Injun Trouble (1969 film)

Injun Trouble
One of Cool Cat's many encounters with the inhabitants of the reservation.
Directed by	Robert McKimson
Produced by	William L. Hendricks
Animation by	Ted Bonnicksen LaVerne Harding Jim Davis Ed Solomon
Layouts by	Bob Givens Jaime Diaz
Backgrounds by	Bob McIntosh
Color process	Technicolor
Production company	Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Animation
Distributed by	Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Vitagraph Company of America
Running time	6:18 min

Injun Trouble is a 1969 animated cartoon short in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Robert McKimson and featuring Cool Cat. It is noted for being the final cartoon in the original Merrie Melodies series, ending a run which had lasted since 1931. Also, this was the 1000th cartoon short released by Warner Bros.

This cartoon was the last Merrie Melodies cartoon until 1979's The Fright Before Christmas, as well as the very last Warner Bros. cartoon produced until 1979. This cartoon was also the last Warner Bros. cartoon to be produced by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Animation before the studio shut down in 1969 when Warner Bros.-Seven Arts was acquired by Kinney National Company until Warner Bros. Animation reopened its animation department in 1980. The cartoon shares its name with an earlier short directed by Bob Clampett.

Synopsis

Cool Cat is driving to the town of Hotfoot one day, when his route happens to take him through an Indian reservation. Two scouts spot him and one of them gives chase, only to fall into a chasm when the weight of him and his horse causes the makeshift bridge to collapse (even though it had carried Cool Cat and his car without trouble). Cool Cat rescues them and continues his journey. He misses the "pale-face" but encounters a man who tries to give his obese daughter away, a man with an arrow in his scalp, a Native American who uses a stenograph-like device to create smoke signals which read "Cool Cat go home," a more attractive woman that invites him for an "Indian Wrestle" (which turns out to be a fight with a man who is far larger than Cool Cat), a Groucho Marx imitator and a literal bareback rider.

Finally arriving in Hotfoot, Cool Cat spots two horses playing human shoes, and a "Horse Doctor" who really is an equine. After that, Cool Cat spots a "Topless Saloon" and heads in, but finds out that the only topless person in there is the bartender, a rather burly man. An outlaw named Gower Gulch then arrives and seemingly challenges Cool Cat to a duel, but then settles for a game of poker. Cool Cat gets a good hand with four Aces, only for Gulch to get a Royal Flush. Announcing that he is "cutting out," Cool Cat produces a pair of scissors and cuts a hole out of the background, which he then disappears into. He then reappears for a moment and ends the cartoon (and the original series' run) with the words "So cool it now, ya hear?"

Controversy

Owing to controversy over its stereotyping of Native Americans (and some racy jokes such as "Indian wrestling" with a curvy Native American woman and the "topless saloon"), the cartoon has never been shown by United States television broadcasters, or released on video. While bootleg versions are available (most commonly with a timecode on the image), it is one of the rarest of all Warner Bros. cartoons, owing to the relative unpopularity of cartoons from this era of the studio (unlike the "Censored Eleven," which were produced during the studio's heyday).

External links

• Matthew Hunter's DailyMotion commentary on Injun Trouble