I Got Plenty of Mutton

Ah, ze power of l'amour! A starving wolf, perishing from wartime meat rationing (he's so famished that when he swallows a solitary pea you can hear its landing reverberate around his hollow tummy) learns that a champion sheepdog has abandoned his flock to join the Army. The delighted wolf zooms off to gorge on unprotected sheep only to learn that they've been left in the charge of the tough-as-nails, wolf-destroying ram "Killer Diller". What to do? Well, since it's a Warner cartoon, what else?--he gets a sheep costume, dresses as a sexy ewe with long eyelashes and flowered sarong, and vamps the ram! Who, not to be outdone, promptly turns into an ovine Pepe le Pew, complete with Charles Boyer-accented heavy-breathing seduction routine, and gives the wolf a lot more than he bargained for. I would die before I'd give away the ending, but let's just say it opens possibilities Fred Quimby would never have countenanced...=) A wacky little gem with Tashlin's signature pacing and some reaction takes you'll have to see to believe.

Frank Tashlin's 'I Got Plenty of Mutton' is a great, unsung classic of a cartoon which really takes its time in laying out its story. Like Tashlin's masterpiece 'Puss 'n' Booty', the emphasis here is on character and story over gags. The character designs are great, particularly of the starving wolf who is unbearably scrawny. Tashlin places our sympathies squarely with the wolf by opening with a typically leisurely-paced set of scenes in which we witness his stomach-rumbling poverty. When he hears of an unguarded flock of sheep, he sets off to finally have a proper meal only to find a particularly vicious ram has assumed the former sheepdog's duties.

The wolf disguises himself as an overtly sexy ewe which leads to an aggressively amorous pursuit culminating in a mind-boggling climax which predicts the finale of 'Some Like It Hot' by over a decade. Aside from featuring one of the most blatant erection jokes in cartoon history, 'I Got Plenty of Mutton' is noteworthy for several other reasons. It typifies Tashlin at his very best, placing the emphasis on his "actors" and lingering over small actions that other directors would not even bother showing (check out the lengthy sequence in which the wolf applies make-up). Chuck Jones was obviously taking notes. 'I Got Plenty of Mutton' features obvious inspirations for Wile. E. Coyote, the Sheepdog and Wolf cartoons and the Pepe Le Pew series (right down to the joyful bounds with which the ram pursues the wolf). Such a blatantly influential cartoon should surely not be so deeply buried in the archives. 'I Got Plenty of Mutton' is another great work from an underrated director.

For years I've heard about WWII-era rationing, but I never would have suspected that such a funny cartoon could spring from it. Frank Tashlin's "I Got Plenty of Mutton" portrays a nearly starved wolf not allowed to eat meat due to rationing. He's reduced to cutting a pathetic little pea in half to eat. But when he reads about a sheepdog going off to fight in the war, he gets hungry for sheep. Only when he arrives there, it turns out that a ram named Killer Diller is guarding the sheep.

What's a wolf to do in this situation? Since this is a Warner Bros. cartoon, he dresses up as the sexiest ewe in history...which turns the ram into an ovine Pepe Le Pew. The next couple of minutes remind us that there are two definitions of wolf! One of the most interesting tricks that they use in this cartoon is that the wolf's home is located in what appears to be a bleak, midwinter setting. But the sheep are grazing in what appears to be a spring or even summer setting. Only a Looney Tunes cartoon would do that! There's even a completely inexplicable sight gag (early on involving a tree). But no matter how you look at it, this cartoon remains a timeless classic. It also brings to mind the fact that during WWII, we rationed many things, but during the so-called War on Terrorism, we don't ration anything (not even any tax increases).

Definitely on that you'll like.

While not exactly an animated masterpiece I Got Plenty of Mutton comes very close to that. It also is further proof that Frank Tashlin deserved to be better known, and is one of his best. The animation is fluid and vibrant, the camera angles never fail to delight, and you can never go wrong with Carl Stalling's characterful music or Mel Blanc's bravura voice acting. The dialogue has a lot of freshness and wit and made even funnier by Blanc's voices. The gags are very well-timed and clever, very little predictability in sight and the story keeps things simple and doesn't become confused or simplistic. The characters carry I Got Plenty of Mutton strongly, especially the Wolf, very important as he is the main character.

All in all, a wonderful cartoon and one of underrated Tashlin's best. 9/10 Bethany Cox