Today's post shall be devoted to films which debuted on April 17, which in godawful 2025 has been one awful day. Shall start with a U. S. Department of Agriculture short subject distributed by the U.S. Forest Service, starring Laurel and Hardy, with narration by MGM's Pete Smith.
Headliners from Famous Studios this writer actually likes: the wiseguy duo of Tommy Tortoise & Moe Hare.
Closing: the April 17, 1937 release Porky's Duck Hunt, a Termite Terrace piece-de-resistance directed by Tex Avery, featuring the first appearance of Daffy Duck and Bob Clampett's uninhibited animation.
Since this blog spotlighted Friz Freleng just a few weeks ago, Looney Tunes Collectors Choice volume 3 is out on Blu-ray, and we missed the Chuck Jones centenary for some inexplicable reason 12 years ago, that means. . . today is as good a day as any to travel from the absurd to the sublime and the sublimely absurd, which means it's high time we tip a top hat to Merrie Melodies master Chuck Jones a.k.a. Charles M. Jones. Here are what are arguably his best known three cartoons.
Duck Amuck (1953)
Here, the late great Robin Williams, no doubt a big time Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies fan boy, gives Chuck an Academy Award!
The first documentary I recall seeing on Warner Bros cartoons (on the heels of the epic and groundbreaking Film Comment article about animation by Greg Ford and Mark Kausler) was CAMERA 3 THE BOYS FROM TERMITE TERRACE (1975). It's also a blast from the past for me since I saw both Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett (live in person) in 1975! The one-hour TV special's host is a very young John Canemaker. Tex Avery, the ringleader of Termite Terrace, does not appear in the Camera 3 special, but Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett and Mel Blanc do.
A number of worthy documentaries spotlighting the great work of Chuck Jones and his colleagues followed.
And, now for some interviews.
Here's Chuck on the Dick Cavett Show in 1979.
Don't know how many episodes of The World Of Cartooning with Mike Peters exist, but two feature Chuck Jones!
The first Chuck Jones cartoon I remember seeing was DAFFY DUCK AND THE DINOSAUR (1939), a Merrie Melodie which got frequent run on local TV stations way back when.
After a stint as a cel washer with the Ub Iwerks Studio, Chuck was hired by Leon Schlesinger and ended among the various renegades and rapscallions in Tex Avery's crew at Termite Terrace.
He would animate in the crews of Tex Avery, Ub Iwerks (whose studio made a few Looney Tunes cartoons subcontracting with producer Leon Schlesinger) and Bob Clampett before getting his own production unit in 1938. Whether Chuck directed any sequences during his stretch working with Bob Clampett's crew I don't know - would need studio drafts for corroboration.
When head animator Robert McKimson passed on the opportunity to direct, Chuck Jones got to helm Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, starting with The Night Watchman.
Jones' early directorial efforts were by far the most Disney-esque cartoons ever to emerge from Warner Brothers Animation. Tops among them would be the highly imaginative 1941 Looney Tune JOE GLOW THE FIREFLY, which features a beautiful score by Carl Stalling - that guy who started with Disney.
Among the most Disney influenced cartoons of all to emerge from the Chuck Jones crew was TOM THUMB IN TROUBLE (1940).
One starts seeing a change in style from this Disney-influenced approach to the wackier Looney Tunes credo in such cartoons as PORKY'S CAFE, featuring the porcine powerhouse with the short-lived pantomimist character Conrad the Cat.
Best starring Porky Pig opus by the Chuck Jones crew?
Well, possibly in a tie with the horror-influenced cartoon SCAREDY CAT, that would be THE WEARING OF THE GRIN, a leprechaun-filled tale distinguished by demonic dancing shoes.
If one Merrie Melodie or Looney Tune can be identified as the key transitional piece in Chuck Jones' 20+ years as Warner Bros. cartoon director, that would be THE DRAFT HORSE (1942). The aforementioned Greg Ford's commentary track on this cartoon, which features the stellar character animation of key Jones collaborator Ken Harris, elaborates.
The transition to the zany Looney Tunes style continues further in The Dover Boys At Pimento U (1942), a hilarious spoof of 1890's morality tales. The voice acting genius of one of our favorites at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, the inimitable John McLeish, is a key factor in the success of this cartoon.
Sometimes Mr. Jones remade his early Disney-influenced cartoons. THE CURIOUS PUPPY was recast with wiseguy mice Hubie and Bertie.
Inevitably in a Chuck Jones tribute, we find it's time for more cartoons!
LOVE the commentaries that were on the DVD releases of these cartoons.
Again, to the outstanding animation of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies stalwart and classic comedy aficionado Chuck Jones, we extend respectful tips of battered top hats worn by Marcel "Tweedy" Perez, Max Linder, Charlie Chaplin & Roscoe Arbuckle (in THE ROUNDERS) and tipsy Arthur Housman in a 1932 Laurel & Hardy 2-reeler!
Today, we do a rare midweek post to pay tribute to the one, the only Friz Freleng (August 21, 1904 - May 26, 1995).
Along with his fellow Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies directors Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett and Frank Tashlin, Friz Freleng is among the kings of cartoons.
Friz Freleng's seven decade career in cartoons makes him one of our all-time favorites from the world of animation.
He began as an assistant animator with Walt Disney Productions, both in Kansas City and in Los Angeles, and was among the studio's young crew of very talented animators (Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harman, Rudy Ising, Rollin Hamilton) in the 1920's. Friz is in the following photo (from Michael Barrier's website) at the bottom left.
Since both Walt and Friz possessed hot tempers, that didn't go well, as duly noted in the late Jim Korkis' Cartoon Research article The Friz & The Diz. However, Mr. Freleng did get along just fine with fellow ex-Disney animators Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising and would subsequently work on numerous Harman-Ising productions released by Warner Brothers. These included the first Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies.
He would animate and sometimes direct numerous Merrie Melodies cartoons in 1930-1933.
Not long after independent producers Harman and Ising got the boot as cartoonmakers for Warner Bros. and the decision was made to establish an on-site cartoon production unit, Friz would settle in as the main director at the new Leon Schlesinger Studio.
He directed a slew of Merrie Melodies from 1934-1938.
As enthusiastic aficionados of Hollywood star caricatures cartoons, we love Freleng's 1936 Merrie Melodie THE COO COO NUT GROVE.
The Andy Devine sendup in the western spoof My Little Buckaroo (1938) is a hoot!
Freleng briefly ended up at MGM after leaving the Leon Schlesinger Studio in 1938. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoonmeister Joe Barbera remembers Friz.
While not every comics luminary translates to the silver screen as well as E.C. Segar's Popeye, Freleng's entries in MGM's short-lived animated version of the popular Katzenjammer Kids comic strip, a.k.a. The Captain & The Kids, are quite good.
Upon his return to Warner Brothers in 1940, Friz Freleng began an extended winning streak.
HERR MEETS HARE features Hermann Goering as a villain (as he and his ilk were in real life). A driving force in later Chuck Jones cartoons, Mike Maltese's utter disdain for the bombastic music of Richard Wagner, is a key factor in this gem. Love the commentary by film historian and animation expert Greg Ford.
Another memorable World War II cartoon from Freleng and his crew is Daffy The Commando (1943).
Best expression of the twisted relationship between Bugs Bunny and always moronic Elmer Fudd? STAGE DOOR CARTOON!
HARE TRIGGER and BUGS BUNNY RIDES AGAIN emphatically demonstrates how Freleng and crew (among many, animators Gerry Chiniquy, Ken Champin, Manny Perez, Virgil Ross and Art Davis, storyman Tedd Pierce, layout ace Hawley Pratt and all voice artists, led by Mel Blanc) mastered the western spoof.
Hare Trigger (1945)
Was Yosemite Sam was based on Friz?
The dynamic between steaming lil' hothead Yosemite Sam and always cooler than cool Bugs Bunny resulted in numerous hilarious cartoons.
Bunker Hill Bunny hit the Bijous, Roxies and Radio City Music Halls on September 23, 1950. The diehard cartoonologists at Anthony's Animation Talk watch the cartoon and elaborate. . .
Friz Freleng made a slew of lesser known humdinger cartoons in the late 1940's and through the 1950's.
The extremely funny Each Dawn I Crow was released theatrically on September 24th, 1949.
It is in a sub-genre, along with fellow WB cartoons Tom Turk & Daffy and Holiday For Drumsticks, that features a storyline involving poultry finding a way to not end up as tonight's entree.
Freleng and crew just kept on cranking out very funny cartoons through the 1950's and into the early 1960's.
Am especially fond of Three Little Bops (1957) the musical sendup of Three Little Pigs featuring Stan Freberg and the swingin' sounds of Shorty Baker.
And that recalls the hilarious Birds Anonymous, in which Sylvester joins a 12-step group.
To suggest that Mr. Freleng's work as director, animator and producer proved most formidable for well over half a century would be quite the understatement; his re-emergence as co-producer at De Patie-Freleng Enterprises (DFE) resulted in some of the very best animated cartoons of the 1960's and early 1970's. David DePatie remembers:
Here at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, we're especially fond of DFE's The Pink Panther - as is the family cat.
As always, the focus on the great work of Friz Freleng brings up how one can thank someone for a million laughs!
Given the choice between posting about April Fool's Day, National Ferret Day (April 2) or the soon approaching first day of baseball season, we At Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog go with MLB opening day. So, to end March, the baseball fans at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog go hog wild with baseball cartoons!
In Buddy's Bearcats, the always scintillating "Mr. Excitement" and star of Looney Tunes from the early days of the Leon Schlesinger Studio, Buddy, is the hometown hero of his baseball team. While some of the gags are more than a tad grotesque, the snappy action combined with Norman Spencer's uncharacteristically jaunty musical score makes for an enjoyable cartoon.
As fate would have it, Major League Baseball on Thursday announced its master 2021 Major League regular season schedule, which will begin with all 30 Major League Clubs playing on (that's right) April 1 - April Fool's Day. Can this blogger wait? No!
This writer's first experience of baseball well preceded his first pilgrimage to windy and always "chill" Candlestick Park to see the San Francisco Giants (Mays! McCovey! Marichal! Perry!). It was reading the celebrated comic strip Peanuts, in which Charlie Brown's woeful team was considerably worse than the execrable 40-122 New York Mets of 1962. Eventually the softball saga from the daily comics found its way into paperback reissues and the second animated version of the gang. Still love the comics of Charles M. "Sparky" Schulz.
The Schulz comics certainly had a genuine cuteness factor, served with dry wit, and once in a blue moon (or three, or eight) a Warner Brothers cartoon strayed, unwittingly or reluctantly, into that "Disney cute" territory.
Usually an uncharacteristically cute Merrie Melodie cartoon would be directed by Chuck Jones, but in this case the director is the guy who arguably was the greatest animator ever to work at Warner Brothers Animation - Robert McKimson.
It is stretching it to call this a baseball cartoon, as Hobo Bobo's pachyderm protagonist yearns to play ball, but does not swing the bat and rival Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig during the 6:38 running time, but who cares - love that elephant!
We at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog believe strongly that ultra-goofiness within a totally off-the-wall cartoon universe constitutes a vision as much as a high-falutin' French New Wave flick, so here's a cartoon by our friends at the Van Beuren studio.
No studio could combine primitive animation with delirious, off-the-grid wacko ideas quite like Van Beuren in the early 1930's. They stick with the off-the-wall program - perfection be damned!
There are good, bad and indifferent cartoons about baseball and the following, The Ball Game, a "bugs swinging bats" opus from the Aesop's Fables series, manages to be all three of those simultaneously . . . and also is quite funny. We note that one of the usual suspects from the studio's often hilarious Tom & Jerry series, animator, storyman and sometimes director George Rufle, is in the opening credits.
Speaking of Friz Freleng, the director of Baseball Bugs, arguably the greatest film about baseball ever made, he and his Merrie Melodies crew produced a terrific cartoon about the national pastime 10 years earlier.
That would be Boulevardier from the Bronx, based on the charming song and dance number performed by Jack Oakie and Joan Blondell in the Dick Powell - Ruby Keeler musical Colleen.
The baseball team's (literally) crowing star pitcher is cocky in more ways than one, and elements of this cartoon recall Disney's Silly Symphony Cock Of The Walk. While Friz Freleng's cartoons were in the process of moving away from the Silly Symphonies Lite seen in much of the industry, this would be an instance of his Merrie Melodies matching the Disney studio in their genre, on a fraction of the budget. Baseball fans will note the reference to pitcher Dizzy Dean.
This cartoon was so good that a bunch of the animation from Boulevardier from the Bronx got used again for Freleng's 1940 Looney Tune Porky's Baseball Broadcast.
Released theatrically on January 27, 1936 - eight months before Boulevardier from the Bronx - was the Walter Lantz studio's Oswald Rabbit cartoon Soft Ball Game. Expanding upon the concept of arachnid baseball seen in the Aesops Fable cartoon, not only rabbits and insects play ball but gorillas, porcupines, turtles and octopi. The ideas throughout are very clever. It's a standout among the later Ozzie The Lucky Rabbit cartoons.
OSWALD THE LUCKY RABBIT - SOFT BALL GAME 19365
This would not be the only Walter Lantz opus about baseball.
The early and enjoyably grotesque "goony bird" design of Woody Woodpecker (before Shamus Culhane and Art Heineman came along to give the Woodster a makeover) inadvertently and impudently ends up on the diamond in The Screwball.
We close with an ingenious mashup of bits from two of this blogger's favorite animated cartoons about baseball. The following poster on DailyMotion combines HOW TO PLAY BASEBALL and BASEBALL BUGS, two masterpieces.
I'm raising my soon to be significantly less than half-full glass to Bob Clampett. He's definitely among The Beatles of cartoon directors (with Tex Avery, Chuck Jones and Frank Tashlin - perhaps with Friz Freleng as either "5th Beatle" Billy Preston or Pete Best). I am proud to have worked, in collaboration with animator, filmmaker and historian Mark Kausler, on one of the first published filmographies of his work way back when (uh, I was a zygote at the time, really).
For a bit of background on Bob's career, check out this superb post on David Germain's blog.
Then take a gander at this remarkable scene, by ace animator Robert McKimson, from one of Clampett and crew's masterpiece Book Revue. This is followed by the complete cartoon.
Bob Clampett is very important to me personally. On the same day when I met Bob in the 70's, I bought my first 16mm films. He was uncommonly nice and generous with his time to me, then a goofy 17 year old long-haired guitarist obsessed with music and old movies (now I'm the same thing, only 51). He was also very supportive of my efforts to get recognition for animation as an art form - at that time, cartoons and comedy in particular got the full Rodney Dangerfield treatment.
At least to me, Bob was absolutely effusive in his praise of other artists, more interested in talking about stuff that inspired him - whether it was the exciting swing music of Duke Ellington or the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Willis O' Brien's innovative stop-motion animation in THE LOST WORLD or Tex Avery's cartoons - than about his own work. He loved his collaborators and mentors; his eyes lit up whenever I said the words Rod Scribner, Manny Gould (for non-animation buffs, these were just two of the brilliant animators who contributed virtuoso work to Bob's cartoons) or Tex Avery. He was also the only "Golden Age Of Cartoons" icon I heard praise lesser known but important animation directors as Hugh Harman, Rudy Ising and Sid Marcus. All of this was in stark contradiction to a lot of things that were said and written about Bob during his lifetime.
Raise your glass and enjoy any one of the amazing WB cartoons directed by Bob Clampett, one of the greatest animation visionaries and comic minds who ever lived.
