Buddy's Day Out

Buddy's Day Out is a 1933 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon, directed by Tom Palmer. The short was released in theaters on September 9, 1933, premiering with Goodbye Again, and was the first cartoon to feature Buddy, the second star of the series who was created by Palmer.

A former Disney animator, Palmer was shortly thereafter fired from the studio. This short was the first cartoon in the series produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, as opposed to Harman-Ising Productions, and the first not to feature Bosko, created by Harman and Ising, as the central character.

Summary
Cookie is giving her baby brother Elmer a bath, while Buddy washes his car with a hose. Buddy's dog Happy grabs the hose and is tossed around by the water pressure. Cookie puts on makeup to prepare for a romantic picnic Buddy is taking her to and yells to Buddy that she is ready. Buddy starts his car with a crank starter, but when the car starts it runs off unattended through the neighborhood. It runs through a greenhouse, and stops at Cookie's house, draped with flowers from the greenhouse, which Cookie thinks is beautiful. Buddy loads a picnic basket in the car and drives off to the picnic with Cookie and Elmer. Happy runs behind and jumps in the car. The car struggles to climb up a hill and comes to a stop at the picnic spot. Buddy unloads the car while Cookie plays guitar and sings. Various animals join in the song. Meanwhile Elmer and Happy eat some of the food from the picnic basket. Cookie scolds Elmer, who sadly climbs back in the car and accidentally starts it. The car, containing Elmer and Happy, rolls downhill out of control while Buddy and Cookie chase it, riding in Elmer's baby carriage.

The car crashes through various obstacles, including a rotary clothesline, which lands in the baby carriage, turning it into a helicopter. Buddy and Cookie, flying above the car, see it turn onto a railroad track facing an oncoming train. They land the baby carriage and use a ladder to divert the train off the track, saving Elmer.

Production
The film was created in the wake of Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising's fallout with Leon Schlesinger over budget concerns. Harman and Ising kept the rights to Bosko, who appeared as the star character of Looney Tunes for its first three years and took him with them. Additionally, the majority of animators were working exclusively for Harman and Ising, leaving Schlesinger without a studio to continue the series. Desperate to maintain his contract with Warner Bros., Schlesinger set up his own studio, Leon Schlesinger Productions, and hired away animators from other studios. Buddy was created to replace Bosko as the star of Looney Tunes, but proved not to be a successful character and was eventually replaced after two years.

The film was directed by Tom Palmer and was one of only two films completed by him for the Schlesinger studio. According to animation historian Michael Barrier, Palmer's approach in directing Buddy's Day Out was rather loose. In the story conferences which determined the contents of the film, Palmer would suggest adding "a funny piece of business", a visual gag. He failed to specify the use of anything particularly funny. According to later interviews with Bernard B. Brown and Bob Clampett, Palmer's original version of the film was virtually devoid of gags. The Warner Bros. studio rejected this version and the film had to be reworked extensively. Barrier considers the finished film, with gags added, to also have been "desperately unfunny". The gags were neither as well conceived, nor as well executed as those found in the animated short films of the competing Walt Disney Productions.

Uniqueness of the cartoon
This cartoon was the only appearance of Cookie's 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 Buddy's friend is a larger dog called Towser (cf. Buddy and Towser). This was also the only cartoon in which Buddy is so designed.

Home media
Buddy's Day Out is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6. It is one of only three Buddy cartoons released on DVD, the others being Buddy's Beer Garden and Buddy's 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.