Boyhood Daze

Boyhood Daze is a 1957 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Chuck Jones.[1] The short was released on September 20, 1957, and features young boy Ralph Phillips.[2] Following From A to Z-Z-Z-Z (1954), it is one of two cartoons in which he stars.

Plot

The cartoon starts with a baseball going through a window, breaking it, and Ralph exclaiming: "Ohhh nooo!" His mother sends him up to his bedroom until his father gets home.

Up in his room, he broods over his mistake and tries to imagine himself as a hero, first by imagining himself as a famous explorer in Africa to rescue his parents from a native tribe, then tells his father to go to his room for playing in Africa and tells his mother his insurance will cover the window and to buy a catcher's mitt with the rest.

He is then seen making paper airplanes, and wishing he was a "jet ace or something." He then is imagining himself as an Air Force pilot who thwarts a Martian invasion and is a national hero.

His third dream occurs after he hears his dad come home and can hear the distant talking of both of his parents. His imagines himself as a convict in a jail cell. A whispering voice repeats: "They're coming to get'cha, Phillips. They're coming to get'cha." He steps down, crushes out a cigarette he was apparently smoking, and faces the door like a man. The cell door opens and a silhouetted person with a booming voice says: "You're going to have to pay for this, Ralph Phillips!"

Back in reality, it turns out to be his rather gentle-demeaning father who informs Ralph that the window repair is coming out of his allowance, then lets him go outside to play.

As he runs back outside with a baseball bat and glove, he stops when he sees a cherry tree in the yard, then notices a hatchet. In the next scene he is walking towards the tree with the hatchet, and he turns into a young George Washington as the cartoon irises out.

Reception

Motion Picture Exhibitor reviewed the short on August 21, 1957: "This shows the vivid creation of Ralph, a little boy send to bed for being naughty... The ultra-modern drawings are excellent, but this is not very funny."[3]

Availability

See also

References
  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. 296. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
  2. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 104–106. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  3. Sampson, Henry T. (1998). That's Enough, Folks: Black Images in Animated Cartoons, 1900-1960. Scarecrow Press. p. 87. ISBN 978-0810832503.
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