Release Date:

December 31, 1949

Main Character(s):

Goofy Gophers

Summary:

A Shakespearean dog is fed up with being in cartoons and resigns from Warner Bros. He goes home to practice becoming a Shakespearean actor and upon finding the Goofy Gophers sleeping in one of his books, he throws it out. The Gophers enact their revenge by heckling him with exactly what he says in certain plays.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1106 and was released as a Looney Tune.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue. When it was restored for the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 6 DVD set in 2008, the original opening and closing rings were put back in.

The cartoon was originally going to be directed by Arthur Davis, but the shutting down of his unit happened before production on this cartoon began. As a result, it is the only McKimson cartoon of the 1940’s to be written by Sid Marcus. Marcus would leave the studio after this one, but would return to write a few cartoons for McKimson in the mid-1950’s and even later during the DePatie-Freleng era.

This is the first McKimson cartoon to have animation from Bill Melendez and Emery Hawkins.

This is the first of three Goofy Gophers cartoons to be directed by McKimson. The other two were “Gopher Broke” (1958) and “Tease for Two” (1965).

The cartoon was originally titled “A Hammy Hamlet”.

You can find out who animated what scene here.

The cartoon is in the 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons book.

Another Warner Bros. cartoon heavily centered around Shakespeare plays would be released ten years later with “A Witch’s Tangled Hare”, directed by future Jones animator Abe Levitow.

This is the final Warner cartoon released in the 1940’s (I always end up marveling at how far I’ve gotten when I reach certain milestones).

This is the last cartoon to use the 1949 orange rings with the blue background.

This is one of three Warner cartoons to have been released on New Year’s Eve, with the other two being “The Mice Will Play” (1938) and the masterpiece, “One Froggy Evening” (1955).

The clapboard seen in the penultimate shot of the cartoon has its production number as 1106, referring to this cartoon.

What I Like About This One:

The cartoon begins at the end of a cartoon being filmed where the dog is pied in the face and does the “running finger across lips” bit (animated by Charles McKimson). The already written out “That’s all folks!” end card appears as “Merrily We Roll Along” plays before the dog pops out from under its backdrop fed up: “Cartoons! Fah! Degrading occupation! Stooge for a cat and mouse!” He then slaps the side of his head so that six pies end up coming out of his left ear. “Pies! Such nonsense! Fah! (animated by Bill Melendez) I’m through playing the part of a clown! No longer shall I degrade myself in hammy slapstick!”, he continues, unaware that a stage member is pulling a backdrop of a dancing ballerina in step-by-step poses that one would put their head over beneath him, making it looking like he has the body of a ballerina. “It is my destiny to become a great Shakespearean actor! And so (puts hat on), farewell to low comedy” (animated by Pete Burness).

He doesn’t watch his step, however, and falls into a barrel of water (animated by Burness). Gargling everything he says while submerged, the dog attempts to write his resignation but his pen presumably runs out of ink. Trying to get it to work results in him clouding the water with the pen’s ink (animated by Charles).

After the dog drives home to his house in the country (animated by Phil DeLara), he recites while walking into his yard, “In the peaceful quiet of my country house, I shall study the works of the immortal Bard”, but falls through one of many gopher holes that have suddenly appeared in his yard. “I shall not allow gophers to impede my progress!”, he decides (animated by Emery Hawkins).

Walking into his house, he dresses into a Shakespearean outfit and starts reciting the “To be or not to be” scene from “Hamlet”, only to discover the Gophers have torn out some of the pages in this book as places for them to sleep in both ends of the book. He throws the book out the window, where it hits a tree, waking the Gophers up (animated by Hawkins). The first gopher asks, “Temper, hasn't he?” “Vile. Simply vile”, the second gopher answers. “May I suggest something?”, the first gopher asks. The second gopher approves as the first gopher whispers it to him. Deciding to proceed with this plan, they walk arm in arm to climb up to the house (animated by Melendez).

The Gophers drop to the floor via the curtain shade (animated by Melendez) as the dog is reciting “Friends, Romans, Countrymen. Lend me your ears” from “Julius Caesar”. In response, they pull up the curtain shade loudly. When he recites “When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames” from “Hamlet”, they give him a hotfoot, causing him to scream loudly in pain while holding his foot (animated by Burness).

The dog is next reciting “Romeo and Juliet” as the gophers cut a hole in the ceiling and pour a whole bathtub full of water atop him (by means of jacking the tub up to pour the water out) when he says, “Shall I bear more or shall I drink the joy of life?” With clothespins on their noses, the gophers drop limburger cheese on the dog (animated by DeLara) while he’s holding a rose and reciting, “That which we call a rose by any other name-” before the disgusting limburger plops on him, “-would smell as sweet” as the rose wilts (animated by Charles), much to the Gophers’ amusement (animated by Melendez).

Reciting from “Hamlet” again, the dog is holding a skull and saying, “Alas. Poor Yorick. I knew him well” (animated by Burness). One of the gophers paints the other’s body (except for his head) with “luminous paint” before this gopher puts on tannish-brown clothing and a lookalike skull atop his head (animated by DeLara). The other gopher shuts off the lights after the dog recites, “Alas, poor ghost. Speak, I am bound to hear” (animated by Burness) and to the tune of “Goblins in the Steeple” (a title that would have been right up Raymond Scott’s alley), the disguised gopher does a skeleton dance and does a skeleton-like striptease of taking his clothes off revealing the rest of his “skeleton body” (animated by Melendez). The lights turn back on to reveal it frightened the dog so much, he’s cowering on the chandelier as he recites, “Cowards die many times before their deaths. The-the-the valiant never tasted their death but once” before the chandelier can’t hold his weight and falls to the ground with him (animated by Charles).

The first gopher is up in the attic with a magnet on the floor talking to the second gopher (animated by Melendez). The dog comes out dressed as a knight as he recites from “Richard III”, “Advance our standards. Set upon our foes. Out, ancient sword of courage, fair Saint George, inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons-” as he is pulled up to the ceiling by the magnet from the attic (animated by Charles, with DeLara animating the shot of him smashed against the ceiling) The second gopher,who’s in the basement with a magnet of his own and uses it on the basement ceiling after listening to the first gopher on the phone, “I suggest you try” (animated by Melendez) The dog gets attracted by the magnet from the basement, getting stuck to the floor, before he gets stuck on the ceiling by the magnet from the attic (animated by DeLara). With the gophers running their respective magnets across the attic and the basement respectively (all shots of these being animated by Burness), the dog is dragged across the ceiling and bounced all over the house (all shots of these being animated by DeLara) before he eventually ends up bouncing into the icebox, which gets pulled up to the ceiling as well (animated by Charles).

After falling from the icebox while encased in a block of ice, the dog gets out of the ice once it falls to the ground. He continues reciting from “Richard III”, “A horse! A horse! (animated by Hawkins) My kingdom for a horse!” The gophers wheel in a real horse in a kicking position which kicks the dog out the window. As he flies through the air from the kick, he laments, “Parting is such sweet sorrow” (animated by Burness).

The dog ends up crashing back into the wall of the Warner Bros. studio and after he just went through, is glad to have his job back. “Ah. They have anticipated my return. The stage is all set”. After the camera rolls for action (animated by Burness), the dog attempts to recite, “To be or not to be-” before he is hit in the face with a pie and does the “running finger across lips” bit, ending the cartoon exactly how it began (animated by Charles).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕