Injun Trouble (1969 film)
Encyclopedia
Injun Trouble is a 1969
animated cartoon short in the Merrie Melodies
series, directed by Robert McKimson
and featuring Cool Cat. It is noted for being the final cartoon in the original Looney Tunes
and Merrie Melodies series, ending a run which had lasted since 1930.
This cartoon was the last Merrie Melodies cartoon until 1988's The Night of the Living Duck. The cartoon shares its name with an earlier short
directed by Bob Clampett
.
. Two scouts spot him and one of them gives chase, only to fall into a chasm when the weight of him and his horse causes the makeshift bridge to collapse (even though it had carried Cool Cat and his car without trouble). Cool Cat rescues them and continues his journey. Along the way, he encounters a man who tries to give his heavily obese daughter away, a more attractive woman that invites him for an "Indian Wrestle" (which turns out to be a fight with a man who is far larger than Cool Cat), a literal bareback rider and a Native American who uses a stenograph-like device to create smoke signals which read "COOL CAT GO HOME!"
Finally arriving in Hotfoot, Cool Cat spots two horses playing human shoes. After that, Cool Cat spots a "Topless Saloon" and heads in, but finds out that the only topless person in there is the bartender, a rather burly man. An outlaw named Gower Gulch then arrives and seemingly challenges Cool Cat to a duel, but then settles for a game of poker. Cool Cat gets a good hand with four Aces, only for Gulch to get a Royal Flush. Announcing that he is "cutting out," Cool Cat produces a pair of scissors and cuts a hole out of the background, which he then disappears into. He then reappears for a moment and ends the cartoon (and series) with the words "So cool it now, ya hear!"
television broadcasters, or released on video. While bootleg versions are available (most commonly with a timecode on the print), it is one of the rarest of all Warner Bros. cartoons, owing to the relative unpopularity of cartoons from this era of the studio (unlike the "Censored Eleven
," which were produced during the studio's heyday).
1969 in film
The year 1969 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Last year for prize giving at the Venice Film Festival until it is revived in 1980...
animated cartoon short in the Merrie Melodies
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,...
series, 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...
and featuring Cool Cat. It is noted for being the final cartoon in the original Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
and Merrie Melodies series, ending a run which had lasted since 1930.
This cartoon was the last Merrie Melodies cartoon until 1988's The Night of the Living Duck. The cartoon shares its name with an earlier short
Wagon Heels
Wagon Heels is a 1945 Merrie Melodies short directed by Bob Clampett, a color remake of the 1938 Looney Tunes black-and-white short Injun Trouble. Because of its wildly stereotypical depiction of the Native American, it is seldom shown on television. All voices except narration are performed by Mel...
directed by Bob Clampett
Bob Clampett
Robert Emerson "Bob" Clampett was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes animated series from Warner Bros., and the television shows Time for Beany and Beany and Cecil...
.
Synopsis
Cool Cat is driving to the town of Hotfoot one day, when his route happens to take him through a Indian reservationIndian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
. Two scouts spot him and one of them gives chase, only to fall into a chasm when the weight of him and his horse causes the makeshift bridge to collapse (even though it had carried Cool Cat and his car without trouble). Cool Cat rescues them and continues his journey. Along the way, he encounters a man who tries to give his heavily obese daughter away, a more attractive woman that invites him for an "Indian Wrestle" (which turns out to be a fight with a man who is far larger than Cool Cat), a literal bareback rider and a Native American who uses a stenograph-like device to create smoke signals which read "COOL CAT GO HOME!"
Finally arriving in Hotfoot, Cool Cat spots two horses playing human shoes. After that, Cool Cat spots a "Topless Saloon" and heads in, but finds out that the only topless person in there is the bartender, a rather burly man. An outlaw named Gower Gulch then arrives and seemingly challenges Cool Cat to a duel, but then settles for a game of poker. Cool Cat gets a good hand with four Aces, only for Gulch to get a Royal Flush. Announcing that he is "cutting out," Cool Cat produces a pair of scissors and cuts a hole out of the background, which he then disappears into. He then reappears for a moment and ends the cartoon (and series) with the words "So cool it now, ya hear!"
Controversy
Owing to controversy over its stereotyping of Native Americans (and some racy jokes such as the "topless saloon"), the cartoon has never been shown by United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television broadcasters, or released on video. While bootleg versions are available (most commonly with a timecode on the print), it is one of the rarest of all Warner Bros. cartoons, owing to the relative unpopularity of cartoons from this era of the studio (unlike the "Censored Eleven
Censored Eleven
The Censored Eleven is a group of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons that were withheld from syndication by United Artists in 1968...
," which were produced during the studio's heyday).