You Don't Know What You're Doin'! (1931) Poster

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6/10
Jazzy nightlife
TheLittleSongbird9 August 2018
Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes, Hanna Barbera, Studio Ghibli and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons. With significantly broader knowledge of different directors, animation styles and studios, actually appreciate and love it even more now.

Rudolf Ising made a lot of cartoons leaning towards the cute kind of cartoon rather than the laugh a minute kind, the latter being the one that a lot seem to prefer (understandably, though am hardly biased against the former). This approach has varied in cartoons. In some instances it has been very sweet and charming, in others it can be cloying and too cutesy. Generally 'You Don't Know What You're Doin'!' belongs in the former category, despite the danger of falling into the latter with the premise, complete with a huge amount of energy.

'You Don't Know What You're Doin'!' has a lot to like although not a great cartoon, not one to completely overlook if not a cartoon to watch repeatedly.

Yes it gets a bit too saccharine and strange in places and it is best perhaps to not talk about the story because there really isn't much of one and more an excuse to string along a big and variable collection of gags.

Piggy also is not the most compelling of lead characters, it is not hard to see why he was so short lived, lasting just two cartoons.

What 'You Don't Know What You're Doin'!' does so well however eclipses these problems. The animation is rich in detail for design and backgrounds, vibrant and crisp. There is also an outstanding music score, performed with a lot of spirit and is easily the best asset of the cartoon.

It is hard not to fall in love with the support characters, even if they are not especially distinctive, and it has enough likeability and personality to not be dull. 'You Don't Know What You're Doin'!' is rich in natural sweet charm and some very imaginative ideas and visuals with a nice setting. There is nothing hilarious and the cartoon's hardly laugh a minute despite being full of gags (most amusing but a very mixed bag overall), but a good deal of it does charm and amuse. There are many fun moments and some inventive ones too, enjoyed how the music was incorporated and the surreal wildness of the last minute or so. The pace avoids being too draggy, with it being full of wild energy throughout when things got going.

Summarising, nice and not bad at all if not a must watch. 6/10 Bethany Cox
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5/10
Typical of the Era
Hitchcoc29 March 2019
These early cartoons were long on sound and short on animation. This must have been a popular jazz piece. The solo musicians are fine but the plot is tepid. And all those characters came to see the act while that idiot little pig goes about trying to sabotage everything. There are hundreds of these old cartoons around and they are all about the same.
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6/10
You Don't Know What You're Doin'!
CinemaSerf18 March 2024
Crowds throng into a theatre where a jazz orchestra are pumping out some lively toe-tappers. "Piggy" wants to take his girlfriend along to the concert so after an entertaining journey from her home on his dodgy looking contraption, they arrive and a bit of Al Jolson humour sets up a brief opportunity for an animated showcase of the sounds of Gus Arnheim's orchestra. That's all until she declares that they don't know what they're doing - and grabs a saxophone to engage in a bit of a duel with the trombonist before the pair steal the stage altogether then flee into a musically themed town. It's all too bitty for me, the scenes don't really work together to build any kind of story. It just seemed more of an excuse for the jazz lovers to grab a few minutes of airtime. Nothing special here, sorry.
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No heckling the band!
slymusic9 August 2010
Warning: Spoilers
"You Don't Know What You're Doin'!" is a very fun musical cartoon that was made during the earliest stages of the Warner Bros. animation department, and what an exciting time! True, the United States was going through a severe economic depression, which undoubtedly was why cartoons of this type were being made: people needed a good cheering up! (In fact, the song "Get Happy" can be heard during the opening credits of this film.) Also around this time, cartoons often showcased various popular songs, and the title song "You Don't Know What You're Doin'" is very lively indeed. The main character is a fun-loving pig (no, not Porky) who seeks out some theatrical entertainment with his female companion.

My favorite moments from this cartoon: As the two "romantic leads" enter the theatre, the title song can be heard with some hot trumpet & clarinet solos. I also enjoy the arrogant pig's exchange with the three drunks up in the balcony box, again to the strains of the title song.

The team of Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising (catch the wordplay?) were responsible for producing these earliest Warner Bros. cartoons along with the notorious big-money magnate Leon Schlesinger, and one of the credited animators for "You Don't Know What You're Doin'!" is none other than Friz Freleng, soon to become a top-notch director. The ending of this cartoon is just nonsensical, but I can easily overlook it, because this film's positive energy and great music are all I really need to feel satisfied with it.
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4/10
Decent music, but not much else
Horst_In_Translation5 October 2013
Warning: Spoilers
The song "You Don't Know What You're Doin'!" used herein and the constant shouting of said phrase by the characters are the most entertaining thing about this seven-minute b/w short film from 1931. Rudolf Ising deserves his name in the history books of animation, even if he's not really known to many anymore today and this one is certainly among his more forgettable films. The people look like dogs here and the central character is a little piggy which is basically Mickey Mouse with piggy ears and mouth, just like his girl is Minnie Mouse with the same pork features. Quite a ripoff actually. But I wouldn't have minded if it was actually funny in its own right. Unfortunately that's not the case. Comedy was lost and it mainly consisted of loud shouting and weird movements by the characters and scenery, like the street changing like jelly under a car riding over it. If anything, this one is worth for the music, but as this factor is crucial in pretty much all Merrie Melodies, I can't really recommend it.
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7/10
Booze turns people into swine . . .
oscaralbert22 October 2015
Warning: Spoilers
. . . is the main theme of this Prohibtion Era animated short Public Service Announcement (PSA) from Warner Bros. Released during the height of America's Rational Decade--at the tail end of the "Roaring Twenties"--YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOIN'! refers to the definition of being drunk, then and now. Nowadays Hooch kills about a million people in the U.S. annually, and a couple hundred thousand of these are life-long (actually, life-shortened) tee-totallers or AA members. Wine, whiskey, and beer rub out innocent bystander kids by the thousands, with cars piloted by "drunk as skunks" public enemies careening everywhere (as YOU DON'T KNOW so well illustrates). Multiply this mayhem by the fact that for every Alkie-caused death the Sauce provokes 10,000 acts of Non-Fatal inhumanity (such as the spitting, cussing, and crimes like the spur-of-the-moment "joy ride" serial vehicle thefts depicted in YOU DON'T KNOW), and it's small wonder that today's alcohol-fueled America is virtually unlivable. YOU DON'T KNOW portrays its crude horde of drinkers as all sporting various sizes (mostly Large and XL) of pig snouts, since it's inarguable that anyone drunk in the company of others is a Stinky Oinker. I'm sure that Prohibition would still be Constitutionally required today if Warner's boozy rivals had had the guts to release their own PSA's similar to YOU DON'T KNOW.
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4/10
Not When it's good animation
boblipton21 January 2003
Early Merrie Melodie is primarily of interest for its use of Gus Arnheim's Band to perform the title song. The gags and animation are pretty awful, looking like third=rate Disney animation. You'd be better off finding a good copy of the original Brunswick record.
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9/10
Very fun, underrated cartoon
KalloFox345 September 2020
This cartoon is a very fun treat. The musical score is stellar, especially during the drunken car chase scene (which was also the first time the classic "yabbity-yabbity" sound is heard in any cartoon). The animation is interesting, if a little sluggish. Piggy may be heckling the band, but it's still entertaining to watch him do so. And for a group of drunks, the dogs in the balcony are actually pretty good singers.

In general, the Harman-Ising era of Looney Tunes is very overlooked and only really gets panned because it's so different from the post-1933 era.
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8/10
Nice little early Warner Brothers short done probably to sell sheet music for the title song
llltdesq11 January 2015
Warning: Spoilers
This is an early Merrie Melodies short from the Warner Brothers animation studio. There will be spoilers ahead:

This short stars Piggy, a sort of Bosko knockoff. Piggy is seen picking up his date early on and he and Fluffy are headed to a concert, the start of which actually opens the short. Piggy is an obnoxious sort, given to quarreling, which he does early and often. He picks on one musician before even taking his seat.

He then takes issue with another, launching into the title song to tell a trombone play "You Don't Know What You're Doing". In one of the better bits, the two stage an "argument" with instruments (the trombone and Piggy playing a saxophone).

Piggy then launches into a solo, only to be heckled by three drunks in a box seat. The drunks get the better of Piggy in song, to the delight and applause of the crowd. One falls from the box onto the stage. Piggy gets what amounts to a contact high when the drunk breathes in his face. Piggy takes the drunk's bottle and the two stagger into the street, where Piggy gets his car drunk. The visuals in this scene are great.

The last minute or so of the short gets surreal and some of the best animation comes about in this sequence. It's very good by Warner Brothers's standards in the early 1930s.

This short is available on Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume 6 and is well worth watching. Recommended.
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