This is another one of those Merrie Melodies shorts I didn't watch growing up, therefore, at the time, I had no idea it ever existed. But after reading through WB's Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies filmography, I discovered this and decided to check it out earlier this year. Since then, as always, I found something that caught my attention and it's become a favorite for me, yet again, in the MM series, as one of those 1930s animated shorts by WB/MM, one of my favorite one-offs, or even just in general.
At the center is a family of three scarecrows: Pa Scarecrow, Ma Scarecrow, and Junior Scarecrow. Junior aspires to be just like his dad, wanting and hoping to be the scariest scarecrow there ever was. But after some practicing with Pa, it doesn't quite go so well and he hasn't quite achieved his goal, and Pa doesn't think he's ready yet. The next day, Junior goes out to try out his scares on a few animals and when each of them flees from him, he thinks he actually did it successfully. Then, when he comes across a crow, he tries to frighten him, but it simply isn't effective nor does it faze the bird. Instead, it ends up with the crow scaring rather than scaring the crow. The crow pursues Junior until coming to a halt when he sees Pa, who gives him such a fright he turns white before taking off to escape in a hurry. Junior thinks he managed to get the crow to flee, but that turns out not to be so when he realizes his dad is there and has been looking for him. Later that night and back at home, Junior tells Ma all about how much he gave the black bird such a scare, but gets terrified again when he sees a shadow of what he believes to be a real crow, but it's revealed to be a crow-shadow-puppet made by Pa.
This short's title is the same as the musical number featured in it, during the scare- rehearsal scenes. As with several, other Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts at the time, the titles were derived from the songs presented in them, as the series began as musical comedies and were focused on showcasing and promoting the WB studio's musical library more than the comedic aspects of the cartoons. But as both theatrical animated short series progressed and over time, they'd get loonier and loonier for the most part. One interesting thing about this is that it's an example of marking a transitional point of the LT and MM shorts falling somewhere between their musical/cutesier moments and their more hilarious/wackier ones. After the dull, subpar, and forgettable Buddy shorts from the mid '30s and Tex Avery came on board as a director, he really turned things around for the series and the studio. How they came about is all thanks to him, he contributed to giving them the vitality they were lacking and desperately needed.
The art is an example of how much higher quality this and several, other, '30s LT and MM shorts have compared to many of the much later ones from the mid to late '60s. The animation flows well enough, such as in the scenes in which the crow chases Junior. The writing of both story and dialogue is good enough. The music, probably especially the musical number, is pleasant. The voice work is decent enough. It's just a well-made cartoon all around, so I have no gripes with it.
But since seeing this, I've been wondering, are the members of the Scarecrow family the only live ones there or are there others? Is there a whole, larger community of scarecrows or are they all owned by a farmer and they go back to being inanimate when he's around them? Anyway, for all the aforementioned reasons, I consider this to be one of my picks for the best '30s cartoon shorts in general. Recommended.
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