Police montée

These cartoon writers are unrelenting with their corny (and fun) puns. The first shot we see in here is an island prison with the following written above its big gates: "Alka-Fizz Prison - No Noose Is Good Noose." Inside the prison, the first sign we see is "Welcome: have a seat." They then show an electric chair.

Corny gives way to clever, however, as our favorite wolf is seen behind bars. With pen in hand, he literally draws a door next to him and then escapes through it! In no time, he has criss-crossed the United States, zipped up through Canada and is in the northern part of that country. It's there we see the Canadian Royal Mounted Police and, of course, our hero Droopy, known here as "Sgt. McPoodle." He has the assignment of catching the at-large criminal from Alka-Fizz. So, with his trusty little blue horse, he goes out in the heavy snow to track down the wanted wolf.

From that point, we get the normal story: Droopy always being a step ahead of the wolf, no matter what the latter does....and both characters are involved in some wild and very funny sight gags. Droopy even pops out of an eagle's egg on top of a mountain. There is nowhere the wolf can go - or do (plastic surgery!) to escape the intrepid "Sgt. McPoodle." Nobody, by the way, in the history of cartoons perhaps has more exaggerated reactions, either, than this wolf each time he sees his nemesis! His screams, facial and body stretched out in horror each time is a big part of the sight gags.

You'd think this one-joke cartoon would get monotonous but it doesn't. It's more good stuff from Tex Avery and the gang, just one of 24 cartoons in the "Complete Theatrical Collection" DVD with wonderful-looking restored visuals.

Another Droopy cartoon where the dog is the calm, slow-talking, yet witty and is sharp as nails. He drives an escaped convict crazy, showing up in every place the convict tries to escape to, resulting in hilarious facial expressions from the criminal .

It's non-stop fun and laughter, sure to bring smiles to everyone's faces. It's entertaining!

Grade A

Tex Avery and Heck Allen remake 1943's DUMB HOUNDED with a mix of old and new gags, and even more outrageous reactions from Wolfie in this high-speed cartoon.

This is arguably Abery's peak period, coinciding with Hollywood's most prosperous year.That's hardly surprising. Hand-drawn cartoons were the most inherently expensive form of commercial film making, requiring an immense staff of highly-trained artists and technicians, and short subjects were always a tough sell. Even though film programs demanded them, they were usually available for a small fees from the distributors, so turning a profit on them was a calculation of longevity. When MGM was making a lot of money, they could be viewed as loss leaders. When finances tightened, they would be produced cheaper and cheaper, and then abandoned them. Even long time experts with immense back catalogues with eventually give up. In 1972, Walter Lantz would retire when calculations indicated that, even with TV resales, another season would take a decade to recoup its costs.

For the moment, though, the movies and cartoons were riding high, and Avery could pile a lot of funny gags into this one.

As usual, the wolf (the bad guy) matches wits with a worthy adversary. In this case, it is Droopy, the slow talking hound who never seems to get flustered. As the wolf tries to make his escape, the little guy shows up around every corner. He's always one step ahead. In addition to the cleverness of this episode, we also have the great Tex Avery and his amazing takes by the wolf. When he sees the little Mountie for about the fifth time, his jaw drops, his eyes pop out, and he literally goes to pieces. The whole thing is just unfair. There are great sight gags all over the place. It is high speed animation at its best. I always looked forward to the Droopy cartoons before the feature films in my youth.

This is one of the funniest cartoons I have ever seen. This cartoon contains some of my favorite gags used in cartoons, from the sign at Mountie HQ (Mounty County. "We aim to police"), to Sgt. McPoodle (Droopy) notifying the wolf he's on his trail with Burma-Shave style signs, to the wolf running out of the movie frame. Truly deserved of its spot among the greatest cartoons ever made.