Hold Anything (1930) User Reviews

early Friz

[lee_eisenberg · 6/10 · 3 July 2007]

Before Warner Bros.'s animation department gave us Bugs, Daffy, Porky, etc., their most famous star was a small, strange character named Bosko; I think that he looks like a black-face performer. In "Hold Anything", Bosko is participating in construction, when he suddenly gets infatuated with Honey.

Mostly, I take little interest in WB's early 1930s cartoons. But I noticed that the credits said "Drawn by Isadore Freleng". Hardcore fans probably know that Isadore was Friz Freleng, later one of the animation department's top directors. Obviously, he had to start somewhere, and this wasn't a bad place. Worth seeing, and available on YouTube.

This Guy Just Isn't That Interesting

[Hitchcoc · 4/10 · 7 December 2018]

Every studio seemed to have their principle character. Warner had Bosko, and unlike some of the more memorable ones, he has faded into obscurity. They did use him in a lot of features, however. Here he uses objects at a construction site as musical instruments. He doesn't seem to get much work done, and when his girlfriend shows up, even less. There are some decent sight gags with inflatable goats and Bosko turning into six Boskos, but not a whole lot of plot.

Decent

[Michael_Elliott · 2 December 2008]

Hold Anything (1930)

** (out of 4)

Early animated film from Warner before they gave us their more memorable (and better known) characters. Bosko is doing construction where he tries to do everything as if it were a note of music. I know Bosko was probably Warner's biggest character at the time but I don't think he holds up too well (and who knows if he did in 1930). The biggest problem I had with this short was that the music numbers weren't all that memorable and even though this ran under ten-minutes you can't help but feel like it's longer. There are some mice in the film, all looking like Mickey Mouse, which I guess should be expected since the director's originally worked at Disney.

Bosko was a 2nd rate hack!

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 6 July 2009]

Although Walt Disney was producing exceptional cartoons circa 1930, Warner Brothers (through Leon Schlessinger Studios) was way behind on the curve. The quality of their Bosko series was clearly light-years behind Mickey Mouse--mostly because the cartoons weren't especially funny or charming. Instead, they were rather corny. Because of this, you practically never (thank goodness) see these cartoons today.

Here in HOLD ANYTHING, Bosko is working around a construction site. He sees his girlfriend and they begins making eyes at each other. It's all a bit mushy and they dance around a bit until eventually (and mercifully) it all ends. The only interesting part is when Bosko cuts the head off a mouse that looks amazingly like Mickey!

Early Bosko, very musically-oriented and with a very bizarre segment!

[llltdesq · 7/10 · 15 August 2006]

This is a fairly typical early Bosko and is reasonably amusing. There are one or two points I want to discuss in some detail, some "Here there be spoilers":

This short is musically-oriented and lots of things become musical instruments in the hands of Bosko, his work crew (a bunch of small, strangely familiar mice) and Bosko's girlfriend. It is to the temporary misfortune of one particular mouse that Bosko is his foreman. The mouse falls off a wall and lands on a saw, which starts making music. Bosk starts bending and warping the saw to get musical notes from it, which tosses the mouse up into the air. At one point, the mouse comes down on the saw-teeth and his head lands on one side and his body on the other. You then see the head and the body moving around on the saw as Bosko bends and warps it to make music as the body and head frantically try to get back together.

Later on in the short, Bosko sees Honey in an office and goes across to her window by using musical notes as steppingstones in mid-air. He proceeds to put sheet music in her typewriter and play it like a piano. The capper on the music from unusual sources is Bosko's use of a goat as bagpipes.

This has quite a few of the visual gags that would be used frequently in the Bosko shorts, such as Bosko breaking up into lots of little Boskos after hitting the ground and the playing of music when running across steps or bricks where the path is differentiated enough to resemble a keyboard or a xylophone.

Good, if rather standard, Bosko short. Worht watching, if you get the opportunity. Recommended.

The Looney Tuners recognized Disney as Public Enemy #1 from the start . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 19 December 2016]

. . . devoting a large part of this first Looney Tune (NOT including the free-lanced outsider pilot proposal) to vivisecting and digesting the House of Mouse's Rodent D'Etre. This vivid incident occurs during the first half of HOLD ANYTHING, during which high-rise construction worker and Warner Bros. Blue Collar Hero Bosko takes a break from Girdering to torture a Dead Ringer for Mickey Mouse. This unfortunate little creature is subjected to a Warped and Anachronistic Version of the X-Games by being forced to perform his 360s, 540s, and 720s tricks off the platform of Bosko's musical saw. After watching (and listening to) Mickey's full repertoire, Bosko allows the saw to slice him in half. Mickey is later beheaded, and immediately after he's "fixed" (like a cheap pop-bead doll) Bosko plops him into the yawning mouth of an insatiable She-Goat. Though Mickey emerges from her tummy trap door after a bit (apparently in deference to younger viewers who might be traumatized by seeing Mickey Trumped out of the goat's butt the natural way), Mickey soon disappears from view as this story segues into Bosko's affair with Honey. (As it says in Trump's Corinthians Two, he no longer has time for childish Disney things.)

Hold Anything is a pretty entertaining musical Bosko cartoon short

[tavm · 7/10 · 10 June 2007]

Since the previous reviewer mentioned most of the details of Hold Anything, I'll just mention that the mice look uncannily like Walt Disney's Mickey. Perhaps not surprising since directors Hugh Harmon and Rudolf Ising had previously worked for Disney as animators when he created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit with Ub Iwerks with the rabbit looking like the Famous Mouse with long ears and a fluffy tail. Another entertaining musical short that seems inspired by the fame of the first successful sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie, that put Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney on the map of iconic status. Worth a look for anyone interested in Warner Bros. animation before Tex Avery arrived to give it a new identity.

Wow! Surprisingly brazen copying *and* innovation here!

[VioletGirl37 · 7/10 · 9 February 2023]

Wasn't sure what to expect here...

As I suspected from the previous films in the series, we get a musical cartoon with Bosko working on a construction site. Some surprisingly brazen copying from the contemporary Disney cartoons, first with the mice which looked suspiciously like Mickey, and then one even lifts his ears off like a hat, exactly like Mickey famously does in "the Karnival Kid" the previous year. Pleasant, mostly because of the music. The animation is a bit slow, and then Bosko starts playing with a mouse on a nearby handsaw. We get a very interesting and fitting sound with it which I couldn't distinguish whether it was a theremin or a human voice! And then BAM! Bosko slices off the mouse's head! Was not expecting that one! In this cartoon world however, the mouse seemed basically unharmed at least!

While some of the gags I have seen in many other cartoons, I spotted some really unique ones here! I think most memorably Honey's typewriter, which Bosko plays his sheet music on like a piano!

I don't know why so many people complain about Bosko and Honey - I find them so cute and likeable, even if Mickey and Minnie usually show more depth in Disney's cartoons (though in 1930, not always! Just compare with "The Picnic" for example!

Unfortunately there is only a low-quality print of this available, though I would still recommend it as a fun cartoon (though not for young children or the faint of heart given the mouse decapitation!

Hit and miss but hits more than it misses

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 16 March 2017]

The Bosko cartoons may not be animation masterpieces, but they are fascinating as examples of Looney Tunes in their early days before the creation of more compelling characters and funnier and more creative cartoons.

After an interesting if just slightly above average and not much more pilot cartoon 'The Talk-Ink Kid' and the decent 'Sinkin' in the Bathtub' and 'Congo Jazz', 'Hold Anything' is not great and the execution is variable but most of it works well. While a hit and miss cartoon, it hits more than it misses, or at least to me it does.

'Hold Anything's' weakest element is the story, very much like 'Congo Jazz' the story here is more a paper-thin excuse to string along music and gags with a few draggy stretches and an ending that doesn't feel that well rounded off, pretty anti-climactic actually.

Most of the gags work well, but faring less well is the repetitive business with the goat's tail, that was good the first time or two but grew tired quickly especially when the more it happened the less inspired the methods got. Honey is also rather bland.

On the other hand, the animation is not bad at all. Not exactly refined but fluid and crisp enough with some nice detail, it is especially good in the meticulous backgrounds and some remarkably flexible yet natural movements for Bosko. The music is 'Hold Anything's' highlight component, its infectious energy, rousing merriment, lush orchestration and how well it fits with the animation is just a joy.

While none of the gags are hilarious, most of them are amusing, like the udder gag and the goat being floated up as helium. Parts are cute and there is much less of a static feel than there was in 'The Talk-Ink Kid' in sound quality. Bosko is never going to be one of my favourite cartoon characters, or among the all-time greats, but he has more personality this time round and it's more endearing than before.

In summary, variable but mostly works. 7/10 Bethany Cox