Sinkin' in the Bathtub (1930)

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

In this first Looney Tunes offering, we meet Bosco. I don't know if he is intended to be a monkey or a black person. I hope it's the former. He takes a really interesting bath (quite creative) and heads off in his car to meet his girlfriend. Things don't go so well, as obstacles along the way keep them from having comfortable date. For starters, he brings her tulips but a goat eats them when he isn't looking. All in all, decent animation and music.

Like Bosko's debut/pilot cartoon 'Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid', 'Sinkin' in the Bathtub' is interesting historically, with it being the first official Looney Tunes cartoon. It is also fascinating to see Loone Tunes in their early days before the creation of more compelling characters and funnier and more creative cartoons.Again like 'Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid', 'Sinkin' in the Bathtub' is an decent cartoon on its own, not bad but not much to get excited about. The story is paper thin and has its slow stretches, including an overly-sentimental moment with Bosko grieving over flowers, also getting a little repetitive towards the end. Bosko and Honey while cute do lack personality somewhat outside of being stereotypes.However, the animation is not bad at all, not exactly refined but fluid and crisp enough with some nice detail. The music is suitably bubbly and lush, with clever use of pre-existing material.There are some amusing moments, especially with the car, the sound is not as static as before, the cartoon is very cute without being too much and it is hard not to feel cheerful or smile at least while watching.In summary, decent but not great, worth seeing for historical interest. 7/10 Bethany Cox

As an animation nut, the truly significant moments in animation history always make my heart swell and my pulse race. 'Gertie the Dinosaur' genuinely makes me tear up. So it was perhaps inevitable that I would enjoy Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising's 'Sinkin' in the Bathtub' since it is the first ever Looney Tune(not counting the short pilot film 'Bosko The Talk Ink Kid'). Animated by the great Friz Freleng, 'Sinkin' in the Bathtub' is surprisingly enjoyable on its own merits. It quickly establishes a bawdier atmosphere than previous cartoons (completely naked characters, a dance involving toilet paper, a shot of a bra and a cow with an enormous, pendulous udder) which would come to characterise Warner Bros. animation. It also establishes a sense of enormous inventiveness instantly when lead character Bosko plays his shower like a harp. The subsequent story is thin on plot (Bosko visits his girlfriend Honey and they go for a drive encountering some very mild danger) but there are plenty of funny moments, my favourite being Bosko's anthropomorphic car unexpectedly emerging for a distant shed instead of the garage. If the short ever tends towards the dull, there's always the sense of "I'm watching the first ever Looney Tune" to get you through the weak patches, Surprisingly, these are few and far between (Bosko crying after a goat eats his flowers is a little saccharine but otherwise there's little that comes to mine) and while there was still a long way to go before the recognised Warner style was achieved, 'Sinkin' in the Bathtub' is a charming start to a truly great story. Bosko's climactic intonation of the soon to be iconic phrase 'That's All Folks' will surely floor any animation fanatic.

Sinkin' in the Bathtub is the first official Looney Tunes short independently produced by Leon Schlesinger in association with Hugh Harmon and Rudolf Ising for distribution by Warner Bros. After Bosko has taken a bath while singing, the tub also does some dancing. Bosko then gets his car who simply walks to him before they leave. As he tries to serenade Honey in another apartment, the cow behind him eats his flowers making Bosko cry. Honey tells Bosko she still loves him as she comes downstairs. As they drive off, they encounter a horse who won't leave the road so they lower him below his legs and run over him! They then come to a mountain road that goes around as Bosko falls off then splits into little versions of himself when he lands behind the car at the bottom. Car then falls over a cliff where Bosko lands on a branch and Honey on a rowboat which takes Bosko as they play "Singing in the Bathtub" once again on some lily-pads with some frogs joining in. After that ending we fade to the Harmon-Ising sign with Bosko in front of it saying for the first time, "That's All Folks!" with a dog licking him. Since this is a pre-Code cartoon, I guess I shouldn't be surprised to see some nudity of both Bosko and Honey (though no private parts were shown on their tops or bottoms). Frank Marsales' music keeps things going and Friz Freling's animation runs smoothly. A far cry from what we get on later Looney Tunes but as a start it's entertaining enough. Worth seeing for animation buffs especially of all things Warner Bros.