The Paramount animation studio's ongoing series characters -- the annoying Little Lulu, the insufferably twee Casper the Friendly Ghost -- were mostly pretty bad ... due to their poor animation, repetitive plots and feeble humour. But during this same period, Paramount's animation department also released cartoons under the umbrella title Madcap Specials: these were one-off cartoons, with more emphasis on outrageous gags and character-driven premises that didn't have to be sustained from one cartoon to the next. The Madcaps also show some willingness to experiment in animation technique, with a looser line and less concern for anatomy.
'Grateful Gus' is one of Paramount's Madcap Specials. It features a fairly unusual narrative technique, in which the title character speaks constantly and nobody else has dialogue at all. The cartoon begins with a silent and unnamed bank executive, who glances about furtively before embezzling funds. As he flees from the bank with his ill-got swag, he passes a panhandler who asks for some money. The embezzler peels off a banknote, hands it to the panhandler, and hurries onward. But the banknote is enough to inspire Grateful Gus (for it is he) to express gratitude, to the point of putting the embezzler's foot on top of his own head and giving him a shoeshine, while babbling 'What can I do for you? Your wish is my command!'
SPOILERS COMING. The embezzler just wants to get away and enjoy his money, but Grateful Gus just won't leave him alone. We see the embezzler relaxing at the seaside, but then a bottle washes ashore ... and out pops Grateful Gus, offering to rub suntan lotion on his benefactor while continuing the 'your wish is my command' routine. This sets up a series of vignettes, with the embezzler fleeing to various locations but Grateful Gus always showing up to make a pest of himself. The ending is obvious, with the embezzler rushing into a prison cell to get away from Grateful Gus ... or maybe he hasn't got away after all.
It would be difficult to imagine an ongoing series of cartoons built round the Grateful Gus character, but as a one-off idea this cartoon works fairly well ... and it features some attractive animation that resembles the UPA studio's work more than Paramount's usual stuff. I'll rate 'Grateful Gus' 4 out of 10, which is a lot higher than I'd rate most other (post-Fleischer) Paramount cartoons.
'Grateful Gus' is one of Paramount's Madcap Specials. It features a fairly unusual narrative technique, in which the title character speaks constantly and nobody else has dialogue at all. The cartoon begins with a silent and unnamed bank executive, who glances about furtively before embezzling funds. As he flees from the bank with his ill-got swag, he passes a panhandler who asks for some money. The embezzler peels off a banknote, hands it to the panhandler, and hurries onward. But the banknote is enough to inspire Grateful Gus (for it is he) to express gratitude, to the point of putting the embezzler's foot on top of his own head and giving him a shoeshine, while babbling 'What can I do for you? Your wish is my command!'
SPOILERS COMING. The embezzler just wants to get away and enjoy his money, but Grateful Gus just won't leave him alone. We see the embezzler relaxing at the seaside, but then a bottle washes ashore ... and out pops Grateful Gus, offering to rub suntan lotion on his benefactor while continuing the 'your wish is my command' routine. This sets up a series of vignettes, with the embezzler fleeing to various locations but Grateful Gus always showing up to make a pest of himself. The ending is obvious, with the embezzler rushing into a prison cell to get away from Grateful Gus ... or maybe he hasn't got away after all.
It would be difficult to imagine an ongoing series of cartoons built round the Grateful Gus character, but as a one-off idea this cartoon works fairly well ... and it features some attractive animation that resembles the UPA studio's work more than Paramount's usual stuff. I'll rate 'Grateful Gus' 4 out of 10, which is a lot higher than I'd rate most other (post-Fleischer) Paramount cartoons.
