Original release date: August 22, 1936

Rating: TV-Y7 due to comical violence and “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: seven fightin’ minutes

Background: “Toby Tortoise Returns,” as the name suggests, is a sequel to an early short starring Toby. In this case, it is the Silly Symphony “The Tortoise and the Hare.”

In addition to Toby and his hare nemesis Max Hare, other Silly Symphony stars such as the three little pigs and Big Bad Wolf appear.

Review:

We start immediately with the beginning of a boxing match between Toby and Max, the crowd cheering Max and laughing at Toby despite their history. They have drawn quite the crowd, so I hope they both pocketed some money from the promoter.

Max takes some early shots at the back of Toby’s head, followed by more to the front as the rabbits running the ambulance wonder if they need to offer help. Max takes a break to flirt with the same trio of bunnies from the first short before continuing to pound poor Toby.

Toby gets thrown out of the ring into the lap of Jenny Wren, a vixen of a sparrow from a Silly Symphony not yet on Disney+.

We take a break in between rounds as Max smokes a cigar and Toby aches. The bell rings and round two begins, Toby retreating inside his shell as Max does some Taz-level spinning. Toby decides to start taunting Max, saying “you’ll never catch me.”

This riles up Max, who reaches in to catch his hand on a mousetrap. He tries pouring water into the shell which, you know, isn’t going to bother a turtle. A bystander gives Max a box of fireworks, which doesn’t seem easy to bring into a sporting event. Max lights one up and throws it in the shell, which blows Toby to the sky and then back down to land some surprise assisted blows on Max. As you’d probably think, the fireworks continue to work for Toby, helping him land a win over Max.

I didn’t see anything culturally crazy. There are several instances of cigar smoking which probably wouldn’t make the cut in 2019.

Extras:

Nothing.

Should you watch it?

Meh. It’s okay but nothing worth really watching. Let’s say skip it.