Donkey Doings
All right, I admit it! I’m a Hunky and Spunky junky! Max Fleischer’s great idea of a burro mother and son cartoon team was about as successful as New Coke, but I, for one, have always been inordinately fond of the little hay burners. Granted, aside from the duo itself, their half dozen or so starring films are pretty average-ish 1930’s cartoons — long on ‘cute,’ short on ‘funny’ — but, heck, they all have Hunky and Spunky, and I love Hunky and Spunky!
I love Spunky’s weirdly oversized head. I love the geeky donkey-speak Mom and offspring use to communicate. I love the large variety of clippy-cloppy sound effects employed for their ever shuffling hooves. Mostly, I love the shamelessly corny little narratives the Fleischer gang cooked up for the pair, always just an eyelash over the top on the maternal-instinct-heart-tug-thing.
So, we’re galloping ahead with our Relatively Speaking Week featuring the very first donkey duo epic, “Hunky and Spunky” from 1938. We get to hiss a villain who looks like Bluto on the Ultra Slim Fast diet, and sing along to the team’s theme song, “Keep A’ Goin’” — and this one got an Oscar nomination!
For your free subscription to ReFrederator, click
here, or visit iTunes!
»