I found out on social media today that voice actor, Joe Alaskey, has died at the age of 63 from cancer. Children of the 1980s (including myself) may recall Alaskey from a couple of programs that aired in syndication.
First off he appeared as the on-camera announcer/next-door neighbor on a syndicated television trivia game show titled Couch Potatoes. In a clever use of the on-camera announcer role Alaskey appeared in a living room set positioned next to the main set. Marc Summers, later of Double Dare fame on Nickelodeon, hosted Couch Potatoes. This series debuted on January 23, 1989 and aired it's final first-run episode on June 19, 1989. A daily series it amassed 100 episodes and it remained in local syndication (in reruns) until September 1989...after which it jumped to cable's USA Network and reruns aired during that channel's game show block of programming from September 11, 1989 to March 23, 1990. Alaskey departed the series near the end of the syndicated run and in his place came actor/game show emcee, Jim McKrell. Even though McKrell had a highly visible career on television and in movies he wasn't an on-camera announcer for Couch Potatoes as Joe Alaskey happened to be.
A sitcom titled Out of this World aired in syndication for four seasons (1987-1991) and a total of 96 episodes. Joe Alaskey appeared in the series as Beano Froelich starting with it's 1987 debut until the middle of Season Four in 1990 (appearing in more than 80 of the series 96 episodes). According to on-line sites Alaskey's final episode is "Marlowe Vice" (Season 4, episode 12).
It is during this time period (fall 1990) that Alaskey became more involved in voice acting for cartoons. Tiny Toon Adventures, debuting in September 1990, provided Alaskey the opportunity to originate the voice of Plucky Duck. The character is based on iconic Looney Tunes character, Daffy Duck, which Alaskey also eventually voiced following the 1989 death of Mel Blanc.
The decade of the 1990s had Alaskey providing a staggering amount of voices for all kinds of animated projects. Given my preference for a lot of classic cartoons I tended to gravitate more toward his contributions to the Looney Tunes legacy. Alaskey, more than any other, could replicate the iconic vocalizations of Mel Blanc. That is the reason I applaud the Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries series so much. Alaskey voiced both Sylvester and Tweety plus other roles. The other main cast of vocal performers included June Foray as Granny and Frank Welker as Hector. Given Joe, June, and Frank's vocal abilities they often voiced a large number of other characters, too, in addition to their main roles. Those familiar with the Nickelodeon series, Rugrats, Alaskey became the second voice of the grandfather character (Lou Pickles) starting in 1997 and lasting into the next decade.
Chuck Jones fans may recall a video series titled Timberwolf. Well, Joe Alaskey provided the voice of Thomas Timberwolf in the thirteen episode 2001 series (the last project released during Chuck's lifetime). Alaskey's next big series arrived in 2003...the entertaining Duck Dodgers...featuring contemporary exploits and adventures of the fictional Duck Dodgers (Daffy Duck), Eager Young Space Cadet (Porky Pig), and Martian Commander (Marvin the Martian). All these characters are based on a classic Merrie Melodies short titled Duck Dodgers and The 24th and a Half Century. The short, directed by Chuck Jones and released on July 25th 1953, had by 2003 become one of the signature, iconic cartoons in Warner Brothers history.
The television series more or less is an extension of the 1953 short including the debut of a new character, Martian Queen. Tom Jones performed the theme song. In 2004 Alaskey won a Daytime Emmy award for his vocal performance as Duck Dodgers.
In the latter half of the decade Alaskey kept busy providing voices on various video games and on a revival of the Rugrats franchise. During the last 5 years or so he participated in a series of Tom and Jerry direct-to-video projects (issued on DVD or Blu-Ray) but oddly enough he wasn't cast in the most recent revival of the Looney Tunes...more specifically, The Looney Tunes Show. The roles of Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Sylvester and Tweety all went to Jeff Bergman even though the other voice actors and voice actresses returned to their primary Looney Tunes roles: Bob Bergen as Porky Pig, June Foray as Granny, Jim Cummings as the Tasmanian Devil, Billy West as Elmer Fudd, and Maurice LaMarche as Yosemite Sam. That particular series ran a couple of seasons (2011-2014). I'm sure if I looked through Google archives I could find articles surrounding Alaskey's non-participation but I'm not going to...probably not for awhile. His most recent work centered around the series, Murder Comes to Town. Airing on niche station Investigation Discovery Channel since January of 2014, Joe Alaskey was the narrator of the series...causing a lot of viewers to praise the similarity in narration to that of the late Paul Winfield (narrator of a similar series, City Confidential).
Joe Alaskey: April 17, 1952 - February 3, 2016.
Showing posts with label daffy duck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label daffy duck. Show all posts
Thursday, February 4, 2016
Monday, February 3, 2014
Tex Avery Day 2-22-14
I just came across this article from the famed animation site, Cartoon Brew. It's an article about an upcoming celebration to Tex Avery later this month in Taylor, Texas. You can read about it HERE. The event is called Tex Avery Day and it'll be held on February 22, 2014. The article has a publish date of January 31, 2014 and so it's just a couple days old. The article also gives specifics about the venue, etc. etc.
Tex Avery's name is associated with some of the biggest characters in animation history: Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, BUGS BUNNY, and later on, Droopy. His career has been much ritten about through the years and you owe it to yourselves to look up his cartoons and be entertained in his unique style. His legend is rooted in the Warner Brothers theatrical cartoons but many have argued that his lasting legacy are the zany, wild, and exaggerated cartoons he directed for MGM. The cartoons he did for MGM include dozens of Droopy adventures...also there happened to be a series of cartoons starring a character named Screwy Squirrel and then there are the George and Lenny spoofs (titled George and Junior) that appeared in several of his MGM cartoons. In addition to those recurring characters Tex also brought us one shot cartoons that parodied or spoofed pop culture and fads and featured no recurring character at all. One of those kinds of cartoons is below...
Crazy Mixed-Up Pup comes from Tex's days at the Walter Lantz studio. It features vocal work from the legendary Daws Butler. The story is a funny scenario of a man and a dog changing personalities and the chaos that comes along as a result. The dog looks a little like the future Doggy Daddy of Hanna-Barbera fame.
One Ham's Family is a Christmas cartoon starring a pig family and it parodies a couple of things. The focal point, Junior, is a spoof of the Red Skelton radio character of the same name (note the crop of red hair on the pig's head). Meanwhile, the father's voice could very well be Andy Devine or an impression. Third, a wolf (dressed as Santa Claus) comes complete with a vocal that spoofs The Great Gildersleeve's famed giggle/laughter. The title of the cartoon is a pun of a real series, One Man's Family.
Don't forget...if you're in the area on February 22 go and experience the Tex Avery festivities taking place in Taylor, Texas. The link is in the first paragraph of the blog entry.
Fred "Tex" Avery: February 26, 1908 - August 26, 1980.
Tex Avery's name is associated with some of the biggest characters in animation history: Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, BUGS BUNNY, and later on, Droopy. His career has been much ritten about through the years and you owe it to yourselves to look up his cartoons and be entertained in his unique style. His legend is rooted in the Warner Brothers theatrical cartoons but many have argued that his lasting legacy are the zany, wild, and exaggerated cartoons he directed for MGM. The cartoons he did for MGM include dozens of Droopy adventures...also there happened to be a series of cartoons starring a character named Screwy Squirrel and then there are the George and Lenny spoofs (titled George and Junior) that appeared in several of his MGM cartoons. In addition to those recurring characters Tex also brought us one shot cartoons that parodied or spoofed pop culture and fads and featured no recurring character at all. One of those kinds of cartoons is below...
Crazy Mixed-Up Pup comes from Tex's days at the Walter Lantz studio. It features vocal work from the legendary Daws Butler. The story is a funny scenario of a man and a dog changing personalities and the chaos that comes along as a result. The dog looks a little like the future Doggy Daddy of Hanna-Barbera fame.
One Ham's Family is a Christmas cartoon starring a pig family and it parodies a couple of things. The focal point, Junior, is a spoof of the Red Skelton radio character of the same name (note the crop of red hair on the pig's head). Meanwhile, the father's voice could very well be Andy Devine or an impression. Third, a wolf (dressed as Santa Claus) comes complete with a vocal that spoofs The Great Gildersleeve's famed giggle/laughter. The title of the cartoon is a pun of a real series, One Man's Family.
Don't forget...if you're in the area on February 22 go and experience the Tex Avery festivities taking place in Taylor, Texas. The link is in the first paragraph of the blog entry.
Fred "Tex" Avery: February 26, 1908 - August 26, 1980.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Looney Tunes: Golden Collection, Volume Four
The Golden Collection in my opinion is a fascinating series of DVD's spotlighting the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. I personally own almost all of the volumes that were released. I still need to grab the later volumes and I shall do that one of these days. One of the things that I liked about the series was the extra's. I think I've played and re-played and re-re-played several of those "Behind The Tunes" segments. The history that's presented and the comments from those who were there or those who are part of the cartoon world today are captivating.
Volume Four contains 4 discs.
The critically maligned Bugs Bunny Superstar documentary, from 1975, is broken into two parts on Disc 1 and Disc 2. I happen to like the documentary, if for the only reason, is that I love seeing the clips of the directors/animators from a point in time where their cartoons, although airing on TV for kids, hadn't really experienced the fame and glory that was to come as younger people became more and more fascinated with the whole body of Warner Brothers cartoons and the directors became, in the minds of fans, almost God-like. Orson Welles narrates the documentary. It contains footage of Bob Clampett speaking, often at length, about the characters. Historians and his contemporaries often pointed out that Clampett assumed credit for creating characters that he factually had no creative input on, other than animating or directing the characters. He did create characters. Tweety, for example, was a significant contribution, but the character was redesigned and toned down by Friz Freleng several years later and Tweety became synonymous with Freleng ever since. Freleng teamed Tweety with Sylvester, a character created by Freleng, and a star duo was born.
Each cartoon director that went through the studio and had any considerable time-span has their 'followers' even today. There's the fans of the wild, zany cartoons epitomized in the works of Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Norm McCabe, and Robert McKimson. Frank Tashlin's cartoons have a live-action flavor. I was not familiar with his cartoons due to how they rarely, if ever, played on TV and so I learned quite a lot about him in this Volume...he has a disc all to himself. Later, after I purchased the previous release, Volume 3, I found out even more thanks to the documentary called Tish Tash: The Animated World of Frank Tashlin.
It should be pointed out that I didn't purchase these Golden Collections in numerical order.
Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones are the two directors from the studio that garner the most acclaim and attention and they, too, have their followers. It should also be noted that Freleng's cartoons won the most Academy Awards for Warner Brothers, a total of 4: Tweetie Pie, Speedy Gonzales, Knighty Knight Bugs, and Birds Anonymous.
Friz Freleng gets spotlighted on a documentary called Friz on Film and he, too, has a fan base that prefer cartoons that have razor-sharp timing and music ties. It's a wonderfully done salute to arguably the best director from the Golden Age of Warner Brothers Animation in terms of stats, accolades, and total body of work. Freleng directed just about all the Warner cartoon characters at some point or another with a large percentage of his work concerning Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety and Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, and Speedy Gonzales. Speedy was created by Robert McKimson (who directed the character's debut and some later cartoons of the late '50s and early '60s) but Freleng directed the ones considered by historians to be the most popular. In this documentary, as well as in other extra features that elaborate on Freleng, the creation of Yosemite Sam is almost always discussed. His peers and colleagues routinely state that the character is a complete duplication of the real-life Friz Freleng. His daughter remarks that Friz had red hair in his younger days and that he had a temper and several animators affectionately recall Friz being impatient, fuming, pacing a lot, and anxious during the animation process. Friz himself, in archive footage, laughs about his tyrannical reputation during the production of the cartoons but remarks that he obtained that reputation due to his perfectionism and insisting that the cartoons come across exactly as he envisioned. The character of Sam, by the way, was created as a replacement for Elmer Fudd.
Chuck Jones, in addition to his many contributions to Warner Brothers cartoons, did a lot of mostly seasonal animation projects and specials away from Warner Brothers from the early '60s through the early '70s that often play on cable television annually to this day and that's probably a big reason why his name is much more recognizable by those outside the audiences of Warner cartoons. He did critically acclaimed work for MGM. The crowning achievement away from Warner Brothers, in hindsight, would be his adaptation of How The Grinch Stole Christmas, a story from Dr. Seuss, that plays every year. Jones returned to Warner Brothers in the late '70s and remained a pivotal figure in keeping the the public remembering the Warner Brothers characters as well as providing newer animation projects utilizing the classic characters.
Characters created and, or, associated with Chuck Jones at Warner Brothers are Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, The Road Runner and Coyote, Pepe LePew, Porky Pig, Marvin Martian, Charlie Dog, Witch Hazel, and Sylvester. Jones' depiction of Bugs Bunny is in sharp contrast to the depictions from the other directors. Friz Freleng stayed with the wiseguy, Brooklyn-Bronx mannerisms brought out by Tex Avery's A Wild Hare. Jones depicted Bugs as a calm, minding his own business kind of character who only became a wiseguy or became aggressive once provoked.
Jones introduced the world to the Duck Season/Rabbit Season routine and changed the personality of Daffy from being a free-for-all, zany, looney character into a gigantic egomaniac forever jealous of the popularity enjoyed by Bugs Bunny. The fans who love this depiction have Chuck Jones to thank.
The funny thing is that this characterization of Daffy remained constant...being picked up by the other directors...and today Daffy is known as a greedy, vain, egotistical braggart. In his memorable role as Duck Dodgers, Daffy plays the part of the know-it-all hero scolding and blaming his associates for his own incompetence. This is not the Daffy that intrigued movie audiences of the '30s and '40s...but it's a comical stroke of genius all the same.
Jones directed three cartoons that are in the National Film Registry: Duck Amuck, One Froggy Evening, and What's Opera, Doc?. Ironically, those three cartoons didn't win any awards during their original releases, but decades of showings on television and the viewer response to those three in particular elevated them above the other cartoons. Three of his theatrical cartoons did win Academy Awards: For Scent-imental Reasons, So Much For So Little, and The Dot and the Line. Jones won an Honorary Academy Award in 1996 for career/lifetime achievement.
One of the things about these Golden Collections is that the work of the directors are on full display and you're able to enjoy the various styles and characterizations associated with specific animators and directors. Until these collections started being released it was next to impossible to see cartoons from Frank Tashlin, for example, or see Norm McCabe's work for the studio. I think the collections certainly have the capability to spotlight the lesser known work that wasn't seen on TV on a constant basis and maybe spawn followings for those directors. Time will tell, though!
The four disc's consist of theme-oriented cartoons:
1. Bugs Bunny Favorites
2. A Dash of Tashlin
3. Speedy Gonzales in a Flash
4. Kitty Korner
Volume Four contains 4 discs.
The critically maligned Bugs Bunny Superstar documentary, from 1975, is broken into two parts on Disc 1 and Disc 2. I happen to like the documentary, if for the only reason, is that I love seeing the clips of the directors/animators from a point in time where their cartoons, although airing on TV for kids, hadn't really experienced the fame and glory that was to come as younger people became more and more fascinated with the whole body of Warner Brothers cartoons and the directors became, in the minds of fans, almost God-like. Orson Welles narrates the documentary. It contains footage of Bob Clampett speaking, often at length, about the characters. Historians and his contemporaries often pointed out that Clampett assumed credit for creating characters that he factually had no creative input on, other than animating or directing the characters. He did create characters. Tweety, for example, was a significant contribution, but the character was redesigned and toned down by Friz Freleng several years later and Tweety became synonymous with Freleng ever since. Freleng teamed Tweety with Sylvester, a character created by Freleng, and a star duo was born.
Each cartoon director that went through the studio and had any considerable time-span has their 'followers' even today. There's the fans of the wild, zany cartoons epitomized in the works of Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Norm McCabe, and Robert McKimson. Frank Tashlin's cartoons have a live-action flavor. I was not familiar with his cartoons due to how they rarely, if ever, played on TV and so I learned quite a lot about him in this Volume...he has a disc all to himself. Later, after I purchased the previous release, Volume 3, I found out even more thanks to the documentary called Tish Tash: The Animated World of Frank Tashlin.
It should be pointed out that I didn't purchase these Golden Collections in numerical order.
Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones are the two directors from the studio that garner the most acclaim and attention and they, too, have their followers. It should also be noted that Freleng's cartoons won the most Academy Awards for Warner Brothers, a total of 4: Tweetie Pie, Speedy Gonzales, Knighty Knight Bugs, and Birds Anonymous.
Friz Freleng gets spotlighted on a documentary called Friz on Film and he, too, has a fan base that prefer cartoons that have razor-sharp timing and music ties. It's a wonderfully done salute to arguably the best director from the Golden Age of Warner Brothers Animation in terms of stats, accolades, and total body of work. Freleng directed just about all the Warner cartoon characters at some point or another with a large percentage of his work concerning Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety and Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, and Speedy Gonzales. Speedy was created by Robert McKimson (who directed the character's debut and some later cartoons of the late '50s and early '60s) but Freleng directed the ones considered by historians to be the most popular. In this documentary, as well as in other extra features that elaborate on Freleng, the creation of Yosemite Sam is almost always discussed. His peers and colleagues routinely state that the character is a complete duplication of the real-life Friz Freleng. His daughter remarks that Friz had red hair in his younger days and that he had a temper and several animators affectionately recall Friz being impatient, fuming, pacing a lot, and anxious during the animation process. Friz himself, in archive footage, laughs about his tyrannical reputation during the production of the cartoons but remarks that he obtained that reputation due to his perfectionism and insisting that the cartoons come across exactly as he envisioned. The character of Sam, by the way, was created as a replacement for Elmer Fudd.
Chuck Jones, in addition to his many contributions to Warner Brothers cartoons, did a lot of mostly seasonal animation projects and specials away from Warner Brothers from the early '60s through the early '70s that often play on cable television annually to this day and that's probably a big reason why his name is much more recognizable by those outside the audiences of Warner cartoons. He did critically acclaimed work for MGM. The crowning achievement away from Warner Brothers, in hindsight, would be his adaptation of How The Grinch Stole Christmas, a story from Dr. Seuss, that plays every year. Jones returned to Warner Brothers in the late '70s and remained a pivotal figure in keeping the the public remembering the Warner Brothers characters as well as providing newer animation projects utilizing the classic characters.
Characters created and, or, associated with Chuck Jones at Warner Brothers are Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, The Road Runner and Coyote, Pepe LePew, Porky Pig, Marvin Martian, Charlie Dog, Witch Hazel, and Sylvester. Jones' depiction of Bugs Bunny is in sharp contrast to the depictions from the other directors. Friz Freleng stayed with the wiseguy, Brooklyn-Bronx mannerisms brought out by Tex Avery's A Wild Hare. Jones depicted Bugs as a calm, minding his own business kind of character who only became a wiseguy or became aggressive once provoked.
Jones introduced the world to the Duck Season/Rabbit Season routine and changed the personality of Daffy from being a free-for-all, zany, looney character into a gigantic egomaniac forever jealous of the popularity enjoyed by Bugs Bunny. The fans who love this depiction have Chuck Jones to thank.
The funny thing is that this characterization of Daffy remained constant...being picked up by the other directors...and today Daffy is known as a greedy, vain, egotistical braggart. In his memorable role as Duck Dodgers, Daffy plays the part of the know-it-all hero scolding and blaming his associates for his own incompetence. This is not the Daffy that intrigued movie audiences of the '30s and '40s...but it's a comical stroke of genius all the same.
Jones directed three cartoons that are in the National Film Registry: Duck Amuck, One Froggy Evening, and What's Opera, Doc?. Ironically, those three cartoons didn't win any awards during their original releases, but decades of showings on television and the viewer response to those three in particular elevated them above the other cartoons. Three of his theatrical cartoons did win Academy Awards: For Scent-imental Reasons, So Much For So Little, and The Dot and the Line. Jones won an Honorary Academy Award in 1996 for career/lifetime achievement.
One of the things about these Golden Collections is that the work of the directors are on full display and you're able to enjoy the various styles and characterizations associated with specific animators and directors. Until these collections started being released it was next to impossible to see cartoons from Frank Tashlin, for example, or see Norm McCabe's work for the studio. I think the collections certainly have the capability to spotlight the lesser known work that wasn't seen on TV on a constant basis and maybe spawn followings for those directors. Time will tell, though!
The four disc's consist of theme-oriented cartoons:
1. Bugs Bunny Favorites
2. A Dash of Tashlin
3. Speedy Gonzales in a Flash
4. Kitty Korner
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Looney Tunes: Back on Cartoon Network
The picture I choose to put into this blog entry is appropriate. It's a picture of me reading Mel Blanc's autobiography, That's Not All, Folks!, published in 1988. Blanc was the primary voice artist on the hundreds of Warner Brothers theatrical cartoons released during the late '30s and throughout the '40s, '50s, and into the '60s. November 30th marked the debut of the official daily showing of Looney Tunes on Cartoon Network. The program airs at 11am Monday-Friday. The re-addition of the Warner Brothers theatrical cartoons marks the first time in almost four years that the theatricals have been shown on a mainstream American television channel. The classic cartoons I believe last aired on Boomerang in America back in 2006...but I could be wrong about that. The last television package to feature the classic theatricals was a program on Boomerang called The Bugs and Daffy Show around that time period. The theatricals haven't aired on network television in America since 2000 when ABC sold their broadcast rights. ABC had been one of the homes of those theatrical cartoons dating back to 1986. CBS and ABC both aired a string of Warner Brothers cartoon programs throughout the '60s, '70s, and '80s...with ABC gaining exclusive network rights in the mid '80s through 2000. The cable channels owned by Ted Turner, TBS and TNT, joined in the mix in the late '80s and early '90s, airing the classic theatricals.
So, in essence, the theatrical Warner Brothers cartoons were a part of nearly everyone's life at some point for over 60 years...from those who saw the cartoons originally at movie theaters to those who were raised on the reruns that aired on Saturday morning TV for decades...to those who discovered the cartoons on TBS or TNT...the exposure of the classic theatricals over the last several years have been limited mostly to the popular Golden Collection and Spotlight Collection series of DVD's.
Looney Tunes...11am...Monday-Friday; Cartoon Network...
Monday, August 31, 2009
Looney Tunes...crazy...100% nuts...
Posing with a book that I bought several years ago at a book store in a shopping mall, this blog entry is really about my salute to the Looney Tunes characters and those of the Merrie Melodies. Originally, there was a distinct separation between the two series from Warner Brothers. However, as time went on, the characters started to appear interchangeably to the point where there wasn't much of a distinction anymore other than the differing titles for both sets of cartoons. Originally the Merrie Melodies series featured serious, Disney-like cartoons with heavy use of songs from the Warner Brothers music catalog. The Looney Tunes series featured the wild and crazy cartoons that were funny in comparison. It's these cartoons and that style which pushed the more serious cartoons off to the side as time went on. The series had it's share of top directors, animators, writers, etc etc and one of the most interesting things about the Warner Brothers cartoon directors and writers is that their names are more widely known than the directors and writers at Disney and MGM, the two chief rivals in the theatrical cartoon business to Warner Brothers. I suppose if I looked it up, the cartoon directors at Disney would be easy to find in this internet age but would they be names that I'm familiar with? I admit that this feeling comes from being raised on the Warner Brothers cartoons. I know of the Disney characters...who doesn't know of Mickey Mouse? Donald Duck? Goofy? Winnie the Pooh? I couldn't tell you who the cartoon directors were. A lot of it has to do with, as I mentioned, not being raised on Disney cartoons. When I was younger the Disney cartoons were exclusive to the Disney channel...a premium channel...that my parent's didn't spend extra money for. This was several years before the local FOX stations started airing Disney cartoons in the afternoons in the late '80s.
As I mentioned, when I was growing up, it was the Warner Brothers cartoons I was most familiar with. Popeye was another...and Tom and Jerry, along with MGM's cast of characters. As I got older I discovered the made-for-TV cartoons of Hanna-Barbera and liked those cartoons as well.
The most talked about, or celebrated, directors at Warner Brothers during their golden age were:
1. Friz Freleng
2. Chuck Jones
3. Tex Avery
4. Bob Clampett
5. Robert McKimson
After those five, you then usually hear about...
6. Frank Tashlin
7. Art Davis
8. Norm McCabe
Ironically, #3 and #4 were with the studio a short number of years, instead of decades like Chuck, Friz, and Bob McKimson...but even today, among Warner Brothers cartoon fans, both Bob Clampett and Tex Avery have just as much discussion as the others.
Who you don't hear much about are #6 through #8. This is just my opinion but the big reason for this is because they didn't make any cartoons that have stood the test of time. Art Davis was more of an animator turned director for a few cartoons. Frank Tashlin made just as many cartoons as Bob Clampett and Tex Avery but his cartoons seldom got much attention due to their lack of exposure to various generations. The Bugs Bunny Show helped expose the characters to 4 generations of audiences starting in 1960. The cartoons from Chuck, Friz, and Bob McKimson were heavily favored.
It was on the air on ABC, then CBS, and then back to ABC during it's 40 year run. The show during it's final ABC run was titled The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show and it left the air in 2000 after a 40 year run on the air, in various time slots and under various titles.
The book that you see me holding is a companion book, of sorts. It details the history of Sylvester and Tweety and it gives a year by year break down of the cartoons. It gives writer, director, producer, and animation credits along with voice credits for each cartoon listed and if it was nominated or if it won an Oscar then it was noted.
A cartoon winning an Oscar?? Yes...for those who aren't too well studied about theatrical cartoons...there was once a category called "Best Short Subject". There still may be a category called that?? Anyway...that category was usually reserved for the animated cartoon that would air in movie theaters prior to the showing of the movie. The Academy would then nominate which cartoons, or "short subjects", they felt were Oscar worthy. The cartoons were dubbed short subjects because, obviously, the running time was short compared to a feature length movie. Most cartoons ran no longer than 8 minutes...9 minutes was a rare occasion...6 minutes or 6 and a half was the norm for most cartoons.
When the winner was announced, the Oscar was awarded to the producer...the writers or director or anyone else weren't given any Oscar's for their participation. The producer of the cartoons, originally, was Leon Schlesinger. He was the producer until the mid 1940's...around 1944/1945. He sold his company to Warner Brothers and Eddie Selzer became the new producer. From the things I've read and from the commentary made by those who worked on the cartoons, Selzer wasn't too popular among the directors. Friz Freleng recounts an incident where Selzer insisted that Sylvester team up with a woodpecker for a series of cartoons. Sylvester and the woodpecker had appeared in just one cartoon together, prior to the cat officially being called "Sylvester".
Friz had gotten the idea to team Sylvester up with the Tweety character that Bob Clampett created. Selzer didn't like the idea and Friz threatened to walk away from the studio...and then Selzer contacted Friz and gave in and told Friz to go ahead and team Sylvester up with Tweety. Their first cartoon together as a team won an Oscar, 1947's "Tweetie Pie".
Some things the average cartoon watcher may not know is Robert McKimson created the character, Speedy Gonzales, but it was Friz Freleng who had his unit re-design the character into what people recognize today and Friz directed several Speedy cartoons and Robert McKimson later began directing his own Speedy cartoons based on the Hawley Pratt design. Pratt was Friz's layout artist. McKimson is also responsible for Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester Jr, and the Tazmanian Devil. Henery Hawk was a character created by Chuck Jones but McKimson borrowed the character and used him extensively in the Foghorn Leghorn series of cartoons.
Out of all the directors at the studio, Friz won the most Oscars.
Chuck Jones is often more celebrated and hyped given that his approach to cartoons mirrors the collegiate and intellectual approach to animation. His cartoons, while hilarious, tended to be slightly Avant-garde in comparison to the belly-laugh style of Friz and McKimson. Tex Avery on the other hand went beyond belly-laughs and could have a viewer laughing without anything hilarious going on...a simple facial expression or some other timed gag in one of his cartoons was as funny as dialogue and out of all the directors, Avery could get laughs with sight gags because of how well-timed they were. He would become even more legendary at MGM...the studio he left Warner Brothers for. Bob Clampett, who adopted a Tex Avery style, would also depart the studio. Frank Tashlin left cartoons for live action movies. So, for a bulk of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies throughout the 1940s, 1950's, and into the early 1960's you had three directors: Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, and Robert McKimson. Mel Blanc was the main voice artist for the studio from the late 1930s through the 1960's. He had co-stars, though. Arthur Q Bryan voiced Elmer Fudd for years. Bea Benaderet voiced Granny and many female characters up through the mid 1950's prior to June Foray coming aboard to voice Bea's characters and others that came along. Daws Butler was often heard doing celebrity impressions. Stan Freberg gave voice to quite a few characters that played off against characters Mel provided the voice to.
For those who want to see hilarious Warner Brothers cartoons seek out the Golden Collection DVD series. Not only will you get the cartoons but you'll also get a boat load of extra's that feature interview clips with the directors and animators involved in the cartoons. All of the major players, speaking about directors and writers and animators, are all gone. A few of the voice actors are still around. Here's a life-line of the heavy hitters at the studio and the lesser-known's...
Leon Schlesinger: May 20, 1884-December 25, 1949 {65; producer}
Eddie Selzer: January 12, 1893-February 22, 1970 {77; producer}
Mel Blanc: May 30, 1908–July 10, 1989 {81; voice artist}
Friz Freleng: August 21, 1906–May 26, 1995 {88; director}
Chuck Jones: September 21, 1912–February 22, 2002 {89; director}
Tex Avery: February 26, 1908-August 26, 1980 {72; animator/director}
Robert McKimson: October 13, 1910-September 29, 1977 {66; animator/director}
Bob Clampett: May 8, 1913-May 4, 1984 {70; animator/director}
Arthur Q Bryan: May 8, 1899–November 18, 1959 {60; voice artist}
**Stan Freberg: August 7, 1926- {currently 83; voice artist}
Bea Benadaret: April 4, 1906–October 13, 1968 {62; voice artist}
**June Foray: September 18, 1917- {curently 91; voice artist}
Daws Butler: November 16, 1916–May 18, 1988 {71; voice artist}
Frank Tashlin: February 19, 1913-May 5, 1972 {59; director}
Art Davis: June 14, 1905-May 9, 2000 {94; animator/director}
Norm McCabe: February 10, 1911-January 17, 2006 {94; animator/director}
Mike Maltese: February 6, 1908—February 22, 1981 {73; writer}
Warren Foster: October 24, 1904-December, 1971 {67; writer}
Tedd Pierce: August 12, 1906—February 19, 1972 {65; writer}
Carl Stalling: November 10, 1891–November 29, 1972 {81; music conductor}
Milt Franklyn: September 16, 1897–April 24, 1962 {64; music conductor}
=======================
**- both June Foray and Stan Freberg are the only surviving members of the Golden Age of Warner Brothers cartoons.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Daffy Duck's Quackbusters
This 1988 film, built around classic cartoons from the Warner Brothers library and new footage, is a broad spoof of the GHOSTBUSTERS franchise. The obvious title of "Daffy Duck's Quackbusters" will tell you what this clip-fest film will be about. The film features two contemporary cartoon shorts, 1987's "The Duxorcist" and 1988's "Night of the Living Duck". These two cartoons, combined with specific clips edited from classic cartoons, were blended together to showcase a full-length animated feature poking fun at the GHOSTBUSTERS popularity and the language used in the movie. Daffy inherits a fortune because he was able to make a dying millionaire laugh. In a scenario from an earlier cartoon, "Daffy Dilly", Daffy plays a salesman who gets word that a dying millionaire will leave a fortune to whoever can make him laugh. The millionaire was offering a fortune to anyone who was able to give him one good laugh before he died. After arriving at the mansion and out-witting the butler, Daffy did a broad range of stunts that received no laughs but when he accidentally trips and a series of cakes fall on him, the dying millionaire {a dog named Cubish} starts to chuckle and soon breaks out into a fit of laughter. Next we see Cubish in a pie throwing frenzy...hurling one pie after the other in Daffy's face. All through this he's laughing uncontrollably and that's when the original cartoon, "Daffy Dilly", ended. In the continuation, we see that Cubish dies laughing...and his estate goes to Daffy. The only catch is he has to use the money for good purposes or it'll cost him. Also, if Daffy even has the idea to use the money for greedy purposes, it'll cost him. Throughout the film each time Daffy gripes and complains about Cubish we hear thunder and see a stack of money in the vault vanish into thin air. Cubish often appears in ghost form throughout the cartoon. As a side business, Daffy goes into ghost hunting as a public service.
Daffy, Porky, and Bugs are billed as "Paranormalists at Large". Throughout the film a spoof commercial pops up promoting their ghost hunting business. Part of the commercial includes a now-popular phrase among Looney Tunes fans where Daffy explains the objectives of their business and tells potential clients something like: "spooks spooked, goblins gobbled, ufo's k.o'd, aliens alienated, and monsters remonstrated.". One of the memorable aspects of the film was how effortlessly the classic clips blended together. This wasn't the first time clip-filled animated films had been released by Warner Brothers but it was the first, to my knowledge, where two relatively new theatrical cartoons had been responsible for the commission of a full-length movie release.
And so...in between the classic clips we see new animation of Bugs, Daffy, and Porky bridging the clips along. We'll see the hilarious "but I did see an elephant in my bird bath" clip and pieces of Porky and Sylvester's adventures when Sylvester was cast as a cowardly feline and Porky was his annoyed owner. The 1987 clip of "The Duxorcist" is hilarious...particularly for those familiar with what it's spoofing, The Exorcist. In it, Daffy investigates a strange case of a female duck who's possessed and it's in this cartoon where the female utters all sorts of rubbish, but plainly enunciating in a sweet voice "Mary had a little lamb..." and then shouting in her possessed voice: "BUT I ATE IT!!!!".
Sharp eared listeners will note the differences in Daffy's voice when it segues from contemporary to classic footage. I believe they didn't speed up Daffy's voice enough in the new animation and so it sounds like Sylvester, more than it should. The difference between those two character's voices had always been that Sylvester had Mel Blanc's own voice with a lisp added to it while Daffy was actually the same voice only sped up a few octaves in the playback process to get a little higher tone.The cartoon as a whole is 5 star material. It's funny, cute in places, satirical in places, and who can resist the Mel Torme contribution of "Monsters Lead Such Interesting Lives" that Daffy sings in a monsters club after spraying his throat with Torme liquid. This scene happens near the start of the movie, within "Night of the Living Duck". The bonus features include the cult favorite "Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24th and 1/2 Century" along with "Superior Duck" and "Little Go Beep".
This is the first time this 1988 Daffy Duck movie has been released on DVD.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Looney Tunes Premiere Collection
This collection was released in 2003...it contained 28 cartoons from the first volume of The Golden Collection DVD project. I'm going to highlight a few cartoons from the DVD in this blog...
A lot of the cartoons featured on here, and on the other DVD's, consist of projects directed by Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones. However, there are cartoons here directed by Bob Clampett, Robert McKimson, as well as Arthur Davis...but Chuck and Friz have the lion's share of cartoons here. Clampett's cartoons spotlighted on here are "Bugs Bunny Gets The Boid" which is a cartoon about a family of buzzard's whose youngest, a dimwit in the mold of Mertimer Snerd and or, Goofy, is on the trail of a rabbit...Bugs Bunny, of course. The cartoon is #13 on DVD number one. The buzzard goes through all sorts of stunts trying to capture Bugs but it's useless because Bugs simply out-smarts the bird. The buzzard's mother is remembered for her Italian dialect.
"Tortoise Wins By a Hare", another Clampett cartoon, closes out DVD #1. In this cartoon, Bugs competes in a foot race with a turtle named Cecil. The idea is a recurring gag but in this particular depiction, Bugs dresses up like a turtle in hopes of winning the race. He wears a metal turtle shell packed with a motor. In the end, though, he ends up losing the race through ironic means. "Haredevil Hare" is a cartoon from Chuck Jones which introduces Marvin the Martian, although he isn't named this. Mel Blanc's original voice for Marvin is way different than the more familiar voice Mel later gave him. Marvin wants to blow up the Earth...the reason for Bugs being up in space is due to a space company wanting to put a rabbit on the moon. Bugs resists at first until the top half of the rocket is filled with carrots. The cartoon ends in a cliff-hanger or sorts...or I should say a moon-hanger. For those who've seen the cartoon you'll understand.
"Canned Feud" is one of the funniest cartoons on DVD #2. It's the story of a couple who leave on vacation for California. They accidentally leave the cat in the house...the cat being Sylvester. He spies through the front window that the owners left a note to the milk-man to not deliver any milk to the house while they're away. Sylvester panics and goes running through the house looking for food. He finally comes across a cupboard full of cat food but he needs a can opener. A mouse makes his appearance...taunting Sylvester with the can opener. The rest of the cartoon is about the two battling back and fourth. Later, when Sylvester has had enough and blow up nearly the entire kitchen, the can opener falls at his feet. He immediately gets excited but then makes his way back to the kitchen and discovers the cruel irony awaiting him at the hands of the mouse.
"Kit for Kat" is just as hilarious. Elmer Fudd becomes the victim of Sylvester and a small kitten's rivalry. He has both of them stay at his house and declares that he'll make up his mind which one to keep in the morning. This prompts Sylvester to go about ridding himself of the kitten through elaborate stunts...each of them backfire...causing him to look bad in Elmer's eyes. Near the end of the cartoon there's a scene with the radio...the kitten turns the radio up full blast and we hear some banter between the voice artists, Mel Blanc and Bea Benederet. They call each other by their full name: Melvin and Beatrice. "Ahhhh, Melvin!! What are you gonna do with that gun, Melvin??" "I'm gonna kill you, Beatrice! Do you hear?? Kill you! Kill you!!! Bwahahahahahaha!!" "Melvin...you mustn't...ahhhh!! hahhahaha now i've got the gun, Melvin!", etc etc. Finally, Elmer runs downstairs and declares to the two cats that he's made up his mind which one's leaving and then, out of the blue, a knock on the door is heard and Elmer's given some bad news of his own.
"Tweety's S.O.S" is a cartoon by Friz Freleng where we see Sylvester, Tweety, and Granny all on a cruise ship. Throughout the cartoon Sylvester is trying to get Tweety but Sylvester has a slight case of sea-sickness which prevents him from fully conducting his plots against Tweety. Granny, on the other hand, is her usual protective self. Sylvester temporarily finds a cure for his sea-sickness but Tweety doesn't help matters when he often pulls out a picture of a ship with crashing waves...telling Sylvester, in a hypnotic tone, "it was a terrible storm; the ship was rocking and rocking; waves were splashing...rocking...rocking..." causing Sylvester to go hang his head over the ship once again. Later, Tweety dumps nitro-glycerin into the bottle of sea-sickness formula. Sylvester drinks the entire bottle...but then Granny goes after Sylvester with her umbrella, trying to hit him with Tweety protesting "no Granny..." and then Sylvester explodes...shooting him up in the sky. He falls back down to the ship with the Captain exclaiming he tawt he taw a putty tat.
"Early To Bet" features Stan Freberg as a gambling bug who constantly bites down on a bad luck cat. Each time, he and a bulldog play card games...and each time the cat loses. The dog suggests the two play Penalties. The funny part is each time he loses he has to go spin a wheel...then whatever number the wheel stops on, the cat goes to a filing cabinet and searches for the corresponding folder. Inside the folder is the type of penalty that the dog unleashes on the cat. A typical line from the cat: "no...no...not ROLL OUT THE BARREL!!! Anything but that!!!". Mel Blanc voices the cat, the dog, and the announcer at the beginning introducing the gambling bug. The cat gets his revenge on the gambling bug by the cartoon's end.
The southern rooster, Foghorn Leghorn, makes a couple of appearances. The first one being a short simply called "The Foghorn Leghorn" where Henery Hawk wanders to the farm that his father is raiding. Foghorn catches the father in the act and beats him up. Henery, not really knowing what a chicken looks like, asks his father if that was a chicken. The father shrugs it off and says something like: "you think i'd let a chicken do that to me? that's nothing but a loud mouth schnook.". So, the rest of the cartoon, Henery tries to capture a lot of animals he thinks are chickens...not even Foghorn can convince Henery what a chicken is. Finally, the Dog beats Foghorn up and calls him a good for nothing chicken. Henery captures Foghorn soon after with a shovel to the face...dragging him "home" as the scene fades to black...with Foghorn muttering "i'm just a loud mouth schnook". The other Leghorn cartoon is "Broken Leghorn".
Pepe LePew appears in "For Scent-Imental Reasons". Chuck Jones often directed the Pepe cartoons...plus many of the ones with Bugs Bunny that are featured on this collection. Friz Freleng directed a lot of Bugs Bunny cartoons as well...plus he directed all the Sylvester and Tweety cartoons. One of the Chuck Jones cartoons, "Don't Give Up the Sheep", features Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog. Ralph looks similar to Wile E Coyote. This segment features mostly pantomime action...no dialogue except for the dog saying hi and goodbye to Fred, his replacement watching sheep when the time clock whistle blows. This Premiere Collection concept was later re-named The Spotlight Collection when volume two came along.
A lot of the cartoons featured on here, and on the other DVD's, consist of projects directed by Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones. However, there are cartoons here directed by Bob Clampett, Robert McKimson, as well as Arthur Davis...but Chuck and Friz have the lion's share of cartoons here. Clampett's cartoons spotlighted on here are "Bugs Bunny Gets The Boid" which is a cartoon about a family of buzzard's whose youngest, a dimwit in the mold of Mertimer Snerd and or, Goofy, is on the trail of a rabbit...Bugs Bunny, of course. The cartoon is #13 on DVD number one. The buzzard goes through all sorts of stunts trying to capture Bugs but it's useless because Bugs simply out-smarts the bird. The buzzard's mother is remembered for her Italian dialect.
"Tortoise Wins By a Hare", another Clampett cartoon, closes out DVD #1. In this cartoon, Bugs competes in a foot race with a turtle named Cecil. The idea is a recurring gag but in this particular depiction, Bugs dresses up like a turtle in hopes of winning the race. He wears a metal turtle shell packed with a motor. In the end, though, he ends up losing the race through ironic means. "Haredevil Hare" is a cartoon from Chuck Jones which introduces Marvin the Martian, although he isn't named this. Mel Blanc's original voice for Marvin is way different than the more familiar voice Mel later gave him. Marvin wants to blow up the Earth...the reason for Bugs being up in space is due to a space company wanting to put a rabbit on the moon. Bugs resists at first until the top half of the rocket is filled with carrots. The cartoon ends in a cliff-hanger or sorts...or I should say a moon-hanger. For those who've seen the cartoon you'll understand.
"Canned Feud" is one of the funniest cartoons on DVD #2. It's the story of a couple who leave on vacation for California. They accidentally leave the cat in the house...the cat being Sylvester. He spies through the front window that the owners left a note to the milk-man to not deliver any milk to the house while they're away. Sylvester panics and goes running through the house looking for food. He finally comes across a cupboard full of cat food but he needs a can opener. A mouse makes his appearance...taunting Sylvester with the can opener. The rest of the cartoon is about the two battling back and fourth. Later, when Sylvester has had enough and blow up nearly the entire kitchen, the can opener falls at his feet. He immediately gets excited but then makes his way back to the kitchen and discovers the cruel irony awaiting him at the hands of the mouse.
"Kit for Kat" is just as hilarious. Elmer Fudd becomes the victim of Sylvester and a small kitten's rivalry. He has both of them stay at his house and declares that he'll make up his mind which one to keep in the morning. This prompts Sylvester to go about ridding himself of the kitten through elaborate stunts...each of them backfire...causing him to look bad in Elmer's eyes. Near the end of the cartoon there's a scene with the radio...the kitten turns the radio up full blast and we hear some banter between the voice artists, Mel Blanc and Bea Benederet. They call each other by their full name: Melvin and Beatrice. "Ahhhh, Melvin!! What are you gonna do with that gun, Melvin??" "I'm gonna kill you, Beatrice! Do you hear?? Kill you! Kill you!!! Bwahahahahahaha!!" "Melvin...you mustn't...ahhhh!! hahhahaha now i've got the gun, Melvin!", etc etc. Finally, Elmer runs downstairs and declares to the two cats that he's made up his mind which one's leaving and then, out of the blue, a knock on the door is heard and Elmer's given some bad news of his own.
"Tweety's S.O.S" is a cartoon by Friz Freleng where we see Sylvester, Tweety, and Granny all on a cruise ship. Throughout the cartoon Sylvester is trying to get Tweety but Sylvester has a slight case of sea-sickness which prevents him from fully conducting his plots against Tweety. Granny, on the other hand, is her usual protective self. Sylvester temporarily finds a cure for his sea-sickness but Tweety doesn't help matters when he often pulls out a picture of a ship with crashing waves...telling Sylvester, in a hypnotic tone, "it was a terrible storm; the ship was rocking and rocking; waves were splashing...rocking...rocking..." causing Sylvester to go hang his head over the ship once again. Later, Tweety dumps nitro-glycerin into the bottle of sea-sickness formula. Sylvester drinks the entire bottle...but then Granny goes after Sylvester with her umbrella, trying to hit him with Tweety protesting "no Granny..." and then Sylvester explodes...shooting him up in the sky. He falls back down to the ship with the Captain exclaiming he tawt he taw a putty tat.
"Early To Bet" features Stan Freberg as a gambling bug who constantly bites down on a bad luck cat. Each time, he and a bulldog play card games...and each time the cat loses. The dog suggests the two play Penalties. The funny part is each time he loses he has to go spin a wheel...then whatever number the wheel stops on, the cat goes to a filing cabinet and searches for the corresponding folder. Inside the folder is the type of penalty that the dog unleashes on the cat. A typical line from the cat: "no...no...not ROLL OUT THE BARREL!!! Anything but that!!!". Mel Blanc voices the cat, the dog, and the announcer at the beginning introducing the gambling bug. The cat gets his revenge on the gambling bug by the cartoon's end.
The southern rooster, Foghorn Leghorn, makes a couple of appearances. The first one being a short simply called "The Foghorn Leghorn" where Henery Hawk wanders to the farm that his father is raiding. Foghorn catches the father in the act and beats him up. Henery, not really knowing what a chicken looks like, asks his father if that was a chicken. The father shrugs it off and says something like: "you think i'd let a chicken do that to me? that's nothing but a loud mouth schnook.". So, the rest of the cartoon, Henery tries to capture a lot of animals he thinks are chickens...not even Foghorn can convince Henery what a chicken is. Finally, the Dog beats Foghorn up and calls him a good for nothing chicken. Henery captures Foghorn soon after with a shovel to the face...dragging him "home" as the scene fades to black...with Foghorn muttering "i'm just a loud mouth schnook". The other Leghorn cartoon is "Broken Leghorn".
Pepe LePew appears in "For Scent-Imental Reasons". Chuck Jones often directed the Pepe cartoons...plus many of the ones with Bugs Bunny that are featured on this collection. Friz Freleng directed a lot of Bugs Bunny cartoons as well...plus he directed all the Sylvester and Tweety cartoons. One of the Chuck Jones cartoons, "Don't Give Up the Sheep", features Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog. Ralph looks similar to Wile E Coyote. This segment features mostly pantomime action...no dialogue except for the dog saying hi and goodbye to Fred, his replacement watching sheep when the time clock whistle blows. This Premiere Collection concept was later re-named The Spotlight Collection when volume two came along.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection 6
I don't know if I'm sub-consciously writing more about Warner Brothers cartoons or not. I may have touched upon this in a previous entry but I tend to not write as much about the Warner cartoons because there's so many people who do...I tend to spotlight the lesser-known or the made-for-TV programs from Hanna-Barbera simply because there's not a whole wide spectrum of sites that specialize in those cartoons whereas the programs from Warner Brothers are embedded into pop-culture so much what isn't there to know?
However, I wanted to spotlight one of the latest spotlight collections, number 6. It's a DVD collection of 30 cartoons on two disc's which comes to 15 cartoons on each. There are 8 more cartoons featured as bonuses: 4 on DVD #1 and 4 on DVD #2. I hadn't had the time to watch DVD #2 but i've watched DVD #1 a couple times. The theme of DVD #1 is "Cartoon Superstars". It features cartoons that star each of the main characters. The first, "Baby Buggy Bunny", centers around Bugs finding an orphan of sorts...actually, some money has been stolen from a bank that finds it's way to Bugs' hole in the ground. The thief, a midget, adopts the identity of a baby and arrives at Bugs' hole as an orphan. Bugs at first is unaware of the baby's true identity...the baby's name is Fenster. After repeated attempts from the baby to grab the money, Bugs excuses himself and later spies the baby shaving and smoking a cigar in the bathroom. Coincidentally, a news report flashes on the TV about a bank robber on the loose...Bugs gets that 'look' on his face that he's been tricked and then gets the devilish look that he's going to get his revenge. He strolls in and starts whipping the kid and throwing him up in the air and shaking him...it's quite a funny scene as guns and weapons start falling everywhere all the while Bugs is still spanking him "Oh Fenster! What a naughty, naughty, boy!!!". The anger in Bugs' voice as he's getting his revenge is quite satonic but that makes it all the more hilarious.
In the next short, "Broom-Stick Bunny", Bugs is out on Halloween dressed as a witch and he stumbles upon the castle of Witch Hazel. This cartoon's plot is Witch Hazel trying to get the "witch" {Bugs} into a pot of boiling water...periodically she stops at a magic mirror asking who's the ugliest one of all. She gets great delight in being declared ugly...she also gets delight in making jokes, causing her to go off into a fit of cackling laughter. Bugs reveals himself as a rabbit which causes Witch Hazel to grow even more determined to fulfill her magic potion. She is about to kill Bugs when he gives her the pouty-eyes routine and she starts crying, thinking about memories of Paul. Bugs turns the tables and offers the witch a drink. She drinks it and turns into a Cinderella-type...and then she goes to her magic mirror asking who's the ugliest one of all...the genie in the mirror doesn't even bother answering her...one look and he hops on his carpet in hot pursuit and flies out of the mirror chasing her.
"To Duck or Not to Duck" is a cartoon starring Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd. The cartoon is basically about a boxing match between the two of them...with a lot of duck's in attendence cheering on Daffy while only one in the stands cheers on Elmer, namely the hunting dog Ladamore. Each time he cheers on Elmer he gets pelted with fruit. The referee introduces Elmer amidst a series of laughter...and the audience boo's. The referee then turns his attention to Daffy...and in a scene that often becomes a subject of mockery, the referee brings on Daffy with some of the most sentimental words imaginable...going so far as to climb upon Daffy in an intimate way, blinking his eyes and wrapping an arm around Daffy's shoulder, becoming quite affectionate in the process. This, of course, is a spoof of boxing in general...how it often comes across that referee's have favorites and that the fighting is rigged...which is spoofed when the referee goes into his "I wanna clean fight" routine. Elmer, at cartoon's end, turns the tables on the scheming ducks. The cartoon fades out as Elmer's throwing the ducks all over the boxing ring.
"Birth of a Notion" is one of the more hilarious ones. In this, Daffy gets tangled up with an evil scientist wanting his wish bone. The scientist is a caricature of Peter Lorre. Daffy was brought to the castle by a dog named Leopold...Daffy, not wanting to fly south for the winter, befriended the dog and was soon in the castle. Daffy overhears the scientist's plans of needing a duck's wishbone and soon it's a battle of wits between him and Daffy. The action takes place between the two of them so much that in one segment it shows Leopold griping about his lack of screen-time. In one of the most singled-out moments in the cartoon, Daffy attempts to throw a baseball bat at the scientist only for Leopold to grab it in time. This, however, causes the scientist to think his own dog is out to kill him and the scientist breaks the bat into tiny pieces. Daffy attempts to murder the scientist with a knife but the scientist is prepared...he lets out with a creepy, perverted giggle as he chases after Daffy, who, runs off hollering his trademark "hoo hoo hoo hoo".
The two Foghorn Leghorn cartoons appear on "Crowing Pains" and "Raw! Raw! Rooster". In the first cartoon, we see Henery Hawk on a quest for a chicken. The character has never really been written as a smart guy...more of a little tough guy instead...who can never recall what a chicken looks like since he's so easily fooled by Foghorn in all the cartoons. So, he usually listens to Foghorn's stories and claims about other animal's being chickens. In "Crowing Pains" the action revolves around Foghorn, the Barnyard Dog, and Sylvester the cat...although some cartoon purists would say it isn't Sylvester because the character doesn't have a patch of white fur on his tail...but the character design and speech pattern is definitely Sylvester. So, the three of them are consistently fighting amongst each other while Henery just wants to know which one of them is a chicken. This is one of the earlier Foghorn cartoons as Mel Blanc's vocal performance is more in step with bellowing and hollering his words instead of delivering them as the refined southern blow-hard the character became.
Foghorn likes to play tricks on the dog...and Sylvester's presence causes the dog to be after the cat, natural instincts. Foghorn plants an egg under Sylvester at one point...further confusing Henery, who's actually inside the egg...a device Foghorn came up with. Henery finally decides to wait until sunrise to see which animal crows...Sylvester, prone to keeping his mouth open even when he isn't talking, has his mouth open a little as the sounds of a rooster is heard. The Dog looks over at Sylvester and gets a disgusted look because he knows Foghorn's tricks...and Henery drags Sylvester away.
"Raw! Raw! Rooster" is one of the later Foghorn cartoons...you'll notice the difference in Mel's delivery. The cartoon is about one of Foghorn's rivals coming for a visit...the rival is a big practical joker, which doesn't sit too well with Foghorn, who would rather play jokes on others instead of having them played on himself. The rival, known as Rhoad Island Red, mingles with Foghorn and has all the hen's love-struck, which causes further jealousy to mount. Rhoad Island Red was voiced by Daws Butler. Foghorn sends his rival away by the end of the cartoon and has a few going away prizes...filled with dynamite.
In "My Favorite Duck", Porky Pig attempts to have a relaxing time at a camp site only to be tormented by Daffy at each attempt. The joke of the cartoon is that the woods has a strict fine on hunting ducks...people aren't even allowed to harass or bother ducks. This, of course, allows Daffy to become over-bearing and do all sorts of things to Porky...who can't do anything because each time he attempts to strangle or hit Daffy, this would cause Daffy to whip out a sign that read "No Duck Hunting" or "No Harming Ducks". Later in the cartoon, the tables are turned, and Daffy finds himself as a most-wanted duck...each sign that he comes up with invites Porky to kill and shoot...one sign I think read "Open season on ducks...no limit". The cartoon ends rather Tex Avery-like with Porky and Daffy chasing one another around and around a tree...before long the cartoon's "film" starts to go haywire and it snaps into. Daffy pokes his head into the scene and goes about telling us how the film ended...only to be pulled off-camera by Porky, who finishes beating him up...with the cartoon ending as Porky drags Daffy across the screen.
"Jumpin' Jupiter" is a surreal cartoon...it involves Porky and Sylvester camping out in a dessert area. Later, aliens come down to Earth and literally lift the camp ground up and fly off with it into outer space. Sylvester awakens and reacts to all of this while Porky remains asleep. Even after the gravity pull is gone, Porky is clueless of what's going on...then the camp site appears on the planet Jupiter. Porky wakes up...Sylvester was up all-night experiencing everything. Sylvester spots one of the aliens...Porky meets the alien but mistakes him for some sort of Indian. Gags from this cartoon were re-used years later on the Daffy Duck film Daffy Duck's Quackbusters including the gag of Sylvester being so scared he turns stiff as a board around Porky's face and when thrown off, hits the ground with a hollow thud. Another re-used gag was the phrase "yellow dog of a cowardly cat", Porky's affectionate description of Sylvester.
In "Satan's Waitin", we see the story of Sylvester and his nine lives. The cartoon centers around a bulldog Devil wanting Sylvester to go through the last 8 lives rather quickly...often causing Sylvester to get into all kinds of predicaments, with his lives evaporating one by one. Each of his lives sit together on a rock couch down in the pits of fire...he soon decides to hide himself in a bank vault where no harm can come to him...since he only has one life left. Later, bank robbers blow up the vault and everyone's killed. The cartoon fades out with Sylvester and the bank robbers all taking a trip down to meet the devil.
The rest of the cartoons on DVD #1 are just as good as those that I mentioned. "Dog Gone South" is a laugh-out-loud cartoon about a dog's adventures on a plantation. In "Often an Orphan" we have the same dog being the victim of owner abandonment. At the start of the cartoon we see the dog purposely being left at a camp site by his master. The dog talks his way into Porky's life by trying to convince him he needs a dog. This goes back and fourth throughout much of the cartoon...near the end we see Porky and the dog in a very familiar scene at a camp site ready to have a picnic. Porky tells the dog to fetch a stick but being through that routine too many times the dog jumps into Porky's car instead and speeds off as the scene fades.
However, I wanted to spotlight one of the latest spotlight collections, number 6. It's a DVD collection of 30 cartoons on two disc's which comes to 15 cartoons on each. There are 8 more cartoons featured as bonuses: 4 on DVD #1 and 4 on DVD #2. I hadn't had the time to watch DVD #2 but i've watched DVD #1 a couple times. The theme of DVD #1 is "Cartoon Superstars". It features cartoons that star each of the main characters. The first, "Baby Buggy Bunny", centers around Bugs finding an orphan of sorts...actually, some money has been stolen from a bank that finds it's way to Bugs' hole in the ground. The thief, a midget, adopts the identity of a baby and arrives at Bugs' hole as an orphan. Bugs at first is unaware of the baby's true identity...the baby's name is Fenster. After repeated attempts from the baby to grab the money, Bugs excuses himself and later spies the baby shaving and smoking a cigar in the bathroom. Coincidentally, a news report flashes on the TV about a bank robber on the loose...Bugs gets that 'look' on his face that he's been tricked and then gets the devilish look that he's going to get his revenge. He strolls in and starts whipping the kid and throwing him up in the air and shaking him...it's quite a funny scene as guns and weapons start falling everywhere all the while Bugs is still spanking him "Oh Fenster! What a naughty, naughty, boy!!!". The anger in Bugs' voice as he's getting his revenge is quite satonic but that makes it all the more hilarious.
In the next short, "Broom-Stick Bunny", Bugs is out on Halloween dressed as a witch and he stumbles upon the castle of Witch Hazel. This cartoon's plot is Witch Hazel trying to get the "witch" {Bugs} into a pot of boiling water...periodically she stops at a magic mirror asking who's the ugliest one of all. She gets great delight in being declared ugly...she also gets delight in making jokes, causing her to go off into a fit of cackling laughter. Bugs reveals himself as a rabbit which causes Witch Hazel to grow even more determined to fulfill her magic potion. She is about to kill Bugs when he gives her the pouty-eyes routine and she starts crying, thinking about memories of Paul. Bugs turns the tables and offers the witch a drink. She drinks it and turns into a Cinderella-type...and then she goes to her magic mirror asking who's the ugliest one of all...the genie in the mirror doesn't even bother answering her...one look and he hops on his carpet in hot pursuit and flies out of the mirror chasing her.
"To Duck or Not to Duck" is a cartoon starring Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd. The cartoon is basically about a boxing match between the two of them...with a lot of duck's in attendence cheering on Daffy while only one in the stands cheers on Elmer, namely the hunting dog Ladamore. Each time he cheers on Elmer he gets pelted with fruit. The referee introduces Elmer amidst a series of laughter...and the audience boo's. The referee then turns his attention to Daffy...and in a scene that often becomes a subject of mockery, the referee brings on Daffy with some of the most sentimental words imaginable...going so far as to climb upon Daffy in an intimate way, blinking his eyes and wrapping an arm around Daffy's shoulder, becoming quite affectionate in the process. This, of course, is a spoof of boxing in general...how it often comes across that referee's have favorites and that the fighting is rigged...which is spoofed when the referee goes into his "I wanna clean fight" routine. Elmer, at cartoon's end, turns the tables on the scheming ducks. The cartoon fades out as Elmer's throwing the ducks all over the boxing ring.
"Birth of a Notion" is one of the more hilarious ones. In this, Daffy gets tangled up with an evil scientist wanting his wish bone. The scientist is a caricature of Peter Lorre. Daffy was brought to the castle by a dog named Leopold...Daffy, not wanting to fly south for the winter, befriended the dog and was soon in the castle. Daffy overhears the scientist's plans of needing a duck's wishbone and soon it's a battle of wits between him and Daffy. The action takes place between the two of them so much that in one segment it shows Leopold griping about his lack of screen-time. In one of the most singled-out moments in the cartoon, Daffy attempts to throw a baseball bat at the scientist only for Leopold to grab it in time. This, however, causes the scientist to think his own dog is out to kill him and the scientist breaks the bat into tiny pieces. Daffy attempts to murder the scientist with a knife but the scientist is prepared...he lets out with a creepy, perverted giggle as he chases after Daffy, who, runs off hollering his trademark "hoo hoo hoo hoo".
The two Foghorn Leghorn cartoons appear on "Crowing Pains" and "Raw! Raw! Rooster". In the first cartoon, we see Henery Hawk on a quest for a chicken. The character has never really been written as a smart guy...more of a little tough guy instead...who can never recall what a chicken looks like since he's so easily fooled by Foghorn in all the cartoons. So, he usually listens to Foghorn's stories and claims about other animal's being chickens. In "Crowing Pains" the action revolves around Foghorn, the Barnyard Dog, and Sylvester the cat...although some cartoon purists would say it isn't Sylvester because the character doesn't have a patch of white fur on his tail...but the character design and speech pattern is definitely Sylvester. So, the three of them are consistently fighting amongst each other while Henery just wants to know which one of them is a chicken. This is one of the earlier Foghorn cartoons as Mel Blanc's vocal performance is more in step with bellowing and hollering his words instead of delivering them as the refined southern blow-hard the character became.
Foghorn likes to play tricks on the dog...and Sylvester's presence causes the dog to be after the cat, natural instincts. Foghorn plants an egg under Sylvester at one point...further confusing Henery, who's actually inside the egg...a device Foghorn came up with. Henery finally decides to wait until sunrise to see which animal crows...Sylvester, prone to keeping his mouth open even when he isn't talking, has his mouth open a little as the sounds of a rooster is heard. The Dog looks over at Sylvester and gets a disgusted look because he knows Foghorn's tricks...and Henery drags Sylvester away.
"Raw! Raw! Rooster" is one of the later Foghorn cartoons...you'll notice the difference in Mel's delivery. The cartoon is about one of Foghorn's rivals coming for a visit...the rival is a big practical joker, which doesn't sit too well with Foghorn, who would rather play jokes on others instead of having them played on himself. The rival, known as Rhoad Island Red, mingles with Foghorn and has all the hen's love-struck, which causes further jealousy to mount. Rhoad Island Red was voiced by Daws Butler. Foghorn sends his rival away by the end of the cartoon and has a few going away prizes...filled with dynamite.
In "My Favorite Duck", Porky Pig attempts to have a relaxing time at a camp site only to be tormented by Daffy at each attempt. The joke of the cartoon is that the woods has a strict fine on hunting ducks...people aren't even allowed to harass or bother ducks. This, of course, allows Daffy to become over-bearing and do all sorts of things to Porky...who can't do anything because each time he attempts to strangle or hit Daffy, this would cause Daffy to whip out a sign that read "No Duck Hunting" or "No Harming Ducks". Later in the cartoon, the tables are turned, and Daffy finds himself as a most-wanted duck...each sign that he comes up with invites Porky to kill and shoot...one sign I think read "Open season on ducks...no limit". The cartoon ends rather Tex Avery-like with Porky and Daffy chasing one another around and around a tree...before long the cartoon's "film" starts to go haywire and it snaps into. Daffy pokes his head into the scene and goes about telling us how the film ended...only to be pulled off-camera by Porky, who finishes beating him up...with the cartoon ending as Porky drags Daffy across the screen.
"Jumpin' Jupiter" is a surreal cartoon...it involves Porky and Sylvester camping out in a dessert area. Later, aliens come down to Earth and literally lift the camp ground up and fly off with it into outer space. Sylvester awakens and reacts to all of this while Porky remains asleep. Even after the gravity pull is gone, Porky is clueless of what's going on...then the camp site appears on the planet Jupiter. Porky wakes up...Sylvester was up all-night experiencing everything. Sylvester spots one of the aliens...Porky meets the alien but mistakes him for some sort of Indian. Gags from this cartoon were re-used years later on the Daffy Duck film Daffy Duck's Quackbusters including the gag of Sylvester being so scared he turns stiff as a board around Porky's face and when thrown off, hits the ground with a hollow thud. Another re-used gag was the phrase "yellow dog of a cowardly cat", Porky's affectionate description of Sylvester.
In "Satan's Waitin", we see the story of Sylvester and his nine lives. The cartoon centers around a bulldog Devil wanting Sylvester to go through the last 8 lives rather quickly...often causing Sylvester to get into all kinds of predicaments, with his lives evaporating one by one. Each of his lives sit together on a rock couch down in the pits of fire...he soon decides to hide himself in a bank vault where no harm can come to him...since he only has one life left. Later, bank robbers blow up the vault and everyone's killed. The cartoon fades out with Sylvester and the bank robbers all taking a trip down to meet the devil.
The rest of the cartoons on DVD #1 are just as good as those that I mentioned. "Dog Gone South" is a laugh-out-loud cartoon about a dog's adventures on a plantation. In "Often an Orphan" we have the same dog being the victim of owner abandonment. At the start of the cartoon we see the dog purposely being left at a camp site by his master. The dog talks his way into Porky's life by trying to convince him he needs a dog. This goes back and fourth throughout much of the cartoon...near the end we see Porky and the dog in a very familiar scene at a camp site ready to have a picnic. Porky tells the dog to fetch a stick but being through that routine too many times the dog jumps into Porky's car instead and speeds off as the scene fades.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)