Buddy's Bearcats
Encyclopedia
Buddy's Bearcats is an American
animated
short film, released 23 June 1934. It is a Looney Tune cartoon, featuring Buddy
, the second star of the series. It was supervised by Jack King
; musical direction was by Norman Spencer
.
to-day: Buddy's Bearcats vs. Battling Bruisers." Below, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of fans rush into the ball park; patrons buy tickets & walk through a turnstile. One particularly large man is called back to the ticket window after purchasing his admission & is measured by the operator of the window: "Two seats!" the ticket salesman declares. The man happily obliges and purchases a second ticket for himself! Two tall, bearded gentlemen (in top hats, no less), one holding the shoulders of the other in front, compress themselves, & sneak, with impunity, under the turnstile and the nose of the ticket salesman. A young man with light, curly hair observes the park from without through a crack in the fence and says: "It's Buddy!" We then see Our Hero, grandly bearing the attire of his team & cheerfully tossing a ball about his shoulders & chest. Two other men watch watch through holes in the fence: as a gag, one's hole in the fence is so much higher than the other's, making viewing difficult, unless one simply reaches up and pulls down the high hole, thereby lowering it & raising the other's hole, to the inconvenience of the other. A dog
sits beneath the same curly-haired man from before, and another fellow uses the canine's tail as a crank that curves the dog's midsection upwards, allowing the young man a far better view of the field (or simply a chance to leap over the fence.) An apparently Scotch
couple inflates a set of bagpipes
, then ties them, as an hot air balloon
, to a drum, which serves as a platform, that the couple might float in the air & leap over the fence as well. The fans sway about in the stands, and an unusually blond Cookie greets Buddy & vice-versa. Buddy uses a baseball to play a set of bats as though they were a xylophone
, then catches the ball in his back pocket. A food vendor named Willie King sings about his hot dogs; a whimsical drink vendor walks the stands, sends a soda pop over to a young patron by means of a little propeller. A very musical announcer introduces us to the Battling Bruisers, the team on his right; and on his left, "the greatest team the world has ever seen: Buddy and his Bearcats." The game begins, narrated by a parody of Joe E. Brown, who swallows a ball thrown, in his direction, by Buddy. Buddy rubs his hands with dirt; a Bruiser squirts oil under his arms, and throws a pitch to Buddy, who hits the ball and runs (and skates) to base. The fans are very pleased. In the next scene, Buddy throws a tricky ball to a Bruiser, who can not seem to hit it; he throws down his bat, blows air (through a bug spray apparatus) at the ball that it falls (as would a dying fly), and simply picks it up, tosses it into the air, & hits it. An outfielder catches the ball. The score, we see in the next scene, stands at forty-nine to forty-seven. The people want Buddy! But Our Hero, behind the scenes, is all too nervous to emerge & play; alone, he genuflects, and appears, for a moment, to pray. Cookie approaches him and tells him of the great clamor for him from the spectators: Buddy is bashfully convinced. Buddy gladly takes the bat from another player (who looks like a taller, balder version of Buddy), hits a ball thrown by a maniacally laughing, mustachioed Bruiser, & runs about the diamond, cheered on by Cookie, who stands at base. The game is won, & the two sweethearts, embracing, are buried in a deluge of the hats of happy fans.
, sings an original song by Norman Spencer, the musical director of the short. In the history of Warner Bros. cartoons, Willie King was, in fact, a concession stand owner who operated his business outside Leon Schlesinger's studio.
, though not all of them.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
animated
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
short film, released 23 June 1934. It is a Looney Tune cartoon, featuring Buddy
Buddy (Looney Tunes)
Buddy is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes series of cartoons.-Looney Tunes:Buddy has his origins in the chaos that followed the severing of relations between animators Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising from producer Leon Schlesinger...
, the second star of the series. It was supervised by Jack King
Jack King
Jack King may refer to:*Jack King , pseudonym for an author of spy thrillers*Jack King , cartoon director and animator for Warner Bros and Disney*Jack Lester King, American population geneticist...
; musical direction was by Norman Spencer
Norman Spencer
Norman Leonard Spencer was a Progressive Conservative party member of the Canadian House of Commons. He was born in Howard Township, Ontario and became a lawyer by career....
.
Summary
We come to a sign that announces "BaseballBaseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
to-day: Buddy's Bearcats vs. Battling Bruisers." Below, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of fans rush into the ball park; patrons buy tickets & walk through a turnstile. One particularly large man is called back to the ticket window after purchasing his admission & is measured by the operator of the window: "Two seats!" the ticket salesman declares. The man happily obliges and purchases a second ticket for himself! Two tall, bearded gentlemen (in top hats, no less), one holding the shoulders of the other in front, compress themselves, & sneak, with impunity, under the turnstile and the nose of the ticket salesman. A young man with light, curly hair observes the park from without through a crack in the fence and says: "It's Buddy!" We then see Our Hero, grandly bearing the attire of his team & cheerfully tossing a ball about his shoulders & chest. Two other men watch watch through holes in the fence: as a gag, one's hole in the fence is so much higher than the other's, making viewing difficult, unless one simply reaches up and pulls down the high hole, thereby lowering it & raising the other's hole, to the inconvenience of the other. A dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
sits beneath the same curly-haired man from before, and another fellow uses the canine's tail as a crank that curves the dog's midsection upwards, allowing the young man a far better view of the field (or simply a chance to leap over the fence.) An apparently Scotch
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
couple inflates a set of bagpipes
Bagpipes
Bagpipes are a class of musical instrument, aerophones, using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. Though the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe and Irish uilleann pipes have the greatest international visibility, bagpipes of many different types come from...
, then ties them, as an hot air balloon
Hot air balloon
The hot air balloon is the oldest successful human-carrying flight technology. It is in a class of aircraft known as balloon aircraft. On November 21, 1783, in Paris, France, the first untethered manned flight was made by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes in a hot air...
, to a drum, which serves as a platform, that the couple might float in the air & leap over the fence as well. The fans sway about in the stands, and an unusually blond Cookie greets Buddy & vice-versa. Buddy uses a baseball to play a set of bats as though they were a xylophone
Xylophone
The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets...
, then catches the ball in his back pocket. A food vendor named Willie King sings about his hot dogs; a whimsical drink vendor walks the stands, sends a soda pop over to a young patron by means of a little propeller. A very musical announcer introduces us to the Battling Bruisers, the team on his right; and on his left, "the greatest team the world has ever seen: Buddy and his Bearcats." The game begins, narrated by a parody of Joe E. Brown, who swallows a ball thrown, in his direction, by Buddy. Buddy rubs his hands with dirt; a Bruiser squirts oil under his arms, and throws a pitch to Buddy, who hits the ball and runs (and skates) to base. The fans are very pleased. In the next scene, Buddy throws a tricky ball to a Bruiser, who can not seem to hit it; he throws down his bat, blows air (through a bug spray apparatus) at the ball that it falls (as would a dying fly), and simply picks it up, tosses it into the air, & hits it. An outfielder catches the ball. The score, we see in the next scene, stands at forty-nine to forty-seven. The people want Buddy! But Our Hero, behind the scenes, is all too nervous to emerge & play; alone, he genuflects, and appears, for a moment, to pray. Cookie approaches him and tells him of the great clamor for him from the spectators: Buddy is bashfully convinced. Buddy gladly takes the bat from another player (who looks like a taller, balder version of Buddy), hits a ball thrown by a maniacally laughing, mustachioed Bruiser, & runs about the diamond, cheered on by Cookie, who stands at base. The game is won, & the two sweethearts, embracing, are buried in a deluge of the hats of happy fans.
Hot dog vendor
Willie King, the concession stand owner, played by Billy BletcherBilly Bletcher
William "Billy" Bletcher was an American actor, comedian, and voice artist, a native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.-Career:...
, sings an original song by Norman Spencer, the musical director of the short. In the history of Warner Bros. cartoons, Willie King was, in fact, a concession stand owner who operated his business outside Leon Schlesinger's studio.
Cookie in this short
This is the first of but a few Buddy shorts in which Buddy's sweetheart Cookie has blond, braided hair (as contrasted with her usual black.) This would seem to be characteristic only of those Buddy cartoons supervised by Jack KingJack King
Jack King may refer to:*Jack King , pseudonym for an author of spy thrillers*Jack King , cartoon director and animator for Warner Bros and Disney*Jack Lester King, American population geneticist...
, though not all of them.