size, and Bosko doing breath strokes in the sand. The ocean’s visuals were seriously beautiful, all the way through! Props to whoever animated it! It’s not the Bosko cartoon to end all Bosko cartoons, but it certainly isn’t bad at all. I’d give it a watch, hard to go wrong with something cheery and entertaining.