Buddys Day Out

Summary

We are silently introduced to Our Hero, Buddy; his sweetheart, Cookie; Cookies baby brother, Elmer; and a dog called Happy. We then find Cookie giving Elmer a bath & becoming quite wet in the process. Buddy merrily washes his car (the word "Asthma" strewn across it) with a hose, and steps away for a moment, leaving Happy the Dog alone to bark at the device and clamp on to it with his teeth: as the hose loses steady control, the car is blasted clean, but loses its roof; Buddy takes notice and shuts the hose. Cookie, meanwhile, readies herself for a date with Buddy, whom she calls when that she has adequately prepared. Buddy happily tries to start his vehicle that he might pick up Cookie, but the car begins moving in reverse, smashing through doghouses, clothes lines, and a greenhouse, and, because of the latter, arriving at Cookies house with a decorative arrangement of flowers, in which she is well pleased. Buddy, suddenly arrived, holds the car door for Cookie; with Baby Elmer in the back seat, Buddy and Cookie set off on a picnic. As they drive, Happy the Dog tails behind, finally brought to the back seat by Elmer. The car loses control a bit on the country road, but felicitously is stopped, by a log, at an ideal picnic site. Buddy sets up the luncheon whilst Cookie takes up her guitar; Baby Elmer finds his way into the picnic basket, while Happy the Dog whimpers for some food. Elmer pounds a cake on to Happys head, leaving the poor creature to run frantically around until the cake finds itself all over the baby. Cookie shames her baby brother, and Elmer, with Happy, stalks away to the car, where he starts the engine much to the fright of Buddy & Cookie, who must then chase the ungoverned vehicle in Elmers baby carriage. Finding themselves atop a small building bordered by an operant train track straddled by Buddys car, Buddy and Cookie move atop a nearby ladder, which drops from its height to form a tangent from the track just as a train appears, moving towards a sure collision with the car carrying Baby Elmer & Happy; the ladder miraculously becomes a spare piece of track on to which the train turns, and thus is Baby Elmer saved. Buddy tickles Elmer, who then naughtily sprays his brave rescuer with milk as the cartoon ends.

Uniqueness of the cartoon

This cartoon was the only appearance of Cookies baby brother, as well as the only time Buddy owned a dog called Happy. In subsequent cartoons, Buddy (or Cookie) owned a dog called Bozo, and in others Buddys friend is a larger dog called Towser (cf. Buddy and Towser). This was also the only cartoon in which Buddy is so designed.

Modern releases

Buddys Day Out is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6. It is one of only three Buddy cartoons so honored, the others being Buddys Beer Garden and Buddys Circus.

On PBS

A collection of cels from this short was the focus of one episode of the History Detectives series on PBS in 2010.