The Goofy Gophers

This article is about the 1947 cartoon. For the characters, see Goofy Gophers.

The Goofy Gophers
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Airdate:	25 January 1947 Blue Ribbon reissue: 23 July 1955
Runtime:	7 min. 11 sec. (reissue)
Series:	Looney Tunes
MPAA Number:	11918
Production Number:	1021 1375 (reissue)
Copyright Renewed:	2 January 1974
Starring:	Goofy Gophers Watchdog Bugs Bunny (cameo)
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc Stan Freberg (uncredited)
Director:	Bob Clampett (started, uncredited) Arthur Davis (finished, uncredited)
Written By:	Warren Foster
Producer:	Eddie Selzer (uncredited)
Animated By:	Manny Gould Don Williams Cal Dalton J.C. Melendez
Layout Artist:	Thomas McKimson
Background Artist:	Philip DeGuard
Film Editor:	Treg Brown (uncredited)
Musician:	Carl Stalling

The Goofy Gophers is a 1947 Looney Tunes short started by Bob Clampett and finished by Arthur Davis.

Plot

A watchdog is guarding a vegetable garden and falling asleep. He spots two gophers eating carrots. The dog disguises himself as a tomato vine and poses as an actual plant in the garden. The Gophers see the tomato vine, grab a bunch of vegetables, and throw a pumpkin on the dog before striking him with a shovel. Following this, the dog chases the gophers, only to get stuck in the hole by the shovel on his face.

The Gophers continue to outwit their canine nemesis. Among the dog's botched attempts to get rid of the rodents:

1. As the gophers wear makeshift bonnets out of vegetables and steal away the vegetables. "Well, toodle loo, Carmen!" "See ya tomorrow, Hedda honey!" The dog digs the hole to look for them, only to get splattered by a tomato by one of the gophers. And when the gophers taunt the dog with silly faces, then the dog gets a pair of garden shears to kill the gophers frequently missing them. While the dog is distracted, the gophers light a match on the dog's foot. The dog, discovering his foot on fire, quickly rushes to a bucket of water to put out the fire.
2. The dog tries to catch the gophers while they steal vegetables one-by-one (playing to the Latin-flavored tune of "Mysterious Mose"). When the straightforward attempt fails (the dog gets bopped in the nose by one of the gophers) the dog disguises himself as a scarecrow ("Once again, me razor-keen mind comes to the rescue!"). Sure enough, the dog (disguised as a scarecrow) gets taken away, but gets punched out of the hole without the disguise, knocking him out cold. The scarecrow quickly shows up with a telegram reading "WE'RE VEGETARIANS, YOU SCREWBALL!!!"
3. The dog tries to pull out a celery retrieved by the gophers from underground. As the dog pulls out the celery stick, the gophers tie his tail to it in the other hole, causing him to pull himself aloop into the hole, rendering him stuck in the ground. While the dog is stuck, the gophers run him over with a roller, knocking the dog further into the ground. The gophers then mock the dog "Silly Boy!"
4. Next the dog decides to get the gophers out of the hole with his bare hands. The gophers hand him a grenade, The dog, thinking that the grenade is the gophers, tries to retrieve it out of the hole, but only manages to get the pin out of the grenade, activating the grenade in the process. The dog, mistakenly believing the grenade pin is a diamond ring, stares at it vainly ("Stunning, isn't it?"), not realizing that the dog is standing where the grenade is. The grenade explodes directly where the dog is, charring him and knocking him out silly.
5. The dog uses a hand puppet in the shape of a cute female gopher. The two gophers fell in love at first sight of the puppet and take turns to dance with it. When one of the Gophers dances with the puppet, the Gopher accidentally removed the puppet, exposing the dog's two fingers. Realizing what's going on, the gophers sneak up a mousetrap on the dog's fingers, which sends the dog yelling in pain when it snaps its fingers.
6. The dog creates a booby trap by fusing a celery stick with a bomb. When the dog lights the fuse, the Gophers cut the fuse wire, and create a fake explosion via blowing a large paper bag and bursting it. The dog, hearing the fake explosion, believes that he had got rid of the Gophers, guards the vegetable garden and falls asleep.

Eventually, the Gophers launch the dog, via rocket, into outer space towards the moon. The Gophers, now triumphant, gloat that they will have all the carrots to themselves. But suddenly a familiar carrot-chomping noise is heard; Bugs Bunny (whose voice is noticeably sped-up for this cameo) is leaning against a tall pile of carrot stumps, who then says "Well, now I wouldn't say that!", and begins laughing.

Caricatures

• John Barrymore
• Carmen Miranda
• Hedda Hopper
• Richard LeGrand - "Well, now I wouldn't say that!"

Music Cues

• Let's Sing a Song About Suzie (by Mack Gordon)
  • Plays during the opening credits.
• Merrily We Roll Along (by Murray Mencher)
  • (Merrie Melodies theme music) heard when one of the gophers begins acting like Bugs Bunny.
• The Wish That I Wish Tonight (Music by M.K. Jerome - Lyrics by Jack Scholl)
  • Plays when the Gophers gather vegetables while pulling the dog by his nose.
• Mysterious Mose (by Walter Doyle)
  • A Latin-flavored version of the musical number plays as the vegetables disappear one-by-one.
• Let's Sing a Song About Suzie (by Mack Gordon)
  • Plays again when the Gophers is picking vegetables.
• The Wish That I Wish Tonight (Music by M.K. Jerome - Lyrics by Jack Scholl)
  • Plays again briefly when the lady Gopher appears.
• Minuet in G (by Ludwig van Beethoven)
  • Played when the Gophers dance with the hand puppet.
• Let's Sing a Song About Suzie (by Mack Gordon)
  • Plays again when the Gophers prepare and send the Watchdog into space.
• Rock-a-Bye Baby (by Effie I. Canning)
  • Plays when the moon blows up into four crescents.
• The Wish That I Wish Tonight (Music by M.K. Jerome - Lyrics by Jack Scholl)
  • Plays again at the end after the Gophers get rid of the Watchdog and Bugs Bunny appears.

Availability

8mm Associated Artists Productions

(1992) LaserDisc
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes: Volume 2, Side 9: Best Supporting Players

Streaming

Boomerang App (2018 - )

HBO Max (2020 - 2023) (restored with the USA 1995 Turner print soundtrack)

Max (2023 - ) (restored with the USA 1995 Turner print soundtrack)

Production

Bob Clampett abruptly left Warner Bros. Cartoons on May 7th, 1945, leaving 5 cartoons in-production or unfinished. "The Goofy Gophers" was among three cartoons that Arthur Davis had to complete following his new position as director. Unlike "Bacall to Arms" and "The Big Snooze" (both of which were far into production upon Clampett's departure), Clampett had only worked on the dialog track with Mel Blanc and Stan Freberg, which Davis used to finish the short. He told Michael Mallory that “It was up to me to use it or not use it. I listened to the soundtrack and the voices were kind of cute, so I thought, ‘Why redo it?’”

Goofs

• When Bugs Bunny appears at the end of this cartoon, his voice is unusually sped up. This is because the tape of Mel Blanc's voice recording in the switch between Davis' and Clampett's direction was not slowed down properly.
• The Goofy Gophers' voices switch back and forth throughout this first cartoon, sometimes even in mid-sentence. This would be quite different from the rest of the series, in which each character maintained his own distinctive voice throughout.
• When the Watchdog says "Stunning, isn't it," his mouth doesn't move.

Notes

• This is one of the few cartoons that Clampett had planned before he left the studio in 1945. Like this short, "Bacall to Arms" and "The Big Snooze" were finished by Arthur Davis, while "Birth of a Notion" was finished by Robert McKimson, and "Tweetie Pie" was finished by Friz Freleng.
• This marks the first appearance of the Goofy Gophers, who would appear in eight more shorts in the Golden Age of American Animation.
  • This cartoon also marks the first appearance of an unnamed dog, who would only appear in two later cartoons featuring the Goofy Gophers, the two shorts being "Two Gophers from Texas" and "A Ham in a Role".
• This is the first time Bugs Bunny appears in a short directed by Arthur Davis, although has only a cameo appearance in the short, Davis' never made a short starring Bugs Bunny until about two years later with "Bowery Bugs", during the time that his unit was beginning to dissolve due to a budget problem with the studio, and it turned out to be the only Bugs Bunny cartoon Arthur Davis ever directed.
• Like the Gophers, their adversary the unnamed dog from this cartoon is redesigned in his next appearances, albeit with with dog's character designs varying from each short.
• In this cartoon, the Goofy Gophers have gray and white fur, much like Bugs' fur colors; but beginning with their next cartoon "Two Gophers from Texas", the Gophers have their fur colors changed to brown and tan.
• Five cartoons originally in the Looney Tunes series, including "The Goofy Gophers", were re-released as Blue Ribbon cartoons in the 1954-55 season. Out of those five, four of them, including "The Goofy Gophers", kept their original closing titles. Three other cartoons from the Looney Tunes series that were re-released in that season also kept their original ending titles. They are: "What's Brewin', Bruin?", "Crowing Pains", and "Hop, Look and Listen". The fifth cartoon, "House Hunting Mice" was another Looney Tunes short re-released in the 1954-55 season as well, but it got the reissue ending titles since the cartoon was originally in Cinecolor, while the other four cartoons' original color process was Technicolor.
• The 1995 dubbed version replaces the ending "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" theme with the "Merrily We Roll Along" theme. As the restored version's soundtrack is sourced from the dubbed version, the error is still present in that release.
• This short's Vitaphone release number is 1514.

Gallery

Title Card (Blue Ribbon Reissue, HD Quality)

Title Card (Blue Ribbon Reissue, unrestored a.a.p. print)

Production model sheet, using drawings by Don Williams.

Background painting