''Carmen's Veranda'' is a 1944 short animated musical film produced by
Terrytoons
Terrytoons was an American animation studio in New Rochelle, New York, that produced animated cartoons for theatrical release from 1929 to 1973 (and briefly returned between 1987 and 1996 for television in name only). Terrytoons was founded by ...
and distributed by
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
.
The film is one of the studio's early films in color.
Plot
An opera is taking place at a theatre. The opera centers on Carmen, a white cat in a racy red dress and racy red
high heels
High-heeled shoes, also known as high heels, are a type of shoe with an angled sole. The heel in such shoes is raised above the ball of the foot. High heels cause the legs to appear longer, make the wearer appear taller, and accentuate the ...
.
In the opera, Carmen's mother, a pink hippo, urges Carmen to marry the count, a generous and wealthy but unattractive nobleman. Carmen, however, does not adore the count, and will therefore only marry whom she has affection for.
The count comes to Carmen's place with various gifts (a reference to wartime rationing). But Carmen remains strong to her marital preference. Every time the count approaches the cat at her balcony, Carmen either bashes him back down or drops a heavy object. Carmen's mother then resorts to sending armored guards to Carmen's room, in an attempt to push Carmen to take the count. Carmen locks her room and writes a distress letter to someone named Tyrone. Carmen sends the message via bird.
In another scene in the opera, Tyrone, who is played by
Gandy Goose
Gandy Goose is a Terrytoons cartoon character who first appeared in the 1938 short ''Gandy the Goose''. He is frequently paired with Sourpuss, a cat, beginning in the 1939 short ''Hook Link and Sinker''. Sourpuss' first appearance was in the 1939 ...
, receives the message carried by the bird. He then sets off in a flying horse to the
William Tell Overture
The ''William Tell'' Overture is the overture to the opera ''William Tell'' (original French title ''Guillaume Tell''), whose music was composed by Gioachino Rossini. ''William Tell'' premiered in 1829 and was the last of Rossini's 39 operas, af ...
.
Tyrone arrives just outside Carmen's home. The guards charge at him but Tyrone is able to overcome them. Eventually, with his flying horse, Tyrone comes to the elevated window of Carmen's room where he picks up Carmen before flying away. The count, however, isn't left loveless as he finds a lover in Carmen's mother.
References
External links
''Carmen's Veranda''at the
Big Cartoon Database
The Big Cartoon DataBase (or BCDB for short) is an online database of information about animated cartoons, animated feature films, animated television shows, and cartoon shorts.
The BCDB project began in 1997 as a list of Disney animated featu ...
1944 films
Films about music and musicians
1940s American animated films
Terrytoons shorts
Films about animals
20th Century Fox short films
Films directed by Mannie Davis
American animated short films
1944 animated films
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