The dog house is a classic cartoon symbol of imagination and creative thinking in the Peanuts comic strip. With its bright red roof amidst the world of black and white, it is an instantly recognizable icon that beckons readers to enter. Inside, it is a spacious and magical place that defies the laws of physics, offering limitless possibilities for imaginative flights of fancy.
One of the earliest animated depictions of a dog house is Winsor McCay’s 1939 cartoon Gertie the Dinosaur. This cartoon, along with the more famous Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, used hallucinogenic imagery to explore the subconscious mind. The resulting images have come to represent the doghouse as an iconic symbol of the subconscious and the endless possibilities it offers.
Later, the Ruby-Spears cartoon series Doghouse featured a similar concept. Millionaire Brandon Brewster uses a machine to shrink himself down to a few inches in height and give himself superhero powers such as super-strength, flight and x-ray vision; his sidekick is Yukk, the world’s ugliest dog who hides his face by wearing a miniature doghouse on his head (the sight of his own face destroys whatever it touches).
This cartoon marks the first time Tom’s owner Mammy Two Shoes has appeared onscreen since Downhearted Duckling; from this point until the end of the series, she only appears off-screen. The short also features recycled animation from the 1952 cartoon Love That Pup. Local syndication stations sometimes cut the scene where Spike appears in sunflower blackface, but it remains to air uncensored on both Cartoon Network and Boomerang.