oz@rlgvax.UUCP (THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ) (02/21/86)
As many of you are probably aware this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Looney Tunes cartoons from Warner Bros. A few special events have already taken place to mark the occasion. Those of us on the east coast (and those of us willing to travel) were able to go to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and see a special exhibit on Looney Tunes which had some early "cels," some of the character drawings (did you know that Chuck Jones orig- inally wanted to call Wile E. Coyote, Don Coyote?) a short film on the people that made the cartoons and also had as guest speakers Mel Blanc (not only the voice of almost all the Looney Tunes Characters (he was NOT Elmer Fudds voice until the 1950's when the original "Elmer" died) but also the voice of such notables as Barney Rubble) Friz Freling (one of the original directors who did such incredible work in the 1930's and 1940's) Leonard Maltin (sp?) the rather enjoyable critic, and (TAA-DAAH!) Chuck Jones who with the late Michael Maltese created most of the CLASSIC most loved of the Warner Bros cartoons (to name just a few: "DUCK DODGERS," "WHAT'S OPERA, DOC?," "ONE FROGGY EVENING," "BULLY FOR BUGS," "THE RABBIT OF SEVILLE"). It was a spectical that I will long remember and enjoy. The only speaker that I was able to see was Chuck Jones. Among the interesting stories that he told was that Leon Schlessinger (the "producer" of the cartoons) stammered a bit. When the folks came up with Porky Pig they were trying to come up with a voice for him and someone (I can't remember if it was Mel Blanc or not) started doing an impression of Leon and everyone said "That's it." The day finally came when they had to show the first Porky Pig cartoon to Leon. Everyone was afraid that we would be outraged by the voice on the cartoon. He sat through the viewing fairly stone faced and at the end said: "Th-th-th- that was ma-ma-marvelous guys. Wh-wh-where did you get the si-si-silly voice?" (NOTE: in the cartoon "YOU OUGHT TO BE IN PICTURES" which has Porky meeting Leon and writer Michael Maltese (he was the cop that tried to keep him out of the movie studio) they dubbed in a different voice for Leon) Anyway, I thought that the net should also celebrate this occasion by coming up with a list of our favorite Looney Tunes (since Warner Bros seems to find the difference between Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies to be non-existant so will I) cartoons. Mail your submissions to me and I will tally the votes and post them. Please try and find out the real title of the cartoon so the votes can be tallied accurately. If you don't know the title, send me a brief summary of your favorite cartoon and I can probably come up with it. Lastly (as a public service) I would like to mention that a series of tapes has been released for the anniversary with many of the classic cartoons on them. There are over 8 tapes in both VHS and BETA format saluting Mel Blanc, Chuck Jones, Friz Freling, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Wile E. Coyote and you-know-who, Speedy Gonzoles, and Sylvester and Tweety. They are only 19.95 each and have some very funny cartoons. Another good source is Leonard Maltins book "Of Mice and Mickey" a history of animation. His section on Warner Bros is very good and as usual with Leonard, his writing style is enjoyable and his facts interesting. BUGS: "He's got me Doc, do you want to shoot me now or wait 'til you get home?" DAFFY: "Shoot him now, shoot him now!" BUGS: "You keep out of this, he doesn't have to shoot you now." DAFFY: "He does SO have to shoot me now. I insist that he shoot me now!" ELMER: B A N G ! ! ! OZ seismo!rlgvax!oz
hofbauer@utcsri.UUCP (John Hofbauer) (02/23/86)
Around 1975 I recall seeing a two part program titled (approximately) THE TENANTS OF TERMITE FLATS. It was part of a series called Camera 3 which appeared at 11 or 11:30 am on Sunday mornings on ABC. It was a profile of the people who formed the Warner's animation unit. Termite Flat was the rickety building they were happily exiled to on the Warner's lot and generally left alone to do what they loved. What was special about this program was that all the directors were still alive at the time. Sadly Tex Avery died shortly afterwards. He was responsible for the some of the wildest animation ever produced. His trademark was stretching characters completely out of shape, eyes popping out, etc. The last memorable work he did was create the classic RAID! tv commercials.