I saw this film on the DVD entitled "Cartoon Crazys: And The Envelope Please". This is a rather poor compilation of supposedly award winning and nominated films. Poor because several of the films are very lame and are NOT award nominated, the prints are rather bad and parts of some of the cartoons are missing! One of the films that is missing portions is THE DOVER BOYS. Now here is the sad and sleazy part--the jerks who packaged this collection clipped the opening and closing credits off this and one other Looney Tune cartoon (PIGS IN A POLKA)--thus not giving anyone credit for having made this film. Plus, unlike the title to the collection suggests, THE DOVER BOYS was never award nominated--though it certainly is a very good film. If you do want to see this film, try buying "The Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2". It not only is the entire cartoon, but the print is light-years better, as the one in "Cartoon Crazies" is very orange and second-rate.If you compare this cartoon to later Looney Tunes films made during the post-WWII years, you might think that my score of 8 is a bit too high. However, compared to the average film the studio was making during the war years, it's definitely among their best and seems to merit an 8. Sadly, while not nominated, it was a lot better than Looney Tunes' PIGS IN A POLKA which was the nominee that the year. The parody of the old fashioned Rover Boys adventures is very funny and the ending is cute and unexpected.The "classic" Warner Brothers/Looney Tunes cartoons we all love and admire were almost exclusively made AFTER the war and the quality of the 1947-1955 cartoons are consistently great and a joy to watch. So, buying the Golden Collections seems like a great idea.

Chuck Jones's 'The Dover Boys' is out and out one of the funniest cartoons ever made. From a cracking and atypical script by Tedd Pierce which satirises the melodramatic boy's books of the early 20th century, Jones seizes the opportunity to create something different. Much to the studio's dismay, Jones opted to experiment with a stylised and minimal design. The characters look very different from your average Warner Bros. characters and they snap from pose to pose extremely quickly, making for an exceedingly pacey film. The Dover Boys are three students from Pimento university who pride themselves on being extremely wholesome despite sharing a fiancé between the three of them. This fiancé, Dora, is one of the most remarkable things in the whole short. Her first appearance, in which she imitates a cuckoo clock and then charges down the stairs without even moving her legs, epitomises the quirky style of 'The Dover Boys' and is an early indication of just how wonderfully well this unusual approach works. She is also a great example of a subversion of the damsel in distress stereotype, assuming that role while clearly indicating she can take care of herself better than any man ever could.The cartoon, however, really belongs to the villain, the green-faced Dan Backslide. Beautifully designed and animated, he gets all the best lines, many of which are made all the funnier by one of Mel Blanc's finest ever voice characterizations. Throw in a bizarre and disturbingly arbitrary running gag, a great narration by John McLeish and a handful of hilarious gags and peculiar animation techniques and you have one of the classic shorts in animation history. 'The Dover Boys' is a lesser discussed cartoon in comparison to the more well known shorts in the Chuck Jones canon ('One Froggy Evening', 'What's Opera Doc', 'Duck Amuck' etc.) but for those who have seen it, it remains an unforgettable and extraordinarily important film that has a far reaching influence, not least on those wonderful cartoons made by UPA.

In addition to being an exceptionally long title for a short film, "The Dover Boys at Pimento University or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall" is a very clever Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Chuck Jones. (DO NOT read any further until after you have seen this film.) This rather fast-paced and somewhat quirky parody of 1890s college life is full of great mirth from start to finish! The three Dover Boys, named Tom (macho, athletic, and good-looking), Dick (sharply dressed and very studious), and Larry (chubby, curly-haired, and happy-go-lucky), all look forward to an outing in the park with the supposedly demure Dora Standpipe. But first, they must overcome their arch rival from Roquefort Hall who kidnaps Dora: the loud, jealous, bratty, and whiny Dan Backslide (brilliantly voiced by Mel Blanc).Here are my favorite moments from "The Dover Boys." The brilliant Carl W. Stalling deserves my gratitude not only for the nice brass orchestration of "Far Above Cayuga's Waters" during the opening credits but also for the wonderfully authentic honky-tonk piano music in the smoky saloon where Dan Backslide shoots pool. Following the opening credits, we hear a very humorous yet serious alma mater for Pimento University (P.U.). Tom, Dick, and Larry are especially funny not only in deciding where to hide in their hide-and-seek game with Dora but also in singing and chanting before rescuing Dora from Dan Backslide. And after Dan hilariously rants about his jealousy toward the Dover Boys, he very rapidly downs quite a few shots of alcohol! For a nice comic twist to college life around the turn of the 20th Century, watch "The Dover Boys at Pimento University or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall." The characters in this cartoon appear to be drawn quite stiffly, especially the Dover Boys on their various cycles. But if you look very closely at the in-between drawings (i.e., the split second of time a character moves from one pose to another), you'll notice that director Chuck Jones chooses to incorporate a lot of grotesque smears, which was more characteristic of a wacky director like Bob Clampett. For this reason, it would be a good idea to freeze-frame certain moments of this cartoon on your DVD player (the film can be found on Disc 2 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2). In any event, "The Dover Boys" is without a doubt a fine cartoon that is quite enjoyable to watch.

This early Chuck Jones short is a bit on the long side at 9 minutes, but it's also very humorous in a snide and subversive kind of way. The Dover Boys, Tom, Dick and Larry of Pimento University (or P.U.) have to save their love Dora Standpipe (yea they share one) from the clutches of coward, bully, cad and thief Dan Backslide when he kidnaps her during a long game of hide and seek. It's been said that this is Chuck's first true classic, I don't know about that as I did enjoy some of his earlier shorts as well, but at the same time I can figure out why some feel that way as it is a good cartoon and spoof. This animated short can be seen on Disc 2 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2. It also features an optional commentary by Micheal Barrier.My Grade: A