ReFrederator Blog

Mother Goose Week continues with “Wolf! Wolf!”, the Terrytoon version of “Little Bo Peep” from 1944. In the typically dark cartoon universe of the 1940’s, Miss Peep is really a wolf in drag, playing a mean trumpet, courtesy of a soloist in Phil Shieb’s studio orchestra.

Mighty Mouse shows up late in the proceedings to, of course, save the day (he’s Mighty Mouse… that’s what he does.) Still pretty early in MM’s career, and he’s lookin’ kinda puny in a pale pink costume. But at least now he is called ‘Mighty Mouse’ — the rodent of tomorrow, spent his first season of cartoons, zooming around under the alias of ‘Super Mouse.’

This one was directed by Mannie Davis, and it’s got that weird thing in it about the dry brush streak Mighty Mouse has trailing behind him when he flies. When convenient, the streak, supposedly an optical illusion, could suddenly assume concrete, physical properties, and MM would use it to lasso bad guys or cinch up volcanoes. In this film a little lamb scampers back and forth on the streak, like it was a diving board!

Tomorrow ReFrederator returns with another fairy tale, another wolf and some Oscar nominated antics.

Dave Kirwan