Nobody's perfect; even the great animators Dave and Max Fleischer - the creators of animation Hall Of Fame characters like "Koko The Clown," "Betty Boop" and "Popeye."
However, "Grumpy" is certainly not a good effort. I don't know if I've ever seen a good Grumpy cartoon. He's an obnoxious little guy with a raspy, irritating voice and the cartoons simply aren't funny. What were the Fleicher's thinking?
I don't think the Grumpy cartoons caught on with the public, anyway, as "Gabby" lasted a little less than two years and only eight cartoons were made. National critics today admit the Gabby stories were lame.
This particular cartoon is a prime example. Grumpy insists he knows what a "rubberneck kango" is, but really has no idea. He has to deliver it from a crate to a rural zoo. He constantly mistakes the baby kangaroo for the mother; the little guy for the big guy. He thinks the animal keeps changing size. He can't see the big one five feet away? Anyway, that's the whole joke in here and I never laughed once. I doubt if anyone would, especially animal-lovers who would recoil at Gabby trying to beat up the little baby roo. It's pretty despicable.
