Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"Wags to Riches" is an American 7-minute cartoon from 1949, so this one has its 70th anniversary next year and it is not one by Disney or Warner Bros, but by MGM and Tex Avery and while many of theirs do not have recurring characters, we got one of their trademark figures here: Droopy. And the usual approach for him is that he is not really in the center of it all, but Spike is, the other dog hoping he could inherit a fortune from Droopy in the event of the latter's (untimely) death, so Spike actually tries all kinds of ways to kill Droopy and it backfires each and every time obviously because Droopy is a real talent when it comes to survivalism. This is basically the key approach here and it is many really short films packed into one. These very short films are funny, some more some less, but the best thing here was maybe the first 90 seconds, the introduction to the whole scenario and how we see how Spike (thinks he) fits the descriptions from his owner in the man's will. But even after that it is a pretty funny, highly creative little work. I'm personally not the biggest Droopy fan, but if you like him more than I do, then maybe you will appreciate this one even more. Still i give it a thumbs-up and recommend checking it out, especially to those who love old cartoons. Go for it. And yes this one was successful enough to get remade even. And it also got referenced far more frequently in other works than you'd expect from a cartoon from around that time. Both these facts show the success and how appreciated it was, still is. Positively recommended.
Edgar Allan Pooh
. . . so it's quite predictable that WAGS TO RICHES revolves around a series of assassination plots. Mr. Avery was born in Taylor, TX, just a hop, skip, and a jump from the only U.S. Presidential Whacking Site in ANYONE'S Living Memory, Dallas. So whether the power-hungry Lyndon "Spike" Johnson mutt featured in RAGS TO RICHES is using a revolver, shot gun, artillery shell, or sabotaged tree, it's all so much "Col. Mustard with a Candlestick in the Conservatory"--that is, old hat--to a guy like Tex. Perceptive viewers will see some predictive shots taken here from behind Dallas' infamous Grassy Knoll, so perhaps it's incumbent upon Today's Secret Service to study WAGS TO RICHES frame-by-frame in pursuit of any clues Tex may have buried there pertaining to the likely demise of Red Commie KGB Chief Vlad "The Mad Russian" Putin's White House Puppet, Rump. Better yet, why look this Gift Horse of RICHES in its mouth? Why not wall up Rump in his Tower like Rapunzel, since he has such an affinity for the safety afforded by walls?
Robert Reynolds
This cartoon was re-done about seven years later as Millionaire Droopy with little changed, for reasons I can only guess at. Millionaire Droopy is the ultimate "cheater" short, in my opinion. A "cheater" is a short where much of the short is comprised of cribbed scenes from other cartoons, with some new animation as a framing device around it to make a "new" cartoon. This was done so that distribution contracts could be adhered to when they fell behind the production schedule (as they inevitably did), as a cheater required less time to produce than a completely new short did. While a good cartoon, Wags To Riches wasn't good enough to be cloned! Good to see it's in print, though. Well worth watching. Recommended
