Tex Avery and Heck Allen remake 1943's DUMB HOUNDED with a mix of old and new gags, and even more outrageous reactions from Wolfie in this high-speed cartoon.
This is arguably Abery's peak period, coinciding with Hollywood's most prosperous year.That's hardly surprising. Hand-drawn cartoons were the most inherently expensive form of commercial film making, requiring an immense staff of highly-trained artists and technicians, and short subjects were always a tough sell. Even though film programs demanded them, they were usually available for a small fees from the distributors, so turning a profit on them was a calculation of longevity. When MGM was making a lot of money, they could be viewed as loss leaders. When finances tightened, they would be produced cheaper and cheaper, and then abandoned them. Even long time experts with immense back catalogues with eventually give up. In 1972, Walter Lantz would retire when calculations indicated that, even with TV resales, another season would take a decade to recoup its costs.
For the moment, though, the movies and cartoons were riding high, and Avery could pile a lot of funny gags into this one.
