Officer Pooch

This 1941 cartoon from Hanna-Barbera shows what passed for entertainment animation in an era that produced great movies like Rebecca, Gone With The Wind, A Love Affair and other classics. The quality of the animation is good but it catered to audiences that were more impressed with cartoons than storylines. In fact, there is little to it other than a dog playing a police officer who is foiled by cats, little kittens and a woodpecker who pecks his baton into little pieces. It was a mindless way to pass time while waiting for the main attraction or giving the customer time to grab a coke or popcorn. Hanna-Barbera did go on to make the long running Flintstones, a great success in the history of television animation so we can look back and see its roots in cartoons like Officer Pooch.