Droopy was always a favorite character for me. He is the slow moving, milquetoast dog who always comes out on top. His adversary is Spike, a big bulldog. In this one, Droopy inherits a house and a fortune, but if he dies, it goes to Spike. Well we know what's next. But like so many of these cartoons, Droopy's inaction leads Spike to destroy himself. This is one that's great fun. Poor old Spike!
14 Reviews
excellent
planktonrules7 June 2006
Warning: Spoilers
There was a later remake of this cartoon (Millionaire Droopy). In fact, aside from cheaper backgrounds, it's really the exact same film. So, considering this is the original and it looks a heck of a lot better, try seeing this film first or don't even bother with the other one.
Tex Avery did a good job here in creating an entertaining short cartoon featuring Droopy Dog. He and his "friend" Butch the dog are both named in the will of a millionaire. Droopy is the sole heir but Butch is to inherit everything should anything happen to Droopy--so you can easily guess where the cartoon is going next! Well, despite Butch's efforts, he keeps being the recipient of all the tricks and traps and Droopy is left unharmed. A good cartoon and a lotta fun.
Tex Avery did a good job here in creating an entertaining short cartoon featuring Droopy Dog. He and his "friend" Butch the dog are both named in the will of a millionaire. Droopy is the sole heir but Butch is to inherit everything should anything happen to Droopy--so you can easily guess where the cartoon is going next! Well, despite Butch's efforts, he keeps being the recipient of all the tricks and traps and Droopy is left unharmed. A good cartoon and a lotta fun.
Fortune Droopy
TheLittleSongbird21 September 2017
Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.
Also have much admiration for Tex Avery, an animation genius whose best cartoons are animated masterpieces and some of the best he ever did. Generally like the Droopy cartoons and the character himself a lot, his best cartoons are classics and among Avery's best. Avery has done better than 'Wags to Riches' and so has Droopy, but still 'Wags to Riches' is very good and enormously enjoyable with pretty much everything that makes the best Droopy cartoons so good evident.
The central conflict, revolving around a familiar premise in animation, is pretty obvious with the outcome not exactly surprising. There are Droopy cartoons that execute their stories a little more imaginative and are a little more inventive. 'Wags to Riches' does have invention and the entertainment value is enormous, it's just been done better.
Spike is a sadistic, without being stomach-churningly so, foil and also a hilarious one. He works so well with Droopy who still continues to be a well-established personality and high in charisma and humour character.
Avery does a wonderful job directing, with his unique, unlike-any-other visual and characteristic and incredibly distinctive wacky humour style all over it as can be expected.
'Wags to Riches' is clever, beautifully timed and never less than very funny. It doesn't feel repetitious, with enough variety to stop it from being so, the violence is not done distastefully and the energy is fantastic.
It is no surprise either that the animation is superb. The character designs are unique, Avery always did have creative character designs, and suitably fluid. The music, courtesy of Scott Bradley, is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed.
Can never fault the voice acting in the Droopy cartoons, 'Wags to Riches' is no different.
Overall, very good and enormously enjoyable. 8/10 Bethany Cox
Also have much admiration for Tex Avery, an animation genius whose best cartoons are animated masterpieces and some of the best he ever did. Generally like the Droopy cartoons and the character himself a lot, his best cartoons are classics and among Avery's best. Avery has done better than 'Wags to Riches' and so has Droopy, but still 'Wags to Riches' is very good and enormously enjoyable with pretty much everything that makes the best Droopy cartoons so good evident.
The central conflict, revolving around a familiar premise in animation, is pretty obvious with the outcome not exactly surprising. There are Droopy cartoons that execute their stories a little more imaginative and are a little more inventive. 'Wags to Riches' does have invention and the entertainment value is enormous, it's just been done better.
Spike is a sadistic, without being stomach-churningly so, foil and also a hilarious one. He works so well with Droopy who still continues to be a well-established personality and high in charisma and humour character.
Avery does a wonderful job directing, with his unique, unlike-any-other visual and characteristic and incredibly distinctive wacky humour style all over it as can be expected.
'Wags to Riches' is clever, beautifully timed and never less than very funny. It doesn't feel repetitious, with enough variety to stop it from being so, the violence is not done distastefully and the energy is fantastic.
It is no surprise either that the animation is superb. The character designs are unique, Avery always did have creative character designs, and suitably fluid. The music, courtesy of Scott Bradley, is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed.
Can never fault the voice acting in the Droopy cartoons, 'Wags to Riches' is no different.
Overall, very good and enormously enjoyable. 8/10 Bethany Cox
Spike Can't Win For Losing
ccthemovieman-116 June 2007
Droopy is an heir of a million dollars by his owner, but the will also states that the other pet dog, "Spike," gets the money if Droopy dies. Hmm, that gets big Spike to thinking....
Spike is absolutely hilarious, especially in the reading of the will. Talk about someone who's jaw drops!! The sight gags in here, especially with this dog, are Tex Avery classics - just really funny stuff. I almost felt sorry for sadistic Spike as, of course, everything he tries in eliminating Droopy backfires. This must have been an inspiration to the guys who did the Road Runner cartoons, with Wile E. Coyote having the same fortune as Spike.
This is another winner from The "Tex Avery's Droopy - The Complete Theatrical Collection" DVD.
Spike is absolutely hilarious, especially in the reading of the will. Talk about someone who's jaw drops!! The sight gags in here, especially with this dog, are Tex Avery classics - just really funny stuff. I almost felt sorry for sadistic Spike as, of course, everything he tries in eliminating Droopy backfires. This must have been an inspiration to the guys who did the Road Runner cartoons, with Wile E. Coyote having the same fortune as Spike.
This is another winner from The "Tex Avery's Droopy - The Complete Theatrical Collection" DVD.
The first of two versions of this and the better one
llltdesq25 February 2002
This cartoon was re-done about seven years later as Millionaire Droopy with little changed, for reasons I can only guess at. Millionaire Droopy is the ultimate "cheater" short, in my opinion. A "cheater" is a short where much of the short is comprised of cribbed scenes from other cartoons, with some new animation as a framing device around it to make a "new" cartoon. This was done so that distribution contracts could be adhered to when they fell behind the production schedule (as they inevitably did), as a cheater required less time to produce than a completely new short did. While a good cartoon, Wags To Riches wasn't good enough to be cloned! Good to see it's in print, though. Well worth watching. Recommended
This is a passable effort by Tinsel Town . . .
cricket307 January 2019
Warning: Spoilers
. . . to instruct the sort of young folks likely to be viewing century-old cartoons about firearm safety. (It just occurred to me that maybe NO ONE under the age of, say "75," will ever have the desire to sit through a Future showing of WAGS TO RICHES. In that case, perhaps WAGS TO RICHES needs to be considered in a retrospective fashion. For example, when the inane bulldog looks into the muzzle of his weapon "to see if it's loaded," subsequently getting his noggin blown off, maybe such a cautionary episode made an impression upon a youthful "Chuck Whitman," allowing him to serve Our Nation with distinction before that "brain tumor the size of a walnut" induced the former Eagle Scout to notch his infamous "Whitman's Sampler" from either a book repository or a bell tower--I always tend to get these Red Letter sites in Lone Star History muddled up a little bit. At any rate, WAGS TO RICHES will remain what it is, regardless of however many trees fall on the Moon in the next billon years, and Mr. Gump will ALWAYS have two "R's" in his first name, no matter how many times he opens that box of chocolates!)
Hilarious
TheMan305119 November 2002
This is another classic cartoon in true Tex Avary style! The premise is simple, Droopy was left a fortune but if he should die all the money goes to Spike. Obviously Spike will do anything within his power to kill Droopy and make it look accidental. And what follows is another blend of classic Avary gags.
3(***)out of 4(****)stars
3(***)out of 4(****)stars
When the Greed reaches its highest point
Kalashnikovin2 April 2023
After leaving Warner Bros, Avery got a job at MGM again directing Short Films, after several Characters like Screwy Squirrel and George and Junior, Avery learned what it takes to be funny after Dumb Hounded in 1943, where with a very simple plot she managed to entertain and funny, but the focus was not obtained by the Wolf who was the protagonist of that short, but by the Hound that appeared there, previously called Happy Hound.
Happy Hound (later renamed as Droopy) continued to appear in supporting roles until gaining the recognition he deserved in The Shot of Dan Mcgoo in 1945, so he got his own series of short films, where he was paired with many iconic MGM characters, Like the Wolf and the Little Red Riding Hood.
And after following a path full of success, Droopy reached its highest point with Wags to Riches, in the last year of the 40s, "we must close this decade well" Avery thought when creating this masterpiece, which I consider it one of his most important works and one of the best he directed.
Here he is paired with Butch (here called Spike) a Bulldog similar to Spike but with a Greedy and Treacherous Personality, who upon learning that his late owner left his entire fortune to his Housemate Droopy, is filled with anger and envy , and after reading a text that says "in the case of the death of the Droopy dog, all the money falls into Spike's possession" he takes the Initiative trying to assassinate him but failing in all his poor and miserable attempts.
The animation was glorious, MGM at its Highest Moments, attractive and well colored backgrounds, there is a great use of Smear Frames, which cause a more attractive and moderately fluid Animation, as well as exaggerated expressions, which fit the humor well.
The Music was good at best, once again praising Bradley I can just say it was well placed and a delight to the ears.
It really was a good short, it has a simple plot but it was charmingly done, it has relentless animation and a Humor on par with Looney Tunes or Tom and Jerry, I think it's one of Droopy's best and it will still hold that position.
For all the above, this short gets a more than deserved 6, it's a joke, it's actually called a deserved 10! Congratulations to Avery and his team for this wonderful job.
Happy Hound (later renamed as Droopy) continued to appear in supporting roles until gaining the recognition he deserved in The Shot of Dan Mcgoo in 1945, so he got his own series of short films, where he was paired with many iconic MGM characters, Like the Wolf and the Little Red Riding Hood.
And after following a path full of success, Droopy reached its highest point with Wags to Riches, in the last year of the 40s, "we must close this decade well" Avery thought when creating this masterpiece, which I consider it one of his most important works and one of the best he directed.
Here he is paired with Butch (here called Spike) a Bulldog similar to Spike but with a Greedy and Treacherous Personality, who upon learning that his late owner left his entire fortune to his Housemate Droopy, is filled with anger and envy , and after reading a text that says "in the case of the death of the Droopy dog, all the money falls into Spike's possession" he takes the Initiative trying to assassinate him but failing in all his poor and miserable attempts.
The animation was glorious, MGM at its Highest Moments, attractive and well colored backgrounds, there is a great use of Smear Frames, which cause a more attractive and moderately fluid Animation, as well as exaggerated expressions, which fit the humor well.
The Music was good at best, once again praising Bradley I can just say it was well placed and a delight to the ears.
It really was a good short, it has a simple plot but it was charmingly done, it has relentless animation and a Humor on par with Looney Tunes or Tom and Jerry, I think it's one of Droopy's best and it will still hold that position.
For all the above, this short gets a more than deserved 6, it's a joke, it's actually called a deserved 10! Congratulations to Avery and his team for this wonderful job.
Pretty creative indeed
Horst_In_Translation23 February 2018
Warning: Spoilers
"Wags to Riches" is an American 7-minute cartoon from 1949, so this one has its 70th anniversary next year and it is not one by Disney or Warner Bros, but by MGM and Tex Avery and while many of theirs do not have recurring characters, we got one of their trademark figures here: Droopy. And the usual approach for him is that he is not really in the center of it all, but Spike is, the other dog hoping he could inherit a fortune from Droopy in the event of the latter's (untimely) death, so Spike actually tries all kinds of ways to kill Droopy and it backfires each and every time obviously because Droopy is a real talent when it comes to survivalism. This is basically the key approach here and it is many really short films packed into one. These very short films are funny, some more some less, but the best thing here was maybe the first 90 seconds, the introduction to the whole scenario and how we see how Spike (thinks he) fits the descriptions from his owner in the man's will. But even after that it is a pretty funny, highly creative little work. I'm personally not the biggest Droopy fan, but if you like him more than I do, then maybe you will appreciate this one even more. Still i give it a thumbs-up and recommend checking it out, especially to those who love old cartoons. Go for it. And yes this one was successful enough to get remade even. And it also got referenced far more frequently in other works than you'd expect from a cartoon from around that time. Both these facts show the success and how appreciated it was, still is. Positively recommended.
Fun Droopy fortune.
OllieSuave-0075 January 2018
This is a fun little Droopy carton where the melancholy dog and his nemesis Spike battle over who keeps the fortune that a millionaire has left Droopy. It's lots of laughs seeing Spike try to eliminate Droopy so he could have the fortune. Plenty of slapstick stuff.
Grade A
Grade A
Spike vs Droopy
SnoopyStyle28 February 2022
A late millionaire leaves his fortune to one of his two dogs, Spike and Droopy. It's Droopy but in case of Droopy's death, the estate would be next turned over to Spike. It's obvious what Spike plans to do to Droopy. This is standard Spike vs Droopy. I like it. It's pretty good. I would have liked for something more violent in its climax. It's fine.
From Rags to Riches!
Sylviastel9 June 2019
This animated short is directed by "Tex" Avery . . .
oscaralbert14 March 2017
Warning: Spoilers
. . . so it's quite predictable that WAGS TO RICHES revolves around a series of assassination plots. Mr. Avery was born in Taylor, TX, just a hop, skip, and a jump from the only U.S. Presidential Whacking Site in ANYONE'S Living Memory, Dallas. So whether the power-hungry Lyndon "Spike" Johnson mutt featured in RAGS TO RICHES is using a revolver, shot gun, artillery shell, or sabotaged tree, it's all so much "Col. Mustard with a Candlestick in the Conservatory"--that is, old hat--to a guy like Tex. Perceptive viewers will see some predictive shots taken here from behind Dallas' infamous Grassy Knoll, so perhaps it's incumbent upon Today's Secret Service to study WAGS TO RICHES frame-by-frame in pursuit of any clues Tex may have buried there pertaining to the likely demise of Red Commie KGB Chief Vlad "The Mad Russian" Putin's White House Puppet, Rump. Better yet, why look this Gift Horse of RICHES in its mouth? Why not wall up Rump in his Tower like Rapunzel, since he has such an affinity for the safety afforded by walls?
If there's anything worse than people killing . . .
pixrox112 July 2022
Warning: Spoilers
. . . each other, it's probably canine internecine warfare. It may be a dog-eat-dog world, but didn't we all feel a little queasy when Toto stole Prof. Marvel's roasting frank, even after the future wizard remarked "From one dog to another"?. WAGS TO RICHES emerged from the Studio of Oz a decade after Toto revealed the man to pay attention to behind that curtain, never expecting that Dorothy would be taking her tykes to screenings of a cigar-chomping bulldog trying to assassinate a much smaller mongrel. It's as if the muskrats are no longer guarding their musk!
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
