User:HarvettFox96/sandbox/The Barnyard Brat (Color Classics)

Note: Feel free to edit this page if you want.

"The Barnyard Brat" is the 28th short of the Color Classics series starring Hunky and Spunky.

Summary
Having trouble disciplining her son, the farm animals decide to get back at Spunky for ruining their lives. But their violence is cut short when Hunky comes back to rescue her son. After getting hit a few times, Hunky finally gives in and disciplines her son at last.

Why It's a Brat
Work in progress
 * 1) To begin with, most importantly, it's a mean-spirited, torture short for Hunky and Spunky (mostly Hunky for being turned into a pushover parent by her only son).
 * 2) Spunky is very unlikable and out of character in the short since he refuses to eat the foods given by Hunky and makes the farm animals fun by ruining them.
 * 3) * The other farm animals are no better either as they decide to stick Spunky in a well bucket, repeatedly dunk him down a well, and throw rotten fruits and vegetables at him even though Spunky is just a child. These farm animals do it to Spunky to get back at him for his pranks on them but their actions are just an act of revenge and child abuse rather than discipline.
 * 4) Even though this episode was made in the era where the Hays Code was active, the barnyard animals who tortured Spunky are not punished for their acts aside from having their abuse on Spunky thwarted by his mother and then getting junk kicked back at them.  They also take glee from seeing Spunky get spanked meaning they got what they wanted in the end.  This is odd considering that the Hays Code requires that every character who does something bad should get satisfying karma of some form.
 * 5) A good idea on paper about a child having behavioral problems and having no self control, it was poorly executed when the Fleischers made Spunky and the barnyard animals too unsympathetic.
 * 6) * That kind of plot was done better in the Tiny Toon Adventures episode, "Her Wacky Highness" (with Babs Bunny as the main focus).
 * 7) Poor Hunky was being turned into a pushover parent by her own son and had a hard time trying to discipline him. Eventually, she was able to spank him for going too far on his tantrum.
 * 8) Even though this short was made in the times when spanking was a common form of discipline, it unfortunately teaches a bad moral to viewers today that parents should hit and spank their children often.  The bad moral even implies that parents should hit their children anywhere besides the bottom as at the beginning Hunky tries to discipline her child and judging from Spunky’s position, it looks like Hunky was going to brutally hit Spunky in the face with her hoof before Spunky threw a tantrum in fear.  Hunky even tries to hit her child in the head again after Spunky’s stunt with covering birds with corn, only for the attempted hit to miss as the show ends.
 * 9) Hypocrisy:  While the short seems to promote child abuse and encourages the message that children should be hit as punishment for bad behavior, when the barn animals decide to hit Spunky with rotten food, their actions are depicted as bad.
 * 10) While the animation is decent for the most part, it suffers from its ugly and old fashioned rubber-hose art style heldover from the mid-1930s. Fortunately, Shamus Culhane and Al Eugster's redesigns improved the series in the next short, "A Kick in Time".
 * 11) The beginning of the short is a knock-off of the scene from the 1932 Mickey Mouse short, Mickey's Good Deed. The only thing different is Hunky trying to offer her son food instead of toys like in the Disney short. Another thing different is no butler present.
 * 12) There were a few pranks Spunky pulled throughout the whole cartoon,  such as stealing the wool off a baby sheep, squirting water at the mother duck and scaring the chicks away to eat their corn. Although they were meant to be harmless little pranks, the farm animals planned to get back at Spunky by putting him in the bucket of a well and throwing produce at him.
 * 13) After Hunky saves her son, Spunky attacks her for no reason after the farm animals upset him further. This cartoon was intended for us to sympathize with Spunky, but we end up sympathizing with his mother instead.
 * 14) The sounds Spunky makes while throwing a tantrum is pretty cringeworthy to listen to, wasting the talents of Jack Mercer.
 * 15) This short lacks the charm and likeability of their previous adventures, such as their pilot short and "Always Kickin'". The only conflicts in this short are misbehavior and revenge, yet the Fleischers hardly do anything interesting for the former.
 * 16) While the character designs for the farm animals are decent, it doesn't excuse the fact they're drawn in a more detailed version of the ugly and old-fashioned rubber hose style. Even Disney doesn't do that anymore when they developed their new squash-and-stretch style (courtesy of animator, Fred Moore).
 * 17) Like most Color Classics prior, the ad-libbing can be off-putting to a number of viewers used to cartoons with lip synchronization from other studios.
 * 18) This cartoon tried too hard to make tantrums hilarious, coming off as annoying and unbearable to watch. Besides the tantrums, the Fleischers also tried too hard to make revenge hilarious and comes off as child abuse rather than funny.
 * 19) Bad ending: Spunky breaks a plank off the box of corn, collapsing onto the farm animals eating the corn. Unfortunately, Hunky is upset with him and quickly chases him away.

Redeeming Qualities
Work in progress
 * 1) The animation, background, and music composition by Sammy Timberg are overall decent for the late 1930s standards.
 * 2) * Tony Pabian's animation is pretty good, who previously animated on the Happy Harmonies series at MGM.
 * 3) Thankfully, Spunky would be reverted his personality after the short and his character design improvement in "A Kick in Time".
 * 4) The scene where Hunky punished her son for his bratty behavior is pretty satisfying, when Spunky went too far with his tantrum.
 * 5) Hunky is the only likable character in the whole short.
 * 6) Hunky does intervene to save Spunky and stop the other barnyard animals revenge on Spunky.
 * 7) Although Spunky was unlikable in this short, the parts where his head gets stuck in an oat bucket and squirting water at the mother duck were pretty funny.
 * 8) Decent voice acting from Jack Mercer.

Trivia
Work in progress
 * Throughout 1960s and 1970s, seven Color Classics shorts and one Noveltoons short featuring Hunky and Spunky entered the public domain after Supat and National Telefilm Associates (who acquired the U.M. & M. library containing pre-October 1950 titles in 1956) never renewed them for the original copyright due to having no-to-little interests.
 * This was the final "Hunky and Spunky" short to be animated in the old-fashioned rubber hose style. The next cartoon, "A Kick in Time", would be the first animated in the West Coast animation style (thanks to animators Shamus Culhane and Al Eugster).

Videos
PJyb87Gsjac