Honeymoon Hotel (1934)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Release Date:

17 February 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Animation | Musical | Short | Comedy

Plot:

After introducing the small town Bugtown, inhabitated by bugs, this short shows what happens to two...

Plot Keywords:

Honeymoon | Hotel | Bug | Murphy Bed | Jump From Height

Runtime:

7 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Cinecolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:TV-G (TV rating)

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Warner Brothers first cartoon in color, a Merrie Melody produced in Cinecolor. The Looney Tunes would continue to be in Black and White until 1943.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Footlight Parade: Music for the Decades (2006) (V)

Soundtrack:

The Wedding March

Cute short with more than a few gags with a "nudge, nudge, wink wink" subtext to them

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This is a cute, though somewhat limited, cartoon which is one of the earliest (if I recall correctly, the very first) Warner Brothers cartoons done in color. Because I want to discuss some of the details, this is a spoiler warning:

The short begins with three billboard painters painting the lyrics (with one straight, quick brush-stroke putting the lyrics down in readable form) to the song they're singing, which is all about Bugville. It's a nice little lead-in to the main plot line, which is about two bugs who fall in love, get married and go to the Honeymoon Hotel (watch for a funny gag involving their car as they enter the Hotel). They go to the front desk, where they sign in by using a rubber stamp indicating that they are "Mr. and Mrs Smith", the first of a number of arch jokes directed more toward the adults in the audience than the children.

Along the way, we see a house detective with a fondness for looking into keyholes, with very unfortunate results (from his point of view, at any rate), a household staff with a significant interest in the goings on in their room and an inquisitive (if bashful) moon. As the happy couple begins to celebrate, the heat in the room causes the thermometer to explode and sets the hotel ablaze.

Some nice sight gags involving the Bugville Fire Department and the rescue efforts at the hotel are next, with our couple trapped in their room by some quite lively flames-so they jump in their Murphy bed and it folds back into the wall. Later, after the hotel has been leveled and the fire is out, they emerge, the husband puts a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door and they go back into the wall again and we see the closing sight gag on the exposed underside of the bed, which I won't spoil here.

Cute short, well worth watching, if you can find it out there. Recommended.