Bosko at the Zoo

Bosko at the Zoo
scene from public domain animated feature Bosko at the Zoo
Directed by	Hugh Harman
Produced by	Hugh Harman Rudolf Ising Leon Schlesinger
Music by	Frank Marsales
Animation by	Friz Freleng Larry Martin (credited as "Drawn by")
Color process	Black-and-white
Production company	Harman-Ising Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date	January 9, 1932 (1932-01-09) (U.S.A.)
Running time	7 min.
Language	English

Bosko at the Zoo is an American animated short film featuring Bosko and Honey.^[1] It is a Looney Tunes cartoon, released on January 9, 1932.^[2] Like most Looney Tunes of the time, it was directed by Hugh Harman. Frank Marsales was its musical director.

Bosko brings Honey to the zoo on the handlebars of a bicycle. Inside the grounds, the encounter an angry lion before discovering an aquarium. The perspective shifts to the inside of the tank, where two fish playing a game similar to leapfrog are scared off by a menacing fish who turns towards the audience and blows bubbles. More fish join an octopus and swing from its arms in the manner of a maypole. An ostrich takes advantage of distracted Bosko and bites his bowler hat off his head.

Bosko leaves Honey behind for the remainder of the short and chases the ostrich. He attempts to catch it with a lasso, anchoring the rope to a tree, but the ostrich pulls the rope away tossing Bosco up into the air. He lands on a porcupine, pulling off its coat of needles, which the bare-skinned porcupine in human underwear yanks away from him. Bosko then finds the ostrich and orders it to sit in a nest. He waits for it to hatch an egg and cracks it open, to reveal the bowler. The ostrich, speaking garbled nonsense, makes gestures that suggest negotiation. In an attempt to cheer up the bird, Bosko plays a tune on a woodwind instrument he pulls out of his pocket. He then hums a variation of the snake charmer song, prompting the ostrich to do a stylized belly dance.

Three beavers witnessing this from a nearby enclosure bang their tails; a marsupial in the same enclosure dances along, pausing for a few beats as two of its young jump out of its pouch and land back inside. Further on, two monkeys in a cage scratch themselves, looking for fleas. One monkey finds a flea and puts it on a plate and pretends to eat it, so that he can stab the other with the fork as a gag. Bosko steps into the cage and chases the monkeys to the end.

To punish the jokester monkey, he gives it a spanking, referencing a similar moment in the early Bosko short "Congo Jazz." Just like in that short, a large ape who appears to be the monkey's parent confronts Bosko, who is then chased the length of the cage. They find the jokester monkey at another end of the cage. The monkey kicks Bosko in the shins and the ape chases him again, to yet another end of the cage, this one with a window. Bosko leaps from the window and catches a vine that turns out to be a giant snake.

He tumbles to the ground and lands in the lion's den, awakening the lion. The lion chases Bosko. The ostrich sees them coming and dashes through a walrus pool, jumping on the walrus's back. The walrus sprints on its fins to catch up with the ostrich. They reach the wall of the zoo just a moment before Bosko, who jumps over their heads onto the coping stones of the wall. The lion crashes into the walrus and the ostrich, forming a three-headed animal ball that roars, barks and quacks, ending the cartoon.

Motion Picture Herald reported, "When the six tentacles of the octopus are used as the arms of the maypole, the patrons at a New York neighborhood house had an enjoyable few moments."^[3]

The cartoon is available on the DVD Uncensored Bosko: Volume 2.

• Bosko at the Zoo at IMDb
• Bosko at the Zoo on YouTube (unrestored)