Bosko the Musketeer (1933) watch online HD

The Bosko cartoons may not be animation masterpieces, but they are fascinating as examples of Looney Tunes in their early days before the creation of more compelling characters and funnier and more creative cartoons. There are some good cartoons, as well as some average or less ones.

As far as Bosko cartoons go, 'Bosko the Musketeer' is one of the better faring ones. Not great as such, but a lot of good entertaining elements here. The only real faults are a story that's best forgotten on the whole, like many Bosko cartoons it's flimsy and more an excuse for gag-stringing-along and a few of the musical parts being a touch on the repetitious side. Like 'Bosko's Picture Show', the villain is archetypal and a little too melodramatic even for the type of villain the cartoon was going for.

Bosko is a limited character and not the most endearing, but he is fun to watch here in 'Bosko the Musketeer' with the concept playing to his strengths. Honey is also very charming, with a stonking impression of Mae West, and The Three Musketeer characters are a lot of fun.

As always for a Bosko cartoon the animation is good. Not exactly refined but fluid and crisp enough with some nice detail, it is especially good in the meticulous backgrounds and some remarkably flexible yet natural movements for Bosko. The music doesn't disappoint either, its infectious energy, rousing merriment, lush orchestration and how well it fits with the animation is just a joy.

Sound quality has clarity and the synchronisation isn't sloppy and has imagination. The way Bosko is animated is well done and remarkably natural.

The gags work very well, none of them less than amusing.

In summary, good if not great. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Since the previous reviewer mentioned many of the things I was going to describe, I'll just mention two things: 1) Before the sword fight starts, the swords are shaking hands. 2) The little mice all look like Mickey! Maybe not so surprising at all since Hugh Harmon and Rudolf Ising were previously animators for Walt Disney when he created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (Oswald looked like the Famous Mouse with long ears and a fluffy tail). Another highly amusing early Warner Bros. Looney Tunes short with tuneful music and singing throughout though that tends to get repetitious after a while. Good thing when Tex Avery arrived several years later, gags would be more important than music. Still, highly worth a look for anyone interested in early Warner Bros. cartoons before the arrival of Porky, Daffy, and Bugs.

While Bosko shorts were frequently very musically oriented (often having Bosko "make" music in unusual ways, with animals and inanimate objects like stepping stones as "instruments"), this one is particularly musical in nature. It's actually a fairly interesting short with some very enjoyable and rather quirky gags. I will discuss some details, so this is a spoiler warning:

The short opens with Bosko half running, half skipping through a field, pulling petals from a flower and singing "She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not". Bruno is running after him (though, strangely enough, Bruno vanishes when Bosko reaches Honey's place). The action cuts to Honey's before Bosko gets there, with Honey humming and dusting, which she does thoroughly, down to dusting a fish! At one point, she does a Mae West impersonation.

Bosko shows up and Honey points out a painting of the The Three Musketeers, at which point Bosko pulls out an umbrella and brandishes it like a sword. As Honey sings, "You Might Be a Soldier", the scene dissolves into a fight with Bosko dressed as a musketeer crossing swords with several adversaries. After vanquishing them, he goes to a pub to meet up with the Three Musketeers (Athos, Amos and Andy) and they break out in a song about themselves. There are some very nice gags in this sequence, a couple involving mice and one involving drinking.

Then Honey enters, modestly announcing, "Here I am, you lucky people!" and begins dancing to yet another tune. She attracts the attention of the requisite bad guy, who grabs her. Bosko comes over to defend her and there's a sword fight. Lots of visual gags (at one point the villain's sword goes from being a rapier to being a cutlass) in the fight scene, with Bosko eventually coming out the victor. The ending pair of lines are the set up and punchline for an old vaudeville comedy routine.

I hope this eventually winds up on one of the Looney Tunes Golden Collections at some point. Recommended.