Bubbling Troubles

The "plot" of this short, such as it is, involves Alfalfa drinking Butch's "dynamite" which swells his belly in an unconvincing special effect. Of course, it's not really dynamite, but some strange stomach medicine which works via some strange unlikely-even-for-a-cartoon logic. There are no laughs in this short at ALL, and the punchline is particularly lame.

Spanky and Alfalfa were too old for this stuff, and it's no wonder that this was Tommy Bond's final short. Everybody's acting is horrendously forced and stilted, particularly Darla and Spanky. And let's not even talk about Robert Blake, who keeps shoving people aside so he can stay in camera view. MGM really was on their way to destroying this series, despite occasional decent efforts like "The Big Premiere."