Release Date:

January 17, 1948

Main Character(s):

Goofy Gophers

Summary:

Using a book called “Life in the Wilds”, a hammy dog attempts to catch the Goofy Gophers. Despite following the book’s chapter of “Four Ways to Get a Gopher”, all of his schemes fail.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1066 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue. “My Texas Home” played under the opening credits:

Story: Lloyd Turner and William Scott

Animation: Emery Hawkins, Basil Davidovich, JC Melendez, and Don Williams

Layouts: Don Smith

Backgrounds: Philip DeGuard

Voice Characterizations: Mel Blanc

Musical Direction: Carl Stalling

Directed by Arthur Davis

The cartoon was produced in Cinecolor, resulting in it being finished early. It also uses the 1948-1949 green rings with the red background.

This is the second appearance of the Goofy Gophers and the first time they have brown fur, which would be their fur color from this cartoon onwards.

The title is a pun for the 1948 film “Two Guys from Texas”, which Bugs Bunny incidentally made a cameo in. However, this cartoon has nothing to do with Texas (side note: as most of Davis’ cartoons have a rural feel to them, it’s his cartoons I tend to think of whenever I drive in rural areas).

“Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals” plays during the scene where the Gophers argue over who goes into their hole first as the dog speeds toward them (quite interesting that the first two Warner cartoons of 1948, one of the absolute best years for Looney Tunes both feature one of Raymond Scott’s absolute best tunes).

This cartoon is basically a showcase of how excellent Davis’ cartoons truly were as it has all the things you would expect in them: hilarious gags, fantastic animation, a brilliant Carl Stalling score, and likable characters.

What I Like About This One:

We jump into the action right away as the dog expresses his thoughts on “Life in the Wilds”: “Egad! What a book! It intrigues me!” He then slaps his bowl of dog treats away: “Poochie biscuit! FAH!” and goes into a brilliantly voiced and animated monologue: “I crave the tangy zest of wild game! For within me beats the heart of a big game hunter! I hear the call of the wild! With this book to guide me, I shall roam the woodland in search of me own sustenance!” He then snorts and finishes, “Food in the raw!” (hilariously animated by Emery Hawkins)

The dog then pulls an entire bush’s leaves over him as camouflage which he refers to as “Deceptive Tactics”. Sneaking along, he confides, “I must know every tree in the forest”. After bashing into one, he says, “That’s one of them now!” (animated by Basil Davidovich)

The gophers are first seen looking at some luscious-looking berries with the first gopher telling the second gopher he wouldn’t like one because they’re “too green. Just too green. Make you ill you know.” (animated by Don Williams) The dog spots them and decides they’re “me first conquest!” before zooming down towards them (animated by Davidovich). The gophers make a run for it and argue over who goes down into their hole first: “After you”, “No please. After you”, “No, no, no, no, no, no, I insist. Age before beauty, you know”, “Now don’t be a sil. Go ahead. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Let’s be sensible. You first please” (animated by Williams with Davidovich animating all shots of the dog up to here). They eventually decide to go in together and do so at the last second, leading to the dog crashing into several trees offscreen and the camera panning to reveal he skidded off a cliff and is now hanging by his feet on a cliff branch (animated by Davidovich).

Consulting a chapter in the book, the dog reads the first method in “Four Ways to Get a Gopher”. “Number one: the canny hunter will remember that gophers possess an enormous curiosity concerning strange or unfamiliar objects” (animated by Davidovich). He places a spring-loaded boxing glove in a trunk which has a “Not to Be Opened ‘Til Xmas” sticker on it. Despite Christmas being “months and months yet” the gophers decide to open it anyway. They look in it, as if there’s some impressive things in there, wondering if they’re either from Saks Fifth Avenue, Tiffany’s, or if they’re imported (animated by Bill Melendez). The gophers decide to take the chest with them back home, but the dog takes it back and opens the trunk himself. He gets punched with the boxing glove causing his head to spring up and for him to bounce around in a daze (animated by Davidovich).

“Number two: gophers are quite fond of fresh vegetables (animated by Davidovich) which can therefore be used as bait to trap them” as the dog puts several radishes in the ground that lead up to him tying a rope around a tree which suspends a large rock. The dog tests it by rolling a small ball up to the twig holding the rope and once the rock lands, the dog gives a toothy evil laugh that is hilariously over the top (animated by Hawkins). The gophers then come across a turnip, which is the vegetable set to spring the trap. The second gopher finds it difficult to pull out of the ground, and approves of the first gopher helping him. With both pulling, they find the problem: “Oh, here’s the trouble. It’s tied to a string.” “Shall we break it?” “Do you think we ought?” “Why not?” “True true. Let’s” (animated by Williams). The gophers pull the turnip free from the string and fly backward. The dog moves his finger across the string, which triggers the trap. Realizing he just sprung his own booby trap on himself, the dog says “Oh, no” before the rock falls on him (animated by Hawkins).

“Number three: the gopher is a sentimental little creature whose feelings may be played upon to your advantage”. The gophers hear a crying noise and see the dog disguised as an abandoned infant, “Little Snookie”. Seeing that “he cries a great deal doesn’t he?”, the second gopher points out there are two things that make a baby cry, one being when he’s hungry. The first gopher points out that “and this one doesn’t look hungry” so they look under the dog’s blanket and finds guns, grenades, brass knuckles, a dagger, and a bomb hidden under it. Angry at the gophers for peeking at them, the dog gives out a baby noise as he covers them back up: “Goo!” (animated by Williams) They decide to take him for a “wong, wong wide” by pushing his basket on roller skates up a hill. They then push it down the hill with the dog howling all the way down, into the distance, and off a cliff (animated by Davidovich). Crashing at the bottom and getting out of his disguise seemingly unscathed, the dog boasts, “Obviously, they did not reckon on me great inner strength!”, only for him to immediately stiffen in a hilarious pose and equally hilarious facial expression and collapse forward with him still in that pose (animated by Hawkins).

“Number four: If all else fails- the dog turns to the audience to say, “And it has”- “you must utilize the gophers’ love of music” (animated by Melendez). “Music! Egad! What a book!”, the dog says, delighted (animated by Hawkins). He becomes a one-man Dixieland swing band playing an exceedingly catchy rendition of “Sweet Georgia Brown”. As the gophers dance to it, the dog attempts to bash them with cymbals, shoot at them with a machine gun disguised as a banjo before pulling them in with a trombone slide, and trying to hit them across the drums. Chasing them into the piano, the gophers pull him in and trap him where the piano tape would be. “Trapped like a rat in a trap!”, the dog says in annoyance. The gophers then dance across the keys and play a boogie-woogie tune as the piano hammers repeatedly hit the dog’s behind (animated by Melendez). Angry at his predicament, the dog now has a different attitude towards the book: “EGAD! What a book! FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” (hilariously animated by Hawkins)

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕