Saturday Morning Cartoons - Drawn, Partner!

Disney's reboot of The Lone Ranger trotted into theatres this past Wednesday, which will help Johnny Depp to purchase another 5 years' worth of anti-aging cream.

Westerns aren't new territory for Johnny, as the last movie he made with director Gore Verbinski was the weirdly dark Rango, who Johnny provided a voice for.

But back to The Lone Ranger - he's been around for 80 years, not only in movies but in cartoons as well.

He was a silent film star in the 1930's.

He was a TV star (in living colour) on CBS in 1966's The Lone Ranger from Format Films.

And he continued that TV tradition in the early 1980's as part of Filmation's The Tarzan/Lone Ranger Adventure Hour. 

In salute to the temporary resurgence of the western, reckon we'd take a look today at a few other cartoon cowpokes from Western animation.


TWO GUN MICKEY

Mickey Mouse popped a cap in several asses in this 1934 short, including Peg Leg Pete's posterior for stealing his girlfriend's money. The big gorilla.

PECOS BILL

Disney (with the help of Roy Rogers and The Sons of The Pioneers) famously told the legend of 'Pecos Bill', as a short in the 1948 feature film, Melody Time.

LUCKY LUKE

Four animated films featuring Belgian comics legend Lucky Luke were released in France back in the 1970's. A couple of them were dubbed in English. Disney released one in 1990, translated as 'The Ballad of The Daltons'. But my preference is the raucous 'Daisy Town' from 1971. If you have time to spare, it's worth a watch.

Hanna Barbera also produced a French Lucky Luke TV series back in 1983 and 1991. Here's an English dubbed sampling...

TEXAS TOM

He's like regular Tom, except he smokes! But as I pointed out in a previous post, you don't always see this scene in certain versions of this 1950 cartoon.

RICOCHET RABBIT

Ping, Ping, PING! Ricochet Rabbit was a sheriff around the parts of The Magilla Gorilla Show and Peter Potomus. Here's a 1964 segment with a particular wordy title that I'm too lazy to type.

DEPUTY DAWG

Deputy Dawg was also a sheriff, but wasn't nearly as quick as Ricochet Rabbit. Okay, he was a numbskull. His show, produced by Terrytoons, aired on CBS in 1962. Here's an awkward and racist episode entitled 'Big Chief No Treaty'.

BRAVESTARR

Similar to He-Man, Filmation, famous purveyors of cartoon crap, produced this series in 1987 as a companion piece to a Mattel toyline. It kind of plays like Rocket Robin Hood, where the future is set in the old - in this case, the planet New Texas. Of particular note was a heavy-handed episode entitled 'The Price', which featured a kid dying of a "spin" overdose.

Like all good Westerns, heroes would have nothing to do if it t'werent for the presence of a few particularly effective villains. Here are a few worthy of any gang...

WILD BILL BLUTO

Sheriff Popeye became the "gob for the job" in 1949's 'Tar With A Star', as he introduced law, order and prohibition to a rustic town gone awry. That is until Wild Bill Bluto barged in, shooting flies and stealing his woma-ing.

DEADEYE DICK / BAD BILL BUNION

In 1946, Mighty Mouse met Deadeye Dick in the aptly-titled 'Mighty Mouse Meets Deadeye Dick'.

But he also took on a much meaner "mongrel" named Bad Bill Bunion in 1946's 'The Jailbreak'.

DAPPER DENVER DOOLEY

Truthfully, all you need to be successful as a villain in the wild west is effective use of alliteration. Dapper Denver Dooley in this 1951 Woody Woodpecker short called 'Square Shootin' Square' was certainly fit. Dooley is sometimes mistaken for a "poor, dirty old tramp". (Woody's words, not mine)

PECOS PETE

Chip and Dale attempted to round up a peg-less Pete in 1954's 'The Lone Chipmunks'.

NASTY CANASTA

'Drip-Along Daffy' challenged the notorious square dance caller to a game of tennis wits in this 1951 Looney Tunes classic.

Canasta also faced Daffy (this time, as The Masked Avenger) in 1954's 'My Little Duckaroo'. 

ABNER AND EWALT

Abner and Ewalt are proudly ignert (sic) and bored villins (sic) who are bound and bent to hang Three-Fingered Hoek and Stupid The Kid, in this 1992 episode of The Ren and Stimpy Show called 'Out West'.

YOSEMITE SAM

I've saved one of cartoon-dom's greatest wild west villins villains for last - the rootenest, tootenest six-gun shootenest bob-tailed mangy wildcat North, South, East a-a-a-a-and West of the Pecos!

True, Yosemite Sam has had many jobs over the years - pirate, prospector, prison guard, etc. - but he was first introduced as a cowboy in 1945's 'Hare Trigger', and that's how I'll always remember him. He's funniest as a cowboy. He has some great lines in these cartoons. These were definitely Friz Freleng's finest Bugs Bunny shorts, in my opinion. 

Also included (because I can't decide which is my favourite) are 1948's 'Bugs Bunny Rides Again' and 1954's 'Wild and Wooly Hair'. 

And now we're officially out of cartoons! Aw, shoot!