"Injun Trouble" is a 1969 Merrie Melodies cartoon, starring Cool Cat and directed by Robert McKimson. It is notable, if only for being both the 1000th Warner Bros. cartoon released, the very last cartoon released by the original Looney Tunes studio, and the rarest one to find.
Cool Cat is driving to the town of Hotfoot one day, when his route happens to take him through an Indian reservation. Two scouts spot him and one of them gives chase, only to fall into a chasm when the weight of him and his horse causes the makeshift bridge to collapse. Cool Cat rescues them and continues his journey. He misses the "pail-face" but encounters a man who tries to give his obese daughter away, a man with an arrow in his scalp, a Native American who uses a stenograph-like device to create smoke signals which read "Cool Cat go home," a more attractive woman that invites him for an "Indian Wrestle" (which turns out to be a fight with a man who is far larger than Cool Cat), a Groucho Marx imitator and a literal bareback rider.
Finally, arriving in Hotfoot, Cool Cat spots two horses playing human shoes, and a "Horse Doctor" who really is an equine. After that, Cool Cat spots a "Topless Saloon" and heads in, but finds out that the only topless person in there is the bartender, a rather burly man. An outlaw named Gower Gulch then arrives and seemingly challenges Cool Cat to a duel, but then settles for a game of poker. Cool Cat gets a good hand with four aces, but Gulch has a paid of deuces and a gun. Announcing that he is "cutting out," Cool Cat produces a pair of scissors and cuts a hole out of the background, which he then disappears into. He then reappears for a moment and ends the cartoon (and the original series' run) with the words "So cool it now, ya hear?"
Should not be confused with the 1938 Bob Clampett film of the same name (which was remade in 1945 as Wagon Heels).
"Injun Trouble" provides examples of:
- Animation Bump: The male Native American running off in the scene featured in the above shot, after giving Cool Cat his fat daughter has better animation than the rest of the short.
- Aside Comment: When a Native American is chasing Cool Cat in the opening and making stereotypical battle cries, he looks at the audience and quips, "Injuns always yell like that when they mad!"
- Aside Glance: Gulch after Cool Cat cuts himself out of the cartoon.
- End of an Age: This was the very last Merrie Melodies short to be made by the original Warner Bros. cartoon studionote , symbolically marking the end of the theatrical shorts era for the franchise.
- Hartman Hips: The Native American's sultry attractive daughter that asks Cool Cat to "Indian wrestle" has these.
- Hollywood Natives: All the Native Americans in this short are portrayed as antagonistic to Cool Cat, as well as living in tipis and wearing crudely-made clothing.
- Hurricane of Puns: Practically the entire short is loaded with puns!
- Indian Maiden: The very attractive female Native American.
- Limited Animation: The cartoon was made at the very end of the original series' run and had a very low budget, so the animation is barely above the level of a made-for-TV cartoon of the time as a result.
- Pun-Based Title: On "Engine Trouble".
- Random Events Plot: It's a mark of how far quality at Warner Bros. had fallen by the end. Looney Tunes cartoons always had a story, even if it was something as basic as Bugs Bunny humiliating Elmer Fudd or Sylvester trying to eat Tweety. There's no story in this short — only random gags from beginning to end.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Cool Cat pulls this off at the end; after finding out that his opponent in cards has a gun, he literally cuts himself out of the cartoon.
- Sound Defect: When one of the Native American tries painting a ring around his teepee, his paintbrush makes a "poof!" sound effect when it initially touches the teepee. This was obviously because the sound editors did not have the proper sound effect for using a paintbrush at the time.
