Release date: June 14th, 1933
Series: Looney Tunes
Director: Hugh Harman
Starring: Johnny Murray (Bosko, Sheep), The King's Men (Chorus, Bee), Rudy Ising (Grasshopper)
We’re entering the final 5 Bosko cartoons! Weird to think about, huh? He’s come a long way! Here, as the title suggests, Bosko herds sheep, but a wolf may brew some trouble.
Pied piper Bosko is playing away at his pipe, to the joy of the sheep bounding around him. He even grabs a sheep’s tail and pulls, causing the bell on its neck to ring.
There’s an extended shot of a sheep frolicking to the happy, flighty music of Bosko’s pipe. Good synchronization with the clopping sounds of its hooves and the pipe.
Hungry, the lamb eats a few flowers, each causing the same bee to fly into the air and run across the stem to avoid getting eaten. The bee mocks the lamb and slides across a blade of grass into a hole. Curious, the lamb peers its head into the hole, unaware that the bee has snuck up behind it. The bee grabs a burr and smacks it into the lamb’s ass, who gallops around in pain.
Cue a grasshopper, flitting from flower to flower. The lamb takes a bite out of the flower the grasshopper was in and swallows. Instantly, the insides of the lamb begin to bounce around as the grasshopper tries to find an escape. Standard gag (of course), but amusing nonetheless.
The lamb opens its mouth to grant the grasshopper an exit. The grasshopper hops onto a leaf, and takes out a block of tobacco. Guess he needed something to chill him out after his near death experience. He spits into a tulip like a spittoon and angrily hops away.
We’re reminded that Bosko is still there, playing on his pipe. He pets the inquisitive, worldly little lamb and plays some more on his pipe, leading the lamb in a march.
Only Bosko would be unintimidated by a beehive. He snags the beehive and jams some branches in it and squeezes, a swarm of bees pouring out of the branches with each squeeze, their buzzing similar to that of bagpipes. Bosko pipes along on his pipe, squeezing his makeshift bagpipes filled with bees. Very creative! Probably one of the highlights of this short.
Bruno is also in Bosko’s company, somewhat. He’s sleeping in front of a log filled with holes. Little animals pop out from the holes and jump up and down, Bruno’s snoring fashioning the wood into a flute.
Bosko puts a pause to his musical parade as he stops to heckle a squirrel, asking “Hey! What’ve you got there?” The squirrel politely sneers “NUTS!” and continues to gnaw. Bosko pulls the squirrel’s tail, opening its mouth wide open. He places the nut inside the squirrel’s mouth and pulls the tail down, cracking the nut (I wouldn’t recommend you do this, unless you want to get clawed in the face by a squirrel). The squirrel is delighted instead of angry and feasts away, Bosko giving a happy salute.
A neat visual is a group of sheep tearing a large block of grass to shreds like lawnmowers. They pause once to swallow, and continue to graze their way through. I especially like the leftover grass close to the fence, it helps the gag translate much better.
Another shot of Bosko parading around with his pipe, and then a shot of a hungry wolf who spots the lamb. It dives into a tree trunk, waiting for Bosko and his buddy to pass, then sauntering along with the tree roots as legs.
Hugh Harman must have thought Bosko awkwardly chewing on a sandwich from Bosko’s Holiday was the funniest thing, because we once more get a glimpse at Bosko’s insatiable appetite. The gag is gross yet funny, but loses its value after repeated use. Now it’s just like “This again?”, though strict budgets in the depression tend to do that, I suppose. Nevertheless, Bosko’s buddy leaps off and the wolf follows it closely.
To wash down his sandwich, Bosko prepares to chug some good old fashioned milk, but a herd of his sheep come bounding towards him instead. This is a good gag. Bosko takes off his glove and fits it around the top of the bottle and pours it upside down, each lamb getting a finger to suckle on.
Elsewhere, Bosko’s buddy eats another flower (this time salting it beforehand) while the wolf sneaks around in the background. Good change in music, from the happy go lucky nature of the sheep to the suspicious oboe/bassoon of the wolf.
The wolf spots a sheep pelt hanging on a cabin and takes it down, putting it on himself. A wolf in sheep’s clothing! The sheep and the wolf play call and response, the wolf imitating a sheep’s bay. The clueless little sheep hops up to his new friend, but quickly regrets that decision once the wolf tears off his sheepskin and growls at it, scooping it up and running away.
Bosko overhears his pal’s cries for help and summons Bruno to come to his aid. They dart to the cave where the wolf has taken the sheep hostage, and there’s a flurry of stars and lights and flashing as the brawl occurs offscreen (much like Bosko’s Fox Hunt).
Bosko carries the sheep out to safety, but Bruno and the wolf are nowhere to be found. Bosko frowns as the wolf saunters out from the cage, Bruno absent. He mourns the death of his faithful companion, when suddenly Bruno pulls back the wolf’s head on top of him. A dog in wolf’s clothing. Everything is resolved, iris out as Bruno and the sheep lick Bosko’s face affectionately.
This is one of those cartoons where it feels like it should’ve been an earlier entry, like early 1932 or late 1931. It wasn’t terrible, but certainly wasn’t as good as Bosko in Person or Bosko the Speed King, or even Bosko’s Knight-Mare. It felt like a budget had been gone over at some point, as the number of recycled bits of animation increased slightly in this one. The music was inventive and fun like always—I enjoyed listening to Bosko’s solo on his pipe. The bagpipe gag was very creative and amusing. Bosko’s personality fell flat, however. Even Bruno has more personality than him here. It was decent but rather slow, I don’t think it’d hurt to skip this one but it wouldn’t hurt to give it a whirl, either.
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