Boom Boom

It has been a very long time since I've posted so the way I see it I'm long overdue. Today we're gonna leap  back to February 29th, 1936 (pun intended) when Warner Brothers released Boom Boom starring Bean the Cat and Porky Pig.

Beans the Cat was the third Looney Tunes cartoon character star after Bosko and Buddy. He was created by Leon Schlesinger. Beans is most likely modeled after Waffles, a feline from the Van Beuren Studio, as both characters are black-furred cats in overalls.

Beans made his first appearance in the 1935's I Haven't Got A Hat, along with Porky Pig who would have a much longer run in the series. He then made a cameo in The Country Mouse, another Merrie Melodies release that year.

Finally, six months following his debut film, Beans starred in A Cartoonist Nightmare which would be his first solo cartoon, followed by Hollywood Capers. Beans then began appearing with characters from the cast of I Haven't Got a Hat.

Featured on screen in only a couple of years, Beans appeared in just 9 shorts. His swan song was Westward WHOA in 1936. Before being retired completely, he made a brief appearance in Plane Dippy.
Beans was voiced at first by Billy Bletcher and sometimes by Tommy Bond.

Porky Pig's first appearence was also in I Haven't Got A Hat, but unlike Beans the Cat, Porky would go on to be the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power. While Beans appeared in only 9 shorts, Porky appeared in 153.

Porky was designed by animator Bob Clampett and named after animation director Friz Freleng's childhood friends who were nicknamed Porky and Piggy. Porky was first voiced by Joe Dougherty, who actually did have a stuttering problem. Because Dougherty could not control his stutter, however, production costs became too high as his recording sessions took hours. Mel Blanc became the voice of Porky in 1937 and carried on the stutter although to a much lesser extent. 

As I was watching this short I wondered why did Porky become such a success while Beans met his demise after just 9 cartoons. The Porky we see in the short Boom Boom is not the Porky everyone came to love. Porky was developed over time. Beans never developed into anything and I'm guessing the animators felt it wasn't worth the effort to develop Beans. To be honest they were right. There's just nothing that stands out about Beans. Porky had the stutter but he needed time to be developed and be drawn correctly. The early versions of Porky aren't very good in my humble opinion.

                                  
Seeing that it is Easter weekend what better way to celebrate then by posting the short Easter Yeggs. This short was originally released on June 28, 1947. The title is a play on "Easter eggs" and on "yegg", a slang term for a burglar or safecracker.

This was the 500th cartoon short released by Warner Bros.: they would release exactly 500 more after this.

The cartoon starts out with Bugs finding the "Easter Rabbit" sitting on a rock crying. I'm not sure why he is called the "Easter Rabbit" instead of the "Easter Bunny" but the name doesn't change throughout the entire short. This is one of those times were Bugs good nature gets him suckered into something he ends up not wanting to do.

The Easter Rabbit takes advantage of Bugs and suckers him into delivering Easter eggs because his feet are sore. In reality the Easter Rabbit does this sort of thing every year so he doesn't have to deliver the eggs.

The first house the bugs visits belongs to the dead end kid, a mean little red-haired kid who throws an egg at Bugs' face, bites him in the leg and beats Bugs up before body slamming him on the floor. Bugs loses his cool and grabs the kid's arm. Unfortunately, Dead End Kid screams and three huge thugs rush in on Bugs while aiming guns at him. Bugs barely escapes the hail of bullets. When Bugs rushes back to the Easter Bunny telling him he quits, the Easter Bunny gets him to "try once more".

From there, Bugs pays a visit to Elmer Fudd and the cartoon turns to the usual Bugs/Elmer antics. I can honestly say I can't remember Elmer's face turning a bright a red as it does in this cartoon when Bugs does something to make him mad. He looks like juicy red tomato.

Anyway enjoy the short and Happy Easter to all! 

Quack Shot

Quack Shot was released on October 30th 1954 and features Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd in a dispute over Elmer hunting ducks and Daffy trying to prevent him from doing so. Elmer Fudd had many classic battles with Bugs Bunny but with that being said he also had his share of battles with Daffy Duck. The only difference is Daffy tricks usually ended up back firing on him were as Bugs was usually successful in his attempts to frustrate Elmer in his hunting adventures.

Quack Shot opens with Elmer Fudd duck hunting at a lake when he shoots a young duckling which falls into his boat. As Elmer examines it, Daffy Duck pops out of the water and grabs the duckling from Elmer. Daffy then bandages the duckling and places it into the lake. Daffy then warns Elmer "If you sthhoot one more duck, justht one more duck, you will be in trouble!!" Elmer then proceeds to shoot Daffy at point-blank range, which removes Daffy's scalp. 

Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips

In 1944 the United States was at war with (among others) The Empire of Japan. This cartoon reflects the United States attitude towards Japan at that time. The cartoon's title is a play on the verb "nip" as in "bite" and "Nip", a then-widely used slur for Japanese people, based on the fact that the Japanese word for "Japan" is "Nippon".

This cartoon is so full of racial slurs and racial stereo types that it could drive the politically correct to the brink of insanity. Which may or may not be a bad thing depending on your point of view. While I wouldn't sit down and watch this with my Asian friends (for fear of offending them) I do understand that this short was made during a different era. Japan committed an act of terror against our country, the politically correct didn't exist, and the whole countries attitude was "lets get these guys". 

It should be noted that this cartoon was not one of the censored 11 and was  occasionally shown on TV in syndicated package's. It was however one of the 12 cartoons pulled from Cartoon Network's June Bugs 2001 marathon by order of AOL Time Warner due to stereotypes of Japanese people. In reality, AOL knows that people of Asian decent spend money on their products too and there is no way hell they would be willing risk offending customers and losing all that money over some cartoon.

Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips debuted on home video in December 1991 on the first Golden Age of Looney Tunes collection. The niche market format did not cause a stir, but when the 5 disc set was later issued in the more accessible VHS format on 10 separate tapes, Japanese rights groups protested its distribution, and both releases were withdrawn. Reissues for both formats replaced the cartoon with Racketeer Rabbit. The VHS reissue combined volumes 4 and 7 of the 10 tape set.

Hare Force

Although the title is an obvious play on Air Force, this cartoon's plot has nothing to do with the military. Hare Force may not be appropriately named but it is indeed a classic.

On a cold and snowy night, Bugs is stuck outside looking for a warm place to rest his head. Granny has just tucked Sylvester her dog in for the night when she hears a knock at the door. She opens it and sees a half-frozen Bugs Bunny, who is exaggerating his sorry plight for effect. Bugs manages to wangle his way into the good graces, and more importantly, the house, belonging to the old lady. Granny lets Bugs sleep right next to Sylvester in front of the fireplace and even though Granny tells Sylvester to be nice to the bunny, Sylvester takes an instant dislike to Bugs. As soon as she leaves the jealous dog throws Bugs back out in the cold. Bugs plays on the dog's pity to get back in but can't resist a dirty trick and Bugs and Sylvester take turns throwing each other out into the night.  Finally they get into a schtick where they are each throwing the other out the front door in turn, in quick succession. The old lady, fed up with all the bickering by now, intervenes (out of frame) and tells them both to get out, when suddenly she is thrown out, startled and indignant. Bugs and the dog have made peace, and are lazing by the fire. Bugs turns to the audience and says, in typical fashion, "Gee, ain't I a stinker?"

The version of this cartoon that aired on TBS cut the part where as Sylvester the Dog is sobbing over melting the snowman likeness of Bugs, believing he killed him. Bugs says to Sylvester, "You're really in a jam now, Doc. It's the hot seat for you, sure."

    

 

The Penguin Parade

In 1938 most of the Looney Tunes popular characters either hadn't been created, were on the verge of being created, or were in their infancy. Through out the 1930's the shorts relied heavily upon music because they had only a few strong characters.

The Penguin Parade is story about the grand opening of a nightclub called The Club Iceberg. All the local penguins show up to drink and dance to jazz music. First up we have the penguin's version of Bing Crosby crooning "When My Dreamboat Comes Home" before his backup trio belts out a hot "scat" chorus. Fats Walrus coolly riffs out his hot piano solo.

The music track is as important as the animation in The Penguin Parade. Songwriter Byron Gay appropriately composed the words and music - while Carl Stalling's handiwork burns up the soundtrack.
Unfornately, I wasn't able to find a print of this short without the "Cartoon Network" logo on it.      

Cat - Tails for Two

Today's post is another Robert Mckimson directed cartoon. Cat - Tails for Two was released in 1953 and marked the debut of Speedy Gonzales. This early Speedy was a meaner, skinnier, rattier-looking creation with a sizable gold front tooth. Speedy would get a complete overhaul in 1955 and go on to star or be featured in 45 more cartoons. Later on, this original version of Speedy is used as an unnamed background character a couple of times.

The name Speedy Gonzales derives from a joke about a Mexican man nicknamed "Speedy" either because of his premature ejaculation or quick copulation, though the name of the character was not intended to be derogatory. One thing to note is that Speedy's last name was given as Gonzalez in Cat - Tails for Two. It ended with an S in all of his other cartoons.

Cat-Tails featured Speedy outwitting a smart-and-stupid pair of cats named George and Benny aboard a ship. Later on Sylvester the cat would be Speedy's main rival.

Unfortunately our friend Speedy has suffered from censorship. In 1999, the Cartoon Network ceased to air Speedy Gonzales. In an interview with Fox News on March 28, 2002, Cartoon Network spokeswoman Laurie Goldberg commented, "It hasn't been on the air for years because of its ethnic stereotypes." This is widely believed to refer to Speedy's fellow mice, who are all shown as being very slow and lazy, and sometimes even appear intoxicated. However, fan campaigns to put Speedy back on the air and lobbying by the League of United Latin American Citizens saw the shorts return to air from 2002.

Speedy Gonzales remains a very popular character in Latin America. In Mexico, the Speedy Gonzales show has been on and off part of the regular programing of Televisa's Canal 5 national channel ever since it was created.