Reader Mike Matei asked this toughie: “In The Mad Hatter, how come Woody doesn’t have to pay for the top hat when he goes to the hat store?”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST4LwJ-NEik&hl=en&fs=1]
Thad’s Books
Reader Mike Matei asked this toughie: “In The Mad Hatter, how come Woody doesn’t have to pay for the top hat when he goes to the hat store?”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST4LwJ-NEik&hl=en&fs=1]
Filed under classic animation
Not relating to old cartoons but….. a similar situation comes up in the Simpsons episode, “22 Short Films About Springfield”, after Lisa Simpson finally gets all the gum cut out of her hair (and cuts the new hairstyle which finally makes her “look like a real person”), she seems to leave the barbershop without paying for all her hairwork (she does give the barber a kiss, though; maybe he felt that was thanks enough. Who knows?).
And to answer this interesting question; maybe since Woody for once actually went in and just BOUGHT a top hat from Wally (without resorting to the usual petty fighting, heckling, and one-upmanship toward the poor walrus), Wally was so relieved that, for once in his life, he was spared all this from the woodpecker that he just gave it to him gratis as a token of appreciation (When I first saw “The Mad Hatter”, I did find it rather strange that Woody just corresponded and interacted with Wally “straight” without the two doing their usual mutual heckling routine; it just didn’t seem “normal” for a Woody cartoon).
Ve Svedes are excellent judge of character. I yan shoore voodpeckers is trustvorthy.
Paying for things just slows the animation down!
In the original (first two seasons) opening to THE FLINTSTONES, Fred slows his car down long enough to TAKE a rock-chiseled “newspaper” from a vendor, but does not hand or throw him anything in return. He also runs into the dry cleaners, and runs back out with the garments – though we’ll presume he pays for that service off camera.
In the better known, later opening, they seem to drive into the “drive-in movie” without stopping to pay – and do likewise with the car-tipping rack of ribs in the end credit sequence.
Conversely, paying can be used to good gag effect, like in THE PINK PANTHER’S “Pink Pistons” (1966), where the Panther buys a used car and the car dealer takes his money as if he were a “human cash register” – ringing dollar signs up in his eyes. If you remember the cartoon, you know what I mean. When the Panther returns the car, at the short’s end, he gets his money back as if he’s “withdrawn it” from the same human register.
Or, maybe Woody just had a store account with Wally… unlike Chilly Willy in “Clash and Carry”!
A better question would be: “What happened to the frog in the top hat?” it just got stuck on the duck’s butt and then…no frog. Kinda frightening when you think about just where the frog *might* have gone… :P
I always thought the frog just hopped out of the hat in the intervening time but the hat kept flying and then got stuck on the duck’s butt.