Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!

This is the third of the three Foxy cartoons, an obnoxiously, relentlessly cheerful short that probably hastened the retirement of the lead character. Notable for the title tune and for Friz Freleng serving as an animator, this is a curio more than anything else. A few cute bits, but not terribly special or memorable in and of itself. Worth watching and recommended if you really like old black and white animation.

Apart from some shorts from Disney, the average cartoon of 1931 was rather dreadful compared to cartoons of the 40s and 50s. Instead of focusing on humor, too often cartoons focused on cutesy characters and singing....and "Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!" is a good example of that sort of thing. The cartoon stars a fox-like character who is essentially a Mickey Mouse knockoff and he is the conductor of an odd, cartoony street car. There's lots of singing and the song by the same title is used throughout the short film.

Is it any good? Well, for 1931 it's a bit better than average and compared to later ones it's pretty sad and dull. I think an overall score of 5 is reasonable.

By the way, the reason I saw this cartoon is that an amazing young Italian guy, 'bellino-angelo2014, Facebook friended me some time back and we talk movies. He recognized this song as being the same one from the end of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" and suggested I give it a look....and for that reason alone it's well worth seeing.

I guess if there is a point to this is that no matter what happens, keep smiling. And that's why there is no real conventional plot here. The main character (who is sort of mouse-like) just goes about his business, flirting with his girlfriend, driving his train/trolley, meeting obstacles along the way. But the song really takes over everything. Quite a typical 1931 cartoon where sound had transcended animation.

The second Foxy cartoon after 'Lady, Play Your Mandolin!', 'Smile, Darn Ya Smile' may not be a great cartoon but of the two cartoons it is the better-faring one.

Again, the story is thin, sometimes senseless and agreed derivative of other cartoons. While the animation is better this time round, there are still a few crude moments especially in the character designs. The very end is pretty corny and feels like a cop-out.

However, much of the animation is crisply shaded and very nicely detailed with flexible movements. Standing out especially is some interesting perspective visuals as Foxy loses control of the trolley. The music is suitably peppy, with an irresistibly infectious title song (which people will recognise as the ToonTown theme from 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?').

'Smile, Darn Ya Smile' boasts a few good gags that are quite funny, especially the hippo being deflated. Foxy, even with a still derivative character design, is a more compelling leading character this time round and more expressive.

On the whole, decent cartoon and hard not to smile along to regardless of its imperfections. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Smile Darn Ya Smile is a cartoon that has some plot similarities with Trolley Troubles, a 1927 Oswald film Harman-Ising worked on along with Disney. Both cartoons involve a cow blocking the track but both trolley operators were able to get pass. The only difference is this one has more improved graphics and makes clever use of the music.

One notable gag in the film involves Foxy using a pin to deflate a hippo, making her fit in the trolley. This gag has been branded by critics of the character as a so-called "Disney Swipe." I don't think Harman-Ising can be blamed for applying that, considering a similar one also appears in Spooks, a 1930 Oswald cartoon. Plus, it's probably not possible to patent a gag the way it's possible to copyright a film.

Due to Foxy's appearance resembling Mickey who is much more famous, a number of film fans are so quick to criticize the fox as a cheap copy of the latter. However, a document from a book called The Hand Behind the Mouse gives a much different story. In it, Hugh Harman drew pictures of mice on a portrait of Disney in 1925. A few years later, Disney and Iwerks used this idea as their basis for creating Mickey. Therefore, I guess it is true to say Harman and Ising were never imitating Disney or anyone in particular.

Why Foxy was short-lived in the Merrie Melodies series? As logical of a reason I can suggest, it's possible that he was only created as an experimental character, along with Piggy and Goopy Geer. In other words, they were intended to be just curtain raisers for Harman-Ising's main character Bosko. Bosko was a character whose popularity once rivaled Mickey until some flawed redesigning cause that guy to end up in the scrap.