Fishy Vodka

The first Terrytoons cartoon was Caviar, released February 23, 1930. It starred—are you surprised?—mice.

In this scene, the hero mouse is being chased underwater by a swordfish, who stabs him in the butt a couple of times. The mouse turns around and stops him.



The mouse pulls out a bottle of vodka (this is a Russian-set cartoon after all). The swordfish’s eye grows big, perhaps in amazement about how the size of the bottle has somehow grown in the hands of the Terrytoons animator.



The fish drains the bottle. I like snaggleteeth.



Now the happy swordfish (he shows no signs of intoxication) is the mouse’s friend and offers the mouse a ride. I also like the scrunched fish drawing in the last frame. It’s crude but it works.



“Crude” may be the best way to describe the cartoon. Wolves appear on the scene in a bunch of animation cycles. One is drawn with his head way too big, another has eyes that are almost at the top of his head. However, the girl mouse is rescued by the boy mouse by the cartoon’s end.

Phil Scheib scored this cartoon but it doesn’t sound like those repetitive Scheib woodwind scores of a few years later. Scheib was classically trained and employs a lot of strings in this cartoon. Not as many as in a full orchestra—he was working for the King of Cheap, after all—but enough to provide a nice light symphonic arrangement.