The House That Dinky Built (1925) User Reviews (2)

Walter Lantz' The House That Dinky Built was a rare find of a silent cartoon/live action short

[tavm · 6/10 · 28 August 2008]

This is one of those live action/animation hybrids made by Walter Lantz during the silent era when he was working for the J.R. Bray Studio. He stars in this with Dinky Doodles with his pet Weakheart (I'm not sure if he's a cat or dog here). After dodging and tossing bricks at Lantz, Doodles and Weakheart go to the cartoon world to help a girl milk a cow after accidentally emptying the bucket when they land in it. The way the cow is milked is by a Rube Goldberg-type device that was pretty clever as depicted here. Dinky then falls for the girl so Weakheart gets a preacher who marries them. After the three go back to Lantz' house, the newlyweds go to the dollhouse that was shown earlier and after they close the shades that house shakes revealing their first quarrel! When Lantz tries to cut in, Doodles and his wife says, "Leave us to our fights!" as the cartoonist gets hit hard with a cartoonish-like finish...While the animation was pretty primitive, The House That Dinky Built provided some amusement like that cow milking gag I alluded to that made this pretty entertaining. So on that note, this early Walter Lantz short is worth a look.

Interesting combination of live action and animation

[llltdesq · 7/10 · 24 September 2015]

This is a Dinky short directed by Walter Lantz for Bray. There will be spoilers ahead:

This is a silent short which combines live action sequences with animation incorporated. Dinky's no Koko, but the short is fairly good. Walter Lantz interacts with Dinky and his dog as they work to build a house for Dinky. Dinky and the dog are asleep as Lantz is trying to mix mortar to put a chimney on the house. Lantz gets soaked more than once.

Dinky and the dog get on the roof and Lantz begins tossing bricks coated with mortar to them so they can build the chimney. It doesn't go very well, as Lantz gets going too fast and they can't keep up. The dog gets hit by a brick and goes down the chimney. He throws a brick back at Lantz and he and Dinky get off the roof.

A riff on the verse, "The House That Jack Built" starts here as Dinky and the dog begin loading bags of malt into the house through a window. But there's a rat who eats the malt. The dog gets beat up by the rat-twice-and they cut out into an animated countryside, meeting a cow and a maid. Dinky and the dog milk the cow and Dinky falls for the maid.

The dog fetches a parson, who marries the couple. The trio goes back to Lantz to introduce the bride and the couple move into the house. The house begins moving erratically and Lantz looks inside to see the girl beating Dinky with a rolling pin. Lantz tries to intervene and the two turn on him, the girl throwing the rolling pin at Lantz and braining him. The end.

This short is worth watching.