Bosko the Doughboy (1931)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Good concept, poorly executed.

As Good As It Gets

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The Bosko cartoons may not be animation masterpieces, but they are fascinating as examples of Looney Tunes in their early days before the creation of more compelling characters and funnier and more creative cartoons. There are some good cartoons, as well as some average or less ones.'Bosko the Doughboy', one of the better Bosko cartoons by quite some way, is a welcome return to the war-oriented theme explored in 'Dumb Patrol', another one of the better Bosko cartoons. Again the story is slight and slightly flimsy and a couple of parts are not for the easily offended.On the other hand, the animation is good. Not exactly refined but fluid and crisp enough with some nice detail, it is especially good in the meticulous backgrounds and some remarkably flexible yet natural movements for Bosko. The music doesn't disappoint either, its infectious energy, rousing merriment, lush orchestration and how well it fits with the animation is just a joy.The gags are quite inventive and fun with a brave and successful attempt at being darker and grimmer than usual for a Bosko cartoon, Bosko while not a great character is more compelling than usual and the pacing is lively enough.In summary, very good. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Believe it or not, there were a few American cartoons from both the silent and early sound periods which used the Great War as fodder for comedy! Given the destructiveness of that particular conflict, it seems tasteless that these cartoons should treat the subject matter so lightly.But heck, I have to admit I thought Bokso the Doughboy (1931) was pretty amusing.I'm not a big fan of the early Looney Tunes; indeed, Disney and the Fleischers easily overshadowed them in the early 1930s. By no means is this Bosko short bucking that trend of mediocrity, but it is a lot of fun with its dark humor and mildly imaginative gags. Bosko himself is still a largely uninteresting character, but that is less noticeable than usual here.

I'm writing a review on Bosko The Doughboy, a 7 minute long cartoon only because I think it's really really funny, and very anti-PC. It's definitely the funniest Bosko cartoon I've seen, and although I doubt I'm in the same critical league as my fellow reviewers here, I've seen enough Bosko to know what the usual humor level in one is. So what were my favorite parts? The violence for sure, that slaps you in the face, like a very early Popeye fight, only in this the cartoon characters croak! The part with the flea caught me totally unprepared and actually made me laugh out loud very loudly! The animation is really good, much better then I was expecting. It's on par with stuff Warner was doing in the 40's maybe even better there are a lot of details going on and movement. Highly recommend it for adult viewer's, for kids too if they are at least pre-teen. As far as one reviewers question about what war it was, Doughboy is a nickname for American soldiers in World War One so there you go. It is not going to demonize an enemy since it was made in 1931 and Germany was at peace with the world. The same things would happen after World War Two where cartoon characters may be in the war but the enemy is unseen. You don't want to ruin a countries market not only for that cartoon, but also all the movies you are making with bad press. You also see that happening in TV series where although you see the enemy, most times they are not demonized (unless SS or Gestapo) and their abilities are made more respectful so as not to offend that countries market from selling your TV shows and movies in it. For Bosko The Doughboy I rank it a 10 of 10 on the scale of all the Bosko episodes and a 9 of 10 for cartoons, I really liked it.

Bosko shorts generally have very good animation and there are some very nice visual sequences. I want to talk about some specifics here, so there are spoilers: This is the second war-oriented Bosko (after the earlier Dumb Patrol), both using World War I as the setting. While Bosko was an aviator in the first one and it was a good deal lighter in tone and mood, Bosko is an infantryman in the trenches in this one and some of the gags are actually a bit like "gallows" humor-characters get shot and collapse in comically exaggerated manners, weapons are hit and "die" just like the other characters. This being a Bosko short, he and other characters play music at odd times and in unusual ways.There are some very dark and somewhat serious animated bits here, mixed in with the comedic absurdities throughout the short. Bosko has a running bit with his helmet whenever he tries to get out of a trench. Some of the typical gags found regularly in Bosko shorts are here, of course-Bosko is eating from a can when we first see him, in the same exaggerated style the animators tended to use, for instance. There's also a gag involving a pair of long johns and the back flap in this one. That said, there are some stylistic flourishes here that aren't standard in a Bosko and this is a fairly good short which holds up well after roughly 75 years. Well worth seeing. Recommended.