Hunky and Spunky is a 1938 animated short film, part of the Color Classics

Color Classics

Color Classics were a series of animated short subjects produced by Fleischer Studios for Paramount Pictures from 1934 to 1941 as a competitor to Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies. As the name implies, all of the shorts were made in color, with the first entry in the series, Poor Cinderella, being the...

series produced by Fleischer Studios

Fleischer Studios

Fleischer Studios, Inc., was an American corporation which originated as an Animation studio located at 1600 Broadway, New York City, New York...

 and distributed by Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

. Produced in Technicolor

Technicolor

Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...

, the short revolves around a mother burro

Burro

The burro is a small donkey used primarily as a pack animal. In addition, significant numbers of feral burros live in the Southwestern United States, where they are protected by law, and in Mexico...

 and her son.

History

Hunky is a mother burro and Spunky is her young son. This story takes place in the old west, where a prospector attempts to make Spunky into his pack animal. Hunky and Spunky was nominated for the 1939 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons)

Academy Award for Animated Short Film

The Academy Award for Animated Short Film is an award which has been given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as part of the Academy Awards every year since the 5th Academy Awards, covering the year 1931-32, to the present....

. Fleischer Studios went on to produce six more Color Classics cartoons featuring Hunky and Spunky: Always Kickin' (1939), The Barnyard Brat (1939), A Kick in Time (1940), Snubbed by a Snob (1940), You Can't Shoe a Horsefly (1940), and Vitamin Hay (1941). Hunky and Spunky was the only subseries within the Color Classics.

A positive contemporary review of Hunky and Spunky in Film Daily

Film Daily

The Film Daily was a daily publication that existed from 1915 to 1970 in the United States.For 55 years, Film Daily was the main source of news on the film and television industries...

praised the short for introducing "funny new characters," and stated that the short's device of having the animals speak in "donkey talk" "will amuse the kids"