Better late than never, right? I probably shouldn’t agree to participate in events so close to Christmastime. Anyway, I wanted to at least finish this post. So here goes.
I love Looney Tunes, I remember watching them on TV back in the day. I used to watch The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show every Saturday morning. Then, I remember also watching Looney Tunes on Cartoon Network and probably other channels. Then there was Tiny Toon Adventures which featured the “grown” Looney Tunes characters teaching the tricks of the trade to their younger counterparts. That show was a lot of fun. More recently, Cartoon Network featured The Looney Tunes Show, a sitcom-style cartoon starring Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. The premise of the show is that Bugs has retired and is living large after inventing a revolutionary carrot peeler. He no longer lives underground and instead lives in a nice home in a suburban neighborhood. Daffy Duck is Bugs’ roommate who moves in after falling on hard times and in need of support in every sense of the word. Daffy is a mooch who leeches off of Bugs’ money. For whatever reason, Bugs won’t kick him out. Despite my skepticism, The Looney Tunes show is actually very funny and clever.
I own all of the Looney Tunes Platinum volumes, as well as the Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection, and am so excited that Warner Brothers is releasing more volumes of Looney Tunes shorts. During this past April at the TCM Film Festival, my husband and I attended a panel celebrating Looney Tunes, specifically their Oscar-winning shorts. While we’d seen most of the shorts before, it was still a lot of fun and I love that Looney Tunes are still beloved today as they were decades prior. I think my love of classic film has definitely added to my enjoyment of the Looney Tunes. Since these shorts were originally created to air alongside the feature film, they were produced for adults as well as they lampooned the stars of the day. Where else but Looney Tunes would a classic film fan be able to identify a caricature of Ann Sheridan or Cesar Romero? Looney Tunes used spoofs of classic Hollywood stars for their basic character archetypes. A character resembling Edward G. Robinson was often a gangster, whereas someone resembling Humphrey Bogart might be a detective. Peter Lorre’s image was often spoofed whenever a strange character is needed, such as a mad scientist.
These are my Top 5 Favorite Looney Tunes shorts:
- “One Froggy Evening” (1955). A one-time appearance for what would eventually become Warner Brothers’ mascot, most memorably on the WB Network for a decade starting in 1995, before the channel changed branding and renamed itself the CW. “One Froggy Evening” starts with a man finding a box beneath the rubble at a construction site. After opening the box, the man finds a document dated 1892 and a live frog inside. Seeing daylight, the frog grabs his top hat and cane and starts singing and dancing to “Hello, Ma Baby!” Seeing his chance to make millions, the man starts marketing the singing and dancing frog. The only issue? The frog will only sing and dance when he and the man are alone. When other people are present, the frog acts like a regular frog. Throughout the short, the man’s life is slowly ruined as attempt after attempt to extort the frog fails. He reaches rock bottom when he’s arrested for disturbing the peace. The man is now homeless, living on a park bench, with the frog singing opera. When he tries to blame the noise on the frog, the policeman has the man committed. The funniest part of this entire thing comes at the end, when the frog is in the window of the sanitarium, caressing the bars and singing “Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone.”
- “What’s Opera Doc?” (1957) Elmer Fudd is trying to hunt down Bugs Bunny once again, but this time, he’s dressed as the heroic figure, Siegfried, from the Germanic legend. He sings “Kill the Wabbit” to the tune of “Ride of the Valkyries.” This then evolves into a full opera, with Bugs Bunny dressed in drag as Valkyrie Brunnhilde. ”Siegfried” and “Brunnhilde” dance in the opera as the hunt pursues and the story of the opera unfolds. This entire thing is hysterical as well as very well done. I recognized the music but had to look up the names of the characters. I am not up on my German operas. This short was eventually inducted by the Library of Congress into the National Film Registry.
- “Hollywood Steps Out” (1941). This is a short film featuring a cavalcade of Hollywood stars spending the evening at the hot nightclub, Ciro’s. This film is a “who’s who” of classic Hollywood (in 1941) and an absolute treat for any fan of classic Hollywood. Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche are seen at a table, then Adolph Menjou and Norma Shearer. Cary Grant is sitting alone and name drops three of his films. Greta Garbo is working as a cigarette girl, lighting matches with her enormous feet. “Oomph Girl” Ann Sheridan is heard saying “oomph” over and over again. Johnny Weissmuller is seen checking his coat and is decked out in a formal version of his Tarzan costume. Famous bubble dancer, Sally Rand, performs. Famous film gangsters, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, and George Raft are playing some sort of game with pennies. We observe Clark Gable and his enormous ears chasing a mysterious woman around the club. Other stars, including Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Tyrone Power, James Stewart, Errol Flynn, Henry Fonda, and dozens more are seen. The big reveal is when Gable finally catches up to the “mysterious woman.”
- “Hair-Raising Hare” (1946). This short features Bugs Bunny being hunted by an evil scientist (who looks a lot like Peter Lorre). The scientist wants to serve Bugs to his monster, Gossamer. Gossamer is orange, large, and wears sneakers. Using a female rabbit robot, the scientist lures Bugs to his castle. Eventually Bugs is locked inside the castle after learning that the female rabbit was in fact, a robot. This starts a cat and mouse game between Bugs and Gossamer, which features the hilarious scene of Bugs pretending to be a gossipy manicurist. He says to Gossamer, “I bet you monsters lead interesting lives…and I’ll bet you meet a lot of interesting people, too. I am always interested in meeting interesting people.” This whole cartoon is hysterical. In The Looney Tunes Show, Gossamer is one of Bugs Bunny’s neighbors and he’s the same size, but he’s a child. Daffy Duck helps him run for class president using the slogan “Gossamer is Awesomer.”
- “Three Little Bops” (1957). This is a short that tells the story of the Three Little Pigs, except this time they’re jazz musicians. The Big Bad Wolf desperately wants to be part of the band, but he’s too square. Each time the wolf makes his appearance, the Bops are playing a different gig–House of Straw, House of Sticks, and House of Bricks. Each time the Bops throw the Wolf out of the band for being lame, he retaliates by blowing the club down, using his trumpet. The Big Bad Wolf finally makes the cut when he dies, goes to Hell, thus is “hot,” his trumpet playing improves and now can play “cool.” His ghost joins the band. This is such a fun short. I love the music and the creative re-telling of the fairy tale.
Whimsically Classic 