Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies (1939-mid 1940)

From Qualitipedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies (1939-mid 1940)

This is what happens when one animator temporary departed from WB to work on MGM's ill-fated Captain and the Kids; as well as another one debuting as a director causes everything to lose its zanyness.
Genre: Comedy

"Slapstick"

Running Time: 6-10 minutes
Country: United States
Release Date: January 7, 1939 -

August 24, 1940

Distributed by: Leon Schlesinger Productions
Starring: Mel Blanc

Margaret Hill-Talbot Pinto Colvig Arthur Q. Bryan Danny Webb Berneice Hansell Tex Avery Sara Berner

Episodes: 70 shorts

(27 Looney Tunes shorts) (43 Merrie Melodies shorts)

Previous show: late 1935-1938 era
Next show: late-1940-mid-1941 era

Looney Tunes and (its spin-off Merrie Melodies) is an American animated short film theatrical series by Warner Brothers that ran from 1930 until 1969.

In mid-1938, Friz Freleng departed from Leon Schlesinger Productions to work at MGM.

While most of the Looney Tunes shorts from the classic era have been well received, the shorts of 1939-mid 1940, while not terrible as the Buddy era (late 1933-mid 1935), received weaker to okay reception compared to the earlier cartoons because it's was mostly known for a series of somewhat average, yet forgettable "travelogue" cartoons by Tex Avery, cutesy Disney ripoffs by Chuck Jones, Ben Hardaway, and Cal Dalton.

This article will be talking about the shorts from "The Lone Stranger and Porky" up to "Patient Porky" with the sole exception of "Ceiling Hero".

Shorts

1939

  • "The Lone Stranger and Porky" (Clampett; January 7; with Porky Pig; first Looney Tunes short in this era)
  • "Dog Gone Modern" (Jones: January 14; with Two Curious Puppies; also the first appearance of both; first Merrie Melodies short in this era)
  • "It's an Ill Wind" (Hardaway/Dalton; January 28; with Porky Pig and Dizzy Duck; also his first appearance)
  • "Hamateur Night" (Avery; January 28; with Egghead)
  • "Robin Hood Makes Good" (Jones; February 11; one-off)
  • "Porky's Tire Trouble" (Clampett; February 18; with Porky Pig)
  • "Gold Rush Daze" (Avery; February 25; one-off)
  • "A Day at the Zoo" (Avery; March 11; with Egghead)
  • "Porky's Movie Mystery" (Clampett; March 11; with Porky Pig (as Mr. Motto))
  • "Prest-O Change-O" (Jones; March 25; with the Two Curious Puppies and Happy Rabbit)
  • "Chicken Jitters" (Clampett; April 1; with Porky Pig)
  • "Bars and Stripes Forever" (Hardaway/Dalton; April 8; one-off)
  • "Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur" (Jones; April 22; with Daffy Duck; Final Warner Bros. cartoon to open with "VITAPHONE" and "Presents")
  • "Porky and Teabiscuit" (Hardaway/Dalton; April 29; with Porky Pig; First Warner Bros. cartoon to have "WARNER BROS." and "Present" instead of "VITAPHONE" and "Presents")
  • "Thugs with Dirty Mugs" (Avery; May 6; one-off)
  • "Kristopher Kolumbus Jr." (Clampett; May 13; with Porky Pig (as Kristopher Kolumbus Jr.))
  • "Naughty but Mice" (Jones; May 20; with Sniffles; also his first appearance and first appearance of Sylvester (then known as Proto-Sylvester)
  • "Believe It or Else" (Avery; June 3; with Egghead; final appearance of Egghead in the Golden Age In American Animation)
  • "Polar Pals" (Clampett; June 3; with Porky Pig)
  • "Hobo Gadget Band" (Hardaway/Dalton; June 17; one-off)
  • "Scalp Trouble" (Clampett; June 24; with Porky Pig and Daffy Duck)
  • "Old Glory" (Jones; July 1; with Porky Pig)
  • "Porky's Picnic" (Clampett; July 15; with Porky Pig and Petunia Pig)
  • "Dangerous Dan McFoo" (Avery; July 15; one-off)
  • "Snowman's Land" (Jones; July 29; one-off)
  • "Wise Quacks" (Clampett; August 5; with Porky Pig and Daffy Duck)
  • "Hare-um Scare-um" (Hardaway/Dalton; August 12; with Happy Rabbit)
  • "Detouring America" (Avery; August 26; one-off) Academy Award nominee.
  • "Little Brother Rat" (Jones; September 2; with Sniffles)
  • "Porky's Hotel" (Clampett; September 2; with Porky Pig and Dizzy Duck; second and final appearance of Dizzy Duck in the Golden Age in American Animation; first cartoon to have the finalized Looney Tunes logo)
  • "Sioux Me" (Hardaway/Dalton; September 9; one-off; final cartoon to use the 1938-39 green-yellow color rings)
  • "Land of the Midnight Fun" (Avery; September 23; one-off; first cartoon to feature the late 1939-early 40 red, white, and blue Color Rings with a sky cloud background circle (similar to the cloud background in the modern Warner Bros. Pictures logo))
  • "Jeepers Creepers" (Clampett; September 23; with Porky Pig)
  • "Naughty Neighbors" (Clampett; October 7; with Porky Pig and Petunia Pig; the final appearance of Petunia Pig in Golden Age of American Animation)
  • "The Little Lion Hunter" (Jones; October 7; with Inki and the Minah Bird; first appearance of both)
  • "The Good Egg" (Jones; October 21; one-off)
  • "Pied Piper Porky" (Clampett; November 4; with Porky Pig)
  • "Fresh Fish" (Avery; November 4; one-off)
  • "Fagin's Freshman" (Hardaway/Dalton; November 18; one-off)
  • "Porky the Giant Killer" (Hardaway/Dalton; November 18; with Porky Pig)
  • "Sniffles and the Bookworm" (Jones; December 2; with Sniffles; first appearance of the Bookworm)
  • "Screwball Football" (Avery; December 16; one-off)
  • "The Film Fan" (Clampett; December 16; with Porky Pig)
  • "The Curious Puppy" (Jones; December 30; with the Two Curious Puppies; final Warner Bros. cartoon to be released in the 1930s)

1940

  • "Porky's Last Stand" (Clampett; January 8; with Daffy Duck and Porky Pig)
  • "The Early Worm Gets the Worm" (Avery; January 13; one-off)
  • "Africa Squeaks" (Clampett; January 27; with Porky Pig, and special guest, Kay Kyser)
  • "Mighty Hunters" (Jones; January 27; one-off)
  • "Busy Bakers" (Hardaway/Dalton; February 10; one-off; final short directed by Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton)
  • "Ali-Baba Bound" (Clampett; February 10; with Porky Pig)
  • "Elmer's Candid Camera" (Jones; March 2; with Happy Rabbit and Elmer Fudd; also his first appearance)
  • "Pilgrim Porky" (Clampett; March 16; with Porky Pig)
  • "Cross Country Detours" (Avery; March 16; one-off)
  • "Confederate Honey" (Hardaway/Dalton (planned)/Freleng (finished); March 30; with Elmer Fudd; first short directed by Friz Freleng since 1938's A Star Is Hatched; first cartoon to have the mid-late 1940 rings evident from the red, white, and blue rings and black background)
  • "The Bear's Tale" (Avery; April 13; with Little Red Riding Hood, The Bad Wolf, and The Three Bears; also their first appearance)
  • "Slap-Happy Pappy" (Clampett; April 13; with Porky Pig)
  • "Porky's Poor Fish" (Clampett; April 27; with Porky Pig)
  • "The Hardship of Miles Standish" (Freleng; April 27; with Elmer Fudd)
  • "Sniffles Takes a Trip" (Jones; May 11; with Sniffles)
  • "You Ought to Be in Pictures" (Freleng; May 18; with Porky Pig, Daffy Duck with real-life people such as Leon Schlesinger, Michael Maltese, Gerry Chiniquy, Charles M. Jones, Bob Clampett, Henry Binder, and Paul Marin)
  • "A Gander at Mother Goose" (Avery; May 25; with Big Bad Wolf and The Three Little Pigs; also their first appearance)
  • "Tom Thumb in Trouble" (Jones; June 8; one-off)
  • "The Chewin' Bruin" (Clampett; June 8; with Porky Pig)
  • "Circus Today" (Avery; June 22; one-off)
  • "Little Blabbermouse" (Freleng; July 6; with Little Blabbermouse; also his first appearance)
  • "Porky's Baseball Broadcast" (Freleng; July 6; with Porky Pig)
  • "The Egg Collector" (Jones; July 20; with Sniffles and the Bookworm)
  • "A Wild Hare" (Avery; July 27; with Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny; first appearance of Bugs Bunny)
  • "Ghost Wanted" (Jones; August 10; one-off; last Merrie Melodies short in this era)
  • "Patient Porky" (Clampett; August 24; with Porky Pig and Happy Rabbit; the final appearance of Happy Rabbit in Golden Age of Animation; last Looney Tunes short in this era)

UnLooney Qualities

  1. Quantity Over Quality : Like Sesame Street, the series ran for way too long (it started in 1930), spanning a total of 9 eras and 1000 episodes. The series itself isn't bad by all means, it is a great series overall.
    • However, Frank Tashlin resigns after an argument with studio manager Henry Binder and worked for Disney in the story department, resulting in Chuck Jones taking over his unit.
      • As a result, it causes the series to jump the shark.
  2. Similar to the Buddy era, the writing style (particularly in Chuck Jones' cartoons) has shifted from being witty and clever to becoming slow, repetitive, and dull, in contrast to the late 1935-1938 period.
  3. The era is infamous focusing and marked the debut of Chuck Jones' boring early cartoons and Hardaway/Dalton cartoons started to decline in quality as well.
    • The main issue with these three individuals is that they attempted to emulate Disney, yet they lacked the ingenuity that characterized Disney's animated works, opting instead for an excessively cloying and saccharine approach during the period these shorts were produced.
      • Some of the stories are just not good and frequently lack humor.
      • Not helping that few of Hardaway/Dalton shorts are the rip-offs of the shorts by Tex Avery, with their only original star character Happy Rabbit (Bugs Bunny's prototype) being a rabbit version rip-off of Tex Avery's Daffy Duck but without any of the charm and likability Daffy had, so much to the point that even Friz Freleng remarked Happy Rabbit to be nothing more than "Daffy Duck in a rabbit suit".
      • Compared to Chuck Jones, Hardaway/Dalton did a much worse job in directing their Disney-esque cartoons, hence resulting the two to get demoted from director positions to storymen positions when Friz Freleng returned to the studio in 1940 and reclaimed back his unit from them, while Hardaway then left to Walter Lantz Productions soon after.
  4. Although Porky Pig was the main character of the Looney Tunes series between 1936 and 1939, the focus shifted away from him during this period. Bob Clampett, growing weary of Porky Pig, sought to highlight other characters and comedic elements.
    1. From 1937 to 1940, Clampett was under a contract with Leon Schlesinger that required him to produce only black-and-white Porky Pig cartoons. The stringent deadlines and budget constraints—he was allotted just $3,000 and four weeks for each short—led to Clampett's evident burnout, resulting in a decline in the freshness and appeal of these cartoons during that time.
  5. While Friz Freleng briefly left for MGM's ill-fated Captain and the Kids series between 1938-1939, Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton, who temporarily took over his unit, both tended to direct more Disney-esque cartoons.
  6. During this time, Tex Avery and Bob Clampett were trying to do "travelogue" cartoons, but however they're mostly very forgettable.
  7. Numerous bad/mediocre cartoons scattered throughout this era, such as:
    • "Elmer's Candid Camera" (which started Elmer’s career on a sour note)
    • "Porky's Picnic"
    • "It's a Ill Wind"
    • "The Curious Puppy"
    • "The Good Egg"
    • "Porky the Giant Killer"
    • "Gold Rush Daze"
    • "Fagin's Freshman"
    • "Confederate Honey" (which being back Friz in the poor way)
    • "Mighty Hunters"
    • "Sniffles Take a Trip"
  8. There are instances where characters, who often don't deserve it or haven't done anything wrong, are subjected to mean-spirited moments, such as:
    • Elmer seems to have got constantly tortured by Happy Rabbit for no reason whatsoever, in "Elmer's Candid Camera".
    • A running gag features Egghead teasing a ferocious lion (while funny), in "A Day at the Zoo".
    • Sniffles is fearful of almost every woodland creature that are practically harmless, in "Sniffles Takes a Trip".
    • "Porky's Poor Fish" ends in the very mean-spirited note as the cat tries to eat it, but the mouse turns monstrous, scaring the cat, shrinking him into a kitten, and crying as the mouse walks away.
  9. Some of the shorts (like "The Little Lion Hunter", "Africa Squeaks", "The Early Worm Gets the Bird", "Kristopher Kolumbus Jr.", "Detouring America", "Sioux Me", "Scalp Trouble", "Confederate Honey", "Pilgrim Porky", "The Hardship of Miles Standish", and "Mighty Hunters") have outdated offensive stereotypes of characters, most particularly African Americans or Native Americans.
  10. Certain times can be profoundly dark and disheartening.
    • A infamous scene of a Mother Hen trying to commit suicide when she can’t have a baby, as well as the baby turtle getting bullied and ostracized by the baby chicks in "The Good Egg".
    • A Day at the Zoo ends with Egghead getting eaten by the lion.
    • Daffy Duck's first death in "Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur".
    • A very infamous scene of the frog committing suicide in "Cross Country Detours".
    • Screwball Football ends on the dark yet surprisingly funny gag of the neighbor getting shot and killed by a baby.
    • Ali Baba-Bound has scenes referring to one of Ali Baba's men who has a bomb strapped to his head as a member of the "suicide squad".
    • Polar Pals has a scene of a hunter shooting his machine gun at a penguin, leaving bullet holes in the penguin's shadow, which dramatically dies as the penguin himself watches in horror.
  11. Some of the jokes can drag on for way too long (with "Cross Country Detours" being the worst offender).

Looney Qualities

  1. Midway into this era, Friz Freleng came back to produce new cartoons, thus saving the series.
    • Just like the Buddy era, without this era, we wouldn't have one of the most two memorable characters, Elmer Fudd and, of course, Bugs Bunny himself.
    • Though Tex Avery still continue to produce travelogue cartoons after this era, he also begin to direct some other non-travelogue cartoons which are great as well such as the Bugs Bunny cartoons, "The Crackpot Quail", "Of Fox and Hounds", amongst others until his departure to MGM in 1941.
      • In 1941, Bob Clampett was freed from Leon Schlesinger's restriction to only direct black-and-white Porky Pig Looney Tunes cartoons, starting with "Goofy Groceries" (1941). He was then permitted to direct color Merrie Melodies cartoons like his fellow Warner directors. Following Tex Avery's departure from the studio in 1941, Clampett received higher budgets from Avery's unit, which allowed him to improve the quality of Looney Tunes cartoons for the first time since 1937-1938. This led to acclaimed cartoons such as "Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid" (1942), "Horton Hatches the Egg" (1942), "A Tale of Two Kitties" (1942), and "The Hep Cat" (1942)—the first Looney Tunes cartoon produced in color—among others.
        • By 1942, Chuck Jones had learned from his earlier experiences and began directing cartoons that were much funnier and of higher quality, beginning with "The Dover Boys".
          • In 1943, Frank Tashlin rejoined Warner Bros., taking over Bob Clampett's former unit from Norm McCabe—who had led it from 1941 to 1943, producing exclusively black-and-white Looney Tunes cartoons. Tashlin directed several notable and humorous Looney Tunes shorts, marking a significant improvement from his earlier work prior to 1938. His contributions included "Porky Pig's Feat," "The Unruly Hare," "A Tale of Two Mice," and "Behind the Meatball," among others. He continued in this role until 1945 when he left Warner Bros. to direct live-action films, and Robert McKimson took over Tashlin's unit.
  2. There are still plenty of great, decent, or passable shorts from this period (especially from Bob Clampett and Friz Freleng):
    • "A Wild Hare" (Which started Bugs Bunny’s career on a high note)
    • "The Lone Stranger and Porky"
    • "You Ought to Be in Pictures" (the first ever animation/live-action hybrid cartoon in the Looney Tunes franchise)
    • "Dangerous Dan McFoo"
    • "Porky's Tire Trouble"
    • "Hamateur Night" (the best cartoon this era has to offer in the year 1939)
    • "Polar Pals"
    • "Detouring America"
    • "Thugs with Dirty Mugs"
    • "Scalp Trouble"
    • "Jeepers Creepers"
    • "Naughty Neighbors" (which ended Petunia Pig's career on the okay note)
    • "The Film Fan"
    • "The Bear's Tale"
    • "Porky's Poor Fish" (despite having a mean-spirited ending)
    • "A Gander at Mother Goose"
    • "Little Blabbermouse"
    • "Porky's Baseball Broadcast"
    • "Cross-Country Detours"
    • "Patient Porky" (which ended this era on a high note)
      • While Chuck Jones, Ben Hardaway, and Cal Dalton weren't as good as the other directors like Bob Clampett, Tex Avery, and Friz Freleng during this era; they did have their share of decent shorts as well; among those include;
        • "Robin Hood Makes Good"
        • "Prest-O Change-O" (which finally give Happy Rabbit his comeuppance)
        • "Bars and Stripes Forever"
        • "Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur"
        • "Old Glory"
        • "Snowman's Land"
        • "Hare-um Scare-Um"
        • "The Little Lion Hunter"
        • "Tom Thumb in Trouble"
        • "Ghost Wanted"
    • Likewise, while they are not the best shorts, "The Good Egg", "A Day at the Zoo", "Naughty But Mice", "Africa Squeaks" are still passable at best, even if some of those are forgettable shorts.
  3. Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton eventually learned from their mistakes as the former started writing most of the funny stories for the 1940-1951 Woody Woodpecker shorts, as well as supplying Woody's voice between 1944 and 1949; while the latter started doing strictly animation work in much funnier and better cartoons for Arthur Davis' unit (who took over Bob Clampett's unit following Clampett's departure from Warner Bros. in 1946) like "The Goofy Gophers" and "Mexican Joyride".
  4. Excellent voice acting from Mel Blanc and the other voice actors, for the most part.
    • Speaking of voice acting, the quality of the music, sound effects, and voice acting goes get better and cleaner.
  5. The animation is phenomenal, particularly in the colored shorts.
  6. It's fair to say that Chuck Jones isn't responsible for the content of his early cartoons since his role was limited to directing rather than writing them.

Trivia

  • Starting with "Porky's Hotel", all cartoons (from 1939 to 1964) have the finalized Looney Tunes logo that is still used to this day.
  • The finalized "That's All Folks!" writing debuts starting with "Confederate Honey" and is still used today.
  • The Porky drum ending is redesigned starting with "Jeepers Creepers", although it should have started with Looney Tunes short before that, "Porky's Hotel".
  • According to Canadian animation historian Gene Walz, "Thugs with Dirty Mugs" was banned from being released in Winnipeg, Manitoba back in the 1930s for glorifying criminal behavior and showing Killer Diller being punished like a schoolkid (by being shown in prison writing "I've been a naughty boy" several times on a blackboard with a prison-striped dunce cap on his head) rather than an adult, which the censors thought wasn't "sincere."
    • It should be noted that the Hays Code in America had a similar rule about not glorifying criminals or criminal activity in movies, but animated shorts such as this one were mostly exempt from this rule.
  • Before the release of the HBO Max streaming service, all of the Porky Pig shorts in this era were restored for the "Porky Pig 101" DVD while "Prest-O Change-O" (the only restored Curious Puppies cartoon during the time), "Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur", "Naughty but Mice", "Old Glory", "Hare-um Scare-um", "Little Brother Rat", "Sniffles and the Bookworm", "Elmer's Candid Camera", "Sniffles Takes a Trip", "A Gander at Mother Goose", "Tom Thumb in Trouble", "Little Blabbermouse", "The Egg Collector" and "A Wild Hare" (the only restored Bugs Bunny cartoon during the time) that was restored for DVD releases.
    • All of the Inki shorts, "Scalp Trouble", "Mighty Hunters", "Sioux Me", "Africa Squeaks", "The Good Egg", "Ghost Wanted", "Porky's Movie Mystery", "Kristopher Kolumbus Jr." and "Ali-Baba Bound" are the only shorts from this era that has yet to be restored.

Reception

This period of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, while not as poorly received as the bland Buddy era, nor as acclaimed as the late 1935 to 1938 period, garnered a mixed response from critics, audiences, fans of Looney Tunes, and animation enthusiasts.

Criticism of the era's animation often points to Chuck Jones, Ben Hardaway, and Cal Dalton's shorts for excessively mimicking Disney's charming style, resulting in a significant lack of the comedic brilliance and eccentric antics seen in cartoons directed by others. Their characters and cartoons were considered dull and nearly on par with the less successful Disney-influenced Merrie Melodies of the late-1933 to mid-1935 period. Additionally, Tex Avery's series of largely forgettable "travelogue" shorts, some harsh humor, darkly somber scenes, and antiquated offensive stereotypes were criticized. However, the era also saw more memorable works featuring Porky Pig and Daffy Duck by Bob Clampett, the return of Friz Freleng, and a mixed-to-positive reception of the animation quality in Jones' early cartoons, as well as those of Hardaway and Dalton to some extent.

Although these periods received mixed reviews, certain cartoons from these times were warmly received by both critics and audiences, particularly those by Bob Clampett, such as "Naughty Neighbors" and "Patient Porky," and by Friz Freleng, including "You Ought to Be in Pictures," "Little Blabbermouse," and "Porky's Baseball Broadcast."

Shorts with Their Pages

Videos

Load video
YouTube
Load video
YouTube

Comments

Loading comments...
Retrieved from "https://newqualitipedia.telepedia.net/index.php?title=Looney_Tunes_and_Merrie_Melodies_(1939-mid_1940)&oldid=192342"