''One Cab's Family'' is a 1952
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...
cartoon short directed by
Tex Avery
Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery (; February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American animator, cartoonist, animation director, director, and voice actor. He was known for directing and producing animated cartoons during the golden age of America ...
about the arrival of a yellow
taxi cab "child".
The title is a play on the radio soap opera program ''
One Man's Family
''One Man's Family'' is an American radio soap opera, heard for almost three decades, from 1932 to 1959. Created by Carlton E. Morse, it was the longest-running uninterrupted dramatic serial in the history of American radio. Television version ...
''.
Plot
A yellow taxi named John (voiced by
Daws Butler
Charles Dawson Butler (November 16, 1916May 18, 1988) was an American voice actor. He worked mostly for the Hanna-Barbera animation production company and the Walter Lantz cartoon studio. He originated the voices of many familiar Hanna-Barbera ...
), along with his wife Mary (a blue taxi car, voiced by
June Foray
June Foray (born June Lucille Forer; September 18, 1917 – July 26, 2017) was an American Voice acting, voice actress and radio personality, best known as the voice of such animation, animated characters as Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Natasha F ...
), awaits the arrival of their new son, who looks just like John. Within his first few months, Junior is fed, changed, learns to "walk", gets his first "tooth" (a
spark plug
A spark plug (sometimes, in British English, a sparking plug, and, colloquially, a plug) is a device for delivering electric current from an ignition system to the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine to ignite the compressed fuel/air ...
), etc.
When Mary asks Junior if he is going to grow up to be a taxi cab like his father, Junior declines and turns on the television to show an auto race, implying that he wants to grow up being a race car. John is very angered by this and sends Junior to his room, but Junior is still determined to live his dream as a race car. As such, Junior converts himself into a hot rod convertible before zooming around the house in front of John. Enraged by Junior's defiance, John spanks him (by opening his trunk, exposing his bare buttocks) and sends him back to his room, demanding him to go back to his taxi persona. Fed up with his father's refusal to accept his choice, Junior angrily sneaks out the window, fuels up with high octane gas, and goes zooming all around town, spooking everything in his way.
Upon seeing Junior escaping, John chases after him, but can't seem to catch him because of the octane gas. However, John gets his second wind when he sees Junior racing alongside a train, playing
chicken
The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...
with it. After another chase, John runs out of gas and ends up being stuck on the railroad track. Upon seeing his father in danger, a horrified Junior goes back to save his father by pushing him away from the track, but ends up run over by the train himself, much to John's shock.
The injured Junior is then sent to a garage to be fixed. As John weeps over his son's fate and is very grateful for saving his life, a repairman tells John that Junior will survive and asks John to have either the taxi cab or hot rod converted on Junior. Feeling extremely remorseful for pushing Junior away from his dream of being a race car in the first place, John states that Junior is old enough to make that decision himself, implying that he's willing to accept Junior's choice of being either a taxi cab or a hot rod. Eventually, Junior decides to convert back as a taxi cab, much to John's happiness, but it turns out to be a compromising decision, as Junior shows
he still has the hot rod motor and exhaust pipes.
See also
*''
Little Johnny Jet''
*''
Susie the Little Blue Coupe''
References
External links
*
*
One Cab's Family' at the
TCM Movie Database
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of ...
{{Tex Avery
1952 animated short films
1952 films
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated short films
Films directed by Tex Avery
1950s American animated films
Films produced by Fred Quimby
Films scored by Scott Bradley
Films about taxis
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio short films
1950s English-language films
English-language short films