User Reviews

Yes. Indeed. I really did enjoy viewing this comical, well-paced parody of the Rover Boys juvenile fiction (which, during the early 20th century, had been a popular series of reading material with the youths of the day).

With its cleverly satirized characters, like Dan Backslide, Dora Standpipe, and, of course, the Dover brothers (that's Tom, Dick, and Larry) - This Technicolor, animated short from 1942 really delivered a very engaging story that certainly kept me quite entertained all the while (with a happily satisfied smile on my face).

Imaginatively directed by the young and budding cartoonist, Chuck Jones - "The Dover Boys At Pimento University" definitely scores high points when it comes to being one of my very favorite vintage "Looney Tunes" from the "Golden Age" of animation.

To me, at least, "The Dover Boys at Pimento University or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall" seems like one of the most unusual Looney Tunes cartoons, but I still liked it. Portraying some college friends trying to rescue a woman from a cad/thief, the cartoon doesn't get quite as wacky as most cartoons produced by that group - I always liked them for how zany they were - but it ends on a good note. And any Chuck Jones-directed cartoon is a good one (especially with the whole tree sequence here).

All in all, "The Dover Boys" gives one a sense of college life during WWII. Will we remember college positively or negatively? Only time will tell, but I'll sure remember this cartoon positively.

This cartoon is underrated. The humor is subtle yet hilarious. My two kids love it so much that they will drop what they are doing whenever this comes on. The Dover Boys is a takeoff of the damsel-in-distress/Uncle Tom's Cabin scenario. The humor is in the characterizations such as Dan Backslide's unique way of kidnapping the girl or how the heroes ride their bicycles. Perhaps my family's sense of humor is different from most people. Too many contemporary cartoons rely on toilet humor and not something that is well written. But Chuck Jones and the people who gave us these classics will always have a soft spot in my heart. Their work is flawless and timeless. Whenever a show or cartoon crossovers generations without having to explain why, then the artist has done their job. They just don't make them like they use to.

Cartoon humorists loved that first gag in this film: "Good 'ole P.U." (in this case, Pimento University)

The story concerns the three Dover boys at this hallowed college campus: "Tom (the fun- loving member of the trio); Dick (a serious lad of 18 summers plus a winter in Florida); and Larry (the youngest of the three jerks.... er, ....brothers.). A gay outing in the park has been planned by the merry trio and they are off to fetch their fiancée, Dainty Dora Standpipe...."

As you can read, the humor is quite corny, but, first, the cartoon was made back in the early '40s, second, and this also was some obvious parody - of what, exactly, I don't honestly know, but some serial-type story from the 1890s.

What really caught my eye were the colors and fantastic overall artwork in this nine-minute cartoon. Scene after scene was beautifully drawn, from the Victorian houses to the old- fashioned bicycles, the clothing of the day, etc. The vocabulary of this cartoon (i.e., "Hark!", "Drat!," "Confound them!" etc.) also was extremely entertaining as the writers poked fun at the pulp novels of the day and the good-verses-evil descriptions from the "Gay '90s."

In other words, the visuals and the corny dialog make this a unique and entertaining (except for Mel Blanc's screaming "Dan Backslide" character) - Looney Tunes feature, not something were accustomed to seeing. It's different. The way some of the characters were drawn reminded me of the Beatles' animated feature "Yellow Submarine."

This is original, good material and part of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two.

I consider The Dover Boys to be Chuck Jones' first classic cartoon at Warner Bros. Before this cartoon Jones bored his audiences with weak imitations of cute Disney cartoons. Some of these earlier efforts had no humor in them at all, and the animation and timing were slow and plodding. He made a radical departure with The Dover Boys. Since it was a parody of gay nineties melodrama Jones has the characters strike very exaggerated poses. Because the poses were so strong they were easier for the eye to "read," and required less animation in between them. This also led to quicker timing of the action. Jones also invented a new way to animate speed. Up until this point in animation history speed was indicated by "drybrushing" streaks of paint following a fast moving character. Here, though, as the character moves from one extreme pose to the next he stretches like taffy (or "smears") for a few inbetween drawings. This created a more believable illusion of speed. (One has to watch these scenes frame by frame to appreciate it.) Besides all this inventiveness, the cartoon is incredible funny, too. Jones forsook Disney "realism" and has the characters move in humorous ways (Dora Standpipe never walks but glides across the floor). Mel Blank provides one of the funniest voices in his career for villain Dan Backslide. Jones got into some trouble for this experiment and it would be some time before he would use the lessons he learned from this cartoon again (mainly in the late forties). A real gem, highly recommended

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

A gem from the early 1940's, Jones took a path that would lead to the UPA animation revolution of the fifties with "Dover Boys". Although this film was hated by studio brass (and Jones almost canned because of it) it has become an animation classic--if anything else, the pursuit of "sweet Dora Standpipe" by vile Dan Backslide is hilarious. Listen for the Dover Boys' tendancy to break into barbershop harmony at inappropriate times, and the most unusual hide-and-seek game in civilized history.

Why is this short rated so low?

It's honestly one of the funniest animations Chuck Jones ever made, and that's saying a lot.

I guess the artistic value in comedy works is not recognized on the same level as drama and serious stuff. Shame.

"The Dover Boys at Pimento University" tells the story of three brothers who attend the same university, although they're all very different. Tom Dover is the trio's leader and he might be the muscles too. Dick is a small sharp man who is supposed to be the brains. Larry is the younger of the three and he looks like Dopey from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".

They all have a common fiancée, who is Dainty Dora Standpipe, a typical Southern girl, shaped like a candle. They also have a rival. He happens to be Dan Backslide, one of the most hilarious cartoon villains I've seen for a very long time.

Backslide kidnaps Dainty Dora while the boys play a silly game of hide-and-seek.

The cartoon lasts for about ten minutes, which is surprisingly long for that kind of medium. But the story is well developed and the plot is good from the beginning to the end. The characters are all memorable. The Dover boys are funny, mainly because of their dumbness. Dainty Dora is a two-way clihé: the Southern girl and the damsel in distress. The best performance comes from blue-skinned Dan Backslide, who is a hilarious villain.

"The Dover Boys at Pimento University" is a hidden classic from Merrie Melodies. Its brown atmosphere, its funny characters and its long and elaborate plot make it an invaluable cartoon from the Golden Age.

"The Dover Boys at Pimento University or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall" is a parody of "The Rover Boys Series" by Arthur M. Winfield - who in reality was Edward Stratemeyer, creator of Tom Swift, the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and scores of other juvenile series books. The funny part is that the dialog in the cartoon would not be out of place in one of the original Rover Boys books.

The Rover Boys series consisted of 30 volumes written from 1899 to 1926. The series went on so long that the final 10 volumes were actually the adventures of the sons of the original Rover Boys! Tedd Pierce, the author of this cartoon, clearly had a knowledge of the wildly popular (in the day) Rover Boys series.

The Rover Boys were named Dick, Tom and Sam. Dick's love interest was Dora Stanhope and the boys enemy was Dan Baxter. In the cartoon the Dover Boys are named Tom, Dick and Larry, the girlfriend was Dora Standpipe and the bad guy was Dan Backslide.

Beautiful, soft focus animation and a witty script make this cartoon a real winner and unlike almost any other Merrie Melodies cartoon.

Not only that, but in my opinion also one of the greatest cartoons of all time. The animation is wonderful, so colourful and vibrant in the background art and colours and in terms of character designs The Dover Boys at Pimento University also excels with that for Dan Backslide standing out.

The music has always been a delight in the Merrie Melodie cartoons, and The Dover Boys at Pimento University is no exception. It sparkles with energy, and I loved the use of William Tell. The story is engaging, fast-paced and really works as a spoof of the Rover Boys, and the characters, Dan Backslide especially, are some of Merrie Melodies' most unique and memorable.

Where The Dover Boys at Pimento University really shines is in the writing. The dialogue is witty with a hint of subtlety and absolutely hilarious right from the narrator's sardonic yet dynamic narration to Dan Backslide's scheming and "Confound those ponies, they drive me to drink". Also wonderful are the sight gags, not just Dan Backslide's very unique way at kidnapping Dainty Dora but also the fact that Dainty Dora is screaming for help while also giving Dan Backslide a hard time.

Voice work is simply terrific. Mel Blanc's Dan Backslide is hardly what I call subtle, this said that doesn't stop me from thinking this was one of his best vocal performances though Blanc was an outstanding and very consistent voice actor. John McLeish's vocals as the narrator is wittily delivered while never feeling overdone. Ted Pierce was another fine voice actor, and he is as solid as ever.

All in all, truly outstanding and one of the best. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Dover Boys at Pimento University or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall, The (1942)

** (out of 4)

At one time Chuck Jones said Warner almost fired him because of this cartoon and it's very easy to see why. This here is without question one of the strangest shorts I've seen from the studio. Three brothers, Larry, Tom and Dick, are taking their fiancé out when a rival kidnaps her. I'm really not sure what to say about this film but I guess the best way to put it is that this is either a great masterpiece of originality or one of the worst films ever made. I'll let you decide but I thought the film was pretty bad but at the same time I couldn't help but admire how different it was. The characters are strange, the color scheme is strange and pretty much everything else is strange including the humor. I'm really not sure what this thing is trying to do or if it's trying to spoof something but this here is one you'll have to see for yourself.

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.

Three young preppy men from Pimento U (P.U.), the Dover Boys, are out for the day. They pick up a snooty young woman to have fun for the day. A game of hide and seek draws the attention of a wolfy guy who hates the boys. He kidnaps the young woman. There are some really hilarious scenes with the guys, especially when they need to get a message from the young woman. This cleverly portrays a really different time and the animation is superb. The best part of the film is when the young woman is supposedly at the mercy of the cad who has taken her. There is a fifth character and one should keep an eye on him. Once again, there is a bit of a surreal component to many of these cartoons.

Watching the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts growing up, I've always been well familiar with the name Chuck Jones, among other animators-turned-directors looking at the opening credits. But I didn't know the differences between the directors' Warner Bros. cartoons, the backstories behind these shorts, nor did I know how much that several of the pre-1940s ones were trying the emulate the Disney shorts. I also didn't know just how, although this may not have been considered so at the time, important this short is to cartoon history, also with Jones's Claude Cat-Hubie-Bertie series. That is, until I read about this mentioned briefly in a 3-part essay called "The Most Influential Animations You've Never Heard Of" on a blog called The Animatorium. The cutesy Jones-directed WB cartoons I did see and maybe those by some others, I didn't find boring, I could still get through them despite having little to no comedy to them, as at the time, I didn't know how detested they've been. But now I do know just how much of a landmark this short is considered, as Mr. Jones would make a move towards the somewhat same, loony style as Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. As the LT & MM series progressed, they would gradually become more and more in the vein of the former's namesake and the title would have nearly a double meaning.

Although there are some, certain LT & MM cartoons directed by Jones that I love more, especially the less praised ones, I still find this to be just as enjoyable. I read a post in a forum thread about the worst LT/MM or least favorite LT/MM shorts by someone who had beef with this due to the technical aspects of it. I don't focus so much on that, since I find the moments in this irresistible to look pass it as a whole. How anyone can still resist that, I just don't know. As for the humor, I don't know too much about that nor the differences between this and of any other animation company/studio. So I can't say anything about that here.

What can I say concerning the plot of the short that hasn't already been mentioned by others and differently? Well, it's a parody of 1890s melodramas and the Rover Boys books about the three Dover Boys: Tom, Dick, and Larry, who attend Pimento University. They try to spend the day with fiancée, Dora Standpipe, but this is interrupted in the midst of a long game of hide-and-seek due to their rival, Dan Backslide, from Roquefort Hall, kidnapping her. The Dover Boys aren't even aware of this until after receiving a telegram about it. But despite this, Dora proves that she's much more than capable of handling herself. There are also recurring moments of a gray-bearded man in a bathing suit, walking and hopping along, as he passes by the other characters, with a surprise towards the end.

Just a few years before the UPA studio would become well-renowned for pioneering limited animation, there was this. The art style in this is different in that it's, well, stylized than what was seen in those prior. The way the animation moves is different as well, such as Dora moving in a gliding motion rather than walking. Of all the characters, Backslide is who really makes this. Everything else about this, the writing, the music, the voice work, is great. Some reviewer here had problems with the colors, but I don't see anything wrong with the coloration at all. Depending on anyone who may read this, it's recommended, at least for historical reference and value. Again, this is the WB cartoon in which we'd get to see Jones showcase his wacky side from then on, in other cartoons as well. I found out it was producer Leon Schlesinger and the WB studio executives who goaded Jones into moving away from the cuteness. And when he did, they still weren't quite satisfied with it. I have no idea what exactly they wanted. But I find it as funny and great as several others, if not simply intriguing, at least. Still much better than the cartoons that are over-reliant on sick humor.

Pros: What else can I say? The ensuing hilarity (especially on the YouTube collab)

Cons: (crickets chirping)

I think we could do without this one. It's not really played for laughs like the better ones. The Dover Boys weren't very interesting at all. On the other hand, Dan Backslide was a hilarious character and made it easier to watch this short. Other than him, don't waste your time.

Loved this as a kid and purchased it as an adult so my kids could enjoy it. My children are adults now and we still laugh and quote lines from it.