Studio: Fleischer Studios
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Produced by: Max Fleischer
Short Synopsis
Pudgy has lost his bone on top of the coal bucket, and while he hunts for it Betty fills a washtub for his bath. The moment Pudgy understands what the tub is for he bolts, and Betty chases him through the apartment, under the sofa, behind the curtains and round and round under the living-room rug, which rises and falls like a wave as the two of them race beneath it. She catches him at last, drops him in the tub and scrubs him while singing the title song, with Pudgy slipping through her hands like soap. Washed, dried and brushed, he is a picture of cleanliness for about ten seconds, until he spots his bone on the coal bucket, leaps for it and brings the whole bucket down on himself.
Why It Matters
- The chase under the rug is the cartoon's best idea, a sequence of pure shape animation in which the rug does the acting, and the ending, with the clean dog black with coal, is as neat a punchline as the Pudgy films managed.
- Its copyright was never renewed, so it circulates freely in the United States. The opening verses of the song are missing from most surviving prints, so the version usually seen is a little shorter than the original; it is one of the earliest films on which Lillian Friedman, the first woman animator at a major American studio, worked, though she is uncredited.
Notes and Trivia
- Pudgy was based on Myron Waldman's own dog, and Waldman animated most of his films.
- The bathing-the-dog plot was reused by nearly every studio; Disney's Pluto had his version in 1937.
- See also: Swat the Fly (1935), Taking the Blame (1935), Little Nobody (1935).
