Title: Buddy's Theatre
Studio: Warner Bros.
Date: 02/16/35 (on Dave Mackey's site; 4/1/35 in Beck and Friedwald's Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies and OMAM)
Credits:
Supervision
Ben Hardaway
Musical Score
Norman Spencer
Animation
Don Williams Sandy Walker
Series: Merrie Melodies in end credits, Looney Tunes in obvious tacked on opening; LTMM lists it as a LT, which makes sense with all the other Buddy listings.
Running time (of viewed version): 07:05
Commercial DVD Availability: -
Synopsis: Buddy runs a theatre, and likes screen star Cookie.
Comments: Beginning of the cartoon has a 1933 copyright date; however, as that is significantly nicer looking than the title, I suspect it is just stitched onto the rest of the print. While the title is Buddy's Theatre, the sign is actually Buddy's Theater. Price at Buddy's: 25¢ adults, 15¢ kids, at a nighttime show. There are some images on a wall; I'm not sure if they should be identifiable, there's a man in a bowler with a mustache; it looks most like Lord Julius (Groucho) to me, but could be Chaplin. One looks abstract. The other could be specific or generic. Maybe they weren't sure if they could caricature yet (probably not, as at least as far back as Felix cartoons had been caricaturing). But as it's a wall in a theater, it seems somewhat probable that they are meant to be stars. Maybe the abstract one references a specific movie poster. Also, a big eared portrait; normally that would say Gable to me. These images aren't very caricature-y. Early Mussolini caricature; I don't think there were any in 1939. Lots in '43 of course. I think maybe they were afraid to do political caricature in '39. For some reason bone in the hair primitives love dollar days in England, in some reference I do not understand. And something about sinking Swiss ships. Cookie has Sniffles's voice. Self referential as it's about a theater, and it toys with the reality of the projected image. Very similar to Scrappy's Added Attraction, but they actually show the very short feature here. Pathe News reel parody: "Passe News - It Shrieks for Itself". I wonder if theater shorts were popular because theater owners identified with and therefore liked them. The Chinchilla is a play on The Gorilla, tho as it's a gorilla in the movie, it's not much of a parody...
See also
http://likelylooneymostlymerrie.blogspot.com/2012/02/100-buddys-theatre-1935.html
[Reposted from my comments at Steve Hartley's blog:]
ReplyDeleteLook frame-by-frame at the animation of the closing scene. When Buddy tears into the screen and it falls to the ground, two human-shaped lumps are visible wiggling around underneath: we can presume one is Buddy and the other Cookie.
But in the context of the story, Cookie was just a 2-D character on the movie screen. So how can she be under the screen as a three-dimensional figure?
The animators seem to have realized a little late: she can't! So after a second of squirming, the Cookie-figure under the fallen screen simply "melts" down to nothing, and only Buddy emerges into view. Way to hide a logic flaw, WB.