Lady, Play Your Mandolin!

I love this Foxy cartoon! It is short and it is VERY old (almost 88 years old to be exact.) But I still find it entertaining. Foxy is may favorite character. Foxy is the one that shows up about a little 2 minutes in wearing the sombrero and bull fighter cape. I wish Foxy had more cartoons than he does (Foxy stars in Lady Play Your Mandolin, Smile Darn Ya Smile, and One More Time in case you want to check out his other starring roles.) I did a little bit of digging and this cartoon is available on the Little Caesar DVD and on a DVD called Attack of the 30's Characters but unlike One More Time and Smile Darn Ya, Smile (which are both available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection volume 6 DVD set) this cartoon was not restored, so the way you see it online in YouTube videos is pretty much the way it is on the DVD. But anyway, this cartoon is very fun to watch.

The first credited Merrie Melody is a poor effort. The animation is repetitive, the gags poor -- one involves a character's dentures coming out on an armature and acting like a castanet -- and the songs -- "Lady, Play Your Mandolin" and "I Am A Gay Caballero" are sung in annoying cartoon voices.

Not your typical Looney Tune or Merrie Melodie, this cartoon is plain weird. Trying to find a new character to replace Bosko, Foxy was created (Mickey Mouse with bigger ears and a bushy tail) to try and build a new brand ... but after three or four appearances, he disappeared into history, and was promptly forgotten.

Now, two DVDs include this cartoon and give you a chance to see for yourself. 'Lady ..' is an extra on 'Little Caesar', and also appears on Disc 3 of the 'Looney Tunes Golden Collection, volume 1' (within a documentary about lost cartoons). Watching it now it really does give me the creeps, the animation, the characters, the voices, are all extremely strange, and proof positive that the series was not always, if ever, aimed at children.

'Lady ...' uses its limited time to present a look at the sins of drink in a time of prohibition, and uses primitive and obvious gags, as well as horrible singing creatures of indeterminate species, to sing the songs.

Being a fan of Merrie Melodies but knowing very little of Foxy, let alone not seeing any of his three cartoons, it was high time to put that right if only for curiosity. As the first Merrie Melodies cartoon, it's decent enough though they certainly went on to much better things later on.

'Lady, Play Your Mandolin!' is practically plot-less and doesn't make an ounce of sense. The animation is uneven, it's crisply shaded and has some nice detail, some of the movements flexible, but the designs of the supporting characters are strange and in a rather ugly way and parts are on the stiff and repetitive side.

One can understand too why Foxy didn't last longer as a character, he's amusing enough if rather derivative of Mickey Mouse but not as strong or as expressive a personality.

However, the music is suitably peppy and does a great job in rousing the spirits. The atmosphere is bizarre but not in a way too unappealing. Actually the whole cartoon bursts with such joy that it is difficult to not fall for its charm warts and all.

Depiction of alcohol is humorously done and one is amazed at what is gotten away with, this being pre-Production Code. There are some good gags here, especially the castanet teeth, the horse exploding and particularly the horse playing its own head as a trombone.

Overall, watchable but less than great. 6/10 Bethany Cox

This bizarre cartoon short is more disturbing than anything. The animation is creepy, and the content is rather adult for the art form. A bunch of unidentifiable animals (I know I saw a gorilla, and maybe some foxes?) drink it up until they're soused, and a grand finale consists of a horse exploding while a bunch of rowdy saloon customers dance around it maniacally. The songs are annoying, a quality not helped by the fact that they stick to your head like glue (I caught myself humming one of them in the shower). If I had seen this come on the screen as a little kid, I probably would have wanted to crawl under my seat and hide.

This is on the DVD release of "Little Caesar," if you're interested in seeing it for yourself.