Bobby Bumps at the Circus (1916) User Reviews

I liked the primitive-looking Bobby Bumps at the Circus

[tavm · 7/10 · 29 August 2014]

Just watched this silent cartoon on YouTube. Produced by J.R. Bray and directed by Earl Hurd, Bobby Bumps is a little boy with a dog who's trying to attend the circus. He gets offered free admission if he brings two buckets of water to feed the elephant. But he has to do this more than once. The dog later finds out the trainer keeps bringing a different elephant every time Bobby makes a trip. So the trainer gets water thrown on his face as a result! So Bobby now asks his dad to take him but Dad has to balance the books. When the father leaves for a moment, Bobby and the dog literally balance those books on their bodies! The now-mad father chases them back to the circus where Bobby and the dog are a hit when they balance themselves on a riding horse. They get a big money offer as a result but the father catches them and spanks his son. Then the dog brings the large amount bill for their first performance to them and Dad now accepts the offer since that would definitely balance the books! Since this was made during the silent era, one should excuse the slow pacing and primitive gags. It still charmed me plenty. So on that note, Bobby Bumps at the Circus is worth a look for anyone interested in these vintage animations.

What Happened to the Money?

[boblipton · 5/10 · 22 January 2014]

Earl Hurd was a cartoonist who went to work for J.R. Bray's cartoon studio early on. He directed the Bobby Bumps series for the studio and after Bray got out of cartoons at the end of the silent era, Hurd went on to work for Disney from about 1934 through his death in 1940. However, the cartoon patents that Bray largely retired on were the Bray-Hurd patents. What happened to Hurd's cut?

Maybe it was spent on cartoons like this. Bobby Bumps, a small boy in knickerbockers and a cricket cap, to go to the circus, but his father is busy working on the books. Bobby sneaks off with his dog Fido. The illustrations are a bewildering mix of detailed backgrounds and sketchy ones and the animation is about half-animated by modern standards. Given the lack of competition at the time, this was good enough. It was far too mild by any other standard.

Animated comedy from 1916

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 27 May 2017]

BOBBY BUMPS AT THE CIRCUS is a short, silent animated piece from 1916. It concerns the misadventures of the titular character and his dog, who work at the circus and are exploited by the people there. There's something endearing about the very basic animation evinced in this piece, although the characters are suitably interesting enough for it to work on a basic level and it's an engaging piece of history at the very least.