This Weekend's Cartoons

Totally stumped for a topic today, but always Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, we're sticking with the animation theme of recent posts.

This weekend's cartoons were released to movie theatres on September 23-25. First, here's a clip from Friz Freleng's Bunker Hill Bunny, which hit the Bijous, Roxies and Radio City Music Halls on September 23, 1950.



The following transfer of Bunker Hill Bunny from DailyMotion is not nearly as sharp as the clip but will do in a pinch. Freleng's unerring comic timing is in top form throughout the cartoon.

What would life be without a travelog parody spot gag cartoon? Noting that it would be life without a travelog parody spot gag cartoon, here's a signature travelog parody spot gag cartoon The Land Of The Midnight Fun, directed By Tex Avery and released to theatres on September 23, 1939.



Now we transition to the black & white Looney Tunes series.



Also released theatrically 83 years ago today, Jeepers Creepers, one of the many black & white Looney Tunes directed by Bob Clampett.



Unfortunately, did not turn up a single Daffy Duck opus (in Cinecolor or Technicolor) that was released to theatres on September 23-25.

However, did find, of all things, an Elmer Fudd starring vehicle. That would be Each Dawn I Crow, directed by Friz Freleng, released theatrically on September 24th, 1949. It is in a sub-genre, along with fellow WB cartoons Tom Turk & Daffy and Holiday For Drumsticks, featuring a storyline involving poultry finding a way to not end up as tonight's entree. Most notable: a marvelously grotesque gag with a rooster chain-smoking cigarettes.

Also a September 24 theatrical release, A Feud There Was (1938), directed by Tex Avery and starring "Elmer Fudd, Peacemaker" (who still looks like Egghead). It tops Clampett's Looney Tune Naughty Neighbors as the last word in gags about "Hatfields-McCoys" feuds and bearded hillbillies.

Hare Splitter, a Friz Freleng classic that strikes this viewer as a rather twisted Valentine's Day cartoon, hit movie theatres on September 25, 1948.

One imagines there were cartoons from Tex Avery's stretch directing Merrie Melodies in the latter 1930's he would prefer to forget. This, in movie theatres on September 25, 1937, was very likely one of them. Still, Tex managed to get a couple of signature "breaking the fourth wall" bits and a joke about a rum-soaked alcoholic sailor parrot voiced by Billy Bletcher (see 1:39) into the mix.

We know this is just a small sample of animated cartoons that debuted on September 23-25 and that today's post invariably involves omissions.