This was another one of those Buddy cartoons developed at the Leon Schlesinger Studios for distribution by Warner Bros. after previous employees Hugh Harmon and Rudolf Ising took Bosko with them to M-G-M. As usual, Buddy is pretty bland here but at least we don't see him until the cartoon is nearly over. Instead, we're introduced to a Mad Doctor-type who's bored with just playing the piano by himself on the same dirge. So he kidnaps Buddy's girlfriend, Cookie, by hypnotizing her over the phone before making her play the same thing! Of course, Buddy saves the day...With so little emphasis on the title character, we get some nice atmospheric flavor of wind to set the tone which gets lightened whenever the dirge the Doctor prefers turns into a swing number whenever Cookie or a tree in the beginning plays on the piano! Buddy does provide some literal kick-ass moments near the end so compared to a few others I've seen that starred him, Buddy the Detective is quite a lively effort. So on that note, this cartoon is worth a look for any Warner completist out there.
