74. Buddy and Towser (1934)

Release date: February 24th, 1934

Series: Looney Tunes

Director: Friz Freleng

Starring: Bernard Brown (Buddy)

Buddy’s dog Happy from Buddy’s Day Out has grown 5 sizes bigger and is now a St. Bernard who goes by the name Towser. Buddy asks his loyal watchdog to keep an eye on his prize chickens, but a fox brews up some trouble.

Open to Buddy admiring portraits of his robust hens on the wall, adorned each with a shiny ribbon. He summons his faithful pal over, asking him to keep watch on the chicken coop while he sleeps. Towser doesn’t seem fazed by the prospect of freezing outside in the snow, happily bounding outside.

Buddy bounces in his warm bed and prepared to turn in for the night, but not before putting out his candle via showerhead. I love it! 

Elsewhere, we get a shot of the chicken coop. A chicken puts a milk bottle out at night for the poultry milkman to come and replace it. Another goodie! There would be a fair share of milkman gags later on in future cartoons.

All of the chickens are asleep, save for a little chick who’s peeping frantically at its mother. The mother drags another one of her chickens out from beneath her, an older sibling, and asks it to take its sibling. An obvious hint at the bathroom—the Hays Code was seriously enforced in 1934, so probably getting those last little laughs in! I love the older sibling who’s clearly embarrassed as it drags its sibling to a mouse hole, stomping its foot and crossing its arm, hunched over and looking around with a scowl. The scene’s even more amusing once the chick comes skipping out of the mouse hole, good as new.

A fox that doesn’t look like Mickey Mouse’s 1st cousin! Weird! The fox sneaks around in the garden, spotting the coop. A few good sniffs cues it in that it possesses chickens, and with some ravenous digs later, the fox is inside. It chases a chicken, that kicks the fox repeatedly in the face. Elsewhere, more chickens load eggs onto a handsaw, using it as a slingshot.

Taking the hint, the fox flees the coop, narrowly avoiding a dozen eggs to the face. The sound of the fox begrudgingly locking the coop causes Towser to take notice from his doghouse and chase him. Unfortunately for Towser, he’s tied to the doghouse, greatly restricting his mobility as the doghouse drags around him.

Towser chases the fox around the coop—good job on the varying amount of spacing on the animation. With each loop, the chase goes from Towser chasing the fox to the fox chasing Towser. Finally, the fox hitches a ride on the doghouse, his face filled with smug accomplishment. Quite the Looney Tunes-esque timing and gag! 

Buddy overhears the commotion and steps outside to see what’s the matter. He shouts “Hold him, Towser!” The door slams shut behind him, sending a plume of snow down on buddy. Buddy nearly gets locked out, but barges in successfully. He snags his hunting cap and gun, prepared for the hunt. Charging with his rifle (which is held sideways), he spins around as the rifle blocks his door, giving it a go once more. Towser runs into a similar conundrum: the fox runs away through a fence, and Towser can’t get through because of the doghouse he’s lugging behind him.

A simple swipe of a knife solves Towser’s dilemma. He and Buddy look for the fox, Towser sniffing the ground as well as Buddy's gun. A staple. Towser spots a mound of snow and digs, hoping for a certain furry animal.

It IS a furry animal, but the wrong kind: a bear. Each time Buddy shoots, another bear appears. Three bears barrel after Buddy and Towser, who frantically lead them into a cave. They sneak out discreetly, and in some cartoony goodness buddy zips the cave entrance shut.

The fox is not one to be forgotten about! It slings icicles at Buddy and Towser, pinging both of them in the butt. Buddy shoots at the fox, flopping and bouncing around aimlessly, a gag used in many a Bosko cartoon. Finally, the fox seeks refuge in a tree, cornered by the hunters.

Buddy shoots into the tree, and the blast snakes through a tree limb like water through a hose, coming out the other end to blast Towser in the butt. While Towser drags his butt in the snow in agony, a pan up of the tree reveals that it’s just an upstanding hollow log, the fox blowing a raspberry from above. Good reveal! 

Towser eventually joins buddy in charging after the frenzied fox up a steep incline. The fox runs right into a tree, falling back and rolling into a giant snowball. The chase reverses as Buddy and Towser try desperately not to get flattened. The snowball bounces back and forth from opposite ends, sometimes chasing them, sometimes being chased. Nevertheless, the laws of gravity prevail as Buddy and Towser get flattened into the snowball.

This is really good. The snowball cuts through a fence, diving into three separate pieces, each occupied. The nonstop chase sequence comes to a close as all three of them crash into the side of a house in a daze. The fox in the middle, Buddy and Towser each grab a plank of wood, ready to strike. Of course, the fox darts away just in time, and we iris out as Buddy and Towser smack each other and sink in a fugue.

A very mediocre cartoon. Nothing truly stands out: there were some funny gags, such as the shower head used to put out a candle and the three way snowball... the chick using the bathroom was also a plus, but nothing truly stood out to me as revolutionary. This is better than the first three Buddy cartoons for sure. I like Friz’s Buddy, he’s drawn more tolerably and the animation has a different quality to it than the rubbery qualities of, say, Earl Duvall’s buddy. As uncomfortable as Buddy the Gob was to watch with all of its stereotypes, it’s probably the most well crafted in terms of pacing and excitement. This one isn’t particularly exciting, but it isn’t bad, either. The pace here is pretty lively, and some conflict always spruces a story up, thus making it more interesting than the singing and dancing cartoons. The music greatly enhanced the mood of the cartoon, and the fox had (as per usual) more personality than Buddy or Towser. Overall, it’s safe to skip, but it wouldn’t be a horrible watch. One of those one and done kind of deals.

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