''Sky Larks'' is a 1934 animated short produced by

Walter Lantz Productions Walter Lantz Productions was an American animation studio. It was in operation from 1928 to 1949 and then from 1950 to 1972, and was the principal supplier of animation for Universal Pictures. The studio was originally formed as Universal Carto ...

and is part of the ''

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (also known as Oswald the Rabbit, Oswald Rabbit, and Ozzie) is an animated series, animated cartoon character created in 1927 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks for Universal Pictures. He starred in several animated short film ...

'' series.

Plot

Oswald and a big

beagle The Beagle is a small breed of scent hound, similar in appearance to the much larger foxhound. The beagle was developed primarily for hunting rabbit or hare, known as beagling. Possessing a great sense of smell and superior tracking inst ...

(referred to as "Dopey" by Oswald himself) are at a cinema watching a documentary about explorers who travel in hot air balloons. The documentary consists of footage of real-life balloonist

Auguste Piccard Auguste Antoine Piccard (28 January 1884 – 24 March 1962) was a Swiss physicist, inventor and explorer known for his record-breaking hydrogen balloon flights, with which he studied the Earth's upper atmosphere and became the first person to ...

. Oswald is amazed and after the show decides to become a balloonist himself. At a fairground, a large crowd gathers to see Oswald take off in his balloon. The balloon is a large

hot water bottle A hot-water bottle is a bottle filled with hot water and sealed with a Bung, stopper, used to provide warmth, typically while in bed, but also for the application of heat to a specific part of the body. Early history Containers for warmth in b ...

and the carriage is a

pot-bellied stove A potbelly stove is a cast-iron, coal-burning or wood-burning stove that is cylindrical with a bulge in the middle. Gove PB (editor in chief) (1981). ''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged''. Springfield, ...

. Oswald invites Dopey, who is in the crowd, to join him. Dopey refuses, but as the balloon rises, its anchor snags his pants and pulls them off. Embarrassed, he grabs the anchor and flies away with Oswald. Oswald's balloon rapidly ascends and goes so far that they reach interplanetary space. They pass through the "Milky Way", populated by bottles of milk, and finally crash land on the planet Mars, much of which seems related to the "martial" topic of war. They see a giant sipping "Nitro Soup" and eating bombs. Oswald and Dopey flee, only to unknowingly run into the bore of a huge cannon. The cannon shoots them airborne and they land in the giant's soup bowl. The giant recognizes them as Earthlings, and picks them up with his spoon and tries to eat them. After several attempts which they evade, they fall into a salt shaker. The giant puts the lid on the shaker, trapping them, and then calls for a dance. A variety of animate implements of war then put on a dance, including guns, rockets and gas masks. While the giant is distracted, Oswald and Dopey rock the salt shaker back and forth until they turn it upside down. By putting their legs through the shaker's holes, they are able run. They run into a pitcher, breaking the shaker, at which the giant notices their escape and grabs them. The pair then find that the whole affair was a dream, as they awaken back in the now-empty cinema, with the janitor shaking them awake. Nevertheless, they are still frightened and run out of the cinema in a panic, to the bewilderment of the janitor.

Notes

* Dopey is the father of the girl beagle (Oswald's third girlfriend). His appearance and personality are very similar to Wimpy, a character from the ''

Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.Oswald the Lucky Rabbit filmography The following is a complete list of cartoons, films, video games, etc. featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit created or licensed by either Universal Pictures (owner of the character's trademark before 2006) or The Walt Disney Company (owner of the ...

References

External links

''Sky Larks''
at the

Big Cartoon Database The Big Cartoon DataBase (or BCDB for short) was an online database of information about animated cartoons, animated feature films, animated television shows, and cartoon shorts. The BCDB project began in 1997 as a list of Disney animated f ...

{{Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons 1934 films 1930s American animated films 1930s science fiction films American aviation films Films about dreams Animated films about extraterrestrial life Films directed by Walter Lantz Animated films set in a movie theatre Animated films about giants Mars in film Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons Universal Pictures short films Walter Lantz Productions shorts American science fiction films Universal Pictures animated short films Animated films about dogs American animated black-and-white films 1934 animated short films