In another short Avery completed before taking a self-imposed hiatus from the M-G-M cartoon department, "Garden Gopher" is a very fast-moving and very funny cartoon! Spike is burying a bone in his yard when the bone keeps popping up from the ground, courtesy of an unappreciative gopher. Soon a battle of wits ensues as Spike attempts to get rid of the gopher with cigar smoke, gun powder, a rifle, a cannon, hot peppers and finally dressing up as a female gopher! The best gag in the cartoon is now excised from most existing prints of "Garden Gopher" - Spike fills the gopher's hole with blasting powder, not knowing the gopher has spilled grease under his feet. As Spike attempts to flee from the ensuing explosion, the powder explodes and the aftermath leaves Spike doing a un-PC slow shuffle akin to a tar baby. As with "Droopy's Good Deed", one might want to seek out a print from a private collector to see the whole cartoon.
Review of Garden Gopher
