85. The Miller's Daughter (1934)

Release date: October 13th, 1934

Series: Merrie Melodies

Director: Friz Freleng

Starring: Bernard Brown (Boy)

Chuck Jones’ first animation credit! He’d be an animator for awhile, working under Bob Clampett’s unit until he got his own unit in 1938. Some say his notorious disdain for Clampett comes from the fact that Clampett was promoted director before he was, and an infamous, bitter rivalry came about, Chuck lambasting Bob for taking credit for work that wasn’t his—which is a rightful concern. Nevertheless, it’s a battle of the egos, and we’ll learn more about it later. For now, ceramic toys come to life—shocker!—and antics ensue.

Our cartoon opens with the stars of the short: a ceramic sheep herder, his sweetheart, and his sheep. Pan out to a view of the living room, a bird in its bird cage happily chirping along, a cat (Sylvester?) creeping along and leaping at the cage. Instead, it unsuccessfully lands on the table, knocking the ceramic girl to the ground and shattering her.

The owner of the house, a woman in typical housewife garb, scoops up the fragments of the girl and carries her to the attic, dumping her contents into a box.

After the ceramic sheepherder mourns his loss, he decides action must be taken. He slides down a lamp, fetching a pillow so his wooly companion can come to his aid. The sheep jumps down safely, and after the woman makes an exit, the two scale the stairs to the attic.

An exchange of “Yoo-hoo!”s reunites the couple in the attic, the girl pointing to her shattered body and lamenting “look, am I busted up!” nevertheless, the sheepherder reassures he “That’s alright, I’ll fix it!” and slathers a helping of glue on her. Elsewhere, the little ceramic sheep spots a photo of another sheep, baying excitedly and leaping right into the picture... Or through it, as it rips.

Our girl is good as new as she bends her joints and tests her stability. However, suspicions are raised as there’s one final piece left, seemingly no place to put it. I knew where this was going but loved it regardless—the sheepherder shyly returns the shard to the girl, who attaches it to her butt as the boy diverts his gaze. How scandalous! The awkward embarrassment of the sheepherder makes the scene entirely. They skip around in circles and hold dance in celebration.

A music sequence must be coming! It’s inevitable! A spider tickles the ivory on a piano. Meanwhile, the three monkeys sing “The Miller’s Daughter”, turning out to be The Three Stooges. The Three Stooges would also assume the roles of the three monkeys in Porky’s Hero Agency, I wonder how many more there are of the same vain? Larry messes up a note, and slapstick ensues.

Some nice rotoscoped animation of girls on a lampshade dancing to the music, their skeletons exposed as the lampshade is turned on by a mini ceramic figure of the thinker. Quite an atmosphere change as two kettles play “Cuban Cabaret”, the girl and the boy dancing together. Nothing extraordinary, but cute and amusing nonetheless. The sheepherder also conducts a clock-based orchestral arrangement of “The Blue Danube”, complete with a cuckoo clock. My, how we’re changing tones so quickly! Atmosphere transforms once more as two silhouettes dance with each other in a picture frame. More beautiful rotoscoping! The scene drags on for awhile, but the animation is very nice to watch. The rotoscoping certainly reminds me of Disney cartoons.

The performance ceases, and the ceramic couple applaud. The little sheep from before makes an appearance, too—investigating a ceramic lion. Climax time! The lion chases after the sheep, who dives into an ash filled pipe, bringing literal connotations to the term black sheep.

Cornered, the sheep cowers as the lion prepares to go in for the kill. Not if the sheepherder has any say in the matter! He fires an arrow from a cupid statue and pings the lion right in the butt, who chases after THEM.

With quick thinking, the sheepherder hides behind a door, slamming it in the face of the ceramic beast, who crumbles away into mere shards of pottery.

Back to relative safety, the lamb, girl, and sheepherder slide down the banister of the staircase, landing right back into their table. Unfortunately, they kick the lamp over in the process, which ripples to the floor. In some unfortunate timing for the cat (yet comedic timing for us), the cat strolls along the scene, the housewife also spotting the damage. She grabs her broom and chases after the innocent cat. You’d think she’d notice her lamb figure is now BLACK, but I guess not! Iris out as the chase continues outside.

This has been the most interesting Merrie Melody we’ve seen in the past few entries! It’s still rather average, but it’s endearing, more so Disney-esque than anything. The characters are cute, the animation is beautiful, the music benefits the atmosphere... Some scenes dragged on quite a bit, and the climax didn’t feel too urgent, but so be it. A different take on the “come to life” genre for sure—for now, anyway. Again, you can go either way on this cartoon: watch it or skip it. Personally, it wasn’t the most engaging, so I might lean on the skip side, but it doesn’t at all make for a bad watch.

Link!