Tuesday 25 September 2018

Drunken Horse Becomes Celebrity Caricature

Goopy Geer isn’t just an obscure cartoon character. He’s the subject of a song written by Herman Hupfeld, the same man who composed the immortal “As Time Goes By.”

Hupfeld’s song gets a workout in the aforementioned cartoon. It features re-used gags and re-used animation from Lady Play Your Mandolin, released the year before. Oh, and Goopy pulls off that little slide-step dance that Bosko did ad nauseum. (Keith Scott reveals it was based on dancer Will Murray’s act).

The most bizarre gag is when a drunken horse takes a long gulp of some rot-gut and begins to see creatures in the mirror. When he sees the image of Mahatma Ghandi, that’s enough. He runs screaming at the audience.



Friz Freleng and Ham Hamilton are the credited animators.

Here’s Hupfeld singing his song with the Victor Young Orchestra on the Brunswick label.







3 comments:

  1. The link doesn't even exist.sorry..

    Nice article anyhow..

    Steve

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    Replies
    1. It's there. You have to figure out how to activate the plug-in on your browser.

      Delete
  2. The drunken horse looking into and then running in fear from the mirror was already a re-used gag from the first Merrie Melodie, "Lady Play Your Mandolin," though they threw in the new animation of the Ghandi image here as the boffo end gag.

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