Grin and Share It (1957) Poster

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8/10
50-50!
ccthemovieman-124 June 2007
Apparently, this signaled the end of the great Tex Avery directing these cartoons as Michael Lah is billed as the director. Following in Avery's footsteps is a brutal act to follow, but this animated short still had a bunch of good moments and was a good representation of Droopy and the type of cartoons we were used to seeing from Avery. This was an excellent debut for Lah. Overall, he directed a handful of these before calling it quits in 1958. Only a couple of his Droopy cartoons were really good, but this is one of them.

This story immediately has shades of the famous Humphrey Bogart film, "The Treasure Of Sierra Madre," as gold quickly brings greed to the forefront. Butch, Droopy's mining partner for years (according to this story) gives a quick speech about the value of being selfless partners.....until Droopy strikes gold. Then, we hear a different song: "It's all mine!" says the Irish-speaking big mutt.

Droopy reminds him about their "50-50" agreement. In fact, that's the name of their mine: the "50-50 Mine - Share Alike." Butch quickly pulls out a written agreement about the mine being 100 percent the owner of one of them in case of accidental death to the other. You know where he's going with that one. (He's tried this before.)

From that point, we get the familiar gags of Butch trying to kill poor Droopy but everything backfiring on him. One thing that was different in this "new" Droopy is the amount of dialog. Usually, there wasn't much, but there is quite a bit in here. Droopy talked more in here that probably all his previous cartoons combined
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6/10
A predictable Droopy story.
OllieSuave-0075 February 2018
Droopy and Butch strike gold in a mine, and instead of splitting 50/50, Butch wants to get rid of Droopy so he could have it all. Of course, either the adversary has bad aiming or just plain dumb, or Droopy is just downright lucky or too keen, nothing goes according to Butch's plan.

It's basically a very predictable Droopy cartoon and more of the same, though not on a very funny level. Not much laugh-out-loud moments.

Grade C
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7/10
Perhaps the most useful way to look at . . .
oscaralbert29 November 2018
Warning: Spoilers
. . . GRIN AND SHARE IT is as a quick course in American Capitalism 101. Corrupt corporate predator "Butch" proves that contracts are not worth the paper on which they're written. (Since GRIN AND SHARE IT was widely seen the exact year in which the Current White House Occupant formed his "moral character," studying this animated short is much more than a mere "academic exercise": Butch tells 29 outright lies in the six and a half minutes of this brief cartoon, which reflects the well-documented falsehood-to-waking moments ratio of the present U.S. Liar-in-Chief, who happened to set several world records himself for broken contracts on his crooked path--following in Butch's footsteps--to the Oval Office.) GRIN AND SHARE IT suggests Dark Shadows may be enveloping our beleaguered POTUS as ALL of Butch's plots against representative U.S. Citizen "Droopy" backfire upon himself. In quick succession Butch is crushed by a boulder, beheaded by a cannonball, fatally poisoned, and blasted apart by dynamite--THREE TIMES! Is it too much to hope that Life will once again imitate Art?
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7/10
standard Droopy
SnoopyStyle4 May 2024
Butch and Droopy are 50/50 partners in a gold mine. They've been digging for twenty years and not a bit of gold. Out of nowhere, Droopy hits a large gold deposit. Butch intends to take it all after getting Droopy to sign a new agreement. A partner's death leaves the gold mine to the other partner.

It is a standard simple Droopy story where he comes out on top despite being the less aggressive and energetic character. It is directed by Michael Lah in CinemaScope. I am not completely in love with this design of Droopy. I like him chubbier and droopier. This design is a bit too skinny. Otherwise, I like this as most Droopy cartoons.
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7/10
He Who Laughs Last
Hitchcoc27 November 2018
I always liked Droopy when he appeared at our local theater in the 50's. He is the milquetoast character that really doesn't do much and always comes out on top. He an Butch have worked a mine for 20 years with the idea that if they strike it rich they will share the money fifty-fifty. Of course, when they do, Butch forgets everything good and wants it all to himself. What ensues are a series of efforts to kill Droopy which, of course, backfire.
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8/10
As the Good Book says, "Gold is the root of All . . . "
tadpole-596-91825621 July 2022
Warning: Spoilers
" . . . Evil," whether it's the toilet seats and escalators in your namesake tower, or within the prospector mine of GRIN AND SHARE IT. Butch, a documented ancestor of America's penultimate Commander-in-Chief, tries to liquidate his business partner Droopy in at least half a dozen ways, including death by boulder, by cannon, by poison and thrice by dynamite. Notice that NONE of these assassination attempts involve a firearm or 5th Ave. Nor do any of them result in a golden coffin being carried out of a Roman sects cult hideout. Perhaps such lack of attention being paid to the basics of THE ART OF THE STEAL are the reason that Butch's high crimes and misdemeanors fall so far short of the bar.
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8/10
Gold mine trouble with Butch and Droopy
TheLittleSongbird11 October 2017
Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.

Michael Lah makes his solo-director (having co-directed with Tex Avery on 'Deputy Droopy') debut for a Droopy cartoon, one of the two most notable assets for 'Grin and Share It'. The other being that it's produced in Cinemascope. And it's a very good one and of Lah's six solo-directed it's one of his better ones. It does lack Avery's unique visual style, creativity and wild wackiness but it is still very enjoyable and surprisingly well made, even if at times a little unimaginative in the backgrounds and the story being pretty predictable.

Droopy's personality continues to be very well established and he is very high on the humour and charisma factors. Butch is a great foil, both formidable and entertaining with great comic timing. It is clear who gets the worst of it and who gets the upper hand, but the chemistry between the two is nonetheless golden.

Animation is not as good as Avery's but is at least well drawn and there is some clever use of Cinemascope. A lot of the gags and humour, while not hilarious or original, are still very funny and very well-timed and the dialogue, in a cartoon more dialogue heavy to the usual Droopy cartoon, is very witty.

The voice acting is hard to fault from Bill Thompson. Best of all is the music score. The music, courtesy of Scott Bradley, is lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms and fits very well indeed.

In conclusion, very good and enjoyable, one of Lah's better Droopy cartoons. 8/10 Bethany Cox
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5/10
Effectively, MGM Traded Tex Avery For Homer Brightman
boblipton4 May 2024
In this MGM cartoon written by Homer Brightman and directed by Michael Lah, Droopy and Butch are a pair of gold miners. They have never struck paydirt, until today. Now, instead of the share-and-share-alike bonhomie they showed under hardship, Butch wants all the gold, and tries to kill Droopy in various ways. All of which fail, of course.

I'm not sure how Homer Brightman came to write this; his home turf was Walter Lantz' cartoon factory. However, the gags average pretty poor, although there is one excellent one. Nether does the cheap design and execution of the visuals please me.

It was, of course, not really the fault of the cartoon makers; budgets had plummeted so much that they couldn't do good work. But that doesn't make this cartoon any better.
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