104. Buddy's Lost World (1935)

Release date: May 18th, 1935

Series: Looney Tunes

Director: Jack King

Starring: Tommy Bond (Buddy), Billy Bletcher (Joe Penner, Bozo)

The first of the Buddy cartoons that includes a shot of his smiling face (à la Disney), a tradition that would be carried on with the Beans cartoons and a handful of Porky cartoons. Considered the first entry of the dinosaur cartoons, a popular genre in the Looney Tunes universe, Buddy and his dog Bozo discover the “lost world”—a prehistoric haven whose novelty wears off rather quickly when its dangers are exposed.

Buddy’s all set to disembark on his quest, his sail advertising “CAPT. BUDDY’S EXPEDITION TO THE LOST WORLD”. He greets a cheering crowd by shaking his fits proudly, eating up the attention. He starts the motor of his boat (meaning the sail is entirely redundant, which I love) and rockets off. Unfortunately for his crowd, he forgot to untie the rope anchoring him to the dock. The entire dock plummets into the waters as his fanbase all try to swim to shore.

A nice back angle of Buddy and his pal Bozo riding in the boat, heading for land (Buddy excitedly proclaiming “Land, bozo! Land!”). If I’m not mistaken, the same shot would be reused with Porky in Fish Tales, another Jack King short. A wave propels them to shore, the boat screeching to a halt. Buddy and Bozo disembark, Bozo yapping happily while Buddy unravels a map. He yells “Oh boy, it’s the lost island! Hooray! Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!” 

Regardless, Bozo spots a pair of footprints. He sniffs them out, causing them to inch forward slightly. More sniffing, more inching. He follows the footprints through an area decorated thickly with trees, continuing on. The trees are no trees at all, but the legs of a massive dinosaur—good staging. The dinosaur angrily stalks Bozo, who is stalking the footprints. Only when the dinosaur snorts does Bozo realize he’s being followed. Terrified, Bozo zips away, whirling past a woman jump roping.

In the midst of his panic, Bozo comes across a caveman digging at the dirt like a dog. ...Interesting. The caveman growls at his uninvited visitor, both of them circling each other on all fours. Finally, the caveman dips into his hole and brings out a giant bone under his protection. The caveman runs away, and Bozo, now curious, digs at the ground.

Bozo finds a bone... and plenty of them. He unearths an entire dinosaur skeleton, getting trapped inside its ribs. He yowls for help, catching the attention of Buddy, who had been wandering the island. He spots his shanghaied pooch and tries to tug him out, but to no avail. He meanders to the skull of the dinosaur, prying open its jaws and whistling for bozo to come to him. Bozo gratefully darts out of the dinosaur’s mouth and covers Buddy in thankful kisses.

Back to the caveman/dog hybrid, who now has a tail? He didn’t before, which is odd. I wonder if that was an additive or a subtractive—was he originally supposed to have one and they forgot? Or was one of the animators putting his own flair on things? He’s sniffing at some bushes, scratching behind his ear with his foot while Buddy and Bozo discreetly observe. Unable to stand it any longer, Bozo launches after the caveman, Buddy chasing behind.

Bozo and the caveman take their chase into a cave, Buddy getting the short end of the stick and slamming against a rock that closes the entrance off. Unbeknownst to Buddy, a hungry plant licks its lips and looms behind him, a good setup as buddy obliviously calls for Bozo as the plant comes in for the kill. Buddy realizes he has company, but too late. The plant swallows him whole. Buddy tumbles through its inside, a rather creative segue as he pops out of another plant attached to a cliff.

It’s just as well—Buddy stumbles across civilization. The village is thriving, villagers playing croquet, with wishbones serving as the wickets.

Buddy is mesmerized and takes a closer look, sliding down a tree trunk that actually turns out to be a happy dinosaur. Meanwhile, three prehistoric caricatures of The Three Stooges pop up (wonderfully weird) and observe Buddy. Larry shushes Curly, who sneezes, and the typical eye poking slapstick ensues. Back to Buddy, who feeds his dinosaur companion an apple.

Larry devises an incomprehensible plan, sneaking away from the group. Funny how Larry’s the villain, you’d think Moe would be the one. Larry spots Bozo, who’s tied up to a tree (did he escape?). Larry unties him and ties him to what appears to be a giant mousetrap.

Bozo cries for help, and Buddy, still playing with his dinosaur friend, hears him and runs to the rescue. Buddy attempts to free his pooch, but to no avail. Instead, he activated the trap, metal bars enclosing the two as Larry approaches his victims. Moe and Curly come sauntering over, Larry signaling for them to push while he pulls. Moe gives Curly a sock in the head for good measure before pushing the cage.

Who knew The Three Stooges were cannibals? Buddy and Bozo are in a boiling pot while the once happy villagers are chanting on the ceremony. We have a collection of gags to lighten the mood. After all, it is a feast! A man presses down on a dinosaur skeleton’s teeth, chimes reverberating against the ribs. Elsewhere, two cavemen do a waltz, intermittently hitting each other on the head.

Buddy cries for help as the pot begins to stir, and his dinosaur friend hears his shrieks. I love the perspective on this shot. In motion, it’s a little wonky—as though they didn’t know how to truly commit to the perspective all the way through the scene. This is the best it looks in this single key frame (though I’m sure that’s also the result of a different animator for the inbetweens). I applaud them for trying. Jack King’s cartoons aren’t my favorite, but I do like that he has an eye for cinematography, like a predecessor to Frank Tashlin. The dinosaur approaches the crowd, grabbing a caveman (who I think is supposed to be Larry) and tossing him towards the camera, much to the delight of Buddy and Bozo. He tosses another identical caveman, a random rock appearing and disappearing from the scene.

The dinosaur dips its head into the pot and scoops up both Buddy and Bozo. Buddy slides down the dinosaur’s neck and lands comfortably on its back, the dinosaur gingerly placing Bozo beside him. Buddy crowns the dinosaur with his captain’s hat, and we iris out as Buddy gets covered in kisses by both Bozo and the dinosaur.

As far as Buddy cartoons go, this one wasn’t too bad! Still rather mediocre, but less mediocre than others. I wasn’t too excited about this one, but I’m always glad to be proven wrong. Having The Three Stooges as three cannibals was a very interesting plot point I never would have guessed in a million years. Speaking of plots, the weird caveman/dog hybrid... I guess that was just there for the sake of being there? It felt too extended to be a gag, like a plot point in itself, but also feels too loose and discombobulated to the actual plot at hand. Nothing very exciting in the cartoon, but it was cute. Maybe worth a watch just because of how strange it is. I’ll always value absurdity! 

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