Horst_In_Translation Review of Dumb-Hounded

Dumb-Hounded (1943)

Comedy material enough for 4 minutes max only

[4/10 · 14 September 2018]

"Dumb-Hounded" is an American Tex Avery MGM cartoon from the days of World War II, so this one has its 75th anniversary this year already and it is one of many Droopy cartoons, perhaps the character that Avery is most known for today still. At 8 minutes, it is roughly the average cartoon length from back then, maybe slightly longer and in good old toon tradition we have basically a duel from start to finish with opponents of very different skill sets. The wolf may be smart enough to get out of jail and trick the humans, but he is far from ready to take on Droopy. Kinda interesting from the evolution perspective with wolf and dog. But then again, Droopy has almost nothing that resembles a dog except his physcial looks, especially if you compare him to the other dogs running out of the prison to catch the wolf early on after the escape. And yeah, then there's the talking too, the fact that he gets a whole lot of money in the end and not a sack full with bones and many more humanized aspects to the character. You could initially think that wold is superior as he ties him to the wall, but then you see Droopy lifting that gigantic rock at the end and yes the laws of physics here are clearly not relevant. The best example is of course the running gag with no matter where wolf flees to, Droopy is always there, be it across America, other countries or even to the North Pole. But why was he at the latter if he wrote a message that it is too cold there. It is also all about the unexpected for wolf. When Droopy basically catches him inside a garbage can (and of course he knew he was there), he lets him get away only to have him feel safe. Yeah well, this aforementioned running ga was also used to an extent here that was simply too much in my opinion and stopped getting funny, but got repetitive instead and this is what I mean with the title of my review. But I have never been the very biggest Droopy fan, so the outburst of joy before going back to reserved, almost lethargic, the prison break early on and the undertaker scene towards the end are just not good enough either to make this a success for me. Animation is fine of course, but this applies as well to hundreds of other cartoons from this era. I give it a thumbs-down overall. Not recommended.