Bartholomew Versus the Wheel
Bartholomew Versus the Wheel is a 1964 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Robert McKimson.[1] It was released theatrically on February 29, 1964.[2]
| Bartholomew Versus the Wheel | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Robert McKimson |
| Produced by | David H. DePatie |
| Story by | John Dunn |
| Starring | Mel Blanc Leslie Barringer |
| Music by | Bill Lava |
| Animation by | George Grandpre Ted Bonnickson Warren Batchelder |
| Layouts by | Bob Givens |
| Backgrounds by | Robert Gribbroek |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release date | February 29, 1964 |
Running time | 6 minutes |
| Language | English |
This was the second of three cartoons to use the "modern" abstract Warner Bros. opening and closing sequences created by Chuck Jones;[3] this sequence was previously used on Now Hear This and would be used once more in Señorella and the Glass Huarache. The visual style of the cartoon was done in the art of cartoonist and book illustrator James Grover Thurber, who died in 1961 three years before the cartoon's release. It was also the second of two Looney Tunes cartoons that were released on the leap day of February 29th, the first one being Boom Boom from 1936.
Plot synopsis
The cartoon opens on a picture of a boy, whose offscreen voice reveals himself as the narrator and introduces the audience to his family's puppy, Bartholomew. Because of the way Bartholomew can bark, the boy's father states that Bartholomew might grow up to be a good watchdog (in which Bartholomew demonstrates his barking to a Wild West outlaw on TV). Despite his barking, Bartholomew doesn't bark at cats, especially the family's cat whose bigger size than Bartholomew's allows him to bully Bartholomew by eating up his dog food. Bartholomew is also capable of doing tricks, which impresses the boy and his friends, until the cat steals away Bartholomew's audience by performing tricks of his own.
One day, Bartholomew is in the park, sitting and minding his own business by watching a butterfly flying around, when a toddler rides by on a scooter and, without looking where he's going, runs over Bartholomew's tail by accident, making him yelp in pain. After Bartholomew blows on his sore tail, he spies the scooter's wheels and, seeing that the wheels did this to his tail, gets mad enough to shake all over. With that, Bartholomew catches up to the toddler and punishes him for running over his tail by biting and ripping off his scooter's wheels, which makes the toddler start crying, as he doesn't know what he did wrong to deserve it. Bartholomew then digs a hole to bury the wheels, but as he takes the scooter wheels over to the hole, another child's toy train races harmlessly past. Even though its wheels are too small to do any harm to him, Bartholomew now views all wheels as being dangerous to his safety and well being, so he chases after the toy train and rips off its wheels too. Straight after, he buries the wheels in the hole.
As the months pass, whenever Bartholomew sees a form of transportation or a child's toy that has wheels, he chases after it and rips off the wheels. While he's still a little puppy, he rips off little wheels from tricycles (as shown from one belonging to a blonde haired girl in a white blue polka dot dress) and bicycles (as shown from one belonging to the newspaper delivery boy), but as he grows up into a big dog, he switches to bigger wheels from cars (one man's car is so small that Bartholomew just takes the whole car without biting off the wheels) and trucks (though when he tries to bite off the wheel from an ACME moving van, he ends up bursting the tire and gets blown back). The only wheels he doesn't dare bite off are the ones from the truck belonging to Mr. Wembley, the town's dog catcher, proving that while Bartholomew doesn't know the true purpose of wheels, he's smart enough to know his boundaries and make exceptions.
Out of all the wheels Bartholomew has chased and caught, the only wheels that remain elusive to him are the ones on the landing gears of airplanes. One day, Bartholomew goes down to the airport and catches sight of an airplane about to take off. As the plane taxis to the runway, Bartholomew digs his way in under the fence and chases after the plane's wheel, but just as he gets close enough to try to bite it, the wheel leaves the ground as the plane takes off. Not one to give up, Bartholomew spies another plane getting ready to take off on another runway and chases after its wheels too. This time, Bartholomew succeeds in catching up to the plane's wheels, but just as he bites down on it, the wheel leaves the ground as its too big to rip off and it pulls Bartholomew into the plane's undercarriage as the plane takes off and flies away.
Back home, the boy grows worried when Bartholomew doesn't come home for dinner. He calls out Bartholomew's name several times, but Bartholomew doesn't come running back. Despite being upset at Bartholomew for ripping off their wheels, all the town's children and even the grownups join in the search, looking for Bartholomew in his favorite places to go (some children even look in through an old wheelchair bound man's beard). The people even go so far as to attack Mr. Wembley, but Mr. Wembley vouches that, just like everybody else, even he's in the dark as to where Bartholomew could be.
Meanwhile, its revealed that the plane that took Bartholomew away was delivering aid packages (possibly Peace Corps ones) to a fictional and unnamed African nation set in the Sahara Desert and has just landed there. As Bartholomew looks at his new surroundings, wondering where he is, one man who is described by the boy as not wearing any clothes (except a turban and short pants) comes up to him and says something in his own language (possibly his way of saying "Oooh. Bad dog!"). Bartholomew then spies three attractive looking dogs and a dog his size (also wearing a turban) go by and instantly becomes smitten with love to the three dogs, but the turban wearing dog barks fiercely at him, as if to say "Back off, commoner. They're mine". As Bartholomew wanders around, none of the African nation's people look at him or pet him. Worst of all, because everybody uses elephants and camels for transportation, there aren't any wheels for Bartholomew to chase and bite off (though they use modern traffic lights to control the elephant and camel traffic).
One day, after spending several days of wandering, Bartholomew comes back to the airport and looks at a poster advertising trips to the United States of America for some time. As he begins crying and wishing he could go back home, he spies another poster that advertises flights. Remembering the airplane wheel that took him to his predicament, Bartholomew gets the clever idea that if the plane wheel got him into this mess, it could very well get him out of it again, so he excitedly rushes into the airport, knocks over the man he'd met before at the gate, and bites onto the wheel of the next plane going back to America. The man curses at Bartholomew, but softens up when he spies the plane taking off (in his own language, he is probably saying "You stupid mongrel! How dare you knock me down! I oughta turn you into bone soup for this! Oooh! Big tin bird.").
The next day, Bartholomew arrives back in America and catches a train back to his hometown, where, as it turns out, all the townspeople are waiting for him with open arms, having heard about his homecoming from a soldier returning home from military service (as one man in the crowd is holding up a sign reading "Tippecanoe and Bartholomew"). With everybody glad to have Bartholomew home again, they pardon him for biting off all their wheels, the mayor gives him a ride in his open topped limousine, and the toddler who started Bartholomew's hatred of wheels apologizes to Bartholomew for accidentally running over his tail. To everybody's surprise, the unexpected trip to Africa has taught Bartholomew that wheels are only good or bad depending on the people who use them and, to show everybody how he's changed his own opinion about wheels, he licks them as proof that he likes them and does it to the limousine's wheels, the toddler's scooter wheels, and the blonde girl's roller-skates' wheels.
As it also turns out, Bartholomew also stops hating everything else, except cats, which dogs are supposed to hate. When Bartholomew comes home to have his first meal in days, he sneaks up behind the cat, who's sneaking Bartholomew's dog food as usual, and gives a sharp bark, which makes the cat suddenly jump and, literally, fall to pieces. Bartholomew then gives a cheeky grin as his way of showing that he's the one in charge now. The cartoon's final scene focuses back to the boy's picture and as the boy bids the audience goodbye, his picture smiles as his way of knowing that things will be different with Bartholomew from now on.
Cast and Crew
- Animation - Richard Thompson, Bob Bransford, Keith Darling
- Layouts - Bob Givens
- Backgrounds - Philip Deguard
- Story - John Dunn
- Music - Bill Lava
- Voice Characterizations - Mel Blanc, Leslie Barrings
- Produced by - David Depatie
- Directed by - Robert McKimson
DVD availability
The cartoon is available as an extra feature on disc four of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6 DVD set.[4]
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. 347. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
- Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 104–106. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-05-05. Retrieved 2014-09-23.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Golden Age Cartoon Reviews
- Looney Tunes: The Ultimate Visual Guide (Hardcover) by Jerry Beck, page 73