Westward Whoa

Plot synopsis:
Beans and his companions are travelling and exploring in a wagon train. At the front, Beans plays an accordion, and Little Kitty strums a banjo. The two also sing while the rest harmonize. Soon the travellers set up camp in the woods and enjoy their night.
Ham and Ex sneak out to explore a bit, but then they notice some feathers around a boulder and raise an alarm of Native Americans. When Beans shoots at the feathers it is revealed to be a turkey. Ham and Ex of course knew that and Beans warns them not to create any more false alarms.
Just to spice up their little adventure and to entertain themselves, Ham and Ex perform the Indian charge call. This raises another alarm, so Ham and Ex hide in the woods and stumble into an actual Native. The Native gives chase, but the pups escape and head back to camp to warn everyone. No one believes and this is another of their pranks. Ham and Ex then hide themselves in a chest. Shortly the whole Native tribe arrives, alerting the camp. The explorers manage to counter the invasion, while Ham and Ex get nabbed by one of the Natives. Beans rescues them by tossing a foothold trap at their captive. As the pups watch Beans he plays a little prank on them with a holler call, scaring them into chest.

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
It's Sad To See A Complete Character Go So Early. Although Beans can be spotted moving in Plane Dippy, this cartoon marks his last regular appearance. After watching a few Beans films, I knew the cat was something more complex than the hog who stole the spotlight from him. I can only wonder what kind of perception film viewers had back then. Whatever they were thinking, it makes me wish Beans had a much longer run than he actually had. What a pity, considering he was groomed to be a star. The cat was a complete package of cuteness, funniness and adventure.In this film, we have Beans and his friends who traveled west in their wagon train. Beans advices Ham and Ex that if they spotted any Indians, they should come and warn. However, the pups began making false alarms, triggering hysteria at the wagon fort. Eventually, the Indians did show up, therefore adding to the thrill. One thing about this short film is that it gives a good illustration of American history.If I were a producer working under WB, I would come up with a TV series. There, I would revive Beans. Porky would also be included, and those two will be cast as best buddies.. Beans goes west. Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.'Westward Whoa' shows that, as to be expected, that Porky is a likable character and he is and also amusing, cute and interesting, though he is more a cameo supporting role. Beans, in another of his dozen cartoons of his short-lived Looney Tunes career (here his penultimate cartoon and his last pairing with Porky), is more the lead here and has a decently engaging enough personality to make things interesting.Ham and Ex are sweet and likable and just about escape the trap of being annoying, even if their antics are not hilarious. The Indians are fun and liven things up when they appear.The story in 'Westward Whoa' is slight and much of the first half is set up, and fairly formulaic set up at that. There is not enough humour here agreed and what gags there are are amusing but more in a mild wry smile sort of way, nothing really hilarious here.Once the Indians are introduced, the pace livens up, there's more glimpses of a story and there's more action and humour, even if nothing exceptional still.Animation is characteristically great, especially later on, crisp, detailed and fluid throughout. The music is not Carl Stalling or Scott Bradley and does lack variety at times, but it is still lush and characterful and adds a good deal to the action if not quite enhancing it.Voice acting is very good, particularly from Billy Bletcher. Joe Dougherty's Porky voice still doesn't do much for me though, not as natural as Mel Blanc's and the stutter has always sounded overdone to me.In conclusion, above average but not great. 6/10 Bethany Cox. Out West. Westward Whoa (1936) ** (out of 4)Decent animated short has Porky, Beans and others on a trip out West when they are attacked by Indians.WESTWARD WHOA isn't the worst animated film that you're going to watch but at the same time it's certainly not the best either. The biggest problem with this film is the fact that there really wasn't any laughs and worst of all is the fact that what jokes there are fall flat on their face. Basically you've got the characters running around, acting scared and trying to avoid the Indians. If you've ever seen a Western before then you'll realize the gags that they're going for but none of them work. At least the animation is nice to look at.. It may be as old as Aesop's Fables, but Warner Bros. warns us about the President who "Cried Wolf!" . . .. . . . with this 1936 clairvoyant Looney Tunes offering for We Americans of the (Then) Far Future, WESTWARD WHOA. Warner Bros.' work horses "Ham and Ex" play Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway here, spending their first 100 Days as Red Commie KGB U.S. Strongman's Amerikan deputies constantly crying wolf about the Bowling Green massacre, the Swedish massacre, the Waterford massacre, etc. Perhaps it is natural for this to happen, because every time either Bannon or Conway glimpse themselves in a mirror, they see a Raving Mad Dog Terrorist leering back at them. This ludicrous situation ALMOST would be comical, if the Future of Our Free World did not hang in the balance of this deplorable pair's unhinged minds. While Porky Pig makes a cameo appearance as Chris Christie with his trousers falling from his porcine midriff down to his ankles, Ham and Ex's "Uncle Beans" is presented as the hopeless adult in the room. Since Beans can only symbolize Putin's odoriferous puppet Rump, Warner does not seem to be holding out much hope for present day America in WESTWARD WHOA.