Big Man from the North (1931)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

From my favorite movies..

A Masterpiece!

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The Bosko cartoons may not be animation masterpieces, but they are fascinating as examples of Looney Tunes in their early days before the creation of more compelling characters and funnier and more creative cartoons.'Big Man from the North' generally is one of Bosko's better cartoons. Up to this particular point in the series most of the cartoons were decent if hit and miss, with the only cartoon falling below that being the strange though not awful 'The Booze Hangs High'. 'Big Man from the North' doesn't reach above decent level on the whole but has a good deal to recommend.While showing more signs of a story than the previous cartoons, which were basically plot-less mostly but while still on the thin side signs of a story are here, it's very predictable with not much new. There are occasional slow parts and there are a couple of repetitive gags by Bosko standards.The animation is not bad at all. Not exactly refined but fluid and crisp enough with some nice detail, it is especially good in the meticulous backgrounds and some remarkably flexible yet natural movements for Bosko. The music is 'Big Man from the North's' highlight component, its infectious energy, rousing merriment, lush orchestration and how well it fits with the animation is just a joy.While never hilarious the gags are amusing, especially with the dogs and in the saloon. Parts are cute without being too schmaltzy, it's never static and synchronisation is remarkably good.All in all, decent cartoon and one of Bosko's better ones generally. 7/10 Bethany Cox

. . . "Rape me once, shame on you; rape me twice, shame on me." That's pretty much the theme of this Sadomasochistic 1931 Looney Tune, BIG MAN FROM THE NORTH. Its inclusion on Passport Video's 2005 RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER AND FRIENDS disc just goes to prove the Hell-on-Earth and possible Human Extinction Event we're all in for now that "Mad Dog" Putin has installed his Russian KGB Rump Puppet as Leader of the Free World to its slaughter. The fraudulent Corrupt Capitalist Rump Disciples at Passport Video stuck this Looney Tune on their DVD sight unseen because they ASSUMED any BIG MAN FROM THE NORTH just HAD to be Santa Claus (rather than, say Satan, or his wide-bodied Earthly Potentate, aka bankrupt New York Values Casino Owner Rump). In Reality, the FIRST "big man" shown here is a Canadian Mountie sergeant, who chews tobacco as he also smokes a pipe. A minute into this cartoon, his deputy Bosko rips off the seat of his pants, exposing his butt crack. Six minutes later Bosko blows off all the clothes of the other "big man" shown here--an outlaw into whose Buttopical Center Opening he's just rammed a very long, fully phallic broad sword! Hardly children's "Christmas fare," you Passport bozos. No doubt such spectacular Wrong-Headedness has landed some of the Passporters high-ranking cabinet positions in the Putin-Rump Administration.

I was shocked in a few places watching this old cartoon as a several scenes had guys with their pants down (from the rear, with a crack showing) and, in one instance had a sabre jammed between his cheeks! Ouch!!Anyway, it shows you even some of the cartoons were a bit edgy in this pre-Code era but otherwise it was a simple story of a little Canadian Mountie, "Bosko," being assigned to capture a big, tough crook and how he went about it. He wasn't given any name, but if you've seen a number of 1930s cartoons, you know the little man is "Bosko." What I didn't know, until submitting this review, was that pretty actress Rochelle Hudson did the voice of the female singer in the saloon. There were some decent sight gags in here, several of them duplicated in the first half of this animated short. Sight gags are what cartoons are usually all about anyway. Here, for instance, we saw gags with the three dogs who drove the little guy over hilly terrain to the saloon where the bad man was hanging out. The saloon had a clever scene in which Bosko tried to impress a woman (Hudson's character) with his piano playing. This guy was good: a Jerry Lee Lewis-type who banged those keys!Overall, a pretty entertaining cartoon that was a bonus feature on the "Smart Money" feature film DVD.

Bosko shorts are very uneven in quality. This one is particularly good, all the more so because it was fairly early on in the series. There are a few gags I want to touch on, so there are spoilers ahead: Something I noticed in watching this and quite a few other Boskos in a brief period of time is that gags are often repeated to one degree or another from one cartoon to another. There are exact copies (Bosko splitting into several little Boskos after a fall, for example) and then there are types of gags with some variation in details, but a thematic link. An example of that in this short happens early on-Bosko enters a cabin during a blizzard, with a wind behind him gusting so intensely that he grabs hold of another character's trousers in order to keep from being blown away. the other character's trousers come off with the force of the wind, so Bosko grabs the rear flap on his long-johns, which promptly opens. The lowering of the rear flap on a pair of long-johns for comic purposes occurs in a number of Boskos which I've seen. It was just something I noticed.Bosko is sent out by his superior officer to capture the villain. Bosko travels by dog sled and crashes into a saloon, goes in with guns drawn and sees Honey singing inside. He decides to play the piano for her and the music takes over the short until the bad guy comes in and Bosko has to try and arrest him. Bosko eventually gets the drop on him by spitting out the light and using the darkness to come up with a machine-gun and then cutting him down to size. The villain is vanquished and the conquering hero is celebrated by the crowd until fadeout.This short is well worth watching and is most recommended.