''Gallopin' Gals'' is a 1940 American one-reel
Technicolor
Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades.
Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...
animated film directed by
William Hanna
William Denby Hanna (July 14, 1910 – March 22, 2001) was an American animator and cartoonist who was the creator of ''Tom and Jerry'' as well as the voice actor for the two title characters. Alongside Joseph Barbera, he also founded the anim ...
and
Joseph Barbera and produced by
Fred Quimby
Frederick Clinton Quimby (July 31, 1886 – September 16, 1965) was an American animation producer and journalist best known for producing the ''Tom and Jerry'' cartoon series, for which he won seven Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Films ...
. It belonged to the
screwball comedy
Screwball comedy is a subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1940s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary characteristi ...
genre. It was released by
Metro-Goldwyn Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
in October 26, 1940, alongside the feature film ''
Hullabaloo''. The announcer at the race was played by
Truman Bradley.
Plot
The film is a typical animated
screwball comedy
Screwball comedy is a subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1940s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary characteristi ...
made in the style of such films as ''
The Women'' (1939), except for the fact that the characters are
fillies
A filly is a female horse that is too young to be called a mare. There are two specific definitions in use:
*In most cases, a ''filly'' is a female horse under four years old.
*In some nations, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, t ...
at the
Kentucky Derby with New York accents, gossiping about some of the other contestants.
The underdog of the story is a shy, lonely horse named Maggie who has never won a race in her life and suffers from
hay fever. During the race, the other horses competing are distracted by a
photo finish
A photo finish occurs in a sporting race when multiple competitors cross the finishing line at nearly the same time. As the naked eye may not be able to determine which of the competitors crossed the line first, a photo or video taken at the finis ...
. They fall short of the finish line, in second place simultaneously, while the picture is taken. Maggie crosses in front of them, winning the race.
References
External links
*
1940 films
1940 animated films
1940 short films
1940 comedy films
1940s American animated films
1940s animated short films
1940s screwball comedy films
Short films directed by Joseph Barbera
Short films directed by William Hanna
Films set in Kentucky
American horse racing films
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated short films
Animated films about horses
Films scored by Scott Bradley
Films with screenplays by Henry Wilson Allen
Films produced by Fred Quimby
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio short films
1940s English-language films
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