A Bone for a Bone
Encyclopedia
A Bone for a Bone is a Looney Tunes
short
starring the Goofy Gophers
. The cartoon, released in 1951, was directed by Friz Freleng
and released by Warner Bros. Pictures, and was the first of four Goofy Gophers
cartoon directed by Freleng, and would be the final work by J.B. Hardaway
at the Warner Bros. studio, having returned after almost a decade at the Walter Lantz studio.
game in their hole in the ground outside a house, where Tosh loses his fifth game in a row, when Geo P. Dog (otherwise known as 'The Barnyard Dawg' in the Foghorn Leghorn series) digs a hole and dumps a bone on the Gophers and then dirt as he fills the bone in. Geo does remove the bone upon Tosh's request, but realizing that it was gophers who asked him to move the bone, he returns to the same hole to dig the bone. This time, Mac goes up, only to be grabbed by Geo. Mac then yells for help, which arrives in the form of Tosh and a hammer, which Tosh uses to knock Geo's head into his collar, allowing the Gophers to return to their hole and escape the dog, but not before the Gophers have an argument over who should enter the hole first.
As Geo then reaches into the hole to try to find the Gophers, the Gophers attach a fake hand to one end of a gray garden hose and a noose around the other end to fasten to the dog's actual hand. The hose is then brought out of another hole and extended out to the street, where it is quickly run over by a truck, leading the dog to believe he has been hurt until he finds Tosh behind him. After blocking two attempts by Tosh to get back into his hole, the dog challenges Tosh to come up with a trick, which he does: a card with firecracker that explodes, allowing Tosh to escape.
Furious, Geo then gets a can of TNT and pours it down the Gophers' hole. Mac then emerges from the other one and asks to borrow a match, to which Geo obliges, only to see the match used to light the pouring TNT and ignite it. Finally, Geo chases the Gophers underground, and is tricked into believing they went into an open gas main. Soon after Geo enters the main, the Gophers close it making it pitch black. As the dog attempts to light a match, the gas main explodes, and the dog pops out of the oven
in the house and eventually departs the premises (it is here that the dog is identified). The Gophers then resume their gin game.
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
short
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
starring the Goofy Gophers
Goofy Gophers
The Goofy Gophers are animated cartoon characters in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. The gophers, named Mac and Tosh, are small and brown with tan bellies and buck teeth...
. The cartoon, released in 1951, was directed by Friz Freleng
Friz Freleng
Isadore "Friz" Freleng was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros....
and released by Warner Bros. Pictures, and was the first of four Goofy Gophers
Goofy Gophers
The Goofy Gophers are animated cartoon characters in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. The gophers, named Mac and Tosh, are small and brown with tan bellies and buck teeth...
cartoon directed by Freleng, and would be the final work by J.B. Hardaway
Ben Hardaway
Joseph Benson "Ben/Bugs" Hardaway was a storyboard artist, animator, voice actor, gagman, writer, and director for several American animation studios during the The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He was sometimes credited as J.B. Hardaway, Ben Hardaway, Buggsy Hardaway, and B. Hardaway.While...
at the Warner Bros. studio, having returned after almost a decade at the Walter Lantz studio.
Plot
The Gophers (Mac and Tosh) are playing a ginGin rummy
Gin rummy, or simply gin, is a two-player card game created in 1909 by Elwood T. Baker and his son C. Graham Baker. According to John Scarne, Gin evolved from 18th-century Whiskey Poker and was created with the intention of being faster than standard rummy, but less spontaneous than knock...
game in their hole in the ground outside a house, where Tosh loses his fifth game in a row, when Geo P. Dog (otherwise known as 'The Barnyard Dawg' in the Foghorn Leghorn series) digs a hole and dumps a bone on the Gophers and then dirt as he fills the bone in. Geo does remove the bone upon Tosh's request, but realizing that it was gophers who asked him to move the bone, he returns to the same hole to dig the bone. This time, Mac goes up, only to be grabbed by Geo. Mac then yells for help, which arrives in the form of Tosh and a hammer, which Tosh uses to knock Geo's head into his collar, allowing the Gophers to return to their hole and escape the dog, but not before the Gophers have an argument over who should enter the hole first.
As Geo then reaches into the hole to try to find the Gophers, the Gophers attach a fake hand to one end of a gray garden hose and a noose around the other end to fasten to the dog's actual hand. The hose is then brought out of another hole and extended out to the street, where it is quickly run over by a truck, leading the dog to believe he has been hurt until he finds Tosh behind him. After blocking two attempts by Tosh to get back into his hole, the dog challenges Tosh to come up with a trick, which he does: a card with firecracker that explodes, allowing Tosh to escape.
Furious, Geo then gets a can of TNT and pours it down the Gophers' hole. Mac then emerges from the other one and asks to borrow a match, to which Geo obliges, only to see the match used to light the pouring TNT and ignite it. Finally, Geo chases the Gophers underground, and is tricked into believing they went into an open gas main. Soon after Geo enters the main, the Gophers close it making it pitch black. As the dog attempts to light a match, the gas main explodes, and the dog pops out of the oven
Oven
An oven is a thermally insulated chamber used for the heating, baking or drying of a substance. It is most commonly used for cooking. Kilns, and furnaces are special-purpose ovens...
in the house and eventually departs the premises (it is here that the dog is identified). The Gophers then resume their gin game.
Censorship
- On ABC, the following scenes were cut http://web.archive.org/web/20000121161735/www.megalink.net/~cooke/looney/ltcutsb.htmlhttp://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/ltcuts/ltcutsb.html:
- Tosh the Goofy Gopher hitting George P. Dog on the head with a mallet.
- George P. Dog lighting a gunpowder keg.