Release Date:

September 19, 1942

Main Character(s):

None

Summary:

The three Dover Boys, Tom, Dick, and Larry, play hide and seek with their fiancee, Dora Standpipe, who their archenemy, “coward, bully, cad, and thief” Dan Backslide kidnaps. Before the trio arrive to rescue her, Standpipe proves capable of defending herself.

That’s Not All, Folks:

This cartoon is one of Jones’ greatest achievements as it is an experiment in “smear” animation where when freeze-framed at certain points, the characters appear as “smears” across the screen. Incidentally, Robert Cannon (who is given the animation credit for this cartoon) would later become a director at UPA (United Productions of America) which was famous for its limited animation style.

The full title of the cartoon is “The Dover Boys at Pimento University or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall”.

Backslide is a caricature of Ken Harris.

Backslide’s line “A runabout! I’ll steal it! No one will ever know!” became a meme.

The cartoon is in the 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons book and was ranked number 49 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons.

The Dover Boys are a parody of the Rover Boys, a children’s book series in the early 20th century.

The cartoon is in the public domain.

The Dover Boys are among the several characters seen in the stands during the basketball game in “Space Jam” (1996).

This is the first cartoon to use the 1942-1944 red rings.

What I Like About This One:

A running gag involving a drunken sailor doing a funny walk across the screen to the tune of “While Strolling Through the Park” (animated by Ken Harris).

The three Dover Boys, Tom, Dick, and Larry, are introduced as this: “Tom, the fun-loving member of the trio; Dick, a serious lad of eighteen summers plus a winter in Florida as related in the Dover Boys in the Everglades; and Larry, the youngest of the three jerks- er, uh, brothers” (animated by Harris).

Tom, Dick, and Larry arriving at Standpipe’s residence, Ms. Cheddar’s Female Academy, at their “usual punctual arrival”- zipping across the screen at tremendous speed (animated by Rudy Larriva).

Backslide is introduced at a bar playing pool at a table with clouds covering it. He then whispers, “HARK” with the words forming out of his mouth. He openly states his hatred for the Dover Boys, due to them escorting “dear rich Dora Standpipe. How I love her!” before asiding to the audience, “Father’s money”. He then hangs Standpipe’s portrait over a picture of a guy wearing a leopard skin and shouts, “Confound those Dover Boys! Oh, how I hate them! I hate Tom! I hate Dick! And I hate Larry! They drive me to drink!” to which he drinks several shots, courtesy of the bartender (animated by Robert Cannon).

Backslide opening the door where his next rant is interrupted by the sailor “Con- (sailor passes by)- found them!” (animated by Harris).

While playing hide and seek, Standpipe counts by 5’s and Tom, Dick, and Larry all argue over which places to hide (animated by Ben Washam). At one point, Tom accidentally enters a seemingly private place as he is heard saying “Whoops, sorry!” (animated by Phil DeLara). The trio eventually decide on the same bar where Backslide is and they dive under the pool table with their rear ends sticking out. Upon discovering the Dover Boys, Backslide evilly figures “then Dora must be alone and unprotected!” (animated by Larriva).

Upon spotting a runabout outside, Backslide decides “I’ll steal it! No one will ever know!” (animated by Washam).

Arriving at where Standpipe has now counted up to 1250 (still by 5’s of course), Backslide carries her off along with the tree she was leaning against so he puts the tree back and consults a book , “Handbook of Useful Information” where one of the pages is a blueprint telling you the best way to remove a young lady from a tree. Using a “jiffy tree iron”, he removes her from the tree where she flies into his runabout, allowing him to drive off with her (animated by Cannon).

Getting to 1500 and deciding to stop there, Standpipe realizes she’s being abducted when Backslide prevents her from leaving the runabout (animated by Larriva). Passing by the bar, she sees that Tom, Dick, and Larry are hiding there and calls out, “Help, Tom! Help, Dick! Help, Larry!” Hearing this, the trio just stand there shocked and do nothing. The sailor then passes by again (animated by Harris).

Taking Standpipe into an abandoned hunting lodge, Backslide tries to make out with her while she’s pounding on the door, but Standpipe proves to be anything but a damsel in distress as she keeps abusing Backslide whenever he tries to get close to her (animated by DeLara).

Seeing the scene play out, a boy scout informs a fellow scout about this via Morse code with flags. The other scout writes this down and has a messenger write a telegram (animated by Larriva). The Dover Boys are still in the same position with the same shocked expressions and it’s not until a delivery boy reads the telegram (animated by Harris) do they go up to the hunting lodge and attempt to rescue Standpipe (animated by Larriva). But she has beaten up Backslide so badly at this point, that he now needs her help more than she does (animated by DeLara). On the floor, he cries out, “Help, Tom! Help, Dick! Help, Larry!” (animated by Washam).

Bursting into the lodge, Tom demands “Unhand her, Dan Backslide!” at a moose head, demands the same thing again to Dick and Larry, and then demands the same thing a third time to the unconscious Backslide on the ground. Realizing he said, “Unhand her, Dan Backslide!” three times, Tom asides, “Hey, we’re getting in a rut!” (animated by Harris)

Despite the fact that Backslide has clearly been abused already, the Dover Boys beat him up even further. Deciding he hasn’t been “thrashed enough yet”, they attempt to swing at him one more time, but Backslide collapses to the floor causing the trio to knock each other out and land on top of him! (animated by Harris) Standpipe then leaves with the sailor, going off into the sunset (animated by Larriva).

Where Can I Watch It?

On YouTube!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕