62. The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon (1933)

Release date: August 5th, 1933

Series: Merrie Melodies

Director: Rudolf Ising

Starring: The Rhythmettes (Chorus)

The second to last Merrie Melody in the Harman-Ising era! The next Merrie Melody (after 2 Bosko shorts), We’re in the Money, would be the last cartoon produced under Harman and Ising at Warner Bros. The antics of sentient silverware is highlighted, and a dough monster threatens to ruin their fun.

A lovely shot of a bakery on rainy night. The camera peers into the window, identifying the lovely harmonized voices singing “The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon” as various pieces of kitchenware. I love how the cartoon eases in, it starts immediately with the song before showing the voices. A tea kettle whistles to the tune of the song, as do various pots and pans boiling over and letting out steam. Catchy and amusing to watch as always.

Some of the dishes are getting cleaned, swimming in a kitchen sink like a pool and using a spatula as a diving board. There are some amusing spot gags of the routine a piece of kitchenware takes to get clean. A fork lathers itself up in soap and uses a spray bottle as a shower, whereas a spoon grinds a meat grinder filled with water to spray a plate clear of suds. Elsewhere, plates dive into a toaster, the heat evaporating any water and the plates neatly stacking themselves into a pile. There’s also a shot of a spatula using a panini press to dry a handful of other plates. Standard and expected as they are, I always love gags like these.

Can’t go wrong with Beethoven playing silverware like a glockenspiel/piano cross, right? He segues us into another musical sequence, sung beautifully by various shakers. I can’t get enough of the lush harmonies in the '30s cartoons.

As the shakers sing more of “The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon”, we have more of an array of gags, such as a fork and spoon playing jump rope with a mini salt shaker via macaroni noodle.

Here come our titular dish and spoon, the spoon flirting with the dish and singing “I’d like to make a proposition, dear!” the dish recoils, and quickly the spoon swoops in with “But not the kind that’s your suspicion, dear!” they march away hand in hand as the dish sings her own verses. The first time I heard the dish, she really sounded like Mae Questel to me. Curse you internet for a lack of vocal credits! 

The dish sings about the possibility of having a baby, answered by the sounds of a baby spoon crying. The regular spoon assures her they’ll discuss it later, and uses the opportunity to launch into a musical sequence by drumming on some pots and pans.

Just look at that background! The backgrounds are stellar in this one. Teacups kickline to the music, eventually joined by a teapot. Together they all form a train and gingerly chug along—the world’s most graceful train.

Just as I had thought “Wow, this is a good cartoon, no stereotypes or anything for a change!” I was proved wrong. A brush with feathers that resemble a war bonnet does a war chant as the spoon drums out a percussive Native American beat. There’s also a bottle of blueing in what looks to be blackface singing “Am I blue?”, a song sung by Al Jolson, which further proves my hypothesis. Nevertheless, the am I blue gag is very amusing, but, as always, could be done without the blackface. I’ll be very relieved when this isn’t a common occurrence.

An egg starts a dance routine and falls, cracking open to reveal a baby chick who sings “Young and Healthy”. That’s been such an earworm for me lately. Curse you, Rudy Ising! All of the other dishes find it just as catchy, including an anthropomorphized ball of dough. I love his movements, the animation is very melty and stringy but in a way that’s solid and intentional. Bob McKimson animation, maybe? 

The ball of dough pours some yeast into a glass of water and drinks it. À la Jekyll and Hyde, he turns into a hideous monster with a ravenous appetite for destruction. He approaches the dish, who’s dancing along to “Young and Healthy”.

Some great gags as the various cutlery work against the dough ball. There’s some very loose animation of the monster getting hit with various cans (above). Emphasis on loose—the animation suddenly lacks its confidence and solidify that it had before. You can still do loose and have it controlled, but here it feels discombobulated and melty in the wrong sense.

Back to the gags, cheese graters slice the doughy monster’s crotch (ouch), whereas popcorn is being utilized as bullets. A few spoons flatten the dough with the rolling pin, who staggers along, desperately trying to come out on top.

In a daze, the dough walks straight into a fan. The fan slices him up and tosses various parts of his doughy body around, all of the pieces landing conveniently in muffin tins, pie tins, waffle irons, you name in. The spoon presses down on the dough filled waffle iron, and iris out as his cutlery comrades celebrate.

Very fun and inventive! The gags were extremely creative and fun to watch. The music was a delight to listen to as always, and the backgrounds were crisp and beautiful. Animation was very good for the most part, falling flat at part of the dough climax scene, but it isn’t too much of a distraction. Only downfall would be that and the stereotypical gags of the Native American duster and the blueing in blackface. Thankfully they’re quick enough and don’t detriment the whole short, but it’s enough to make you wince. Give it a watch! It’s a very fun and upbeat cartoon.

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