Western Animation / Northwest Hounded Police

Just one of Wolfie's many wild takes.

Northwest Hounded Police is a 1946 MGM Tex Avery short, starring Droopy, or Sgt. McPoodle, as he's called here.

The plot of the short is centered on Tex's recurring Wolf character, who has escaped from Alka-Fizz Prison and into the Canadian wilderness. Droopy of the North West Mounted Police is the only "volunteer" who will track him down. The rest of the short is spent on the wolf trying to escape Droopy, to no avail. Because it's a Tex Avery short, Hilarity Ensues.

It's essentially a Denser and Wackier remake of the very first Droopy cartoon, 1943's Dumb-Hounded.

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Tropes Used In This Short:

• Artistic License – Geography: The maps of the United States and Canada we see aren't anywhere near accurate. Especially egregious is the fact that it looks like San Francisco has been placed way up north, around where Seattle would be in the real world.
• Bedsheet Ladder: Used by the wolf to scale the prison walls.
• Behind a Stick: Parodied. After one of the Wolf's escape montages ends with him on a tiny island large enough for him, a rock and a pebble:
  Wolf: (to the camera, snarkily) Yeah, I know. (points to the rock) He'll probably be right under that rock.
  Droopy: (emerging from beneath the pebble that's smaller than his hat) Nope, under this one.
  Wolf: (has nervous breakdown) Oh no! No no no no no! Not that please! (Bashing his head with the rock) No no no no no no!
• Born in the Theatre: Wolfie nearly runs off the very film on which the short was printed. Then he runs into a movie theater and watches the beginning of an MGM animated short, which turns out to be Droopy stalking him again.
  Droopy: Hello, Joe.
• Burma-Shave: This is how Wolfie learns about Sergeant McPoodle:
  Don't look now
  Use your noodle
  You're being followed
  By Sergeant McPoodle
• The Cat Came Back: When Droopy isn't doing flat-out Offscreen Teleportation.
• Crazy-Prepared: Droopy has to be a master of psychology to be able to figure out where Wolfie's gone to next.
• Driven to Suicide: "That's the last straw. I give up — I'm gonna throw myself to the lions!" And the wolf jumps into a lion's stomach, only to find...
  Droopy: Crowded, isn't it?
• Exaggerated Trope: At the end of the short, the Twin Switch rationalization for Offscreen Teleportation is expanded to a whole platoon of Droopys.
• "Far Side" Island: The wolf parachutes out of an airplane onto a very small island.
• Got Volunteered: How Droopy is selected for the mission, due to everyone else stepping backwards.
• Institutional Apparel: The Wolf's old-school black-and-white striped uniform.
• Jaw Drop: One of Wolfie's wild takes has his lower jaw hit the ground.
• Magic Plastic Surgery: Wolfie goes to a plastic surgeon to get a new face. After a few seconds of surgery (which involved hammering and sawing), the convict has a new face —that of Droopy. He asks the doctor to change it back and he does. He thanks the doctor—who turns out to be Droopy.
• Metafictional Device: While rounding a corner, the wolf runs off the edge of the film frame, past the sprocket holes, into the white space beyond, and back onto the film.
• Mind Screw: Part and parcel with the medium, but in particular is when Droopy threw the snowball that he was inside. Then again, one of his clones might have thrown it.
• Moose and Maple Syrup: Most of this short takes place in Canada.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Averted. Those are all just Droopy's lookalike comrades helping him out to catch the wolf.
• Punbased Title: On North West Mounted Police.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": The wolf does this when Droopy pops out from under a smaller rock instead of the larger rock he thought he was going to pop out from. Later, he does this again upon seeing that the plastic surgeon made his face look like Droopy's.
• Remake: This short is a remake of Droopy's debut, "Dumb-Hounded."
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Wolfie at a few points, such as when he finds out that it was Droopy who threw the snowball (see image at top).
• Shout-Out: The title is a reference to the 1940 Cecil B. DeMille movie North West Mounted Police.
• Soft Water: Wolfie dives from a nest at the top of a cliff into a lake far below and is completely unharmed.
• Stock Scream: The famous "Tom scream", best known from the Tom and Jerry shorts, is utilized at least once by the Wolf.
• Tempting Fate: Wolfie once he climbs up and hides in a bird's nest.
  Wolfie: He'll never find me here. I'll bet a million bucks he won't.
  Droopy: (pops out of the nearby egg, holding a wad of cash) You're covered, Joe.
• Travel Montage: The old 'traveling dot on the map' variation.
• Twist Ending: Droopy wasn't offscreen teleporting—those were all his identical comrades helping him out.
• Wartime Cartoon: In the original version of the cartoon, the reward for the capture of the Wolf is $1.49, as set by the Office of Price Administration (which fixed the prices of items during World War II). When the cartoon was reissued, the OPA had been disbanded, and the reference to it was removed from the Wolf's wanted poster.
• Wild Take: Pretty much half the cartoon. Some of the most over-the-top wild takes in any Avery cartoon.

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