An Itch in Time

`An Itch In Time' is one of a string of home runs Bob Clampett hit for WB in the early 1940s, including `Horton Hatches The Egg' and `Tortoise Wins By A Hare.' Soaked in manic timing and exaggerated mayhem, it's basically the saga of a flea who's busy breaking ground for a new home, and the dog whose ground is being broken. Because master Elmer will give him a dreaded flea bath if he so much as scratches, the unlucky canine is forced to endure an upward spiral of torment as the homesteading flea uses pick-axes and power tools to clear the `land.' Ultimately, the little monster lights the fuse to a small mountain of high explosives he's piled onto his victim's backside! There's a tremendous explosion, and the hapless pooch covers his eyes as his rear end erupts in a blazing Fourth of July display! That really has to hurt, and the dog takes flight, but soon he stops the action and says with a merry smile, `You guys better cut it out, 'cause I think I'm starting to like it!' For years this kinky confession was censored, but current prints have restored the clip, so now viewers can enjoy it in its original devilish glory. Still cut, however, is the closing gag in which the cat blows his brains out after he laments, `Now I've seen everything!' This was a common gag at WB, but it has since been purged from this cartoon and several others, including `Horton.'

Elmer Fudd is at home reading his Porky Pig comic by the open fire with his dog asleep by his side. When a flea enters the house it heads straight for the dog, making both the dog's and Elmer's night a misery. However getting rid of him is not so easy.

When this cartoon started I had reasonable hopes as I thought it might be a Bugs Bunny cartoon due to the presence of Elmer Fudd. However not only wasn't it, but Elmer himself seems to be in there simply to have a well known character in the cartoon. The main characters are actually the dog and the flea – neither of which are very good characters. The dog is OK but the flea is an annoying little fellow with a high voice that just grated on me.

The jokes are OK without ever being very good. I think what pit me off the most was just the weakness of the characters – they weren't very interesting and, although their jokes would have made me laugh if other characters had done them, the weaknesses in their characters just seemed to drain a lot of the laughs out of the cartoon.

Overall this could have been better and, indeed, many viewers may well find it funnier than I did. But for me a cartoon is not simply the jokes, it is also the characters and the plot framework. Here neither of those factors came into play and the already weak cartoon was just made weaker.

'An Itch in Time', as with all Looney Tunes cartoons had much potential from the get go.

There are many reasons why, with it being directed by Bob Clampett, having music by Carl Stalling, featuring the voices of Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan and that it featured Elmer, always amusing and watchable whose partnership with Bugs is legendary. It was also interesting as to what it would do with a slightly limited concept.

Luckily, 'An Itch in Time' works really well and lives up to its potential. For me, its only disappointment is Elmer (looking closer to his familiar character design than his portlier look in his previous cartoons) having very little to do, as a character he's side-lined and too much of a plot-device and his material is not as inspired as that of the flea's and particularly the dog's.

On the other hand, the animation as ever is of very well done quality. It's very lush and vibrant in the colours, it's rich and meticulous in background detail and all three characters are drawn well. There are also some really imaginative visuals in the gags, which play a large part as to why they work as well as they do, and the animation of the inside of the dog's fur equally so.

Carl Stalling's music score is outstanding, once again a perfect demonstration as to why of the regular Looney Tunes composers he was my personal favourite. The orchestration is so sonically rich and beautiful as well as used so cleverly, it's high voltage in energy and character and it adds so much to what is going on. What Stalling also excelled in was incorporating pre-existing material and putting his own spin on it, here particularly standing out was a wonderfully upbeat "Food Around the Corner" (complete with some very inventive animation).

Bob Clampett's direction is delightfully wacky, in a way that only he could be, and what could have easily have been limited material considering the concept turned out to be enormously entertaining. Dialogue is witty, with the dog boasting the best lines, and the gags are hilarious, visually imaginative (especially the dog's reactions) and Clampett's wackiness is apparent constantly in the flea's brutal but thankfully never gratuitously sadistic treatment of the dog.

The other two characters carry 'An Itch in Time' strongly. The flea is cute, antagonistic and suitably obnoxious, without being overly so, but it's the dog that steals the show. The voices are spot-on, especially from a supremely talented Mel Blanc once again in multiple roles, particularly colourful as the dog.

On the whole, a great Bob Clampett-directed cartoon though another case of the supporting characters making more of an impression than the most famous character. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Bob Clampett's 'An Itch in Time' milks seven minutes of crazy action out of a very small premise. Elmer Fudd tells his dog that if he scratches himself just once more that he will be given a dreaded bath. Unfortunately for the dog, a relentless flea makes it all but impossible to stop from scratching. The cartoon switches between the flea's progress inside the dog's fur and the dog's desperate attempts to cope with it. In a great sequence that really captures the frustration of an itch that can't be scratched, the dog changes colour from brown to blue to red to polka dotted to plaid! It sounds ludicrously surreal but it perfectly evokes the indescribable feeling of an itch in a way only Clampett could. There are several other elements which make 'An Itch in Time' pure Clampett. There's the grotesque concept itself, which leads to some graphic scenes of the flea munching on the dog's flesh. There's the unrestrained violence that rears its head in any scene featuring the cat. Most notably, there's the dirty jokes including a huge shot of the dog's behind which causes the flea to wolf-whistle and a hysterical sequence in which the dog attempts to scratch himself by dragging his backside along the floor. He momentarily breaks off to address the audience: "Hey, I better cut this out. I may get to like it"! With a very limited concept, Clampett manages to make 'An Itch in Time' a unique, minutiae-based cartoon. Like an early episode of 'Seinfeld', 'An Itch in Time' is practically about nothing but very funny with it.

Elmer Fudd is laughing while lounging in his easy chair and reading his comic book, his dog comfortably nearby sleeping in front of the fireplace. All is peaceful until a flea comes bouncing by. (The flea is dressed in a farmer's-type outfit with a big sombrero and is carrying a satchel with the name "A. Flea" on it.) He gets out his telescope and spots the dog. (We see a big shot of the dog's butt and the flea whistles in excitement, screaming "T- Bone!" He then sings, "There's food around the corner; there's food around the corner!")

That sets up the storyline of this cute-but-obnoxious flea tormenting the poor dog. The mutt is hilarious as he reacts to the flea.

The drawings of his huge teeth chomping right next to the fleeing flea are clever and the dog's dialog made me laugh out loud a few times. This might be the funniest canine I have ever seen in a cartoon! The poor pooch, under a threat of having to take a bath, as to NOT react when the stupid flea causes him pain. It's almost painful to watch as the flea uses pickaxes, jackhammers and the like on the dog. He puts firecrackers in the dog's behind. It's brutal!