The Queen Was in the Parlor

The early days of Looney Tunes studio were very problematic. They tried out a variety of characters and none of them really stuck with the public. The best of them probably was Bosco...and that sure isn't saying much. It's clear when you've seen a lot of these films that they were really struggling to find a sense of identity...though the animation was mostly very good. But he stories, characters and all the singing really make the shorts age poorly.

In "The Queen Was in the Parlor", you see a lot of the problems the studio was dealing with in the shorts. For no particular reason, everyone keeps singing and it really seems to take the place of plot at times. And, like many of their films, a hero arrives to save the day...in this case, it's Goopy Geer...a dog who has long faded into obscurity after his three appearances. It's not so much that he's unlikable...but he's more ill-defined and unfunny...a common problem with their stars of the early to mid-30s.

Apart from the singing, the plot (as it is) is very scant. Only at the end does a villain appear and Goopy quickly dispatches him. Well animated but tremendously dull...with no laughs I could discern.

Who are these idiots who constantly whine on here "no laughs to be had"?? WHO confuses a cartoon with a comedy?? A cartoon is meant to be enjoyable, to be entertaining and not "make you laugh". And this provided just that.

Fun animations, cute cartoon faces, silly moving at the knees and 1930s cartoon singing. Plus black and white! What more can you ask for?! The evil beings that took over Hollywood then started drawing completely moronic cartoons where all characters beat each other up. THAT is funny to the algae resident eater here?? There is absolutely NOTHING funny about violence. Cartoon violence teaches kids that it's normal to beat on each other. I loathed that type of cartoons as a kid, and I still do. Always found them very disturbing. When you find out the history behind who drew them, then you'll understand.

This one has a fight but it's minimal, at the cartoon conclusion. B&W cartoons are my favorite. Please: don't listen to the bah-humbug wannabe ruler of microscopic fish food. As usual, he gets it all wrong, always 8/10 for a very charming cartoon from an era I wish I could have lived in.

In the early days for animation at Warner Brothers, like most studios, you had attempts to develop continuing characters. Some, like Bosko and Buddy, had fairly long runs. Others were tried out in a handful of shorts and for one reason or another didn't last long. Foxy is an example of this and this short contains another, a character named Goopy Gear. Goopy is the court jester and the hero here. There isn't anything special about this short or the character, which I suspect is why he didn't stay around that long. Worth watching, but not terribly important or fascinating.