Lady, Play Your Mandolin!

I love this Foxy cartoon! It is short and it is VERY old (almost 88 years old to be exact.) But I still find it entertaining. Foxy is may favorite character. Foxy is the one that shows up about a little 2 minutes in wearing the sombrero and bull fighter cape. I wish Foxy had more cartoons than he does (Foxy stars in Lady Play Your Mandolin, Smile Darn Ya Smile, and One More Time in case you want to check out his other starring roles.) I did a little bit of digging and this cartoon is available on the Little Caesar DVD and on a DVD called Attack of the 30's Characters but unlike One More Time and Smile Darn Ya, Smile (which are both available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection volume 6 DVD set) this cartoon was not restored, so the way you see it online in YouTube videos is pretty much the way it is on the DVD. But anyway, this cartoon is very fun to watch.

The first Merrie Melody cartoon becomes funny once you realize the historical context. "Lady, Play Your Mandolin!" was released during prohibition, but features a bunch of characters drinking themselves stupid (those cartoons loved inebriation, didn't they?). Otherwise, you can see that the Termite Terrace crowd was only getting started, so you can forgive them for creating something that looks too much like a Disney cartoon; they got really good when they deliberately tried to be the anti-Disney. There's a reason that Foxy didn't get as well known as Bugs, Daffy, Porky, Elmer, etc. But at least the existence of this cartoon paved the way for the Looney Tunes.

The first credited Merrie Melody is a poor effort. The animation is repetitive, the gags poor -- one involves a character's dentures coming out on an armature and acting like a castanet -- and the songs -- "Lady, Play Your Mandolin" and "I Am A Gay Caballero" are sung in annoying cartoon voices.

Lady, Play Your Mandolin! Is part of the Merrie Melodies series, and is best known for the debut of Foxy, a fox who only appeared in this and two other shorts before being discontinued due to a phone call to Walt Disney demanding Warner Bros. Stop using the character due to his similarities to Mickey Mouse (as the short was made by an ex-Disney employee).

In this short, set to the song with the same name as the title (at the time, Merrie Melodies was done to promote songs Warners owns), Foxy arrives at a bar disguised at a Mexican saloon (which is pretty bold for Warner Bros., as this was two years before Prohibition was repealed). As a result of the era, the booze is labelled with skull and crossbones, and the characters all drink like crazy while singing the song. Even Foxy takes part in the singing and drinking, and even falling in love with a female vixen (later given the name Roxy) who actually plays her mandolin. A old short worth checking out if you treat it as the product of its time.

This bizarre cartoon short is more disturbing than anything. The animation is creepy, and the content is rather adult for the art form. A bunch of unidentifiable animals (I know I saw a gorilla, and maybe some foxes?) drink it up until they're soused, and a grand finale consists of a horse exploding while a bunch of rowdy saloon customers dance around it maniacally. The songs are annoying, a quality not helped by the fact that they stick to your head like glue (I caught myself humming one of them in the shower). If I had seen this come on the screen as a little kid, I probably would have wanted to crawl under my seat and hide.

This is on the DVD release of "Little Caesar," if you're interested in seeing it for yourself.