The Sneezing Weasel

Back in the late 1930s, Looney Tunes made a lot of their cartoons in black & white and many in color. From what I've seen, the black & white ones tended to be cartoons involving repeating characters, such as Porky Pig. "The Sneezing Weasel" is a one-off cartoon...with characters who only appeared in this film...and so it's not surprising it was made in lovely Technicolor.

When the story begins, a mother chicken and her chicks are out eating worms. One of her chicks gets briefly lost and is caught in a storm and gets a cold...and mother chicken goes to fetch a doctor. In the meantime, the evil weasel pretends to be the doc and the chicks let him in the house. Will the chicks become the weasel's dinner or will the chicks rise to the occasion and beat the snot out of the villain?

This is an enjoyable cartoon...mostly because the chicks are not passive victims and it is fun to see how they react to the threat. It could have been schmaltzy but really managed to entertain.

This short is an early example of Tex Avery's fondness for sight gags. Not as effective as some of his later efforts, as he honed his timing and comic sense, as did his animators, but his voice (particularly his laugh-an unmistakable laugh that would find use many times in cartoons at Warner Brothers) is perfect for the weasel and improves things significantly. Well worth watching. Recommended.

An interesting example of the Termite Terrace crowd's early days is Tex Avery's "The Sneezing Weasel". The cartoon portrays a hick member of the genus Mustela* - voiced by Avery himself - who can't help but laugh at his own ridiculous comments after he catches sight of a chick. When the chick has to stay home sick, the big guy dresses up as a doctor and enters the house. But when his cover gets blown, the chicks all gang up on him in what looks like a precursor to "Home Alone" (only it's much cooler here).

This cartoon didn't have as many gags as most of Avery's cartoons did (the main one was the book), but as far as I'm concerned, any Tex Avery cartoon is a good one. You'll probably enjoy it.

*Mustela is the genus to which weasels belong. The family is Mustelidae.