Deputy Droopy

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. 'Deputy Droopy' is one of the funniest Droopy cartoons and contains some of Avery's funniest material, at the same time it does lack the imagination of their very best cartoons (with much of it being a remake of 'Rock a Bye Bear' and also the premise is a formulaic one) and visually it doesn't always look as refined as usual.

Droopy, as usual, is so well established in personality and is high on the humour and charisma scale. The bandits are hilariously dumb, when it comes to bandits in animation or anywhere they are among the funniest and their dumbness is actually endearing as well.

Typically, Avery does a very nice job directing, with his unique, unlike-any-other visual and characteristic and incredibly distinctive wacky humour style all over it as can be expected. Michael Lah co-directs but his contribution isn't as inspired.

Once again there is nothing sadistic or repetitious, instead it's wonderfully wild and hilarious with some inventive moments.

Animation has been more imaginative and refined before than in 'Deputy Droopy', with some of the drawing lacking smoothness. Avery's distinctive wackiness and creative designing of characters though can be seen and there are some lovely vibrant colours and detailed backgrounds. The music, courtesy of Scott Bradley, is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed.

Voice acting as always sees Bill Thompson, Daws Butler and Avery himself on top form.

Overall, very good and hilarious but Droopy and Avery have done better quality-wise. 8/10 Bethany Cox

In this "Old West" story, Droopy is helping guard a shipment of gold. He takes orders from the sheriff, a burly big guy, and the two of them have just gotten off a stagecoach with several big bags of the valuable ore. They place it in the safe and the sheriff instructs Droopy to guard it while he goes in another room. Of course, two crooks have been watching all of this and are right outside the window watching and listening. The sheriff tells Droopy, "If you get in any trouble, if you see any varmints, just make a noise - any kind of noise - and I'll come a-shootin.'"

The two bandits are hilarious and what happens when they try to rob the safe, when they tie up Droopy, how they try to crack the safe, and - especially - what they do when they have to yell, is all great material. These are the dumbest two bandits I've ever seen and some of the gags are repetitive but they still will make you laugh. The best was the gag with the laughs coming out of the bottle. Now that was clever!!

Much the same as Rabbit Rampage was to Duck Amuck, this is an inferior, yet somewhat enjoyable, remake of Rock-a-Bye Bear, made by the same animator as the original. Still, this one has Droopy, who is one of my favorite characters of all time.

The sheriff in a small western town takes receipt of a bag of gold.He tells his deputy, Droopy Dog, to keep an eye on it and holler if anyone tries to steal it. Two thieves overhear this, gag Droopy -- but do not bind his hands or thief. While they attempt to steal the money, Droopy torments them with an assortment of devices to make them scream.

It's all variations on a single gag, and while the variations are amusing, it lacks the variety of other Droopy cartoons. Tex Avery was pulling up stakes at MGM, getting ready to head over to Lantz, so he shared credit with his AD,Michael Lah. The result is amusing, but not one of the best.

Sad little deputy Droopy with his quiet ways makes an amusing counterpart to the heavily armed sheriff, who's all set to come in with guns blazing if anyone tries to steal the money they have in the safe. Two bad guys try to silently get at the safe, but again and again are forced to make noise and then run off to a nearby hilltop to let it out. The gag is repeated but there are lots of clever variations, e.g. Droopy whacking one with a board with a nail in it, and because he's stuck to the floor with glue, having to swap his head with his partner and having the latter run off. This was one of the last original cartoons from Tex Avery, who was nearing the end of his brilliant 20 year run in animation, and unfortunately disillusioned by it all. To honor his final Droopy toon, he provided Droopy's voice as well, so listen for that.