Cat, Dog & Co.

When the story begins, the kids are using dogs to power their cars. The dogs seem to be happy doing this, but soon a meddling biddy castigates the kids for being cruel to animals. Soon, the local leader of the Be Kind to Animals Society shows up and she nicely explains to the kids why they need to treat animals better. She deputizes them and soon the kids are running about town causing all sorts of mischief...all in the name of helping animals.

The best part of this short is Wheezer's weird dream where he's on trial in an animal court for being cruel to them. The sets and what happens are truly bizarre...and funny. As for the rest, it's about what you'd expect if you love the series.

The Gang, having turned their dogs into car engines that chase cats up trees, gets a talking-to from the head of the Be Kind to Animals Society (played by future gossip columnist Hedda Hopper!). She seems to have the magic touch, for Harry, Joe and Farina immediately decide to become animal rights activists to the extreme. Joe even castigates Mary and Jean for trying to kill a flea!

Wheezer, meanwhile, is abusing animals right and left until Joe asks him how he'd like it if he were small and the tortured chickens were huge. This leads Wheezer to dream of his being on trial, where animals are the judges. The prosecuting attorney monkey leads the jury through Wheezer's transgressions, and the ultimate verdict is for him to be devoured by the jury! When he wakes up, he immediately shares the gang's activist fervor and starts releasing animals left and right, leading to the usual silent film shenanigans.

A fun short, the dream sequence alone is worth the price of admission, though the use of real (and rather disinterested-looking) animals hampers the effect a bit, though the scene where the chickens try to "devour" Wheezer is rather visceral for a silent comedy! Two other problems: the kids seem to rely on goofy double-takes a little too often, and the bit where the cartoon flea "adopts" Joe wears out its welcome over the course of the short. (I've seen enough of Joe Cobb's left knee to last a lifetime.). But the wackiness of the animals running riot over the city is an appropriate climax to the short.

Farina, Joe, and Harry are led astray when their dog-powered go-karts try to follow a cat up a tree. Hedda Hopper, president of the "Be Kind to Animals Society," lectures them to tears and they become animal rights activists. Joe refuses to kill a flea that keeps biting him (because fleas have souls, too). Wheezer dreams he is standing trial-- with a judge and jury composed entirely of animals.

This was one of the last of the "Our Gang" silent shorts. Great stuff.