Scrappily Married (1945) User Reviews

"I'll clip your wings and chop you down to a croquette"

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 23 February 2015]

For a Herman cartoon, Scrappily Married is not too bad, with the characterful and upbeat music score being the best asset. Henry, a character that is very easy to root for and by far the cartoon's most likable character, does have two hilarious lines, "I'll clip your wings and chop you down to a croquette" and "Ah shut up you old buzzard".

Herman is more tolerable than he can be, at least he was smart enough to actually see through Chickenpie's painfully obvious cat disguise. His fake pleading is one of only two amusing moments in the cartoon, the other being Chickenpie's disturbingly disapproving facial expression. Arnold Stang and Jack Mercer provide some good work.

Chickenpie however is a truly insufferable, annoying and unfunny character, even for a character who's meant to be that, how Henry managed to put up with her is a complete enigma. The voice acting from Carl Meyer is very shrill. Like in the previous Herman cartoon Henpecked Rooster the animation here is not that impressive, with only the character design for Herman being passable, the animation is very flat with very sparse backgrounds and Chickenpie is very poorly drawn with an ugly character design. Scrappily Married has two good lines and two good moments but the rest of the cartoon is very bland and barely raises a laugh. Like most Herman cartoons Scrappily Married is incredibly predictable(at least Henpecked Rooster tried to do something different to most Herman cartoons) and has very little story and little variation on the story for Henpecked Rooster so it feels like a rehash with no freshness or surprises. The pacing also lacks oomph and the chemistry between the characters is bland.

All in all, has its moments, but while not terrible and okay at least Scrappily Married is not a good cartoon(in my opinion of course) and never rises above average as an overall whole. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Unimpressive, even for a Herman short

[llltdesq · 5/10 · 26 July 2015]

This is a short in the Herman series produced by Famous Studios. There will be spoilers ahead:

The Herman series could be very uneven at times, with the cartoons being mostly average but the high and low ends ranged widely. This is one on the lower end. None of the characters are interesting, appealing or especially likable.

Henry the rooster (who is the poster child for spousal abuse) tries to sneak out, but his harridan of a wife, Chickenpie, won't let him leave, instead threatening him and ordering him to sit on the eggs while she amuses herself playing solitaire. Enter Herman, who frightens Chickenpie and sends her running from the coop.

Henry, instead of acting wisely, swings things the other way, behaving about as badly as Chickenpie. He and Herman play pool with his offspring! Chickenpie pretends to be a cat, but Herman eventually sees through the disguise and frightens her off again. Henry gets loaded while Chickenpie plots her revenge by enlisting a real cat to take care of Herman.

Given that this is a Herman cartoon and not a Chickenpie cartoon, who comes out eventually on top is obvious and the ending is as welcome as it is predictable.

This is worth watching once.

Philosophers have long observed that "a woman works from sun to sun . . . "

[tadpole-596-918256 · 7/10 · 5 March 2020]

" . . . but a dude's labor is never done." This Truism makes it particularly grating when a bossy dame henpecks her mate and tries to force him into obvious domestic Duties of the Skirt just because she has really let herself go since that ill-advised wedding day and MIGHT now be able to prevail against her still-trim spouse is some sort of a wrestling match in which the outcome is determined by sheer mass. Chicken-Pie, the female featured during SCRAPPILY MARRIED, is the sort of wicked wench who will demand a bucket of milk if you're foolish enough to give her a cookie. At the outset of SCRAPPILY MARRIED, Chicken-Pie "orders" the dethroned Master of the Coop--Henry, a smallish rooster--to strap on all manner of feminine hygiene incubation products in order to perform her Natural Duty and Function of keeping her eggs warm so that she can wile away the hours shuffling cards and playing solitaire instead! Fortunately, Henry is able to cross species lines to pick up a male ally in his fight for Manly Justice. Though he does not make good on his threat to chop Chicken-Pie down to a croquet before SCRAPPILY MARRIED concludes, viewers will rest assured that Chicken-Pie's card-playing days are numbered!