Anyone that reads the weekly Thunderbean Thursdays with any regularity knows that I especially love Scrappy. The first released of the series, Yelp Wanted, really is essential viewing for anyone that loves origins of 30s characters- and, happily, it’s an enjoyable viewing experience, too!

In this short, Scrappy’s having a great day at first, but soon discovers his dog Yippy has fallen ill. To help him out, Scrappy gets a coin from his well—protected bank (stored under his bed) and is soon chasing his coin down the street, through rough house ally. After a series of difficulties, he manages to get his coin back, gets the needed “Dr. Woof’s Dog Tonic”, then faces a series of neighborhood kids, who do everything they can to steal it. After a duck swallows it (and hatches it back out), Scrappy finally gets back to Yippy, smashing the hard-fought bottle to pieces. The good news is Yippy is better now, having delivered a plethora of puppies. Yippy was a her all along.

There’s lots of great things going on in Yelp Wanted; some of the animation and shots are really well-timed, while others seem primitive in execution, especially compared to their films just a year later. My guess is this is the second or third Scrappy cartoon produced (with the first likely being Battle of the Barn). Dick Huemer’s design and direction is a lot of fun, and he’s experimenting a lot with shot design and timing as well as moving camera ideas throughout. This cartoon seems to have a lot of elements of New York cartoons, including wise-guy Scrappy’s urchin-kid voice. The sequence with Scrappy dropping the coin (and the camera following) is especially well-done, and the surrealism of Scrappy’s coin being sympathetic to him is a nice little touch. Scrappy hiding under a woman’s dress, then apologizing (“Par-Don-Me!”) is silly, and hard not to at least smile at– and works well with his personality. His disappointment at dropping the tonic at the end, then collapsing and crying is an especially well-timed piece of animation.

While it’s not as polished as the cartoon series would be soon after, it’s an enjoyable little cartoon. One wishes this sort of care in writing this character with his personality could have followed-through better in other shorts since it’s off to such a good start. It’s one of my favorites of the series. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one.

This is a recent scan from my 16mm print. Thanks to Thad Komorowski for selling this one to me – I’ve wanted a print again for many years.

Have a good week all!