128. Westward Whoa (1936)

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, this is one of those cartoons that requires a disclaimer. This review you’re about to see entails racist stereotypes, concepts, and imagery. I do not at all support or condone these ideas in any way, shape, or form—they’re gross and wrong. It would, however, be just as gross of me to skip over them. This review is for the intent of educating and informing, and I don’t at all intend to harm or offend anyone. I ask and thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

Release date: April 25th, 1936

Series: Looney Tunes

Director: Jack King

Starring: Berneice Hansell (Kitty), Tommy Bond (Beans, Ham), Joe Dougherty (Porky)

Hard to believe it’s time already, but this is the last major appearance of Beans and Kitty. Both make cameo appearances in Plane Dippy, Ham or Ex pop in for Porky's Pet, and the bespectacled unnamed dog with an overbite who occasionally makes appearances reappears in Shanghaied Shipmates, but now the cartoons begin to shift focus towards Porky. Beans' last hurray isn’t the most savory of cartoons—out west, Ham and Ex cry wolf, pretending to be Native Americans and crying for help, but, of course, actual Natives show up and no one believes their pleas for help.

Open to a wagon train traversing the old west. Beans and kitty are included in the band of pioneers, singing “Covered Wagon Days”, vocals contributed by their cattle, some other pioneers, etc. Even Porky’s shown playing a flute solo. Another gag includes a man riding his mule, essentially walking on top of it—he walks on ahead with his beer bottle, leaving the donkey behind. 

I’ve said it before, but I find it so interesting that jack king included songs in his cartoons. Freleng and Avery have mentioned how the Merrie Melodies format was nothing but a burden to their cartoons, having to work around the story to arbitrarily include a song in, yet King seemed to make it a point to include a song when he didn’t have to.

The gang settle in (Kitty excitedly babbles on about how nice the spot they chose would be, with a lovely lake, big rock, trees, etc., etc.) quite comfortably. Fade out back in to some pioneers square dancing to “Oh, Susanna!”, a crowd clapping and cheering them on.

Beans is enjoying himself, dancing along to the music. Ham and Ex run up to him and excitedly declare in unison “We’re gonna play Indians!”, to which Beans playfully warns “Be careful the Indians don’t getcha!” Yes, it's one of those shorts, which would unfortunately persist for decades to come. 

Ham and Ex giggle and hobble away, but almost immediately halt in their tracks. Behind a rock appears to be a Native headdress that’s moving. Ham and Ex exchange worried glances and eventually creep up to the source... only to find that it’s just a turkey pecking at the ground. This, of course, gives (who I presume to be) Ham an idea as he whispers into Ex’s ear.

Their idea? Running around yelling “Indians! Help!” Beans drops his stack of wood he’s carrying and reaches for his rifle, echoing their warning. All of the pioneers are alerted and resort to gunfire. A dog in a pond shoots his rifle, skipping around like a rock in water. Another dog hops into a wood stove and fires from there.

Beans darts over to the rock where the turkey (unbeknownst to him) is pecking at the ground. Beans fires, and does a Jack King hat take when he realizes he shot the fan off of a turkey instead. Ham and Ex find it just absolutely hilarious, doubling over in a fit of laughter. Beans is pissed and approaches them, warning Ex that a Native will someday get them and (he pretends to cut his neck) “Krrrrrrk! Off goes your head!” He retreats, done with his lecture, when he suddenly whips around and snaps “and you too!” at Ham. Finally some nice comedic timing and a clever joke, but a shame it has to be wasted on something so racist and tiresome.

If Ham and Ex were rattled by Beans’ lecture, they do little to express it. In fact, Ex whispers in Ham’s ear, both smiling with mischievous pride. Ex thusly launches into a war call, followed by Ham, and predictably Beans is fooled again. He grabs his gun and starts running around in a flurry once more, his pioneer buddies also shooting aimlessly. Ham and Ex are now, for some reason, in the same spot where Beans was prior (it never showed them running around). Suddenly, Ham taps Ex on the back, who’s in a fit of hysterics. They both dart off screen as a frustrated and befuddled beans approaches, scratching his head.

As if things couldn't get more reprehensible, we get a double whammy by having the Natives caricatured in blackface.

Now, Ham and Ex seek refuge behind a log, laughing and continuing their war cry. But get this—an actual grotesquely caricatured Native pops out from behind a tree! Who would’ve thunk it? Ham and Ex run away, and once more does their routine of crying for help ensue, yet this time they actually mean it. The two pups hide inside the log, the Native diving in after them. The twins make it out of the other end as the Native gets stuck, and they both beat his head and butt with clubs respectively.

The twins cry once more, and, just as the classic story goes, no one believes them. Beans runs his laundry through a wringer while Kitty proposes he go check on the kids—“Never can tell what they’re up to!”. Elsewhere, Porky peels potatoes and shrugs off the cries for helps. He talks to the audience and stutters “It’s just those kids trying to fool you again.” 

Back to Ham and Ex. Ham beats the Native on the butt, and he’s propelled out of his log and hurdles straight towards a tree. As the twins attempt to escape, they encounter more Natives, who attempt to dog pile on them. They narrowly escape, and this time run around in helpless circles near Porky, who’s still (captivating as ever) peeling potatoes, merely smiling and shrugging. They both dive into a trunk at the base for safety. Porky comments “Those kids must think we’re pretty dumb.” He laughs, but his laughter is quickly cut short once an arrow flies right through his beloved potato and splits it in two.

Now Porky attempts to make a break for it, running around aimlessly and tripping over a spare rifle in the foreground (I will admit that the shot is rather nicely staged.) Suddenly, a ton of Natives pour into their base, all doing a war cry. Porky struggles to get his warning out, but he has no trouble shouting “INDIANS!” after an arrow zings him right in the butt.

Directors had lamented about working with Joe Dougherty’s natural stutter, because they couldn’t play around with his dialogue as much. Mel Blanc’s Porky, as you know, would typically change his sentence structure in the midst of a stutter. (For example, in Porky and Egypt, Porky laments “It’s awful war-wa-w-h-ho-h—gosh, I’m roasting!”) That sentence structure was made famous by vaudevillian Roscoe Ates, who overcame a natural childhood stutter. Part of his shtick would be to substitute his own words to make them come out easier. They wanted to take that direction with Porky since the Dougherty days, but couldn’t because of his natural stutter. Tex Avery has lamented about how much film was wasted during recording sessions with Dougherty. So, to substitute, they’d play around with gags like these to get him to hurry up, whether it be whistling at him or, in this case, shooting him with an arrow. It's interesting to see them play around with his stutter as much as they could, despite their limitations.

There’s a really strange cut that contributes to the cartoon’s incoherency—Beans is chased by a Native brandishing a tomahawk while Kitty cowers. Beans is pinned beneath the crank of the wringer, and Kitty tugs at the clothes in the wringer, which causes the handle to repeatedly smack the Native in the chin. It’s very subtle, but you see Beans leap off of the wringer. A jump cut and Beans is perfectly in position near a wood stove, shooting his pistols. The transition is nonexistent, almost no indication to show that he was in peril 4 seconds earlier. 

An arrow pierces beans’ coonskin hat, a Native firing a number of arrows at him. Beans hatches an idea and opens the door to the wood stove. The arrows fly into the stove and shoot right out of the pipe back at the perpetrator like a boomerang, pinning him against a tree. Elsewhere, a Native attempts to slice a dog with his tomahawk. The dog takes off a toupee and hands it to the Native (a reference to the practice of scalping). 

Gags ensue as the fight rages on. A Native curves an arrow to shoot like a curveball, but it hits him in the but as the pioneer ducks. Beans prepares to hit a Native over the head with a club, but instead hits another BEHIND him as he anticipates to go into the swing, eventually hitting them both. Porky’s shooting his rifles, when an arrow pierced his suspenders. Porky struggles to get his pants to stay up, occasionally flashing the audience as he continually hikes them up. Another arrow shoots by and lodges in both his pants and shirt, effectively pinning the pants securely. I will give credit where credit is due, that’s a gag that actually feels somewhat funny.

Meanwhile, Ham and Ex dive into some dresser drawers, popping out at the top of the dresser and hitting a Native over the head with hair brushes. They continue to hit and mock him, like a makeshift game of whack a mole. The Native cuts the dresser in half with his tomahawk, reaching into both halves and grabbing the kids, who cry for help. Beans discovers a bear trap, and circles it like a lasso, throwing it right at the Native . It hits—where else?—right in the butt, and he retreats, the kids watching him go. Unbeknownst to them, Beans is creeping up slowly from behind. He does a war chant to give them a taste of their own medicine, and, of course, the pups are scared out of their wits. We iris out on their little eyes peering out of the trunk they used as a hideout.

To say the least, I hate this cartoon. This is my least favorite Jack King cartoon to date, and least favorite Beans cartoon. It’s a shame, I actually liked Beans and I wish he had a more ceremonious goodbye. As you can obviously see for yourself, the cartoon is downright racist, mean spirited, and ugly. Of course, practically all of the Native cartoons are racist, but this one in particular feels exceptionally mean spirited and grotesque. And aside from all that, it’s an obnoxious, repetitive cartoon. Porky peels potatoes! Beans gets mad! People shoot guns! Ham and Ex yell! As high energy as it is, there’s nothing very exciting about it. 

As for Beans, it’s been... something! I feel he has flavor than Buddy, but still fell victim to the bland, smiley protagonist. Out of all 3 beginner stars, Bosko, Buddy, and Beans, Bosko was the most fleshed out and fun to watch. I certainly took him for granted when watching his cartoons (because I couldn’t shake the notion that “This is a blackface caricature”)—he was very bouncy and a musical character, and he was almost captivating to watch. Buddy and Beans you don’t get that musicality. So, better than Buddy, not as good as Bosko. I’ll still miss him, but Porky’s time to shine is finally here, and things are going to get rolling! 

I don’t at all recommend this cartoon, but if you’re that curious I’ll put a link. Obviously view at your own discretion.