Time for a Kiko Break!

I've been posting a lot lately on the Mintz cartoons so it seemed like a good time to break it up a bit with a cartoon from a different studio. So I've chosen for today "Red Hot Music" (Terrytoons, 1937). The Kiko series was overall pretty weak but this particular entry rises above, somewhat, the usual Terry doldrums by way of it's infectious musical score and general joie de vivre. It appears it was done during a transitional period in the studio's history as the style swings back and forth wildly between the earlier Fables style and the soon to be house style of Terrytoons in the 40's. In fact, the gag of the writhing musicians at the beginning curiously echoes a similar gag, with animators instead, from the 1931 Van Beuren cartoon "Makin' Em Move"! Evidently Terry thought the cartoon was special enough as it became the subject of a promotional six poster series on the process of animation. The first of that series can be seen here. Love that piano playin' dog!