Los Eternos Héroes

This cartoon is underrated. The humor is subtle yet hilarious. My two kids love it so much that they will drop what they are doing whenever this comes on. The Dover Boys is a takeoff of the damsel-in-distress/Uncle Tom's Cabin scenario. The humor is in the characterizations such as Dan Backslide's unique way of kidnapping the girl or how the heroes ride their bicycles. Perhaps my family's sense of humor is different from most people. Too many contemporary cartoons rely on toilet humor and not something that is well written. But Chuck Jones and the people who gave us these classics will always have a soft spot in my heart. Their work is flawless and timeless. Whenever a show or cartoon crossovers generations without having to explain why, then the artist has done their job. They just don't make them like they use to.

Yes. Indeed. I really did enjoy viewing this comical, well-paced parody of the Rover Boys juvenile fiction (which, during the early 20th century, had been a popular series of reading material with the youths of the day).

With its cleverly satirized characters, like Dan Backslide, Dora Standpipe, and, of course, the Dover brothers (that's Tom, Dick, and Larry) - This Technicolor, animated short from 1942 really delivered a very engaging story that certainly kept me quite entertained all the while (with a happily satisfied smile on my face).

Imaginatively directed by the young and budding cartoonist, Chuck Jones - "The Dover Boys At Pimento University" definitely scores high points when it comes to being one of my very favorite vintage "Looney Tunes" from the "Golden Age" of animation.

"The Dover Boys at Pimento University" tells the story of three brothers who attend the same university, although they're all very different. Tom Dover is the trio's leader and he might be the muscles too. Dick is a small sharp man who is supposed to be the brains. Larry is the younger of the three and he looks like Dopey from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".

They all have a common fiancée, who is Dainty Dora Standpipe, a typical Southern girl, shaped like a candle. They also have a rival. He happens to be Dan Backslide, one of the most hilarious cartoon villains I've seen for a very long time.

Backslide kidnaps Dainty Dora while the boys play a silly game of hide-and-seek.

The cartoon lasts for about ten minutes, which is surprisingly long for that kind of medium. But the story is well developed and the plot is good from the beginning to the end. The characters are all memorable. The Dover boys are funny, mainly because of their dumbness. Dainty Dora is a two-way clihé: the Southern girl and the damsel in distress. The best performance comes from blue-skinned Dan Backslide, who is a hilarious villain.

"The Dover Boys at Pimento University" is a hidden classic from Merrie Melodies. Its brown atmosphere, its funny characters and its long and elaborate plot make it an invaluable cartoon from the Golden Age.

I consider The Dover Boys to be Chuck Jones' first classic cartoon at Warner Bros. Before this cartoon Jones bored his audiences with weak imitations of cute Disney cartoons. Some of these earlier efforts had no humor in them at all, and the animation and timing were slow and plodding. He made a radical departure with The Dover Boys. Since it was a parody of gay nineties melodrama Jones has the characters strike very exaggerated poses. Because the poses were so strong they were easier for the eye to "read," and required less animation in between them. This also led to quicker timing of the action. Jones also invented a new way to animate speed. Up until this point in animation history speed was indicated by "drybrushing" streaks of paint following a fast moving character. Here, though, as the character moves from one extreme pose to the next he stretches like taffy (or "smears") for a few inbetween drawings. This created a more believable illusion of speed. (One has to watch these scenes frame by frame to appreciate it.) Besides all this inventiveness, the cartoon is incredible funny, too. Jones forsook Disney "realism" and has the characters move in humorous ways (Dora Standpipe never walks but glides across the floor). Mel Blank provides one of the funniest voices in his career for villain Dan Backslide. Jones got into some trouble for this experiment and it would be some time before he would use the lessons he learned from this cartoon again (mainly in the late forties). A real gem, highly recommended

Cartoon humorists loved that first gag in this film: "Good 'ole P.U." (in this case, Pimento University)

The story concerns the three Dover boys at this hallowed college campus: "Tom (the fun- loving member of the trio); Dick (a serious lad of 18 summers plus a winter in Florida); and Larry (the youngest of the three jerks.... er, ....brothers.). A gay outing in the park has been planned by the merry trio and they are off to fetch their fiancée, Dainty Dora Standpipe...."

As you can read, the humor is quite corny, but, first, the cartoon was made back in the early '40s, second, and this also was some obvious parody - of what, exactly, I don't honestly know, but some serial-type story from the 1890s.

What really caught my eye were the colors and fantastic overall artwork in this nine-minute cartoon. Scene after scene was beautifully drawn, from the Victorian houses to the old- fashioned bicycles, the clothing of the day, etc. The vocabulary of this cartoon (i.e., "Hark!", "Drat!," "Confound them!" etc.) also was extremely entertaining as the writers poked fun at the pulp novels of the day and the good-verses-evil descriptions from the "Gay '90s."

In other words, the visuals and the corny dialog make this a unique and entertaining (except for Mel Blanc's screaming "Dan Backslide" character) - Looney Tunes feature, not something were accustomed to seeing. It's different. The way some of the characters were drawn reminded me of the Beatles' animated feature "Yellow Submarine."

This is original, good material and part of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two.