One Cab's Family
One Cab's Family is a 1952 Metro Goldwyn Mayer cartoon short directed by Tex Avery about the arrival of a yellow taxi cab "child". This is comparable to the 1953 cartoon, Little Johnny Jet. The title is a play on the radio soap opera program One Man's Family.
Synopsis
A yellow taxi father, John, awaits the arrival of his new son, who looks just like him. Within his first few months, he is fed, changed, learns to "walk", gets his first "tooth" (a spark plug), etc.
When his mother, Mary, a blue cab, mentions to him that he's going to grow up to be a taxi cab like his father, he shakes his head, then turns on the television to show an auto race, indicating that that's what he wants to be. This gets him sent to his room, where he basically goes about converting himself into a hot rod convertible. He comes out and zooms around the room, stopping in front of John, who, in disgust, checks out everything on him, then spanks him (by opening his trunk, exposing his bare buttocks) and sends him back to his room, demanding he go back to his taxi persona.
Instead, he sneaks out of his window, fuels up with high octane gas, then goes zooming all around town, spooking everything in his way. John chases after him, but can't seem to catch him, however, he gets his second wind when he sees Junior racing alongside a train, playing chicken with it. After another chase, John runs out of gas, right on the railroad track. Junior then zooms back and pushes him off the tracks, only to wind up there himself when the train zooms by.
The next scene is at an auto repair garage, where Junior is being worked on like he's in surgery while John waits outside in tears (which are cleared away with his windshield wipers). The "doctor" comes out to tell him Junior will be just fine, then after he comforts him, is taken back out to make the decision of whether he wants Junior as a taxi cab or hot rod. John decides, due to Junior getting old enough to do so and for saving his life, to let him decide. He is stunned when Junior comes out as a taxi cab, but after they start rolling again, Junior winks at us and opens his hood to show the hot rod engine.