Box Car Blues

Box Car Blues
Looney Tunes (Bosko) series
Bosko and the banjo playing pig
Directed by	Hugh Harman Rudolph Ising
Produced by	Hugh Harman Rudolph Ising Leon Schlesinger(Associate Producer)
Voices by	Carman Maxwell
Music by	Frank Marsales
Animation by	Rollin Hamilton Max Maxwell
Studio	Leon Schlesinger Production
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	December, 1930 (USA)
Color process	Black-and-white
Running time	7 minutes
Language	English
Preceded by	The Booze Hangs High
Followed by	Big Man from the North

Box Car Blues, released in 1930, is the fifth title in the Looney Tunes series. It features Bosko and a pig traveling as hobos in a boxcar.

The film opens with a "toot-toot" and a train is seen chugging down the tracks, whistling every so often. The front wheels turn into a pair of hands, that manually squeeze the whistle in order to make a distinct honking sound. The scene then moves to a boxcar at the back of the train, where Bosko is singing and dancing, accompanied by a banjo playing pig. They are quite jolly until Bosko starts a mournful rendition of Cryin' for the Carolines, at which the pig starts to cry. Suddenly Bosko and the pig are thrown towards the back of the boxcar. The pig seems to be out cold whilst Bosko looks around, trying to understand what is going on. Bosko tries to revive the pig but is unsuccessful. The scene pans to show that the train is climbing a hill, which explains the tilted boxcar.

The train straightens itself at the top of the hill but then goes over a bridge, which bends exaggeratedly to accommodate its weight. Through a tunnel and then uphill again at almost a ninety degree angle, the train is now exhausted and starts panting as it begins to slow down. It then starts crawling like a giant caterpillar, curling and uncurling itself as it moves up the hill. Just a few feet from the summit, the train reaches out its wheels as hands in an attempt to get a handhold but as it grabs the mountain, we see a part of the hillside peeling away and displaying spotted underwear. The mountain, using tree trunks as hands, reaches back and pulls up its pseudo-pants, looking quite angry as it does so. The train now begins to haul itself up using the railroad as a rope, manages to reach the top and goes over. However, the last boxcar breaks free and races back down the steep slope.

Bosko lifts a small hatch in the roof and looks out frantically. His head gets knocked off by an overhanging sign and is left bouncing by itself on the roof. His headless body then climbs onto the roof and manages to reattach his head. Next the boxcar splits in two and Bosko is left with one foot on each side, balancing precariously over the speeding vehicle. Oddly enough, we do not see any sign of the banjo playing pig inside the split boxcar, which eventually comes back together. The boxcar continues to split and come together in this fashion several times. At one point, Bosko lengthens his neck, twists it into a winch of sorts and uses it to haul the boxcar pieces back together. The next tunnel is so low that Bosko gets thrown off the roof and tumbles down the outside of the tunnel, falling astride a cow at the other end.