Out in the wildest regions of the Wild West, there is a small town which has one saloon where most of the paltry population congregate for a drink, a game of cards, a little music on the piano or some conversation with Esmeralda, the saloon girl. The only drawback is the two henchmen of the nearest land baron Cattivissimo who insist on intimidating anyone and everyone around, all because they are well aware there is nobody who can stand up to them. So when they sneak into the bar they stop the conversation and music just like that, take a drink or two then begin shooting up the place - isn't there anyone in the vicinity who can stop this menace?
There is, but you have to wait a while for him to appear, and even then he has a crisis of confidence to get over in this, the first feature from Italian master animator Bruno Bozzetto, who back in the mid-sixties when this was produced had some experience in making short cartoons but here was taking a gamble on coming up with enough ideas for a full length movie. At the time, Italy was rejoicing in a new wave of cinematic success, not simply in the field of its art films proving a hit around the world, but also its more populist efforts. The genre which was proving most accessible was the so-called Spaghetti Western thanks to the work of Sergio Leone and his contemporaries.
Like many Italians, Bozetto was a big fan of American pop culture and as a creative talent sought to replicate that style, only with a flavour of his own society and making a Western was the most obvious path to take seeing as how he and his cohorts were big fans. Thus they got to brainstorming all the jokes and parodies of the form they could, then hand-drawing the results for animating: there's a definite sketchy quality to the results, in the best way that was. West and Soda turned out to be much-loved in its native land, mainly because it became a seasonal staple on television, and Bozetto, whose most celebrated character would be Mr Rossi in a series of shorts, never looked back.
He made features starring Mr Rossi in the following decade, along with the film considered his masterpiece, Allegro non troppo, but where did that leave the considerably less ambitious Western spoof? In recognising the clichés often implemented to craft the average plot, with its land grabbing villains, black hats for the bad guys and white for the good, shootouts, desert landscapes, and so on this was always in danger of merely replicating what a majority of Westerns would do only with amusingly drawn characters acting them out, but enough self-awareness in what they were up to was instrumental in fashioning a tone of wacky humour coupled with highlighting how absurd the tropes so many were familiar with to result in something hard to dislike, even if you held those conventions dear.
The plot they came up with, or reheated out of various constituent parts if you prefer, saw farmer Clementina owning the only patch of fertile land in the area, not coincidentally the only place not owned by the conniving Cattavissimo, a state of affairs he wishes to remedy to his own satisfaction. He sends his henchmen to menace her in order to make it look as if he is actually a Good Samaritan who can protect her, which she and her animals - including a gold helmet-wearing dog, some chickens and three talking cows - see straight through right away. Not that this is any help, so step forward Johnny, our hero, to assist only he is not exactly the most cool, calm and collected of gunslingers and has to be encouraged by Clementina to spring into action. There follows a selection of often surreally humorous setpieces, full of personality in the way a cartoon created by a small bunch of like-minded people can be, and if the jokes were only fitfully laugh out loud material the goodwill generated was enough. Music by Giampiero Boneschi.
