Release date: September 25th, 1937
Series: Merrie Melodies
Director: Tex Avery
Starring: Robert Winkler (Peter Parrot), Elvia Allman (Mother), Tommy Bond (Patrick Parrot), Berneice Hansell (Patricia Parrot), Billy Bletcher (Father)
Though Porky was established as a star by this point, his stardom was a lonely one indeed. Gabby Goat had come and gone as a failed experiment, Petunia only had a handful of shorts left, and daffy wouldn’t be established as a sidekick until a year or two later. Aside from the pig himself, Warner Bros. didn’t have a vast repertoire of characters to boast. But that didn’t stop them anyway.
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| A Peter Parrot wall hanger. |
This marks the debut of Peter Parrot who, despite only starring in this short, found his way onto ice cream packaging, publicity sheets, and even wall hangers.
So, what’s all the hubbub with this little parrot? The short, an unofficial sequel to I Love to Singa, chronicles Peter‘s wishes to follow in his footsteps and become a sailor, despite his mother’s pleas against him. Peter sets off for shore anyhow, but quickly realizes that it isn’t a captain‘s life for him.
The short begins with mama parrot (voiced by the great Elvia Allman) teaching her children how to talk. Specifically, how to cite the ever-appropriate “Polly want a cracker.” Berneice Hansell voices the first two siblings, Patrick and Patricia, who both fumble over the sentence in cute, giggly, slow voices.
Avery loved to put Hansell’s squeaky voice to use, specifically to test our patience to see how annoying and how long he could drag it out. Both children manage to spit out the magic words, much to the approval of mama. The underscore of “We’re Working Our Way Through College” is a nice touch–one of my favorites!
In the Avery-verse, it’s common knowledge that the third attempt at a gag results in a mix-up, and here is no exception. Mama drills our star, Peter, (named Patrick on his various mediums of advertisement) but to no avail. Instead, he resists, Robert Winkler (who was one of the voices for Scrappy over at the Columbia studio) providing his vocals as he grovels “I don’t wanna cracker, see? I wanna be a sailor like me pop, see?”
Pan over to reveal a framed portrait of dear old dad, clad in a sailor suit, bulging Popeye arms and all.
Mama does not agree, and is quick to launch into a rant. “Huh. Like your pop! Why, that sea-bearin’ homewrecker, that high-seas hitchhiker… a fine father he’s been, the sea-goin’ sob!”
Her rant segues into a flashback sequence, animated by the great Irv Spence. The layout and background of the newlyweds’ new abode in the canary islands is very pretty indeed, great contrast with the blues and the yellows of the moon/light from inside. Elvia Allman’s deliveries are great as always–she doesn’t get nearly the same amount of buzz as the other female stars of Warner Bros., but I’ve come to appreciate her vocals immensely.
The fond trip down memory lane includes warm memories of the new mother feeding her infants, the atmosphere warm… and then we pan over to the father, Allman’s narration now acidic and vitriolic as she hurls insults in conjunction with the animation–the “rum-soaked old seagull” is surrounded by a wall of empty bottles, pouring himself a hearty dosage of shots.
Irv Spence’s animation of the father’s lumbering, drunken exit out of the house is great–I especially love the extra details such as the swirls and stars.
Just as Allman mentions the father’s venture to Hawaii (on account that he could never stay in one place), we get a moment of Avery genius as Pa shoves his face back in the door to interrupt the narration (voiced by Billy Bletcher): “No, Ma, it was Catalina!” Allman’s bite that was so harsh earlier is completely absent as she corrects herself. “Oh… oh, yes. Set sail for Catalina.”
Another great Avery gag that would be reused in the smash hit Red Hot Riding Hood: Ma fondly remembers how she would “burn a little light in the window.” Cue a giant spotlight beaming out the window, sweeping the entire island.
Mama tearfully ends her lecture, asking her son “Now you don’t wanna be a sailor, do you?” Wonderful comedic timing as a tearful, mournful Peter wipes his eyes. After a few seconds of sniveling, he responds with a warbled “…Yeeeees!”
“WHAAAAT!?” So taken aback by her son’s reaction, mama faints, literally hanging by her toes from the bird cage as she dangles unconscious. Thus provides the perfect escape for Peter, who opts to take matters into his own hands. Cue the similarities to I Love to Singa: estranged bird children leave their over-protective parents in order to pursue their dreams.
There’s a wonderfully smooth transition between multi-plane pans here: close-up to Peter haughtily stalking off, footsteps tinkering to the beat. The surroundings of his household melt away to reveal a pan of the outside, the momentum never halting, no breaks in the walk-cycle, just perfectly timed. VERY impressive! I’m always a fan of the multi-plane pans to begin with, but this in particular is very well executed.
In the midst of Peter‘s angsty stewing, he bumps right into a spare barrel. Suddenly, an idea hatches, and he lifts the barrel (cartoon physics!) as we fade out.
Fade back in to another multi-plane pan, this time of a pond. I love the lush, painterly look of the backgrounds in the late ‘30′s and early ‘40′s. Peter has successfully crafted a makeshift ship out of his barrel, the perfect size for such a pint-sized parrot. Cue the introduction of the archetypal annoying blabbermouth–Warner Bros. loved their blabbermouth characters.
Dizzy Duck, a blabbermouth facsimile to a certain Disney-owned duck, would be Porky’s sidekick for a whopping two cartoons. Friz Freleng would play around with the trope in his Little Blabbermouse, and even Chuck Jones would refine his sweet, mellow character Sniffles into a bonafide chatterbox.
Here, it’s a little yellow duck (who looks awfully similar to Daffy’s next appearance in Daffy Duck & Egghead), barraging peter with a number of questions. Peter is quick to shut the duck up, closing his beak as he snarls “Well, see, I’m buildin’ a boat, see!” His explanation, reused from Egghead Rides Again, is “because, because, because… today, I am a man!”, a take of the same line used in bar mitzvahs.
Little duck is eager to tag along. Peter agrees, but not before clamping a spare clothespin down on the duckling’s beak to shut him up.
Cue the song sequence, which is more talk-song-y than anything. Irv Spence provides some nice animation as the two climb onto deck, Peter shoving a mop into the curious duckling’s grip (”All aboard! C’mon, by heck! Your job will be to scrub the deck!”). While the song continues, Peter peels a skull and crossbones off of a spare poison bottle (how safe!), using it as a flag. The up shot of the flag being raised is nice and dynamic, even if the timing is a little bloated.
The ship has set sail. After glowing at his makeshift sail (a pair of long underwear), Peter directly addresses the audience, a nice reminder that Tex Avery is directing the short. “This picture’s kinda like Mutiny on the County, [actually titled Mutiny on the Bounty] dont’cha think?” He pauses for a few beats before turning back to the audience, now with a glower: “or dont’cha?”
To assert his dominance and strong masculinity, Peter pulls out a stick of licorice from his pocket, tearing off a bite as a makeshift glob of tobacco. The animation of him chewing (and thusly spitting) the tobacco has a nice sense of weight to it–the push and pull is strong. He hocks it up over the side of the ship, and, like all spitting gags, the piece of “tobacco” traverses through the bottom of the water and lands perfectly in a submerged spittoon.
Self-satisfied, Peter now opts to scale the crow’s nest, using his beak and feet to guide him along the way (woodblocks doing a nice job of synchronizing animation and music). Suddenly, he does a take to something offscreen. A storm’s a-brewin’, as indicated by the lightning that literally spells out “BAM!” as it streaks past. Experimenting with typography is always refreshing to see in the shorts, especially when the words themselves form works of art.
Just as quick as he was to leave the family, Peter drops his tough-guy demeanor, panicking and running around his ducky first-mate, who’s still dutifully swabbing the poop deck. Peter snaps the clothespin off of the duck’s mouth, ordering him to do something.
Cue rambling duck: “What for? I like the rain. I like the water.” As he rambles on, borderline incomprehensibly, Avery strikes again to remind us of what he’s capable as the duck interjects to the audience (in an adult voice), “Ain’t I the talkingest little guy?” Even better is that he wastes no time launching back into his hyperactive rant about swimming in the water and splashing around.
To make matters worse, the button flap of the long underwear sail unbuttons, rendering the sail useless. The combination of the rain, music (William Tell’s “The Storm”, of course), and sound effects all blend together nicely.
The “ocean” currents, now forming ferocious waves, look hilariously cartoonish and not at all believable, but what’s the fun if the waves were drawn with precise accuracy?
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| Ice cream packaging featuring Peter. |
Peter wrestles with the ship’s wheel, which is out of control. His efforts are futile—he ends up twirling around the wheel. Elsewhere, we get another gag that would be reused time and time again: a bucket of paint spilling and pouring back into itself due to the rocking of the ship. The timing holds on just longer than it needs to for it to warrant any laughs, though i’m sure it was much more amusing to an audience in 1937 than now, especially if you’ve seen the gag over and over again like I have.
Speaking of reused gags: the blabbermouth duck is just reveling in the rain, not at all bothered by the catastrophic events unfolding. This gag is taken from one of Tex’s last cartoons from his previous job, making the Walter Lantz Oswald cartoons at universal. More specifically, his 1933 picture Five and Dime. Nevertheless, back to Warner Bros., the little motif of “September in the Rain” adds another layer to aid in appreciating the gag.
In an attempt to haul an anchor, Peter’s plan fails: instead, half of the ship is yanked off with the anchor, sending the ship down. The little duck is beside himself, willfully diving into the current to soak up those sweet white caps. Peter does not share his ecstasy, nor his courage. Instead, he cries for help, crying for his mother… which, miraculously, she hears. Seems he wasn’t that far off from shore after all! The extra touch of Peter lowering his voice to bellow “Calling all cars, calling all cars!” (also used in I Love to Singa) is a great little humoristic touch.
Despite her previous harshness, a mother’s love prevails, and mama parrot takes off after her son. Cue another great joke, one that’d probably be even more uproarious during a time when the song was popular:
Mama dashes through the rain, reassuring her son “I’M COMIN’! I’M COMIN’!” and, in an instant, she drops her panic to sing a few lines of ”Old Black Joe” to the audience. Wonderful timing–Tex’s fourth wall breaks in this one are definitely satisfying.
Peter continues to cry for help, even in the tune of “Shave and a Haircut” at one point, much to the disgust and contempt of the duck, who goes as far as to give him a black eye. Clearly, he doesn’t think highly of his captain.
And, with that, the duck easily tosses Peter ashore, snarling “Ya big sissy!” before frolicking in the rain once more. While some of the ship scenes dragged in momentum, Tex does create a strong suspension of disbelief: remember, they were in a pond, not a treacherous ocean!
Mama reunites with her baby boy, swaddling him and cooing all the way. “Now… you don’t want to be a sailor, do you?”
If you believe we’re about to learn some sort of moral, remember what you’re watching here. Peter sniffles, wiping his eyes, giving a few sobs before answering in a direct parallel to the beginning, “…yeeeeees!”
It’s two iris out gags in a row for Tex. Like the beginning, mama shrieks another “WHAAAAAT!?” and passes out from the shock, iris closing in on her. Just then, the iris widens back up as mama pulls herself up to face the audience. She heaves a sigh, her tone surprisingly gentle as she asks “Now what would you do with a child like that?” Iris out for good.
Thus puts an end to Tex’s 1937 dry spell. Tex was no stranger to the vices of burnout (been there!), and I suspect he may have suffered a bit of burnout throughout mid-1937, or, at the very least, have been at a crossroads in terms of where to go and who to please.
He had some great momentum going—Porky’s Duck Hunt would, of course, become monumental in animation significance, birthing Daffy and a whole genre of characters with it (and you could argue it’s why we have Bugs, too). And, despite the egregious nature of the short, viewing the technicalities, Uncle Tom’s Bungalow was rife with energy and wit as well.
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| Publicity sheet. |
But, for awhile after, Tex floundered: shorts like A Sunbonnet Blue completely lack the Avery wit and charm. Egghead Rides Again was enjoyable, Porky’s Garden fine, but none carried the momentum that these shorts once had. Thankfully, this dry spell comes to an end after this short.
So, moving on: this is a short I’m neutral on. It still lacks the fervor and conviction of previous Tex entries, but it isn’t dismal. It has some bits of greatness that could constitute a watch: Elvia Allman does a wonderful job as the mother—the “burning a light in the window” gag with the giant spotlight was great, as were the various fourth wall breaks. Those in itself constitute a watch, but other than that, this short remains largely unremarkable, at least to me. Some of the scenes drag in pacing, but that’s an easy verdict to make when you constantly compare to the speed of forthcoming Avery cartoons (especially at MGM), where you miss an entire gag if you blink.
Ultimately, I think you could go either way. Watch it if you’re more devoted to animation like I am, or at least snoop around for some of the high points. However, you won’t be missing too much if you skip it for now. Thankfully, better cartoons are ahead!
Link! (pardon the title card, it’s a fake, but the print is good enough quality.)
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