slymusic
Directed by Arthur Davis, "Dough Ray Me-ow" is a really good Warner Bros. cartoon starring an unlikely team: Louie, a wiseacre parrot, and Heathcliff, the world's dopiest cat (yes, even dopier than Sylvester and Claude). Both characters benefit from the brilliant vocal talents of Mel Blanc.My three favorite scenes from "Dough Ray Me-ow": A.) Heathcliff's face turns purple because he forgets to breathe. B.) Heathcliff pretends he's a radio and listens to some funny flatulent sounds. C.) Funniest of all, Louie chases Heathcliff all over the house in attempting to give him a birthday cake with three candles and one stick of dynamite, trying to convince him that he's four years old.You can find "Dough Ray Me-ow" along with a bunch of other feline-related cartoons on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 4 Disc 4. Too bad the ending of this short is pretty lame, isn't it?
phantom_tollbooth
Arthur Davis's 'Dough Ray Me-ow' is an absolutely hysterical cartoon and easily my favourite of the director's films. Starring two boldly drawn one-shot characters, a grumpy green parrot named Louie and an ugly and ludicrously moronic cat named Heathcliff, 'Dough Ray Me-ow' quickly sets up its dark scenario leaving ample time to have tons of fun with it. When Louie discovers that Heathcliff stands to inherit a large sum of money which will go to Louie in the event of the cat's disappearance, the parrot sets about trying to dispense with his "friend" permanently. It's an idea filled with potential which becomes even funnier when Louie realises to his horror that Heathcliff isn't only startlingly stupid, he is also practically indestructible! 'Dough Ray Me-ow' is slightly cheap looking with a style that's akin to TV animation but it fits the feel of the cartoon beautifully, the more stylised character designs reflecting the bigger exaggerations of their personalities. There are loads of great bits but my favourite is the train sequence, the final battle over a stick of dynamite and a series of throwaway gags involving Heathcliff's novel methods for cracking nuts. One of the great one-shot cartoons, 'Dough Ray Me-ow' starred characters who were perhaps too extreme to ever be considered as potential stars but their one appearance still delights me and makes me laugh out loud to this day.
Lee Eisenberg
One of the few cartoons directed by Arthur Davis during the approximately two years when he headed what had been Bob Clampett's unit (Warner Bros. discontinued it in 1948), "Dough Ray Me-ow" shows something that we Looney Tunes fans know well: the more that you try to hurt someone, the more you get hurt. Think of Wile E. Coyote going after Road Runner, or Sylvester going after Tweety.Of course, it's always a hoot to see how this poetic justice plays out. In this case, wise-guy parrot Louie reads in his master's will that the inheritance will go not to Louie, but to the master's oafish cat Heathcliff. So, Louie goes about trying to kill Heathcliff, but the latter seems to have the best luck in the world! Which of course means that one mishap after another befalls Louie.So, this was probably a place holder in between the really great cartoons, but you really gotta love what happens here. I guess that Davis never had a chance to develop his own specific style, but he released a few neat cartoons during his brief directorial career (namely "Bowery Bugs"). Worth seeing.
ccthemovieman-1
The first shot we see is parrot reading a book called "Rooster's Millions," (a pun on "Brewster's Millions.). Anway, the whatever the title, it aptly fits the story here. The parrot's name is "Louie," by the way, another Mel Blanc character with a strong Brooklyn accent."Heathcliff the cat" is the other main character and this fat cat is about as dumb as a brick. He gives Louie a sheet a paper he found and asks the parrot to read it for him. It reads, "Last will and testament: I leave one million dollars to my pet cat Heathcliff. In the event of his disappearance, the money goes to my pet bird, Louie."This actually was better than I thought, thinking that Heathcliff would act so stupid this cartoon would be dumb, but it isn't. Heathcliff is so stupid, he's funny. He's so good-hearted you have to root for him. No matter what the greedy parrot does to plan his demise, of course, it backfires. The sight gags are very, very funny.I've seen a similar story with "Droopy," in which Spike tried to get the inheritance money but Droopy was a lot smarter than Heathcliff, and the cartoon had a better ending than this one. Still, this one had its moments.
AD
