Pups Is Pups

An OUR GANG Comedy Short

Farina alerts Chubby, Jackie & the rest of the Gang about a fancy pet show taking place downtown, prompting the kids into entering their pig, goat, mice & toads. Meanwhile, little Wheezer is discovering that PUPS IS PUPS as he tries to keep his five rambunctious puppies from running all over town.

A funny little film, with lots of interaction between the Rascals & their animals. Recurring highlight: Dorothy & the mud puddle. That's Charlie Hall as the violin player.

"Pups Is Pups" was the first "Our Gang" film for the 1930-31 season. This was the beginning of what is considered by many Rascals fans to be the best period in the series (roughly 1930-34).

The Gang wants to put their pets into the big pet show downtown. Wheezer wants to enter his puppies in the show, but the puppies have gotten lost. Knowing they respond to a bell, Wheezer rings every bell his can possibly find...bicycle bells, even a alarm bell (which he doesn't quite hit with a rock...he shatters a window instead). Can he find his puppies in time for the show?

If you saw "Pups Is Pups" on television growing up, you'll never forget it. The short is endearing, and the kids give natural performances. And the puppies are lovable. The one with the ring around its eye was to become the second Pete the Pup.

One of the best kids and animals movies ever. 10 out of 10.

The gang decides to enter their animals in a local pet show.

Due to perceived racism toward African-Americans, several scenes featuring Farina were edited out of the Little Rascals syndicated television prints in 1971. They remained in 16mm, VHS and DVD home video releases. The scenes were reinstated in 2001 in the prints shown on American Movie Classics until 2003.

The "perceived racism" is actually why I find the film interesting. Not that I like racism, but looking back now (2016), it is interesting to see the newspaper specifically ask for "colored" boys. The term is outdated, but more to the point: why only them? Could white boys not be pages? It is interesting to me how long the black community found work as servants, maids and so on... did the class divide ever really go away?

Pups is Pups (1930)

*** (out of 4)

Our Gang short has Farina telling the others about a pet show taking place in town so the kid's get all their animals together so that they can win some money. What they don't realize is that this is a pet show for fancy ones and not their pets, which includes mice, frogs and wild puppies. I'd be lying if I said this short had me laughing from start to finish because it didn't. What the short did do is work well with its nice screenplay, which makes for some cute moments. The highlight of the film would have to be Wheezer and his puppies, which he is constantly playing with at the start of the film. Just seeing Wheezer smile as big as the moon will put a smile on your face because it's obvious the young actor is having a great time with the dogs. Chubby also gets a few nice moments as do the rest of the animals who eventually terrorize the clean cut women at the show.

This Hal Roach comedy short, Pups Is Pups, is the one hundredth in the "Our Gang/Little Rascals" series and the twelfth talkie. In this one, Farina gets a job as a page in an animal show and he encourages the rest of the gang to enter their pets in. Wheezer himself has five puppies and plays hide-and-seek with them often using a bell to get them to come. I'll stop there and just say this was another funny ep of Hal Roach's Rascals involving some clever sound effects as well as a wonderful music score. Incidentally, this was the first short in the series to involve the music of one LeRoy Shield. His score would be in most of these Hal Roach entries providing such a pleasing background to the goings-on. This was also the first appearance of Dorothy DeBorba as part of the gang. So on that note, Pups Is Pups was quite an entertaining Our Gang short. P.S. I saw this on disc 2 of the Little Rascals Collection. It has a nice intro by a children's TV host named Tom Hatten who showed these shorts when he was on the air during the '50s and early '60s.