Looney Revue, Part 2 1932-1933: Exit Bosko, Enter Buddy
After Foxy and Piggy were given the boot, Rudolf Ising changed Merrie Melodies to a one-shot series, and It's Got Me Again! (1932) is a prime example of the series' new direction. While not an extraordinary cartoon, it holds the distinction of being the first Warner Brothers short to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, 1931-1932 being the first year the Oscars recognized such a category. It lost to Disney's Flowers and Trees (Disney would win the first 8 Oscars for animated shorts). It's Got Me Again! follows a group of Mickey Mouse-caricatures singing and dancing in a house as it pours down rain outside. As is typical of the early Warner Bros cartoons, there is an over reliance on the same generic happy-go-lucky music, performed by wide-smiled characters, or who perform actions synced to these songs. Watching several Harman/Ising shorts in succession can be a tedious affair because of their reluctance to break formula, their cartoons