Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!

Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!
Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!
Directed by	Rudolf Ising (uncredited)
Story by	Bob Clampett (uncredited)
Produced by	Hugh Harman; Rudolf Ising; Leon Schlesinger
Starring	Rudolf Ising (uncredited)
Music by	Frank Marsales; Abe Lyman
Animation by	Animated and Drawn by:; Isadore Freleng, Max Maxwell, Bob Clampett and Larry Martin (both uncredited)
Color process	Black-and-white (later redrawn colorized in 1992)
Production; company	Harman-Ising Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures; The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date	September 5, 1931;
Running time	7 minutes
Language	English

Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! is a 1931 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon short directed by Rudolf Ising.^[1] The short was released on September 5, 1931, and features Foxy, an early Merrie Melodies star.^[2]

This is one of only three Merrie Melodies cartoons to star Foxy; the other two are Lady, Play Your Mandolin! (August 1931) and One More Time (October 3, 1931). This short is a remake of Trolley Troubles, a Disney short featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in whose creation Hugh Harman had once been involved.

For the first time in a Warner Bros. cartoon, the short uses a gag suggested by Bob Clampett that has characters from the trolley car's advertising posters come to life and perform a bit of business. The studio would soon use gags like this very often.^[3]

A colorized version was produced in Korea. It was made by re-drawing the cels and backgrounds. The animation in this version is inferior, since many drawings were left out, causing jerky movement.

Synopsis

Foxy is a trolley engineer whose problems include a fat lady hippo who can't fit into the trolley and a set of wheels that detach from the trolley car when Foxy gets the trolley moving. Foxy picks up his vixen girlfriend and gives her a ride, but along the way, the car is blocked by a cow wearing a dress, and glasses, and who won't get off the track. A group of nearby hobos sing the title song while Foxy tries to move the cow; he finally runs the car underneath the cow and goes on his way.

The trolley then goes down a hill and runs out of control; Foxy tries to stop it, but the brakes don't work. Finally, the trolley runs off of a cliff, throwing Foxy right into the camera... and then he falls from bed, waking up from what has turned out to be just a nightmare. The radio by his bed is playing the title song, and the annoyed Foxy smashes the radio with a bedpost upon hearing it.

Reversed audio clips

At the scene where Foxy starts trying to fit the fat lady hippo in the trolley, she said something “I haven’t had any fun since I was at Manny Felders, what’s ya think?” The information about Manny Felders is not verified but according to an OSI^{[clarification needed]}, he said that it could have been an operator of a speak-easy in the Los Angeles/Hollywood area. The last clip of the scene where after Foxy deflates the fat lady hippo with a needle, she said something like “Where’s my doll?” and “looks like at the register!”

The song

The theme song later appeared in Robert Zemeckis's Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Billy Cotton recorded his own version of the song in 1931. Christoph Waltz also sang it when he hosted Saturday Night Live.

Home media

DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6
DVD - Return of the 30s Characters

Streaming

HBO Max

References

^ Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 5. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 83. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
^ Schneider, Steve (1988). That's All, Folks! : The Art of Warner Bros. Animation. Henry Holt and Co. p. 40. ISBN 0-8050-0889-6.

External links

Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! at IMDb
Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! at the Big Cartoon DataBase

[Beck-1] Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 5. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.

[2] Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 83. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved June 6, 2020.

[3] Schneider, Steve (1988). That's All, Folks! : The Art of Warner Bros. Animation. Henry Holt and Co. p. 40. ISBN 0-8050-0889-6.

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