Dog Daze is a 1937 Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng.
Title[]
The title is a pun on "dog days."
Plot[]
A bunch of dogs and their owners are all heading to the dog show. Several owners resemble their dogs. A really big woman comes in to find a seat. She pushes her way through the row, but by the time she finds a seat, all of the guys have been forced to the ground.
Dogs in another room are being judged and looked over. There's a bird dog, a doggy that whistles while sitting in his cage, an Irish setter over looking its babies that hatched from eggs, a police dog yelling things, the Spitz, and a St. Bernard Booze Hound that howls a song while hiccuping. The last dog is a hot dog.
Now back on the show, a mysterious light is going over dog ads like Asbestos dog miscuits, itching canine art galleries, K-9 kennel, and so on and so on. And now it's time for the show to begin!
First to perform, The Scotties, which are two Scottish dogs dancing a jig. Then the Russian Wolf Hounds also do a dance after showing how skinny they are. At the end of their dance it reveals there are two little black dogs on their heads and all four run off stage. The next act, titled "Dog Eat Dog" involves a dog eating the Hot Dog from earlier. Next comes "Little Man You've Had a Busy Day", involving an adorable little puppy sitting there.
The Prairie Dogs perform next, but it turns out they're not really dogs, not that they mind. They stand there and perform a song anyway. As they do, the drunk dog from earlier howls along until a muzzle is shoved on his face. While trying to yank it off, the booze hound accidentally falls into a box of skates and begins to skate around. He incidentally interrupts the Prairie dogs as they perform. Then the next act involves a very shy puppy that didn't want to perform the poem its owner gave it. It criticizes the poem but continues anyway despite the many distractions, like the booze hound accidentally releasing a whole bunch of fleas on the poor puppy. The puppy continues reciting the poem, its voice much quicker and high-pitched until it runs off stage.
Meanwhile, the booze hound is still recovering when he notices a bunch of fleas are in his alcohol and have drunk much of it. A group of fleas sing while hiccuping every so often, then finally they all lay down.
Availability[]
Streaming[]
Censorship[]
- There was possible long-lost footage omitted between the scene of William Powell and Asta walking by a pole with Asta immediately stopping off screen and the scene of dogs and their owners walking into the dog show.[2]
Notes[]
- Since The Golden Age of Looney Tunes LaserDisc release replaces the original ending title card with the 1937-38 ending card, no print with the original ending card was released to home video.
- A prototype Turner "dubbed version" print of "Dog Daze" aired in the past on TV, which has red borders around the opening titles, and preserves the original ending card and ending music (no disclaimer and no borders on the ending card). The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Volume 5, LaserDisc release, however, uses the official American version with red borders around the opening titles and the altered ending title card. The European Turner "dubbed version" print on the other hand replaces the ending card with the 1947-48 dubbed card, replaces the ending music with the 1941-55 rendition of "Merrily We Roll Along" and has dark blue borders seen around the opening titles.
- In addition, the American and European Turner prints had different color corrections; while both USA Turner prints have a cleaner, 3-strip Techncolor color correction, the European dubbed print, on the other hand, has a darker, more faded-looking 2-strip Technicolor-like color correction. This similar kind of massive differences in color corrections in the American and European prints also occurs in the Turner "dubbed version" print of "Egghead Rides Again".
- While the American Turner "dubbed" version print retains the original ending music, the European Turner print changes it to that of the 1941-55 rendition of Merrily We Roll Along. As the restoration on HBO Max uses the European Turner print's soundtrack, the error persists in that version.
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