One Droopy Knight is a 1957 animated short film (9 minutes) directed by Michael Lah. It is one of the last Droopy shorts, made after Droopy creator Tex Avery left MGM.note
In this short Droopy lives in a fairy-tale kingdom. The whole kingdom lives in terror of a fire-breathing dragon who lives in a cave outside the city. The king has offered his beautiful daughter in marriage to whoever is brave enough to slay the dragon, but only two of his subjects are willing to try: Sir Droopalot (Droopy), and his rival Sir Butchalot (Butch the Irish dog).
This cartoon recycles the plot and several gags from 1949 Tex Avery short "Señor Droopy". It was not just one of the last Droopy shorts but one of the last animated shorts period at MGM, which closed its animation studio at the end of 1957 as The Dark Age of Animation began.
Tropes:
- Berserk Button: The Droopy formula usually involved him fighting quite ineffectually until something made him mad and he opened a can of whoop-ass. In this one, Droopy flips out when the dragon draws a mustache and beard on the picture of his beloved, the princess.
- Blowing Smoke Rings: At one point the fire-breathing dragon blows a smoke ring, which he puts Droopy inside. The smoke ring carries Droopy away.
- The Cat Came Back: Droopy keeps coming back repeatedly to fight the dragon, despite being utterly hopeless—until his Berserk Button is pressed, that is.
- Catchphrase:
- "Hello, all you happy people!" In the later Droopy shorts, he addresses this to the audience over the opening credits.
- "You know what? That makes me mad." Here as always, a symbol that Droopy was going to unleash a beatdown.
- The Comically Serious: Droopy is always very, very serious.
- Circular Reasoning: Subverted and Played for Laughs. Droopy says it's a true story and that it's true because it's true, while sitting right next to his smiling princess girlfriend/wife and his new pet dragon who lights his cigar
- Couldn't Find a Lighter: At the end, Droopy keeps the dragon to light his cigars.
- Defeat Means Friendship: The ending shows that the dragon has been tamed and now serves as Droopy's cigar lighter.
- Foreshadowing: We see Droopy effortlessly remove the dragon from his cave as effortlessly as if he were a stuffed down pillow while still fighting ineffectually, for those who had seen Señor Droopy knew what was coming.
- Grotesque Cute: When Butch closes Droopy's helmet visor on the princess' fingers, her entire look cartoonishly distorts as she screams in pain. That was the only time her smile left her face and it's kind of jarring to see her not smiling. Fortunately, she seems to have forgiven Droopy for it in the end.
- Fur Is Clothing: After the dragon is beaten up by Droopy, his scales shatter and break off like glass, leaving his thin, pink body exposed. He covers himself with the pieces of his broken hide and runs off into the horizon.
- Interspecies Romance: In the end, Droopy is married to the princess.
- Later-Installment Weirdness: The later Droopy shorts were done with Thick-Line Animation and Limited Animation as MGM went cheap near the end of its animation studio. Here, Droopy is drawn much more simply than in the earlier Tex Avery shorts.
- Mustache Vandalism: The dragon draws a mustache and beard on Droopy's picture of the princess. This is the Berserk Button that causes Droopy to flip out.
- No-Sell: The dragon is not bothered at all by the sword and mace that Droopy tries to fight him with.
- Perpetual Smiler: The princess never stops smiling.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: Once Droopy gets mad, he sure does kick the crap out of that dragon.
- The Remake: Many of the gags are recycled from 1949 short "Señor Droopy", in which Droopy and a wolf compete in a bullfight for the affections of Real Life actress Lina Romay.
- Rump Roast: The dragon breathes fire on the backflap of Spike's armor, causing him to do a Pain-Powered Leap.
- Squashed Flat: The dragon flattens Spike, turning his armor into a tin can. The dragon then opens the can, out of which pops out Spike.
- Standard Hero Reward: Ends with Droopy having won the princess.
- Storybook Opening: The short begins as a book telling the story of how a kingdom was terrorized by a dragon. In the end, Droopy is revealed to have been the one reading the book.
- That Makes Me Feel Angry: "You know what? That makes me mad." Droopy says this in the same monotone he always uses, prior to beating up the dragon.
- Thick-Line Animation: The whole short is drawn this way, a sign of the cheap Limited Animation of shorts made at the end of the MGM run.
- Tranquil Fury: Droopy remaining just as calm as always as he beats the snot out of the dragon.
