Northwest Hounded Police

Tex Avery and Heck Allen remake 1943's DUMB HOUNDED with a mix of old and new gags, and even more outrageous reactions from Wolfie in this high-speed cartoon.

This is arguably Abery's peak period, coinciding with Hollywood's most prosperous year.That's hardly surprising. Hand-drawn cartoons were the most inherently expensive form of commercial film making, requiring an immense staff of highly-trained artists and technicians, and short subjects were always a tough sell. Even though film programs demanded them, they were usually available for a small fees from the distributors, so turning a profit on them was a calculation of longevity. When MGM was making a lot of money, they could be viewed as loss leaders. When finances tightened, they would be produced cheaper and cheaper, and then abandoned them. Even long time experts with immense back catalogues with eventually give up. In 1972, Walter Lantz would retire when calculations indicated that, even with TV resales, another season would take a decade to recoup its costs.

For the moment, though, the movies and cartoons were riding high, and Avery could pile a lot of funny gags into this one.

A wolf escapes from Alka-Fizz prison in San Francisco to the Canadian far north. Canadian Mountie Sergeant McPoodle (Droopy) is volunteered to pursue the dangerous criminal. I like Droopy. It's too bad that he is less known nowadays. This is a fun little short and it ends with a great gag.

As usual, the wolf (the bad guy) matches wits with a worthy adversary. In this case, it is Droopy, the slow talking hound who never seems to get flustered. As the wolf tries to make his escape, the little guy shows up around every corner. He's always one step ahead. In addition to the cleverness of this episode, we also have the great Tex Avery and his amazing takes by the wolf. When he sees the little Mountie for about the fifth time, his jaw drops, his eyes pop out, and he literally goes to pieces. The whole thing is just unfair. There are great sight gags all over the place. It is high speed animation at its best. I always looked forward to the Droopy cartoons before the feature films in my youth.

This is one of the funniest cartoons I have ever seen. This cartoon contains some of my favorite gags used in cartoons, from the sign at Mountie HQ (Mounty County. "We aim to police"), to Sgt. McPoodle (Droopy) notifying the wolf he's on his trail with Burma-Shave style signs, to the wolf running out of the movie frame. Truly deserved of its spot among the greatest cartoons ever made.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.

Also have much admiration for Tex Avery, an animation genius whose best cartoons are animated masterpieces and some of the best he ever did. Generally like the Droopy cartoons and the character himself a lot, his best cartoons are classics and among Avery's best. Both these distinctions, of it being one of Droopy's best and Avery's, are true for 'Northwest Hounded Police'. It is only Droopy's fourth cartoon and he is already a character so well established in personality and manages to be both lovable and very funny.

The Wolf is a villain that has menace and great comic timing, with brilliantly animated and priceless reactions, whether it's the facial expressions or his body language, some of the best in the whole of animation definitely. 'Northwest Hounded Police' is yet another endlessly inventive and hysterically funny cartoon in a way that is unmistakably Tex Avery.

Avery does a wonderful job directing, with his unique, unlike-any-other visual and characteristic and incredibly distinctive wacky humour style all over it as can be expected.

'Northwest Hounded Police' is deliciously wacky, it is also incredibly clever, imaginatively creative and full of inspired visual gags, play on words and hilariously droll asides and deliciously corny puns. It's essentially a one-joke cartoon but has so much variety and imagination that it never becomes repetitive.

It is no surprise either that the animation is superb. The character designs are unique, Avery always did have creative character designs, and suitably fluid. The music, courtesy of Scott Bradley, is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed.

Voice acting is very good from Bill Thompson and Frank Graham.

Overall, an animated masterpiece. 10/10 Bethany Cox