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So much average

Just perfect...

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

" . . . is the Root of All Evil," and Donald Trump has been proving the Bard Righter and Righter As Time Goes By. Warner Bros. tried to warn America about The Donald with this animated short, DOUGH RAY ME-OW. Parrot Louie represents Trump, as the only book the fowl talker owns is "Rooster's Millions," and the Tower-Water-Wine&Steak Man sports a trademark Rooster Haircut. When Louie learns that he can inherit $1 million by slaying his trusting house-mate, Heathcliff Fat Cat, Louie hatches one murder plot after another. Heathcliff seems doomed to a shorter shelf life than a Trump wife's. But despite Louie sticking a claw into every fire, all of his conflagrations produce back-drafts aimed at himself. He exercises his Art of the Deal with the neighborhood bulldog, but this only succeeds in flattening the canine. Louie's attempt to electrocute Heathcliff short circuits, his William Tell shot misses the mark, and his train attack gets derailed. Even Louie's seeming success with dynamite is short-lived, as the Dirty Bird snatches Defeat from the Jaws of Victory by opening his Big Mouth. Does any of this sound familiar?

Arthur Davis's 'Dough Ray Me-ow' is an absolutely hysterical cartoon and easily my favourite of the director's films. Starring two boldly drawn one-shot characters, a grumpy green parrot named Louie and an ugly and ludicrously moronic cat named Heathcliff, 'Dough Ray Me-ow' quickly sets up its dark scenario leaving ample time to have tons of fun with it. When Louie discovers that Heathcliff stands to inherit a large sum of money which will go to Louie in the event of the cat's disappearance, the parrot sets about trying to dispense with his "friend" permanently. It's an idea filled with potential which becomes even funnier when Louie realises to his horror that Heathcliff isn't only startlingly stupid, he is also practically indestructible! 'Dough Ray Me-ow' is slightly cheap looking with a style that's akin to TV animation but it fits the feel of the cartoon beautifully, the more stylised character designs reflecting the bigger exaggerations of their personalities. There are loads of great bits but my favourite is the train sequence, the final battle over a stick of dynamite and a series of throwaway gags involving Heathcliff's novel methods for cracking nuts. One of the great one-shot cartoons, 'Dough Ray Me-ow' starred characters who were perhaps too extreme to ever be considered as potential stars but their one appearance still delights me and makes me laugh out loud to this day.

One of the few cartoons directed by Arthur Davis during the approximately two years when he headed what had been Bob Clampett's unit (Warner Bros. discontinued it in 1948), "Dough Ray Me-ow" shows something that we Looney Tunes fans know well: the more that you try to hurt someone, the more you get hurt. Think of Wile E. Coyote going after Road Runner, or Sylvester going after Tweety.Of course, it's always a hoot to see how this poetic justice plays out. In this case, wise-guy parrot Louie reads in his master's will that the inheritance will go not to Louie, but to the master's oafish cat Heathcliff. So, Louie goes about trying to kill Heathcliff, but the latter seems to have the best luck in the world! Which of course means that one mishap after another befalls Louie.So, this was probably a place holder in between the really great cartoons, but you really gotta love what happens here. I guess that Davis never had a chance to develop his own specific style, but he released a few neat cartoons during his brief directorial career (namely "Bowery Bugs"). Worth seeing.

There are quite a few shorts which have been made that were modeled on the characters of George and Lenny from Of Mice and Men and this cartoon is along those lines-with a modification in the standard riff played in such cartoons. As I want to talk specifically about parts of this short, this is a spoiler warning: Heathcliff is possibly the most moronic character to show up in cartoons-and that's saying something. Heathcliff has to be told to BREATHE at one point by his "friend", a parrot by the name of Louie. Heathcliff is a very large cat. Why Heathcliff doesn't introduce Louie to his digestive system can only be blamed on the fact that he clearly has only one active brain cell.The start of the cartoon has Heathcliff rushing in to have Louie solve various problems, much to the exasperation of Louie. Then Louie reads to Heathcliff "what is on this pretty paper" Heathcliff brings to his attention-it's a will leaving a million dollars to Heathcliff, with an addendum which gives the money to Louie if something happens to Heathcliff. Greed jumps on Louie's head and he decides to make something happen. Louie isn't exactly a Rhodes scholar himself, because all he has to do is just stop helping Heathcliff and the cat will give up the ghost inside of two hours, tops.There are a bunch of hilarious sight gags involving Heathcliff and eating (and cracking) nuts. Louie's attempts on Heathcliff's life are as funny as they are unsuccessful. He tries to electrocute him by having him play a game of "Radio", tries to bribe a bulldog into taking Heathcliff out and so on, with zero success.Finally, he tells Heathcliff it's his birthday and gives him a cake with three candles and a stick of dynamite. Heathcliff decides he's only three years old and gives Louie the stick of dynamite. There follows a lengthy tug of war between the two regarding his age until Heathcliff finds his birth certificate and it says he's four.The ending is hilarious and I won't spoil it here. This short is available on Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 4 and is well worth seeing. Recommended.