Ring of Fire

Tex Avery and writer Rich Hogan came up with several spot-gag cartoons involving a competition between Droopy and Spike the bulldog. They’re not Avery’s best work but the quick pace makes them funny.

Avery may have been talking about Daredevil Droopy (released in 1951) when he mentioned to historian Joe Adamson that these kinds of cartoons were made when he got stuck on a story and needed to fill his yearly quota. The idea was to put the strongest gag at the end. In this case, Avery’s “strongest gag” was one that had been used several times before in the middle of cartoons (the old “tiiiiimb-(crash)-brr” routine).

There are several “blackened” gags in this cartoon. Two involve explosions. The other involves fire. Droopy zooms a motorcycle through a ring of fire. He’s untouched. Spike does it. Naturally, he’s the bad guy, so something’s going to happen; it’s a matter of waiting to see what Avery and Hogan do. In this case, Spike and his bike become crispy outlines.



Walt Clinton, Grant Simmons and Mike Lah animated this short.