Hold Anything

Hold Anything was the third short in the Looney Tunes series from Warner Bros., released to theaters in October 1930.[1] Featuring Bosko (the star of Looney Tunes shorts of that time),[2] it was loosely based on the lost film Hold Everything, one of whose songs, "Don't Hold Everything," features prominently in the cartoon. It was directed by Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising, and animated by Isadore "Friz" Freleng and Norman Blackburn.

Hold Anything
Directed byHugh Harman
Rudolf Ising
Produced byHugh Harman
Rudolf Ising
Leon Schlesinger (associate producer)
StarringCarman Maxwell
Rochelle Hudson
(both uncredited)
Music byFrank Marsales
Animation byIsadore Freleng
Norm Blackburn
Color processBlack and White
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date
October 1930
Running time
6 minutes
LanguageEnglish

Plot summary

The film features Bosko working on a construction site with a goat and several small mice (all of which bear a strong resemblance to Mickey Mouse; Harman and Ising had worked with Walt Disney for several years before joining Warner Bros.). After several minutes of relatively uneventful working (marked mainly by a song and dance sequence in which one of the mice is temporarily decapitated), Bosko spots his girlfriend, Honey, working in a nearby office building. After some brief flirtation, Bosko jumps down into Honey's office, pulls out a piece of sheet music, places it in Honey's typewriter, and begins playing the typewriter like a piano (Bosko types the words "Don't Hold Everything" before launching into the song). Meanwhile, back at the construction site, the goat eats a steam-powered machine and begins to float upward. Bosko reaches out the window and begins playing the goat like a pipe organ. The goat begins to float away, and as Bosko hangs on for his life, he accidentally grabs onto a set of udders and gets sprayed with milk, distracting him enough to lose his grip and fall onto a set of bricks. Bosko inexplicably divides into six miniature Boskos and begins playing the bricks as a xylophone before he reforms to his usual self and the cartoon irises out.

Later releases

The scene with the marching mice was later re-used in the Warner cartoon It's Got Me Again!, albeit with minor changes to the animation. Many decades later, a clip of Hold Anything was shown in the 2003 TV documentary Animated Century, which showcased over 100 animated films from 26 countries.[3]

References

  1. Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 1. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
  2. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 57–58. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  3. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020983/


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