Circus Daze

At one time, Hugh Harmon created this character of Bosko as an animal character of undetermined origin, almost as competitor to Disney's MICKEY MOUSE. With his little girlfriend, Honey, Bosko had his own dog, Bruno and the two would get into misadventures that would get one or both in real trouble. When Harmon took the characters with him to MGM, they somehow morphed into two human brown-skinned children, interesting only in the sense that one could believe and more enjoy the logic of two kids and their dog getting into mischief rather than an over-sized mouse and his dog--never quite understood that one. What, of course, killed the BOSKO cartoons from MGM as continuously enjoyable fare among audiences in the current age is the politically incorrect and dated portrayal of the characters of Bosko and Honey. Had they been portrayed by little black children as far as their voices are concerned, perhaps we could have enjoyed this on the same level that we'd enjoy OUR GANG comedies of the same period and earlier years. But, when compared with the other titles in the HAPPY HARMONIES series, the BOSKO cartoons are as fast-paced as non-Disney cartoons of other studios. As the cartoon opens, we get a stunning sequence of shots of all the circus acts, from the prominading elephants to the wacky clowns in the brassy band to the trapese performers to even the shapely dancing girl, Fatima, in the side show. Other montages in the same sequence contains a great gag in which we watch a hot dog vender cheat a customer out of his eats by sticking his finger on the buttered bun and then removing it as the customer grabs the food and pays the vender. The cartoon continues as we are introduced to Bosko, frazzled at having to pull along an overly curious Bruno, his dog, more detailed in this cartoon than he ever has been in the LOONEY TUNES offerings in black and white, and little Honey, giddy with laughter and enthusiasm for all the circus life around her, talking excitedly about the "great big lion" and the "cute little monkeys" (who just happen to be the good little monkeys of an earlier Hugh Harmon musical entry in the HAPPY HARMONIES series). Honey notices that the monkeys are fidgety over something--and this turns out to be invading fleas in the cage that suddenly jump off and have Bruno chasing them around the grounds. An agitated Bosko calls for Bruno to stop chasing the bugs and follow them, to which Bruno whines "I never have any fun; other dogs have fun!" Bosko has the final word, "y-y-you watch your step!" Having said this, however, he falls into the water bucket used to wash down the elephants. Honey laughs and asks Bosko, with a hint of minstrel show humor, "Bosko, what's the difference between you and a fish?" Bosko replies, standing there soaking wet, "Why, I don't know." Honey answers "A fish is all wet, silly." Bosko counters with "Well, I's all wet," to which Honey has the last word with "well, then there ain't no difference," and breaks into gales of laughter, until one of the monkeys tugs at her balloon, causing her to call for the flustered Bosko to come and assist her in getting her prized possession back from the little critters. While this happens, the scene changes as we find that Bruno did go off and continue his curious chase of the playfully teasing insects, one flea in particular who leaps about with Bruno close behind. The scene bounces back and forth as we find that Bosko and Honey continued to pull at the balloon, freeing it from the monkey cage and sending it skyward. Bruno continues to chase the bug around until the insect sends him clumsily sprawling back into the small tent that sends the clouded swarm of fleas churning up and chasing after Bruno who is sent into manic itching fits as he yelps and races through the circus grounds, depositing some of the invaders all around the circus grounds with interesting results. Bruno thinks that he'd get away from the biting insects if he ducks into the cannon, but the barker announces "the human cannon" and Bruno is sent booming up over the circus grounds with the fleas following too close behind. They all land somewhere amid the clown orchestra and a frenetic version of "The Poet and the Peasant" begins, a familiar piece used perhaps at every cartoon studio for similar antics, as this time the clowns start scratching in perfect rhythm. The trombone player blows wildly on his instrument, revealing that Bruno is there, blocking the clown's ability to play until he and the remaining fleas are ejected out over the circus once again. Eventually, the fleas sail over the grounds like a wafting smoke screen and we are treated to a wild series of montage reaction shots, similar to the opening montage, only now, the fleas are seen, almost as black dots of snowy interference like what one used to see on old TV sets as all circus acts, including the many animals in the zoo areas, are sent rolling and tearing up their cages, including one elephant who breaks his chains and manages to fling himself out into the orchestra pit, sending the scratching clowns up into the air. We continue with more montages now at top speed--you certainly almost have to slow the film down to catch all that is happening in almost every corner of the screen, until we see the elephant that broke its chains a few moments earlier, come racing at us, mouth wide open and roaring his disapproval. More montaged shots of the Arabian horses running in all directions and, finally, Bosko and Honey come rolling out, with an exhausted Honey still giggling "Oh Bosko, I had the mostest fun, I'm just exhausted!", and Bosko exasperatedly asking "Where's Bruno?" He gets his answer when, offscreen we hear Bruno howling "Hey, what's the idea? I didn't do anything..." and the camera cuts across to see that the hapless dog is being physically booted off the circus grounds for creating his disturbance. Yes, this cartoon moves so fast, ending with the iris out on the test-your-strength bell as poor Bruno lands in a heap, launching the hammer and ringing that bell. It is perhaps the most exhausting Bosko cartoon in the whole HAPPY HARMONIES series, with so much fine detail that you wonder if all of this was rotoscoped. It is possible that Hugh Harmon did practice rotoscoping, but so much of a surreal edge came out of this cartoon that you don't really know exactly where any rotoscoping ends and the full cartoon begins, or vice versa. It is a cartoon worth showing to those who have condemned the HAPPY HARMONIES series as one that spends way too much time trying to out-Disney Disney or just be cheek-pinchingly cute. While Disney elements are at work here as far as detailed drawings and camera work, etc., there is too much else here that separates this cartoon from Hugh Harmon's former boss. Harmon has this obsession with a single gag here; the swarm of fleas seems to become ominously large with each new intrusion on the circus performances and zoo life. It all sends the eyeballs spinning in one's head, almost as if we, ourselves, as viewers were sitting in chairs that suddenly were sent spinning amid all this action. In that sense, this is an exhilerating ride and worth the viewing. I would give this film three stars out of five for that alone! After all, animation of the 1930's meant to keep us in awe of spectacle, which is why we dubbed the decade "the wide-eyed '30's". Perhaps the entire original HAPPY HARMONIES series will find its way to DVD's and we'll get to see this film fully restored. With all its action sequences spinning around the viewer, it deserves to be seen only as the best possible closest thing to an original theatrical master, looking as good as when it first premiered in theaters in 1937 so the viewers can better examine the fine details of the chaos!! Beautiful stuff!! Kevin Wollenweber