Big-Hearted Bosko
| Big-Hearted Bosko | |
|---|---|
Title card | |
| Directed by | Hugh Harman |
| Produced by | Hugh Harman Rudolf Ising Leon Schlesinger |
| Music by | Frank Marsales |
| Animation by | Isadore Freleng Rollin Hamilton (as "Drawn by") |
| Color process | Black-and-white |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
Release date |
|
Running time | 7 minutes |
| Language | English |
Big-Hearted Bosko is a 1932 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon, featuring Bosko, the original star of the series.[1] It was released on March 5, 1932, although one source[2] offers only an ambiguous release date of 1931–1932. It was, like most Looney Tunes of its time, directed by Hugh Harman;[3] musical direction was by Frank Marsales.
Plot
The story shows a skate-clad Bosko who leaps and prances upon the ice, his dog Bruno barking rhythmically, avoiding patches of yet-unfrozen water. The dog cannot keep up with his master and eventually slides into the frigid pond. The dog's howling catches Bosko's attention and, as Bruno sinks, Bosko wonders what he should do. Instead the lost creature pops out of a nearby hollow log, taunting Bosko, who breaks a branch from a nearby tree and tosses it for Bruno to fetch.
Bruno is spooked by a sound and movement coming from a nearby covered basket: running back to alert his master. Finding the contents of the basket to be harmless, Bosko invites Bruno to check under its cover: a baby in a bonnet pops out, squeezing Bruno's nose when he comes too close. Bosko laughs and orders Bruno to carry the basket home.
Back home, Bruno rocks the baby in his cradle as Bosko plays a violin. The baby cries. Frustrated, the dog storms off, mistakenly taking a seat on the hot stove. Behind aflame, Bruno leaps about in anguish, quenching the fire at last with a bucket of water. Bosko abandons his fiddle for a fife, intoning "The Girl I Left Behind" to Bruno's percussive accompaniment. Bosko then tries to comfort the foundling, who complains in song. Bruno storms into the bathroom, jostling a lintel-mounted cuckoo clock, which hits the dog on his head, and mocks the creature's resultant daze.
Bosko next tries the piano; he intersperses his performance with shadow puppetry. Bruno reenters, happily joining the musical act, donning a lampshade as though it were a hoop skirt. Finally, the baby seems happy. Bosko dances off, skating upon a rug up to his stove, popping open the oven-door briefly to reveal a live bird in a roasting pan. Bosko skips back, finally crashing into a decorative column, knocking over a fish bowl, which flips onto his head to the giggles of his audience.
Reception
Motion Picture Herald called the film "clever enough, amusing enough."[4]
References
- ^ Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 10. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
- ^ Maltin, Leonard. Of Mice and Magic: a History of American Animated Cartoons. Von Hoffmann Press, Inc., 1980. p. 404
- ^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 57–58. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
- ^ "Shorts". Motion Picture Herald. 107 (3): 39. April 16, 1932. Retrieved February 19, 2024.