Mutts About Racing

Buzz Droopy and Butch are rival race car drivers. Droopy's car is small and slower. Butch has a faster car but his arrogance and bad schemes keep backfiring on him.

It's the classic story of The Tortoise and the Hare done as a road race movie. It does run out of gags pretty quickly. It repeats the painting-a-roadway gag, one as a tunnel into a rock face and the other as a road into a billboard. It's a simple and fun cartoon short.

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.

Michael Lah's six solo-directed Droopy cartoons (starting with 1957's 'Grin and Share It' and ending with 1958's 'Droopy's Leprechaun'), having co-directed with Droopy creator Tex Avery 'Deputy Droopy' in 1955', are a mixed bag. While a couple underwhelmed, especially 'Blackboard Jumble', others were very good. His fifth and penultimate cartoon 'Mutts About Racing' is to me his second best after 'Sheep Wrecked'. It's fairly predictable in terms of story and conflict but this is compensated by such clever and incredibly funny execution.

Regarding the animation, 'Mutts About Racing' gets my vote as the best-looking Lah-directed Droopy cartoon. It's more refined and has more imagination while the colours are suitably vibrant, even if it does lack Avery's creative designs and wild wackiness. Butch's expressions are done particularly well.

The conflict is one where the outcome can be seen from the outset but with such a lively pace and the cartoon containing some of the funniest and most inventive material of Lah's Droopy outings this didn't matter, the best moments being hilarious.

Droopy's personality continues to be very well established and he is very high on the humour and charisma factors, plus his determination is easy to root for. The voice acting cannot be faulted, with Bill Thompson giving his usual bravura performance as both Droopy and Butch. Vic Perrin makes for a very witty announcer.

Best things are the music score and Butch. The music, courtesy of Scott Bradley, is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed. Butch is hilarious, deliciously over-confident, sharp-witted and conjures up some clever and uncompromising tricks. It's Droopy one roots for though.

Overall, excellent if not quite a classic. 9/10 Bethany Cox

A car race between Droopy and Butch. Butch does everything to try to stop Droopy from winning the race and claiming the $100,000 award. It's not a bad cartoon, just not much uniqueness or charm to it like the earlier Droopy cartoons. You will get a few laughs out of this one though.

Grade B-

The $100,000 feature auto race is about to begin and it's two main contestants, of course, are Droopy and Butch. First to be introduced is "Daredevil Butch, driving a sleek "two-and- a-half litre, hand-tooled Pastrami Special." Next up: "his opponent, driving a 2-and-a-half litre, 3.5 Pizza Eight, Buzz Droopy." Butch's car is "all engine" while Droopy's has to be wound up with a key.

Overconfident Butch just laughs at his opponent, picks up the little car and uses it to light his cigar! "See you at the finish line, Shorty," he laughs.

If you are familiar with Droopy cartoons, you can guess what comes next: Butch trying all kinds of gimmicks or illegal tactics, or just plain criminal acts to win the race....but 'ole "Buzz" - like in the story of the Tortoise and the Hare - will not be deterred.

There are a number of funny gags in here, and the country-country scenery is fun to watch as the two over over winding mountain roads, over bridges, seasides, cattle crossings, etc. Good stuff.

Michael Lah directs the next-to-last Droopy cartoon about Our Hero and Butch being race car drivers in competition. As usual, Butch fights unfairly, blowing up bridges after he has crossed them, and of course, the classic gag about painting a tunnel on a mountainside. Droopy foils them all without thinking. It's a decently performed cartoon, even though it shows the short budget in its simple designs, minimal backgrounding, and limited animation.

Lah had entered animation in the 1930s, working for Harman & Ising and Disney. He became Tex Avery's lead animator, and eventually co-director. He seems to have left theatrical and TV animation after MGM finished with the next cartoon. He died in 1995, at age 83. I wonder what he did with the rest of his life.