Double or Mutton

Another day, another dollar. Ralph and Sam are hard at work in their jobs as predator and protector. I hope Ralph has a good insurance plan! This is one of the better ones in an all to brief series of shorts directed by Chuck Jones. The characters are fascinating and the sight gags are great. The few bits of dialog are often priceless. I really like Sam! Most definitely worth seeing. Highly recommended.

Another fun Chuck Jones short featuring Sam Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf. The formula is pretty simple: both characters clock in at work, then Ralph tries repeatedly to steal a sheep out from under Sam's watchful eye. It's a funny set-up that humanizes the animal characters, which is what Looney Tunes did best. Good music from Milt Franklyn. The animation is nice and colorful with some well-done action scenes. As with the rest in the series (which owed a lot to Jones' Road Runner & Coyote series), there are a lot of visual gags and most of them are great. My favorite is probably the Little Bo Peep gag, which never gets old. Anyway, a fun cartoon from an underrated series that I think most fans of old-school Looney Tune will enjoy.

This is the third in the Ralph Wolf/Sam Sheepdog series by Chuck Jones, and the first to really nail down the premise. The first has only Sam punching the time clock (and trading shifts with another dog) while the wolf is simply a constant on-site predator - the second has both the wolf and the dog going to work, but independently at separate clocks - it's here that they're first seen to be on amicable terms with each other off business hours. Also note by this point Ralph the wolf brings a lunch box to work - hunger is presumably not an issue and this is just a job!

With virtually no dialog over it, Carl Stalling's music score is front and center, and it's clear how his work really defines the mood and action of these cartoons. I love the 'hair growth tonic' scene where Ralph goes from anxious caution to brazen confidence, orchestrated by a single bassoon and a constant bass note - brilliant stuff!

The Ralph Wolf and Sam the Sheepdog series was short-lived and overlooked, and unjustly so. It was a very good, and at its best brilliant, series of cartoons, and some of the best of Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies later output.

Even the weakest of their cartoons, for me their last cartoon, is still solid, and of the short-lived series in the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies output featuring less famous and less iconic characters the Ralph vs. Sam series is a contender for the best and most consistent. 'Double or Mutton' is another treasure in a rare case of a series of cartoons where none of the cartoons are bad.

It is more-of-the-same somewhat plot-wise, but that doesn't really matter because the Ralph vs. Sam cartoons featured one of Chuck Jones' best and most creative concepts, seen at its best in 'Don't Give Up the Sheep', but similarly nailed to just as great effect here in 'Double or Mutton'. There is so much good about 'Double or Mutton', a cartoon once again filled with gags and laughs that come thick and fast but still paced adeptly and never in a way that feels repetitive.

Animation-wise, 'Double or Mutton' is animated beautifully, for a series of cartoons made late in Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies' prolific output the Ralph and Sam cartoons were generally some of the better-looking cartoons from this period, being colourful and inventively detailed with smooth and fluid character designs. The music is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed.

Jones' trademark visual style and humour is all over the cartoon, and has lost none of its imagination or the clever and razor-sharp wit present throughout his career. The sight gags are unmistakably Jones and there is not a misfire among them, all of them are hilarious, unpredictable, inventive and remarkably for so many in a short space of time never feel incomplete. The Little Bo Peep gag is not a new gag, but 'Double or Mutton' sees one of the most inventive and riotously funny uses of it.

Both characters are strong and interact brilliantly together, Ralph being the slightly funnier and more interesting of the two with his facial expressions also providing some of the cartoon's funniest moments, but Sam is not an inferior by any stretch of the imagination. Mel Blanc continues to delight with exuberant vocal characterisations.

In conclusion, another treasure in a great series of cartoons worthy of far more attention than it gets. 10/10 Bethany Cox