The Final Episode #24: Looney Tunes "Injun Trouble"

 

The Golden Age of Animation lasted from the 1920s to the 1960s. Felix the Cat. Mickey Mouse. Donald Duck. Heckle and Jeckle. Tom and Jerry. Woody Woodpecker. All of that stuff was great then and most of it still great today in 2021. I loved all that stuff and more as a kid, I had a VHS tape of Chip N Dale cartoons that I must have watched 32,000 times. I lost the tape sleeve. It had no tag on it anymore, but it still worked until I stupidly got rid of it. It was given to me by my uncle when I was a kid. It was great. These were all shown on TV because they were cheap to produce shows of and the kids loved them.

The absolute best of the best of them was Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies. The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show (WE KNOW EVERY PART BY HEART!!!) was something I HAD to see as a child on saturday. It was mandatory viewing. Mother didn't dare tell me I had to go somewhere with her when Bugs Bunny was blowing up Yosemite Sam's face.  Hell Looney Tunes has such a history within America that one of it's compilations shows lasted 39 years and like 11 months. That's right The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show lasted almost 4 fucking decades on television. It started in 1960 and ended in 2000. It changed names over time and changed tv channels from ABC to CBS to ABC to CBS to ABC again. It was a constant on Saturday Morning for several decades of children. Your mom watched it. The old Generation X guy who thought he was hardcore and cool but now sold it out to the man by voting Donald Trump watched it. I was born in 1985 and I watched it. I'm sure some Gen Z kids watched it. How we name Generations is stupid. The whole concept is dumb I say. Fuck Generations. Except The Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation that is safe.

The entire history of Looney Tunes would take up a blog within itself. This youtube really goes into great detail and is a recommended watch. The first Looney Tunes star was a guy named Bosko. I think he looks like a teddy bear to me but the people who created him considerd him a black kid. It was 1929 when he first debut in theatres after all. Anyway I uh. don't think I've ever seen a Bosko cartoon. Hell there are Bugs Bunny cartoons I'm sure I've never seen. They made a thousand Looney Tunes shorts during the Golden Age of Animation. I'm bringing up Bosko to tell you it didn't just start with Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck or even Porky Pig and it didn't end with them either. Yes, that smiling cat up there was the star of the final Looney Tunes short made in 1969 Injun Trouble. A very bad cartoon that starred Cool Cat, voiced by Larry Storch (famous because of F Troop and uh... F Troop) 

This cartoon really doesn't have a plot at all. Not that Looney Tunes had the most amazing plots but they usually set one character up against others. It doesn't work that way. It's just some hacky jokes about Native Americans that were old and outdated during the days of vaudeville. One joke did make me laugh was when Cool Cat stops his Dune Buggy (hey it was 1969 after all the one and only time Dune Buggies were considered cool) and this sexy Native American lady says "Wanna Indian Wrestle?" and then some giant ass dude grabs him. The animation is also notably cheaper and more limited than usual. Oh and I laughed at another joke where someone was banging on a door a sign that said HORSE DOCTOR and a literal Horse Doctor came out. Two laughs is not very good. There's a reason these are considered unmemorable, even Robert McKimson who did lots of great Looney Tunes wasn't much of a help here. Cool Cat really has no character except being cool which I dunno, I thought Bugs Bunny was cool himself. 

Injun Trouble is lazy as hell. It's a really sad send off for the Looney Tunes. I'd call it racist but honestly the majority of these jokes were so lazy they don't even deserve that honor. It's that bad. It's a really sad sight to see that this is how the Golden Age of Looney Tunes ended. I'm sure even Space Jam 2 will be better than this.