Studio: Fleischer Studios
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Produced by: Max Fleischer
Short Synopsis
Pudgy, walking with Betty, is smitten by a pampered poodle in a bow who is being paraded by her wealthy mistress. The poodle's owner looks down her nose at the mongrel and his owner, and the poodle, taking her cue, snubs him. Pudgy, crushed, mopes at home, and Betty sings him the title song, about a little nobody who is somebody to her. Later the poodle, playing by the water, falls in and is swept away; her mistress shrieks and does nothing, and Pudgy dives in and drags the poodle out. The grateful society woman changes her tune, and the two dogs are allowed to be friends, with Betty looking on. Documentation of the film is thin, and the synopsis above is drawn from the cartoon itself; the Wikipedia page of that title concerns an unrelated author.
Why It Matters
- It is the Pudgy films at their most sentimental, a small story of class snobbery among dogs and owners, and the song, one of the better ballads written for the series, gives the title its point; the rescue is staged with the Fleischers' usual care for water.
- The film is in the public domain in the United States, which is the only reason a slight late-1935 Pudgy cartoon is still seen; it is representative of the tone of the series after the Production Code, when Betty became a kindly owner and the dog carried the plot.
Notes and Trivia
- Pudgy's romance with the poodle was not continued in later cartoons.
- The Fleischer studio was at this time employing more than two hundred people, the largest cartoon studio outside Disney.
- See also: A Little Soap and Water (1935), You're Not Built That Way (1936), Making Friends (1936).
