I Wanna Be a Sailor


I Wanna Be a Sailor is a 1937 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon film directed by Tex Avery. The short was released on September 25, 1937.

Plot

A mother parrot in a cage is teaching her three children to say, "Polly want a cracker." The first two kids, Patrick and Patricia, manage after some effort, but Peter boldly refuses. Pointing at a framed photo of his dad, he states, "I don't want a cracker! I wanna be a sailor, like me pop." His mother immediately begins deriding her husband, telling Peter that right after he and his siblings were born, their dad left for Hawaii. She tells her son, "I used to burn a little light in the window", hoping for his dad's return, but he never came back.
Nonetheless, Peter stubbornly stomps off to become a sailor. He bumps into a barrel, from which he builds a ship with a red pajama for a sail and a skull-and-crossbones label from a poison bottle for a Jolly Roger flag. He joins forces with an annoyingly loquacious duck, and the two set sail on the lake—Peter as captain, the duck as deck-swab. They eventually run into trouble in a thunderstorm and end up overboard. Peter calls out for his "Momma", who comes running, but the duck has already saved him. Despite it all, Peter still wants to be a sailor, causing his mother to faint.

Voice cast

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