Two Gophers from Texas

Art Davis ran Warner Brother's fourth cartoon unit for a couple of years until shrinking budgets due to competition from TV forced its closure and he returned to animating for almost twenty years. It was a pity. I think his cartoons averaged much better than Bob McKimson, who had seniority.

In any case, this is one of Davis' "Goofy Gophers" cartoons in which Mac and Tosh (voiced by the ubiquitous Mel Blanc and the uncredited Stan Freberg) very politely torment the well-spoken dog who was their usual opponent. It is the usual collection of sadistic gags, perfectly timed and animated, as you might expect. The contrast between the gophers' punctilious behavior towards each other and their violence with their enemy makes this very funny.

You may wonder why this cartoon has this title. There's no particular reason. "Two Guys from Texas" was the title of a Warner Brothers movie starring the popular team of Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan that year. They didn't put a lot of thought into naming these things.

Fun Goofy Gophers short from Arthur Davis. A silly dog who carries on like a ham actor, melodramatically narrating his actions, reads a book and decides to hunt for his own food. This leads him to target everyone's favorite polite gophers, Mac and Tosh. A sequel of sorts to the original Goofy Gophers short, which was also directed by Davis. This one has the pair dealing with the same melodramatic dog, supposedly patterned after John Barrymore. The gophers are cute and fun but the real star here is the dog; he's just hilarious. The animation is beautiful and nicely detailed; love the colors. The music is terrific. Excellent voice work from Mel Blanc and Stan Freberg. The Goofy Gophers is one of the more under-appreciated series in the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies library. Cartoons like this highlight the potential they had but, for whatever reason, they never really caught on like the bigger characters.

This is a Highly amusing cartoon from start to finish, Not one part didn't leave me laughing. The gagwork is your typical looney tunes fare, but Works so well with the Goofy gophers, some of the most underrated characters in my opinion. Surprisingly, it was actually the dog that entertained me the most in this cartoon, its kinda unfortunate after a ham in a role they didn't use him again. He's Funny. Also, the animation is quite good, just wrapping up me reviewing every Arthur Davis directed cartoon, and all I can say is, he's Pretty underrated!

8.5/10

The only reason why I'm giving this a lower score than the Goofy Gophers (1947) is the animation isn't as eye-catching as before, and I like Mac and Tosh's Gray coats better. That's okay though, because this is still a great cartoon, hands down.

Of the Arthur Davis-directed Gophers cartoons, the best and funniest is 1947's 'The Goofy Gophers'. 'Two Gophers from Texas' is still extremely good and almost as great as that cartoon, just not quite as funny, original or clever.

The dialogue is razor-sharp and witty and the gags- in laugh-a-minute mode- are imaginative and executed very well indeed, if not quite as brilliantly as in 'The Goofy Gophers'. The fast pacing and fun story, detailing of the intellectual and well-spoken dog even when crafty not being a match for the very polite but also very dangerous gophers, further complement the humour. The dark and often brutal slapstick and violence also add to the fun without being too over-the-top cartoonish or too sadistic that it's stomach churning.

Here in 'Two Gophers from Texas', the animation is great, with some luscious colours and richly detailed backgrounds and everything is very fluidly and smoothly drawn with no obviously jarring movements or frames. Carl Stalling has been consistently wonderful with his music, it is always dynamic and beautiful to listen to while also enhancing the action and colour(which is what music in cartoons should do) and his scoring for 'Two Gophers from Texas' is not a disappointment whatsoever. The dog and gophers work wonders together, and voiced with aplomb by the always entertaining Stan Freberg and particularly one of the gods of voice-acting Mel Blanc.

Overall, great cartoon. 9/10 Bethany Cox