Over on his blog, J.E. Daniels has posted a recent storybook called Peter Cottontail in Hot Water which was released in 2000 as part of a series of Looney Tunes children's books. It feels like an introduction to new characters from a possible proposed television series. The main character, "Peter Cottontail", almost feels like a modern update of the bunny character who starred in such 1930s Merrie Melodies as "The Country Boy" and "My Green Fedora" (who was also called "Peter", but I admit that's kind of a stretch). I am curious if anyone has more information about this concept, since this was the first I had ever seen of it. Click here to check it out.
Bugs pays tribute to Bosko in this clip from 1988's Bugs Vs. Daffy - Battle of the Music Video Stars television special. I have always found Daffy's reaction to be pretty funny.
I am sure this has happened to at some point to every fan of classic Warner cartoons... some catchy piece of music that Carl Stalling incorperated into the cartoon scores get stuck in your head and stays there for years. You get the tune stuck in your head at random times, yet you have no idea what the song actually is called. One such tune I have had bouncing around inside my head for a long time is the one I am writing about today. Below is Stalling using the music in a scene from 1942's "Porky's Cafe":
The same tune pops up throughout "Dog Tired" with the curious pups (also 1942). It later shows up in McKimson's "Muscle Tussle" (1952) during the scene where the huckster swindles Daffy into taking a "free" sample of 'Atomcal' elixir. Well, the all-knowing Jerry Beck informed me that the title of song was Louis Prima's "Tica Ti Tica Ta". Poking around on Google I found it was recorded by the likes of the Andrews Sisters, among others. I also dug up this YouTube video featuring a version of the song performed by Ginger Harmon and the Mercer Brothers.
It's funny that the song has NOTHING to do with the scenes that Stalling used it in (involving fixing breakfast or a con man on the beach), yet it fits perfectly anyway. That's the genius of Carl Stalling for ya.
Jerry Beck over on Cartoon Brew made a post about a new site devoted to classic cartoon coloring books which included a link to an ebay seller selling off hundreds of books devoted to any character you could possibly think of. I couldn't resist posting the cover of THIS one I found while browsing the site. It's a coloring book from Golden called Tweety and Sylvester and Their Friends, obviously made sometime during that period in the 1970s where Cool Cat was considered part of the main LT cast of characters. The word balloons over our cartoon pals indicate the book includes riddles, dot-to-dots, crossword puzzles and... recipes??? In a coloring book? You know this book is trouble when we have Tweety boasting about "exercises in creative thinking" and Sylvester talking directly to the parents.
Anyway, what really made me HAVE to post this cover was Yosemite Sam. Isn't he adorable? Giving green-eyed Sylvester a big ol' hug? He looks like he could be an extra on the Care Bears...
At some point later in the WB's existence, Michigan J. Frog became more of a symbol than a character. Here's a series of strange "Watch the Frog!" ads...
And at the risk of becoming "Michigan J. Blog", here's yet another WB clip...a station ID with Michigan eating a fly....
Here's another ad with Michigan J Frog singing about how we should watch the WB Network. This time he's singing an altered version of "The Michigan Rag" from the original "One Froggy Evening" short.
The "hiphop remix" one is pretty clever, and the bumpers shown here lasted for several years.
There are two Looney Tunes promos from Nickelodeon that still elude us...the "Definition of Looney" ad ("That's right folks! Now we're looney tuney!") There was also an ad for "More of the Looney Tunes you want to see, and no more Bosko. Sorry, Bosko!" If anyone runs accross those two gems, let us know!
It's the team-up we've all dreamed about (or have had nightmares about): Bugs Bunny and Cool Cat. J.E. Daniels has posted a comic story to his blog that pairs the wabbit with the tiger from a 1970 issue of Gold Key Comic Digest: Click here to check it out.
Ah yes, who can forget Michigan J. Frog's time as mascot for the late WB Network (1995-2006)? I'll spare you having to sit through too many ads of the frog singing the praises of shows only three people actually watched. Instead, here's a bizarre ad featuring MJ singing yet another version of his trademark "Hello My Baby" with altered lyrics. It seems oddly appropriate for tax day...
I recall reading how the WB Network originally wanted to use Bugs Bunny as the mascot for their newly formed TV network but ran into issues with that idea since Bugs had just begun being used as the mascot for Warner's "Family Entertainment" division. I guess it was for the best. Bugs didn't have to resort to trying to get people to watch garbage like Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher.
Over on Wikipedia (WARNING: TAKE THE FOLLOWING WITH A HUGE GRAIN OF SALT!) there is this interesting piece of information: The network's first night of programming on January 11, 1995 began with a debate between Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck over who the network should select as a mascot. The camera then panned over to Chuck Jones drawing Michigan on an easel. When Jones finished, Michigan leapt from the drawing to formally launch the WB.
If such a clip really exists, hopefully it shows up on YouTube someday.
The predecessor to the dearly departed Warner Bros. Studio Store was the WB studio's official mail-order catalog which was hawked by Daffy and Bugs in the late 1980s. These promos were featured at the start of select Warner Home Video VHS tapes around this time (the user who posted this to YouTube says this ad was on the Daffy Duck's Quackbusters video, for example). The one below features Daffy in a semi-parody of the old American Express commercials ("Do you know me?"). Mel Blanc is doing Daffy's voice here in one of his final performances as the LT characters. The highlight is a funny swipe at another famous (non-WB) cartoon star at the end of the ad.
A couple years ago, the Nanco company produced a plush doll of Beaky Buzzard in their assortment of LT dolls that they only make available to arcades, carnivals, claw machines, etc. Well, somebody on Amazon made up a listing for the Beaky doll I found rather amusing. Here's a picture of the real Beaky doll:
Here's a picture of what some Amazon seller seems to be trying to pass off as the very same Looney Tunes : Beaky Buzzard 10" Plush Figure Doll Toy:
Remember when Kids' WB showed good cartoons? (Heck, remember when "The WB" existed)?
A lot of former fans cite commercials like this as the beginning of the end. Here's a crude, painful little bit from 10 years ago. Sylvester, Wakko (of "Animaniacs") and that cat thing from Pokemon ("Meowth", I believe) sing "We Flush You a Merry Christmas" around a toilet.
How they got Joe Alaskey to do this and keep a straight face, I will never know.
Here's something you don't see every day...a model sheet of Frank Tashlin's wolf from "I've Got Plenty of Mutton" (1944.) Looks like it's the real deal too...not some cheap copy. Take a look and/or go for it while you can!
That, of course, is the impossible-to-get-out-of-your-head theme song to Germany's Speedy Gonzales show (Die Schnellste Maus Von Mexiko). A YouTube user by the name "puttra" has uploaded many German-dubbed cartoons as they appeared on this show, complete with show bumpers. In addition to the many Daffy/Speedy and Rudy Larriva Road Runner cartoons, the German Speedy show apparently also included Heckle & Jeckle cartoons (how did that happen??). Below is a German-dubbed Terrytoon with an intro by German-dubbed Speedy and Daffy introducing the talking magpies.
No, I have no idea what they are saying... is there a translator in the house?
I picked up the new Looney Tunes DC comic issue today, as I do every month despite its steady decline. I figured it'd be just as lousy as the last few issues, but I was pleasantly surprised.
Instead of yet another collection of model sheet cut-and-paste "all star" stories and tiresome obsession with Daffy Duck, this month's issue features three Bugs Bunny stories, and they're actually pretty good! In the first, written by Sam Agro and drawn by Walter Carzon and Ruben Torreiro, Bugs battles pirate Yosemite Sam. In the second, written by Matthew K. Manning and again drawn by Carzon and Torreiro, Elmer Fudd tries to sell Bugs Bunny an apartment as a thinly-veiled plot to cook him, and in the third, written by Robbie Busch and drawn by Pablo Zamboni and Horacio Ottoloni, Elmer Fudd joins a "Hare" club for men, and actually shows some personality for once...I won't give it away, but the outcome of Elmer Fudd vs. the Crusher is not what you'd expect.
Since the last bunch of issues has been SO lousy, I think it is worthy of mention when they get it right. If you see it, give it a look!
Here's a short cartoon produced by a company called Base Camp Studios and animated by Primal Screen for Cartoon Network. I never saw it, so it must've wound up on the European Cartoon Network.
Yosemite Sam runs into every cartoon cliche in the book...all in a day's work.
I really wanted to like 2003's Looney Tunes: Back in Action more than I did. I remember buying into the hype of how this was finally going to be the modern-day LT project that brought the characters back to their roots and would finally wipe away the stench of the likes of Space Jam, Baby Looney Tunes, et al. Well, the release day finally came and it still stands out in my mind as one of the most depressing movie going experiences I have had in recent memory. Sure, Space Jam has aged terribly and I will probably never own the DVD, but I remember seeing it in a packed house with an audience who was really in to it. On the other hand, I saw BIA in a nearly-empty theater (maybe five or six others, including some rather uninterested kiddies). I think you could have heard the crickets chirping (a la "Show Biz Bugs"). What went wrong?
The movie had some super talent on board, folks who cared about the Looney Tunes characters like director Joe Dante and animator Eric Goldberg... but the plot of the movie is where it crashed and burned. Despite the dozens of rewrites, the whole thing felt half-baked and overloaded with too many smug, Hollywood in-jokes for its own good (see also - The Rocky & Bullwinkle Movie, many Animaniacs cartoons). It's no wonder it didn't catch on with mainstream audiences. Don't get me wrong, there are some bright spots in the finished film... but for every bright spot, there are also embarrassingly unfunny scenes like the one with Brendan Fraser prancing around with midgets in Yosemite Sam masks. Another problem was how the LT characters took a backseat to the uninteresting live-action lead characters. The finished film feels like a Brendan Fraser/Jenna Elfman movie that just happens to have some cartoon characters in it. Perhaps a mostly animated "buddy" comedy starring Bugs and Daffy (minus the hammy human co-stars) would have made a more satisfying final product.
Anyway, I bring up the movie since I discovered someone posted the complete original opening (Daffy envisioning himself as the star of a Batman-like action movie) to YouTube. It was released as an excerpt (with Daffy's "commentary") on the official DVD, but here it is in its entirety. I actually think it's funnier than the rehash of "Rabbit Fire" that ended up kicking off the finished film.
Someone has posted the 1949 Capitol Record Bugs Bunny in Storyland on YouTube in two parts complete with the fantastic original storybook illustrations by Robert McKimson and Richard Thomas. It features the voices of Mel Blanc, Arthur Q. Bryan, and June Foray and appearances by Beaky Buzzard (as Simple Simon), Daffy Duck (as Duck Twacy) and even a rare non-comic book appearance by Porky's nephew, Cicero Pig. Story by Warren Foster and Tedd Pierce and music by Billy May.
Sorry for the lack of updates lately... I promise I will dig into one of my boxes o' LT crap soon. In the meantime, here's Bugs and Elmer in another vintage Kool-Aid commercial (another one I had never seen until it surfaced on YouTube).
