Buddy's Circus
Encyclopedia
Buddy's Circus is an American
animated
short film. It is a Looney Tune cartoon, featuring Buddy
, the second star of the series. It was released on 25 August 1934, although one source suggests as a date November 8 of the same year.
, in which float Buddy & several animals, including an elephant
, a lion
, and a bear
; Buddy looks through a spy-glass
to see a sign that says "Buddy's Circus will arrive at 2:00 P.M." Checking his watch, Buddy sees that the time is nigh: he releases from his arms a gaggle of stakes, which land perfectly in a circle completed by the sign, & which are hammered into the earth by an octopus
, which then is flattened by the landing balloon, which seamlessly morphs into a circus tent. Two men set up walls outside the tent, & one of them begins welcoming patrons to the show. "Professor" Buddy plays the tusks of his "Musical Elephants" as a xylophone & then pulls their tails to the production of a woodwind sound. Buddy introduces, in verse, the "Ubangi twins", two performers who can play one another as musical instruments; "Oscar the Ubangi-phone," who can play records with his mouth; "Elastiko the India-Rubber Man", whose body can stretch to great lengths & whose skull can take great punishment; "Asbesto the Human Stove", who eats eggs and then, by X-ray
, demonstrates his natural ability to cook them within his digestive tract. But none of this is the "big show," to which Buddy happily welcomes all of his guests. We come to a two ring circus, where ringmaster Buddy precedes a kangaroo (or two) with a trumpet
; lions jump through smoke rings blown by a reclining clown; one perfomer subjects himself to being lifted by his teeth with a rope, the which act comes to his teeth, revealed to be dentures, coming out of his mouth & the performer falling to the ground. A baby enjoys the show whilst munching Cracker Jack
until he drops the box out of which he is eating into the stands; endeavoring to retrieve the box, the child enters the underside of the seats & swings from patron's leg to patron's leg until he finds the ground, where he reaches for his found Cracker Jack box, all of whose spilled contents then are absorbed by a playful elephant, which then takes a merry baby onto its trunk. Soon we see the baby behind the elephant's ear; then, the child is thrust into a dance routine with the elephant & another directly behind it. The baby sits on a teeter-totter on the stage & eats his Cracker Jack; a performer, who not a moment before hung from the nose rings of two trapeze artists, breaks the rings of those same & falls on to the upper side of the see-saw on whose lower side sits the small child: up goes the baby, into the air & onto the platform of a trapeze artist about to jump. The child grabs the ankles of the performer: another trapezist leaps from an opposite platform & catches, not the legs of his partner, but the baby thereon hanging. The trapeze artists swing such that the performer hanging onto the baby is stuck stretching the fabric of the child's garment: the man knocks down four tightrope walkers stacked on top of one another, & then falls on account of the garment breaking under the strain, & lands in the large brass horn of a band member, the which instrument's playing propells the performer upward, back to the baby, from whom he swiftly falls. Amidst all this, the child's mother finally realizes that her baby is missing & on the grounds of the circus: Buddy, seeing that he must do something, climbs rapidly up a pole, and is followed by the boy's mother. Our Hero walks upon a net (presumably placed to catch trapeze artists), makes a lasso with a rope, and throws it to bring down the baby: the child resists, but comes down, pulling off the outer-clothing of the performer on whose legs he had been hanging. The baby lands in the net, but the force of his fall sends Buddy & the mother into the air; the two catch onto the same performer, & are followed by the baby; the trapezist swings, causing the child to have to catch on to the other trapeze bar, and the infant is followed by Buddy and the mother, who, as a result, are hanging in air by the legs of the baby. A bicyclist
rides by on the tightrope, but is knocked off by the low-hanging Buddy & the baby's mother, who ride, Buddy on the mother's shoulders, in pursuit of the baby, still hanging by the trapeze. But the bicycle crashes, & Buddy, the baby, and his mother are sent through the fabric of the tent: the baby lands in some water, Buddy and the lady the neck of a giraffe
, down which they slide in order to safely reach the ground. Mother calls for her child, Buddy futilely searches; a sobbing mother is then comforted by Buddy. Just then, the water into which the baby fell is revealed to be the home of an hippopotamus
, in whose mouth the baby safely and happily sits. The mother takes her child from an obliging hippo, & the reunited two dance, in a circle, with Buddy.
. As noted above, the chronological release list given as an appendix in Leonard Maltin's Of Mice and Magic gives as the release date 8 November 1933. The same list, of course, gives a similarly conflicting order of release for Buddy's shorts: according to Maltin's book, the order, after Buddy's Bearcats
& before Buddy of the Legion is Buddy the Detective
, followed by Buddy the Woodsman, Buddy's Circus, Viva Buddy, Buddy's Adventures, Buddy the Dentist, Buddy's Pony Express, and Buddy's Theatre, after which Wikipedia
and Maltin's book agree on the order, though not necessarily on the dates of release.
and Buddy's Beer Garden
, it is one of only three Buddy cartoons so honored.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
animated
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
short film. It is a Looney Tune cartoon, featuring Buddy
Buddy (Looney Tunes)
Buddy is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes series of cartoons.-Looney Tunes:Buddy has his origins in the chaos that followed the severing of relations between animators Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising from producer Leon Schlesinger...
, the second star of the series. It was released on 25 August 1934, although one source suggests as a date November 8 of the same year.
Summary
We come to a balloonHot air balloon
The hot air balloon is the oldest successful human-carrying flight technology. It is in a class of aircraft known as balloon aircraft. On November 21, 1783, in Paris, France, the first untethered manned flight was made by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes in a hot air...
, in which float Buddy & several animals, including an elephant
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
, a lion
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
, and a bear
Bear
Bears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...
; Buddy looks through a spy-glass
Telescope
A telescope is an instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation . The first known practical telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 1600s , using glass lenses...
to see a sign that says "Buddy's Circus will arrive at 2:00 P.M." Checking his watch, Buddy sees that the time is nigh: he releases from his arms a gaggle of stakes, which land perfectly in a circle completed by the sign, & which are hammered into the earth by an octopus
Octopus
The octopus is a cephalopod mollusc of the order Octopoda. Octopuses have two eyes and four pairs of arms, and like other cephalopods they are bilaterally symmetric. An octopus has a hard beak, with its mouth at the center point of the arms...
, which then is flattened by the landing balloon, which seamlessly morphs into a circus tent. Two men set up walls outside the tent, & one of them begins welcoming patrons to the show. "Professor" Buddy plays the tusks of his "Musical Elephants" as a xylophone & then pulls their tails to the production of a woodwind sound. Buddy introduces, in verse, the "Ubangi twins", two performers who can play one another as musical instruments; "Oscar the Ubangi-phone," who can play records with his mouth; "Elastiko the India-Rubber Man", whose body can stretch to great lengths & whose skull can take great punishment; "Asbesto the Human Stove", who eats eggs and then, by X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
, demonstrates his natural ability to cook them within his digestive tract. But none of this is the "big show," to which Buddy happily welcomes all of his guests. We come to a two ring circus, where ringmaster Buddy precedes a kangaroo (or two) with a trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
; lions jump through smoke rings blown by a reclining clown; one perfomer subjects himself to being lifted by his teeth with a rope, the which act comes to his teeth, revealed to be dentures, coming out of his mouth & the performer falling to the ground. A baby enjoys the show whilst munching Cracker Jack
Cracker Jack
Cracker Jack is a U.S. brand of snack consisting of strong molasses flavored candy-coated popcorn and peanuts, well known for being packaged with a prize of nominal value inside. Some food historians consider it the first junk food...
until he drops the box out of which he is eating into the stands; endeavoring to retrieve the box, the child enters the underside of the seats & swings from patron's leg to patron's leg until he finds the ground, where he reaches for his found Cracker Jack box, all of whose spilled contents then are absorbed by a playful elephant, which then takes a merry baby onto its trunk. Soon we see the baby behind the elephant's ear; then, the child is thrust into a dance routine with the elephant & another directly behind it. The baby sits on a teeter-totter on the stage & eats his Cracker Jack; a performer, who not a moment before hung from the nose rings of two trapeze artists, breaks the rings of those same & falls on to the upper side of the see-saw on whose lower side sits the small child: up goes the baby, into the air & onto the platform of a trapeze artist about to jump. The child grabs the ankles of the performer: another trapezist leaps from an opposite platform & catches, not the legs of his partner, but the baby thereon hanging. The trapeze artists swing such that the performer hanging onto the baby is stuck stretching the fabric of the child's garment: the man knocks down four tightrope walkers stacked on top of one another, & then falls on account of the garment breaking under the strain, & lands in the large brass horn of a band member, the which instrument's playing propells the performer upward, back to the baby, from whom he swiftly falls. Amidst all this, the child's mother finally realizes that her baby is missing & on the grounds of the circus: Buddy, seeing that he must do something, climbs rapidly up a pole, and is followed by the boy's mother. Our Hero walks upon a net (presumably placed to catch trapeze artists), makes a lasso with a rope, and throws it to bring down the baby: the child resists, but comes down, pulling off the outer-clothing of the performer on whose legs he had been hanging. The baby lands in the net, but the force of his fall sends Buddy & the mother into the air; the two catch onto the same performer, & are followed by the baby; the trapezist swings, causing the child to have to catch on to the other trapeze bar, and the infant is followed by Buddy and the mother, who, as a result, are hanging in air by the legs of the baby. A bicyclist
Bicycle
A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....
rides by on the tightrope, but is knocked off by the low-hanging Buddy & the baby's mother, who ride, Buddy on the mother's shoulders, in pursuit of the baby, still hanging by the trapeze. But the bicycle crashes, & Buddy, the baby, and his mother are sent through the fabric of the tent: the baby lands in some water, Buddy and the lady the neck of a giraffe
Giraffe
The giraffe is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all extant land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant...
, down which they slide in order to safely reach the ground. Mother calls for her child, Buddy futilely searches; a sobbing mother is then comforted by Buddy. Just then, the water into which the baby fell is revealed to be the home of an hippopotamus
Hippopotamus
The hippopotamus , or hippo, from the ancient Greek for "river horse" , is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae After the elephant and rhinoceros, the hippopotamus is the third largest land mammal and the heaviest...
, in whose mouth the baby safely and happily sits. The mother takes her child from an obliging hippo, & the reunited two dance, in a circle, with Buddy.
Release date discrepancy
The dating in this article follows the chronology given in the article Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1929-1939)Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1929-1939)
This is a listing of all the animated shorts released by Warner Bros. under the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies banners between 1930 and 1939, plus the 1929 pilot film which was used to sell the Looney Tunes series to Leon Schlesinger and Warner Bros....
. As noted above, the chronological release list given as an appendix in Leonard Maltin's Of Mice and Magic gives as the release date 8 November 1933. The same list, of course, gives a similarly conflicting order of release for Buddy's shorts: according to Maltin's book, the order, after Buddy's Bearcats
Buddy's Bearcats
Buddy's Bearcats is an American animated short film, released 23 June 1934. It is a Looney Tune cartoon, featuring Buddy, the second star of the series. It was supervised by Jack King; musical direction was by Norman Spencer.-Summary:...
& before Buddy of the Legion is Buddy the Detective
Buddy the Detective
Buddy the Detective is an American animated short film. It is a Looney Tune cartoon, featuring Buddy, the second star of the series. The short was released on 15 September 1934, though the date would seem to be in dispute, as one source gives as a date October 17. The short was supervised by Jack...
, followed by Buddy the Woodsman, Buddy's Circus, Viva Buddy, Buddy's Adventures, Buddy the Dentist, Buddy's Pony Express, and Buddy's Theatre, after which Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
and Maltin's book agree on the order, though not necessarily on the dates of release.
Modern releases
Buddy's Circus is featured on disc three of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume VI. Along with Buddy's Day OutBuddy's Day Out
Buddy's Day Out is an American animated short film released by Warner Bros. on September 9, 1933. It is the first Looney Tune cartoon to feature Buddy, the second star of the series. It was directed by former Disney animator Tom Palmer, who created Buddy as a star character to replace Harman and...
and Buddy's Beer Garden
Buddy's Beer Garden
Buddy's Beer Garden is an American animated short film, released November 18, 1933 It is a Looney Tune cartoon, featuring Buddy, the second star of the series. It was supervised by Earl Duvall, here credited as "Duval," was one of only five Warner Bros. cartoons directed by him, and one of only...
, it is one of only three Buddy cartoons so honored.