Russian Rhapsody

I know, it's a little past Memorial Day. But it's never too late to enjoy a great wartime cartoon that's really hard to see these days! Bob Clampett's "Russian Rhapsody"(1944) takes a very UNfunny historical figure and lampoons him in a very funny way. In World War II, Adolf Hitler, angry that Germany can't quite make it into Russia, decides to fly his own bombing mission to Moscow. He soon learns first-hand what's been happening to his German planes! A whole bunch of "Gremlins from the Kremlin" (caricatures of the Warner animation staff) make a mess of the evil dictator and his plane!

Russian Rhapsody

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Kentucky Fried Leghorn

Here are a couple more commercials from Foghorn's (slightly disturbing) 1986-7 stint as KFC spokeschicken. First, Foggy tells Henery Hawk how great Kentucky Fried Chicken is (over existing animation from classic McKimson shorts):



Toro the Bull (from "Bully For Bugs") makes an appearance in this next ad from 1987 (it's the 2nd commercial in this longer video below):



Thanks to Frank (reyfamily) for the videos and Tim Hollis for the image.

Trix Magnets

A Trix cereal box from 1979 promoting a set of Looney Tunes magnets.





As you can see, it's a pretty interesting selection of characters... including Merlin, Slowpoke and even Marc Anthony. Don't ask me what they are doing in those poses. Running? Dancing? Shaking off fleas? I have no clue.




Thanks to Tim Hollis for the images.

1-800 Beep Beep!

Here is a commercial from 1986 featuring the Road Runner for Purolator Courier. Thanks again to Frank ("ReyFamily") at the GAC Forums for this great clip!)

An early "Tiny Toons" classic

As I've pointed out before, "Tiny Toon Adventures" was a much better show than it's given credit for. Take, for instance, this early segment featuring Sylvester, Furball, and Lil' Sneezer. Not only is this one of the first times we hear Joe Alaskey voicing Sylvester, it's also the debut of Sneezer, one of the only Tiny Toon stars patterned after a classic character NOT owned by Warner Bros. at the time. Clearly inspired by Chuck Jones' Sniffles the Mouse, Sneezer never appeared alongside his "mentor", presumably because all of the Sniffles cartoons were then owned by Turner.

Also note that Furball is cast as a young protege of Sylvester here. In later episodes, the character became less derivitive of his mentor and more of an original character. While he occasionally talked in early episodes, that idea was eventually dropped entirely, and he became a completely pantomime character, something then unheard of in made-for-TV animation. He eventually became Elmyra's long-suffering pet, and the host to a family of Italian fleas. He also appeared in a couple of surprisingly touching cartoons as a homeless alley cat in search of a home, which many fans believe were created by Steven Spielberg himself.

I Like Central Park Better!

Time out for a rather obscure 1942 Looney Tune directed by Norm McCabe:

Acme Arsenal

Here's another Looney Tunes-based video game that I will probably never play. Coming later this year, LOONEY TUNES: ACME ARSENAL from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and developed by RedTribe. If you are curious to see more, a website has recently launched: http://www.AcmeArsenal.com/.

If you have ever wanted to see an angry looking 3-D Foghorn Leghorn shooting laser blasters (and who hasn't??), this game is for you...

Weetabix Wabbit

Here is a musical commercial for "Weetabix" cereal featuring Bugs and Elmer. I really don't have more information about this, except it appears to be a fairly recent commercial (1990s?).
Thanks to Michael Bailes for sending this to us:



To be honest, I had never even heard of "Weetabix" before today...

Daffy and Speedy: a bad pairing. Or...ARE they?

People make fun of me all the time for saying that the 1960's cartoon pairing Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales had their moments. There were so many bad ones that people might not delve further to find some that are actually pretty funny! This one, for example, "Feather Finger", gives Daffy a logical reason to pursue Speedy, and has a great ending to boot!

Deformed ColorForms

Poorly designed products with the Looney Tunes characters are nothing new. Here is the box art to a set of Bugs Bunny ColorForms from the 1960s.

Nanco's Claw Machine Characters

A company called Nanco has been producing a series of Looney Tunes stuffed dolls exclusively for the claw machine game market. Over the past 5 years, I've won many of these, in fact more than are pictured here. They come in various sizes (there's a small, medium and large of each character, usually). What's remarkable is the likeness to the original Jones, Clampett and McKimson designs that they've managed to acchieve, even on the smallest sizes. Here's a look at my most recent claw conquest...notice its Clampett-iness!




It's a smaller version of a "set"...here's his counterpart, in medium size:



Nanco has also been making a series of "multicolored" Tasmanian Devils, and I'm told they've done something similar with Tweety.



Even more Nanco Looney Tunes:






To see more Nanco Looney Tunes and other characters, go here!

http://www.nancobos.com/cgi-bin/imageFolio.cgi?bool=and&search=looney+tunes&cat=

The Fastest Mouse in... Italy?

Here are a couple Italian posters promoting the cartoons of Speedy (along with Tweety and Sylvester). I don't know much else about them, but found them interesting enough to post here.

The Original Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show

Thanks again to Frank for more great video clips.

Here is the original 1986 opening to The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show on ABC. This opening was used for the first two seasons before ABC started using the more familiar "This Is It" opening (these later openings can be found on your Golden Collection DVDs). It is interesting to point out that Bugs & Tweety was originally only a half-hour show, it didn't switch to its more well-remembered full hour format until 1988-9 television season.

Anyway, here's the clip. Also included is a "Laffy Taffy" commercial featuring Daffy Duck.



And here is the closing of the show. During this season ABC also ran short public service spots teaching kids about the United States Constitution featuring the LT characters. This particular spot features the Road Runner and Coyote.

Little Go Beep...finally!

It may not be as impressive as it must have been in its intended theatrical format, but "Little Go Beep", the "lost" Road Runner short from 7 years ago, has finally surfaced for public viewing, on AOL's "In2TV" website, alongside many other Warner classics. Directed by Spike Brandt and written by Earl Kress, this cartoon showcases Wile E. Coyote's first encounter with the Road Runner. It's not the best cartoon I've ever seen, but it's certainly not the worst. It was given a limited release in 2000, to critical acclaim, but unfortunately, critics were the only people who saw it. It's beautifully animated and scored, and it's not to be confused with the horrible "Baby Looney Tunes" TV series! Notice the Road Runner's "training wheels!"

Ride Him, Bosko!

Matthew posted about the Harman-Ising Merrie Melodies the other day, so I thought I'd post something with the first Looney Tunes star: Bosko. Here is one of my favorite Bosko shorts: "Ride Him, Bosko!" from 1932. It's very funny and has some great music on the soundtrack. Don't miss the unexpected ending!

Bugs Moves to ABC

For the 1985-6 TV season, Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes moved from their longtime Saturday morning network TV home of CBS to ABC. For their first season on ABC, the show went by the title of The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Comedy Hour. The show's opening was definitely not as memorable as CBS' openings were, but I still got a big kick out of seeing this again (I hadn't seen this since it originally aired when I was a kid).



You may have noticed two big omissions from the list of characters the narrator introduces: Speedy Gonzales and Tweety. Tweety was oddly absent from this initial season, he returned the following year to share top billing with Bugs when the show was retitled The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show (which, of course, had a very successful run on ABC... lasting until the fall of 2000). Speedy's cartoons never showed up on ABC during the entire run of the show (aside from his cameo in the 1979 made-for-TV short "The Fright Before Christmas").

Thanks again to Frank from the GAC Forums for this great clip.

It's Cartoon Gold For Young and Old

A follow-up to our previous Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show post. Thanks to Frank (ReyFamily on the GAC Forums) for the following videos.

Here is the full opening to the 1984-5 season of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show. Even though this updated "Cartoon Gold" opening was only used for this one season (the show's final season on CBS), it is still well remembered by anyone who saw it back when it aired on Saturday mornings...



And here is a link to a video file of the closing credits... Click here.

Bunny and Claude (We Rob Comic Pages)

Issue 124 of the Bugs Bunny comic book from 1969 featured an adaptation of the cartoon "Bunny and Claude (We Rob Carrot Patches)" (which was released the year before). While Cool Cat and Merlin appeared for a number of years in the LT comics (outlasting their animated counterparts), I am not aware of any other Bunny and Claude comic appearances. I believe our pal Thad K made these scans almost 4 years ago... and I never found a use for them until now.



PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

PART 5

PART 6

PART 7

PART 8

PART 9

PART 10

PART 11

Ziploc Doc

From 1983, here's a contest that Ziploc ran featuring Bugs and Porky.



Prizes included $10,000 in cash...or 3 tons of carrots. I hope whoever won chose the carrots.



In 1989, Ziploc did another Looney Tunes-themed promotion. This time it was a mail-away offer for a free (with a bunch of proof-of-purchases) set of Bugs Bunny and friends plastic cups (in honor of Bugs' 50th birthday). I actually own a set of these things. My grandmother sent away for them for me. The four cups were: Bugs, Daffy, Elmer, and Wile E/Road Runner.

Looney Tunes In A Flash

Here's a video I made...thought readers might enjoy it. It's the evolution of Looney Tunes in less than 2 minutes. And yes, I know there are many glaring omissions...but I still had fun with it! See how many cartoons and characters you can pick out!

Looney Tunes In A Flash
Uploaded by MatthewHunter

Cin-Crow De Mayo

Here's a good way to start a Cinco De Mayo weekend. Enchiladas and margaritas not your thing? Try a cartoon!

"Two Crows from Tacos" (1956)

Merrie Melodies - Two Crows From Tacos
Uploaded by Necopodalex