Hyde and Go Tweet

As the 60's approached it was evident that the original Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons were in their last days. MGM had shut its doors three years earlier in 1957 and released the last of their Droopy Dog and Tom and Jerry cartoons in 1958. Warner Bros. closed its animation department in 1964 thus ending the Golden Age of cartoons. The original Looney Tunes Theatrical series would last until 1969 with the shorts  produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (1964-1967) and Warner Bros.-Seven Arts (1967-1969).

In 1960 (May 14th to be exact) Warner Bros released Hyde and Go Tweet which offered a totally different take on Sylvester chasing Tweety. The story was written by Michael Maltese. It was directed by Friz Freleng and the voices of course belong to the legendary Mel Blanc. When watching this cartoon I can't help but think that Michael must have been looking for a different twist on the predator-prey relationship. Maybe he asked himself, How can we turn the tables on Sylvester and have him be the one who's getting chased?

If one stops and thinks about it the idea of Tweety falling into a bottle of liquid that turns him into a giant monster is loosely based on the 1946 Bugs Bunny short Hair-Raising Hare. At least in my mind it is! I can almost see Michael Maltese thinking to himself, remember when Bugs got chased by that big red monster way back in '46? Well, how about turning Tweety into a monster and having him chase Sylvester for a change? Of course, this is all hypothetical and I don't know if this was Michael's line of thinking or not.

One thing I do know is that Michael Maltese was never credited in the cartoon because he had left for Hanna-Barbera before its release.The reason why he left is unknown. Michael Maltese, was in my opinion (and many others too) one of the unsung heroes of animation, and  the best cartoon writer to emerge from the golden age period. (again that's my opinion). He understood that an inseparable connection existed between perennial antagonists like Tom and Jerry, Sylvester and Tweety, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam (or Elmer Fudd). One could not work without the other.

The whole idea behind this cartoon is pure genius. It’s the very literal inversion of the predator-prey relationship that really makes this cartoon tick—watching Sylvester get chased around by a giant bloodthirsty canary is not only funny, but really it's the whole idea from the name of the cartoon to the story itself. The bottom line is there will never be another Friz Freleng, Mel Blanc or Michael Maltese. These men had real talent and for a brief period in time we were lucky enough to have them share that talent with us.

Shifting gears a bit, it should be noted that the sensors did get their dirty hands on this cartoon. When this aired on ABC's The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show, Sylvester's line "I'll jump! I've got a choice?" between the parts of him looking down to the street and jumping off the window is muted out due to allusions of suicide. As far as I know it aired unedited on other networks, such as CBS and Cartoon Network. I've posted the unedited version here, so if you're feeling brave go ahead and watch it. For all you sensitive Democrats out there, you might want to pass on this one. I wouldn't want you to be scared for life.

I'm Young and Healthy

On January 12, 1933 Bing Crosby recorded a song called Young and Healthy. On March 4th, 1933 Warner Bros released the cartoon I'm Young and Healthy based around Mr. Crosby's song. I don 't feel like this cartoon was taking a shot at Bing Crosby as they did in later cartoons but it probably pissed ole Bing off just the same that they used his song.

As for the cartoon itself, I don't like cartoons from this era. No great characters and too much singing. It's difficult for me to talk about a cartoon like this because I don't get it. There's seem to be no point to many of the cartoons from this era. The king featured here is anything but young and sure as hell isn't healthy. In my world it doesn't make much sense to have some fat guy running around singing he's young and healthy.

With that being said, this was 1933 and Young and Healthy reached #45 on the hit music charts. What was considered entertainment in 1933 is considered nonsense by many today. Which more than likely explains why I don't get cartoons from this period.  I'll leave it at that and sign off for now. If you really feel the need to punish yourself you can watch this cartoon.

The Leghorn Blows at Midnight

I started this blog back in 2010 and I have never featured a cartoon with Foghorn Leghorn so I figure it's about time to do so. The Leghorn Blows at Midnight features not only Foghorn Leghorn but also Henry Hawk and Barnyard Dawg. The title is a play upon the 1945 Jack Benny film, The Horn Blows at Midnight.

Released on May 6th 1950, The Leghorn Blows at Midnight was the fifth of twenty-eight cartoons to feature Foghorn Leghorn. Foghorn was inspired by a character from the radio program The Fred Allen Show. The characters name was Senator Claghorn a blustery Southern politician played by Kenny Delmar. The rooster adopted many of Claghorn's catch phrases, such as "That's a joke, ah say, that's a joke, son." Delmar had based the character of Claghorn upon a Texas rancher who was fond of saying this.The leghorn is a breed of chicken and the foghorn describes his loud, overbearing voice.

Something that's a bit unusual for this cartoon is that Foghorn is not the initial instigator. Barnyard Dawg starts the trouble by approaching Foghorn from behind with two large crash cymbals, striking them together twice, once over Foghorn's head and the second time with Foghorn's head in between. In most of the other cartoons Foghorn is the instigator and Dawg the poor victim.

The Foghorn Leghorn cartoons were always a Saturday morning favorite of mine. I think it was the way Foghorn and Dawg fought with each other. It was usually a pretty even fight unlike Sylvester and Tweety or Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. A nice break from the one-sided battles that took place in the other cartoons.
It's really a shame that cartoons are not shown on Saturday mornings anymore. Replacing them with pointless drivel otherwise known as network news seems like a sin to me. The present and future generations will never know the joy of waking up on Saturday after a long week of school to watch your favorite characters battle it out. That's all for now. Enjoy this classic!

Uncle Tom's Bungalow

Uncle Tom's Bungalow was released on June 5, 1937. It is a parody of the book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" which was released in 1852. It is also a parody of the movie "Uncle Tom's Cabin" which was released in 1927. 

The cartoon features a white girl (Little Eva) and a black girl (Topsy) who rescue Uncle Tom from the clutches of greedy slave owner Simon Simon Legree (pronounced SeeMoan SeeMoan). 

Playing this cartoon for a gathering of your Democratic friends is probably not a good idea. There's so many politically incorrect bits in this cartoon that it's hard to keep track of them all. This cartoon goes where other no other Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoon ever went. There's a scene in the beginning where the characters are introduced and Little Eva says "I've got lace on my panties" and pulls up her dress. While I might be mistaken, I cannot remember seeing any Warner Brothers cartoon have a character do something remotely close to that. 

There's other scenes like releasing the hounds on Uncle Tom or Legree whipping Uncle Tom which are kind of over the top. Then again to some folks, the whole damn thing is over the top. It's amazing how much the world has changed. What was acceptable at the time of this cartoons release would give certain individuals a heart attack today. Whether it be smoking, racially intensive or just about anything really, they seem to take offense. Here's an Ad from the 1940's. 

Can you imagine if a magazine were to print this Ad today? CNN and MSN would throw a fit like no one has ever seen. It would definitely be the end of the world to those media outlets, but lets back on track. 


I've seen two versions of this cartoon out there in Internet Land. One was a black and white version and another was a colorized version posted on YouTube. The knucklehead who posted the colorized version on YouTube talked over the whole thing with pointless commentary. I downloaded the colorized version, muted the audio and synced it the audio from the black and white version. I posted it on YouTube and others have posted it on various sites.

Overall, the cartoon is OK. I wouldn't say it's great, but it does a good job of pulling of the parody of the book and movie. It goes without saying that this is one of the censored 11 and was banned from TV in 1968. Brief segments did appear in the 1989 VHS release "Cartoons for Big Kids".

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.