Mr. and Mrs. is the Name

The great Fritz Freleng’s proto-Looney Tunes work, like so many early cartoons, is pretty insane by today’s standards. The fluid animation where no one ever seems to stand still, the whoops and zaniness and barely-contained sexuality… it’s like cartoons were the place adults could examine their wilder, animalistic side in civilized company, while the rest of American society sanitized itself.

Mr. and Mrs. is the Name is an odd, forgotten entry from 1935, with a puzzling title to match. A bunch of half-naked mermaids lure you with island harmonies, a shark uses himself as a musical instrument, and octopi are vilified as the evil antagonists that they aren’t in real life. There isn’t much of a story here, but the animation is gorgeous, and the HD transfer brings back colors and sharpness that, when projected, are the next best thing to traveling back in time and seeing this on the silver screen for a nickel.

Starring Buddy and Cookie, two discarded Merrie Melodies characters who, back in the ol’ black and white days got top billing, Mr. and Mrs. introduces them here for the first and last time in color, and this time, as mermaids themselves. Never mind the ass-slapping and other violent forms of affection that we no longer accept- Buddy and Cookie take us on a wild ride underwater full of pop-culture references (for the time): Charlie Chaplin, or Harpo Marx (as lobster.) Short, sweet, and totally inventive, Mr. and Mrs. is the Name is a perfect cartoon to insert before the next feature film you sit down to watch- preferably, with a crowd.