The Dover Boys at Pimento University or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall

Cartoon humorists loved that first gag in this film: "Good 'ole P.U." (in this case, Pimento University)

The story concerns the three Dover boys at this hallowed college campus: "Tom (the fun- loving member of the trio); Dick (a serious lad of 18 summers plus a winter in Florida); and Larry (the youngest of the three jerks.... er, ....brothers.). A gay outing in the park has been planned by the merry trio and they are off to fetch their fiancée, Dainty Dora Standpipe...."

As you can read, the humor is quite corny, but, first, the cartoon was made back in the early '40s, second, and this also was some obvious parody - of what, exactly, I don't honestly know, but some serial-type story from the 1890s.

What really caught my eye were the colors and fantastic overall artwork in this nine-minute cartoon. Scene after scene was beautifully drawn, from the Victorian houses to the old- fashioned bicycles, the clothing of the day, etc. The vocabulary of this cartoon (i.e., "Hark!", "Drat!," "Confound them!" etc.) also was extremely entertaining as the writers poked fun at the pulp novels of the day and the good-verses-evil descriptions from the "Gay '90s."

In other words, the visuals and the corny dialog make this a unique and entertaining (except for Mel Blanc's screaming "Dan Backslide" character) - Looney Tunes feature, not something were accustomed to seeing. It's different. The way some of the characters were drawn reminded me of the Beatles' animated feature "Yellow Submarine."

This is original, good material and part of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two.