I Gopher You (1954) User Reviews

"I think we should precede together."

[utgard14 · 7/10 · 21 February 2016]

A fun Goofy Gophers short, directed by Friz Freleng. This one has everyone's favorite well-mannered rodents, Mac and Tosh, preparing to steal the vegetables from a farmer's field when suddenly the vegetables start disappearing. They investigate and discover the vegetables are being sent to a food processing plant. The duo head to the plant and try to recover "their" vegetables, which leads to them getting into all sorts of hijinks involving the machinery and whatnots in the plant. Some very amusing gags but, as always, it's the cute super polite dialogue between the pair that provides most of the humor. Excellent voice work from Mel Blanc and Stan Freberg. Nice music from Carl Stalling. The animation is quite good, colorful with well-drawn characters and backgrounds. I always liked when Looney Tunes featured places like factories and mills because they were usually nicely animated and a refreshing change from the normal nature or inner city backdrops. Anyway, it's a good cartoon. Not the best of this series but fun.

"I was almost a turkey dinner . . . "

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 21 December 2017]

. . . may not sound as promising for a film premise as I WAS A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG, but there's probably more action and menace taking place during this offering from Warner Bros. Animated Shorts Seers division (aka, The Looney Tuners)--I GOPHER YOU--than was there is in the aforesaid live-action feature. As Powerhouse riffs liven up I GOPHER YOU's musical score, rodents "Mac" and "Tosh" have the run of a food processing plant. During the course of this vermin pair's sojourn within America's Food Chain, they get bottle-capped, canned, dehydrated, and tinned. (The quotation at the top here is elicited by the latter event.) Given that long-time Looney Tunes director Chuck Jones alerted Warner cartoon viewers in subsequent interviews to always be on the lookout for topical references to Current Events (and given the fact that output from the eponymous Warner Bros. studio is inevitably chock full of the sort of warnings promised by their business name for We Americans of (The Then) Far Future), what cautions can 21st Century U.S. viewers derive from I GOPHER YOU? Mac and Tosh's early references to "vandals" surely can be coupled with the Current Regime's plan to allow strip-mining of what was once America's National Park System, and elimination of Planet Earth's few remaining Wild Polar Bears (along with the Indigenous Peoples who depend upon them) with rampant "exploratory drilling" and environmental degradation throughout what was known as the Arctic Wildlife Refuge during all past U.S. Administrations. As the action here moves to the robotic packing plant, I GOPHER YOU enters the world of THX 1138, in which malign computers can decide to rub out the Human Race through the proliferation of Round Up Frankenseeds if such a Holocaust will improve the Bottom Line for Corporate Shareholders, but that's a story for another book.

Can't give a too-high appraisal, because it has its faults.

[lukeneedssand · 7/10 · 7 August 2021]

The plot for this cartoon is quite simple. (They're basically just trying to get vegetables). While the Goofy gophers are praised by many, I unfortunately just can't get into them. I feel they work best when against an Opposing force, Elmer Fudd and the dog are some great examples. But when they're just getting mishaps while romping around in a freeze-dried vegetable factory its not quite engaging for the older crowd. Don't get me wrong, this cartoon is still well directed, and The Animation is quite good, but they just don't work well when there alone without a force, it just feels very Disney esque and the Stakes are especially low. The ending however (while predictable) Is well crafted, and I can't necessarily hate this cartoon at all, especially when there are so many other good Goofy gopher cartoons out there, and Im sure the merits of this cartoon outweigh the Disappointments, and there are probably fans of this cartoon out there, but I (personally) just respectively can't get into it.

One of my favorite warner brothers cartoons

[zartok-35 · 10/10 · 27 July 2005]

I love this show. I love Mac and Tosh the gophers.

In this particular cartoon, Mac and Tosh set off to reclaim the vegetable crop and wind up at a food processing plant. the 2 set out to reclaim there food and get caught up in machines such as a juice bottling system, a canning unit, and a food dehydrating machine. In the end, they decide that there best bet would be to put there vegetables through the dehydrating machine and take them home in the neat little packages it produces. Afterwards, back at the farm, Mac and Tosh finish filling there tunnels with the packets of instant food. Tosh goes out to get some water so they can eat. When the tap valve gets stuck, causing a larger than desired amount of water to pour into the tunnel system, the ground to erupts in an explosion of fruits and vegetables.

I've loved this ever since i first saw it at age 4. Delightful and fun. Recommended for all ages.

Vegetable retrieving with Mac and Tosh (aka the Goofy Gophers)

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 30 June 2016]

While not as good as 'The Goofy Gophers' and 'A Ham in a Role' for example, 'I Gopher You' fares strongly in the Goofy Gophers series and proves that even when a little different to before it can still be a very good cartoon indeed.

Here in 'A Bone for a Bone', the animation is great, with some luscious colours and richly detailed backgrounds and everything is very fluidly and smoothly drawn with no obviously jarring movements or frames. Carl Stalling has been consistently wonderful with his music, it is always dynamic and beautiful to listen to while also enhancing the action and colour(which is what music in cartoons should do) and his energetically vibrant and whimsical scoring for 'A Bone for a Bone' is not a disappointment whatsoever.

The dialogue is razor-sharp and witty, most of it is absolutely hilarious. The gags, in laugh-a-minute mode, are imaginative and executed very well indeed, most of the humour coming from the super polite dialogue between Mac and Tosh and their imaginative hi-jinks with the machinery. The fast pacing and fun story are further things to like One may miss the dark and sometimes brutal, but never over-the-top cartoonish or stomach-churningly sadistic slapstick and violence of their earlier outings with the intellectual and well-spoken dog, but in all fairness Mac and Tosh don't have the characters.

Mac and Tosh work are a wonderfully entertaining duo, being cute yet very funny in their over-politeness to one another, and voiced with aplomb by the always entertaining Stan Freberg and Mel Blanc.

In conclusion, very good and often great. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Amusing with good characters that don't outstay their welcome

[bob the moo · 28 December 2003]

Two gophers are preparing to steal the crops from a farmer's field whenever they are harvested and taken to a factory for processing. They two very polite gophers go into the factory to get back their food.

My relief when I realised this cartoon was NOT those awful chipmunk characters was great and maybe made me a bit more accepting of this cartoon. The plot sees the characters getting caught up in the production machinery in a sort of toned down version of Chicken Run's machinery scene. The jokes are pretty good and the machinery even shows a bit of imagination at times (the mushrooms being scrapped steaks was the funniest).

The characters are a bit strange - very polite to each other! It could wear a bit thin after a couple of cartoons but as a five minute short it works pretty well and makes them funny characters. The final gag is good even if you can see it coming easily.

A good cartoon - simple gags but they are well delivered and the `different' new characters make it feel worth watching.