The Dog is a Looney Tunes character created by Bob Clampett.
Background[]
He is a nameless yellow dog that appeared in cartoons starring the Goofy Gophers. He has been a small nemesis for the two rodents in their early appearances.
In his first appearance, he appears as a watchdog with a red nose. He attempted to get rid of the gophers from the garden for eating the vegetables.
In his second appearance, he reads a book about wildlife and tries to hunt for sustenance in the wild, only to encounter the gophers again. He attempts to hunt and eat them using the book as his guide. At the end, he regrets reading the book after being outsmarted by the rodents again.
In his final appearance, "A Ham in a Role", he wants to quit his job working for Warner Bros. Cartoons in favor of being a dramatic Shakespearean actor. This was due to his role of being "a clownish actor in comedy", which he finds humiliating. He tries to learn some new acting based off a book of William Shakespeare's works. He finds the gophers in it and throws them out, only for them to come back and torment him with literal interpretations of lines from Shakespeare works. When the gophers use a horse to kick him back to the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, he then gives up and goes back to his old job as a clownish comedy actor.
He was retired after "A Ham in a Role", with antagonist characters being interchangeably used in later Goofy Gopher cartoons.
Appearances[]
- "The Goofy Gophers" (1947)
- "Two Gophers from Texas" (1948)
- "A Ham in a Role" (1949)
Notes[]
- His speech and mannerisms are based off the famous movie actor John Barrymore.
- All of his cartoons received Blue Ribbon reissues.
- Only one of his cartoons is a Merrie Melodie. The rest are Looney Tunes.
- "Two Gophers from Texas" was his only appearance in Cinecolor. His other two appearances were in Technicolor.
- The short would later be reissued in Technicolor in 1956.
- Dogg from the What a Cartoon! short "Out and About" resembles the nameless Dog.
- In “A Ham in a Role”, the Dog is a fan of William Shakespeare.
- He shares similar traits with Zozi the Bear from "Bartok the Magnificent", as both characters have huge muzzles, posh voices, a flair for the theatrics, a wardrobe of various costumes, and love reciting quotes from dramatic stories.
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