Hobo Bobo
Encyclopedia
Hobo Bobo is a Merrie Melodies
cartoon short released by Warner Bros.
on May 17, 1947, written by Warren Foster
and directed by Robert McKimson
, with narration by Robert C. Bruce
, and Bobo's only line delivered by Mel Blanc
.
, sees a dark future for himself if he should remain in India
to haul logs with his trunk for the rest of his life. After receiving a letter from his uncle in America, he decides to emigrate there to play on a circus
baseball
team. After Bobo's attempts to stow away aboard a ship bound for the United States fail repeatedly, he is advised by the mynah bird (better known from the Inki
series) to paint himself pink. As seeing pink elephants
is the traditional hallucination
of the drunkard, neither the captain, the crew nor the passengers will acknowledge seeing Bobo, and thus he has the virtual run of the ship for the entire voyage. When Bobo finally disembarks in New York City
, he is likewise unacknowleged, until a street-cleaning vehicle washes his pink paint off, and the populace panics at the sight of a normal gray baby elephant on the street. Hauled into court by the police, the judge sentences him to life -- at the circus, where he is promptly engaged by the baseball team as the official batboy
, and he angrily utters his only line in the film, "Batboy, shmatboy! I'm still carrying logs!"
The sequel to this cartoon, Gone Batty
, was originally released in 1954, and re-released as a Merrie Melodies Blue Ribbon classic in 1963.
Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...
cartoon short released by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
on May 17, 1947, written by Warren Foster
Warren Foster
Warren Foster , was a writer, cartoonist and composer for the animation division of Warner Brothers and later with Hanna-Barbera....
and directed by Robert McKimson
Robert McKimson
Robert "Bob" Porter McKimson, Sr. was an American animator, illustrator, and director best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros., and later DePatie-Freleng Enterprises...
, with narration by Robert C. Bruce
Robert C. Bruce
Robert C. Bruce, Jr. was a voice actor, and the son of Robert C. Bruce who was also an actor. He was the narrator for a number of Warner Bros. cartoons in the 1930s and 1940s...
, and Bobo's only line delivered by Mel Blanc
Mel Blanc
Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros...
.
Plot
Bobo, a baby elephantElephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
, sees a dark future for himself if he should remain in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
to haul logs with his trunk for the rest of his life. After receiving a letter from his uncle in America, he decides to emigrate there to play on a circus
Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
team. After Bobo's attempts to stow away aboard a ship bound for the United States fail repeatedly, he is advised by the mynah bird (better known from the Inki
Inki
Inki is the lead character in an animated cartoon series of Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies short films by animator Chuck Jones....
series) to paint himself pink. As seeing pink elephants
Seeing pink elephants
"Seeing pink elephants" is a euphemism for drunken hallucination, caused by alcoholic hallucinosis or delirium tremens. The first recorded use of the term is by Jack London in 1913, who describes one kind of alcoholic, in the autobiographical John Barleycorn, as "the man whom we all know, stupid,...
is the traditional hallucination
Hallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
of the drunkard, neither the captain, the crew nor the passengers will acknowledge seeing Bobo, and thus he has the virtual run of the ship for the entire voyage. When Bobo finally disembarks in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, he is likewise unacknowleged, until a street-cleaning vehicle washes his pink paint off, and the populace panics at the sight of a normal gray baby elephant on the street. Hauled into court by the police, the judge sentences him to life -- at the circus, where he is promptly engaged by the baseball team as the official batboy
Batboy
A batboy is an individual who carries the baseball bats around to a baseball team. A batboy may also lay out the equipment and mud the baseballs to be used in the game.Mascots and batboys had both been part of baseball since the 1880s....
, and he angrily utters his only line in the film, "Batboy, shmatboy! I'm still carrying logs!"
The sequel to this cartoon, Gone Batty
Gone Batty (1954 film)
Gone Batty is the name of a Looney Tunes animated cartoon short released by Warner Brothers on September 4, 1954. The film was re-released in October of 1963 as a Merrie Melodies Blue Ribbon cartoon.-Overview:...
, was originally released in 1954, and re-released as a Merrie Melodies Blue Ribbon classic in 1963.
External links
- Big Cartoon DatabaseBig Cartoon DataBaseThe Big Cartoon DataBase is an online database of information about animated cartoons, animated feature films, animated television shows and cartoon shorts....
article at http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/529-Hobo_Bobo.html. - Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
article at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039466/.