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One Froggy Evening and Long-Haired Hare: A Looney Tunes Thread - Page 2

post #51 of 87
3/5/10 at 9:17pm
Thread Starter 
You know, I actually haven't seen that.

When it came out, I was afraid it would suck. Then time passed and I forgot about it.

This thread has made me decide to remedy that soon.
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post #52 of 87
3/5/10 at 9:47pm
Agree that Back in Action was surprisingly entertaining. That chase through the Louvre was fantastic.

New topic: who's the Looney Tunes character you never enjoyed? For me, I could never get into Speedy Gonzales. Not for any PC reasons, I just found him one-note and irritating.
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post #53 of 87
3/5/10 at 10:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ratty View Post

New topic: who's the Looney Tunes character you never enjoyed? For me, I could never get into Speedy Gonzales. Not for any PC reasons, I just found him one-note and irritating.
Freakin' Pepe LePew. I can't remember a single funny gag from any of those cartoons.

Anyway, despite my avatar (Tom & Jerry was my first love, at three years old), nothing beats Looney Tunes. The Bugs Bunny / Road Runner Movie was the VHS tape I watched a thousand times a year when I was little (every kid has one). And after thirty years, half of the conversations between my brother and me consist almost exclusively of Looney Tunes quotes.

Personal favorite Wile E. gag was when he laid out a giant piece of flypaper and caught a giant fly.

Yosemite Sam is easily my favorite foil. So dumb, and yet so stubborn. (Same reason I love Tom the cat.) He's also the victim of my favorite Looney Tunes (OK, Merrie Melodies) sight gag: In "Bugs Bunny Rides Again," he's chasing Bugs on horse through a train tunnel, Bugs comes out the other side first and walls up the tunnel exit with bricks. Then, in an absolutely fantastic bit of animation, we follow behind Sam into the tunnel, it goes pitch black for a second, and then for maybe two frames we see Sam's silhouette splayed against the brick wall, like the force of his collision briefly illuminated the tunnel. It looks like a painted background they lit for a fraction of a second. Genius.
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post #54 of 87
3/5/10 at 10:38pm
In defense of Pepe Le Pew, while his main storylines were kind of pedestrian, the sight gags revolving around his wafting stench were often brilliant. I wish I could find the one where a frog is ribbitting on a lily pad, smells the stench and then just starts screaming. Killed me.
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post #55 of 87
3/12/10 at 2:04pm
Thread Starter 
As far as Pepe Le Pew goes, the problem with those was that they seemed to be the same cartoon over and over again. The cat would get a white strip of paint on her tail and then Pepe chases her around. Most of the Lonney Tunes formula shorts tend to have the same basic premise, I know. But, in Pepe's case, it just seemed more one-note and repetitive than usual.

Mel Blanc did give that characterization his all, you have to admit.

I agree that Speedy Gonzales pretty much sucks. Why is it that Sylvester gets stuck with the most unsympathetic foils? I'll take Tweety over Speedy. But Tweety is still an asshole.

How about a discussion of underused characters? Am I the only one who would have wanted to see more or diminuitive gangster Rocky?
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post #56 of 87
3/12/10 at 2:41pm
Slowpoke Rodriguez>>>>Speedy Gonzalez. Thats pretty much my answer for underutilized characters, too.
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post #57 of 87
3/12/10 at 3:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Justin Clark View Post
Slowpoke Rodriguez>>>>Speedy Gonzalez. Thats pretty much my answer for underutilized characters, too.
I love Slowpoke Rodriguez. I still maintain that would be a great band name, also.
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post #58 of 87
3/12/10 at 3:11pm
They didn't appear much, but I always got a kick out the screamingly gay, British Chip-and-Dale clones. The one where they get trapped in the food processing factory was kind of great.
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post #59 of 87
3/12/10 at 11:48pm
This thread is awesome, and reminds me I need to find some of this stuff on DVD, for me as much as for wanting to show them to my daughter. She responded well to Tom and Jerry, but there is absolutely no Looney Tunes on the TV dial anymore. Several months ago I tried to show her Daffy's Quackbusters when one of the on demand channels showed it, and she lost interest real quick. I know it can be fruitless and frustrating to shove our childhood favorites on our children, but I feel I got to try harder, if only to share a fraction of the joy these cartoons gave me when I was young.

I suppose this is for another thread, and I don't want to pollute, but reading about all these old cartoons got me to thinking about some of the other stuff I liked as a kid, does anybody remember Freleng's Tijuana Toads? Not in the same league as the WB stuff, for sure, but god damn that theme tune pulls some nostalgic punches.
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post #60 of 87
3/13/10 at 12:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff M View Post
* Swooner Crooner (1944)
This toon is freakin' great.
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post #61 of 87
3/13/10 at 12:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martianman View Post
There's also the point that it's hard to tell where Sam's eyebrows end and his head begins. Love me some Yosemite Sam. "
I recall a bit where Sam got blowed up REAL good and his facial hair was burned off, and he was just a nose with two eyes on top. Good stuff.
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post #62 of 87
3/13/10 at 12:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson View Post
Greatest Foghorn Leghorn line ever: "No, I better not look. I just might be in there."
"That boy will need a slaahd rule to fine me in hee-yah."

*Kid busts out slide rule*
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post #63 of 87
3/13/10 at 12:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul C View Post
Back to Wile E, I'd completely forgotten this piece of pure genius:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz65AOjabtM
I swear that happened to me the other day.
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post #64 of 87
3/13/10 at 12:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Erix View Post
As far as Pepe Le Pew goes, the problem with those was that they seemed to be the same cartoon over and over again. The cat would get a white strip of paint on her tail and then Pepe chases her around. Most of the Lonney Tunes formula shorts tend to have the same basic premise, I know. But, in Pepe's case, it just seemed more one-note and repetitive than usual.
You guys just don't appreciate stalker/date rape humor...in the 50s yet! Pepe was just waaaaayyy ahead of his time.
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post #65 of 87
3/13/10 at 12:21am
My absolute favorite Bugs bit.

"Cooooommmmeee. Baaaack. Liittttllllleeee. Raaaab. Biiiit."
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post #66 of 87
3/13/10 at 12:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ratty View Post

New topic: who's the Looney Tunes character you never enjoyed? For me, I could never get into Speedy Gonzales. Not for any PC reasons, I just found him one-note and irritating.
"Cat-Tails for Two" - all other Speedys are pale imitations. ("I like those fellows, all the time having fun!")

As another question, how many people were shocked to realize that the "George" references were all a callback to Of Mice and Men, when they finally hit HS/college?
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post #67 of 87
3/13/10 at 12:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chavez View Post
This toon is freakin' great.
Swooner Crooner
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post #68 of 87
3/13/10 at 12:50am
I still use the saying "gonna get me a rabbit and hug him and squeeze him and name him George.."

I remember a while back having a conversation and/reading about how off the wall the "cartoon violence" was back then (way way before anything PC)

Course I recall seeing a cartoon (which I read isnt even aired anymore) where something odd happens and this non tweety bird says "Now I ve seen everything"and blows its brains out. I know I didnt imagine this, anyone else remember this scene/cartoon?
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post #69 of 87
3/13/10 at 1:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnyZ View Post
I still use the saying "gonna get me a rabbit and hug him and squeeze him and name him George.."

I remember a while back having a conversation and/reading about how off the wall the "cartoon violence" was back then (way way before anything PC)

Course I recall seeing a cartoon (which I read isnt even aired anymore) where something odd happens and this non tweety bird says "Now I ve seen everything"and blows its brains out. I know I didnt imagine this, anyone else remember this scene/cartoon?
It's a cat in "An Itch In Time" (There'll be foood around the cornerrr..) but they may have repeated the "gag" in other cartoons.
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post #70 of 87
3/13/10 at 1:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnyZ View Post

Course I recall seeing a cartoon (which I read isnt even aired anymore) where something odd happens and this non tweety bird says "Now I ve seen everything"and blows its brains out. I know I didnt imagine this, anyone else remember this scene/cartoon?
There was a BB cartoon where a dog thought he killed Bugs and shot himself through the head at the end; and there was a Daffy wartime cartoon where a pigeon got seduced and when he realized what he'd done, shot himself in the head.

In both these, it wasn't graphic, they basically put the gun to their heads and an explosion popped out of the the opposite ear, but it was pretty apparent they weren't going to be getting up.
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post #71 of 87
3/13/10 at 10:39am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith F View Post
Several months ago I tried to show her Daffy's Quackbusters when one of the on demand channels showed it, and she lost interest real quick.
You may be going about it the wrong way. Don't start with the movies. They're not very good. Give it to her in tidbits. The same way you were introduced to the cartoons. Get one of the Golden Collections and show her the shorts. Start simple. If she liked Tom and Jerry, give her a dose of Wile E. Or Sylvester and Tweety. Then move on to the more cerebral antics of Daffy, Bugs and Porky.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chavez View Post
You guys just don't appreciate stalker/date rape humor...in the 50s yet! Pepe was just waaaaayyy ahead of his time.
This is an interesting point. Though I'm not saying that those shorts didn't have their moments. I just can't tell them apart is all.

Coyote and Road Runner blend together too. But that doesn't matter as much. I view it as a complete masterwork.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chavez View Post
As another question, how many people were shocked to realize that the "George" references were all a callback to Of Mice and Men, when they finally hit HS/college?
For me, it came a bit earlier than that. I went to a great elementary school in NY... We called our teachers by their first names and there were carpets and "reading circles" for free time and shit like that. (P.S.3 - yes it was a public school and I hope they kept the faith) and we actually read Of Mice And Men in 6th grade. It was definitely a lightning bolt of a revelation and, my God, I felt like a genius when I realized that The Abominable Snowman was a caricature of Lenny.

Then, in 8th grade, when my Junior High School caught up with my elementary school, I realized it was specifically a take on Lon Chaney Jr's portrayal of Lenny in the Lewis Milestone picture. (I didn't catch that the first time because we watched the Robert Blake/Randy Quaid version in 6th grade.)

Oh and I use that phrase too... Especially when "torturing" a dog or a cat.
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post #72 of 87
3/15/10 at 6:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ratty View Post
They didn't appear much, but I always got a kick out the screamingly gay, British Chip-and-Dale clones. The one where they get trapped in the food processing factory was kind of great.
Indoominably!


For my money tho, of we're talking lesser featured characters that don't get enough love, I reckon no one ever gives the comedy props they deserve to Chuck Jones version of the three bears.

Henry, Ma and Junior are some of the funniest creations he made I reckon.

"but Henry..."
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post #73 of 87
3/15/10 at 6:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnyZ View Post
I remember a while back having a conversation and/reading about how off the wall the "cartoon violence" was back then (way way before anything PC)

Course I recall seeing a cartoon (which I read isnt even aired anymore) where something odd happens and this non tweety bird says "Now I ve seen everything"and blows its brains out. I know I didnt imagine this, anyone else remember this scene/cartoon?
They air it, but without the gunshot.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Count Floyd View Post
It's a cat in "An Itch In Time" (There'll be foood around the cornerrr..) but they may have repeated the "gag" in other cartoons.
On the same note, they repeat it in Bugs' second race with the tortoise, where the rabbit mafia keeping him from running collectively blow themselves away after realizing Bugs was the rabbit.

That first one is one of my favorite gags, though, mostly due to how sedate the bird is leading in.
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post #74 of 87
8/4/10 at 8:48pm
Reviving thread. I hope.

"A Tale of Two Kitties" was by no means one the better shorts, but I really got a kick out of the Abbott & Costello cats. It was more about knowing the Abbott & Costello shtick and watching it in cartoon form.

It was also the introduction of Tweety Bird (or Tweety Pie if you like) back when he was a naked baby bird.

Growing up I was never aware of the Daffy cartoons from earlier in his career. It was such a revelation when I saw shorts like, "My Favorite Duck", "Baby Bottleneck", "Daffy Doodles" and one of my all time favorites "A Pest in the House".

p.s. I happen to like both early Daffy and later Daffy on an equal level. Go ahead and call me a fool.
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post #75 of 87
8/5/10 at 12:08am
Thread Starter 
I won't call you a fool Kurt... I was actually thinking about that myself recently. I think the only real difference between early Daffy and later Daffy is that later Daffy came off as more sympathetic. But that doesn't necessarily make him superior.

Though I'm sure someone can gladly chime in with why or why not.
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post #76 of 87
8/5/10 at 7:44am
They're pretty different characters - early Daffy is just a totally unhinged force of nature, latter Daffy is more human (and as such loses more often.)

Two shorts I haven't seen mentioned yet, both starring Porky Pig (no one's favourite LT character, though Jeff Goldblum loves him): Dough For The Do Do, which features the WB boys having tons of fun with Dali, and Scaredy Cat, with Porky and Sylvester sleeping at a motel full of murderous mice.
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post #77 of 87
8/5/10 at 8:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DanielRoffle View Post
and Scaredy Cat, with Porky and Sylvester sleeping at a motel full of murderous mice.
...almost all of Porkys best work was done with Sylvester actually - see: Jumpin Jupiter.
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post #78 of 87
8/5/10 at 8:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Rain Dog View Post
...almost all of Porkys best work was done with Sylvester actually - see: Jumpin Jupiter.
He was also great with Dafft in Duck Dodgers and Robin Hood Daffy.
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post #79 of 87
8/5/10 at 9:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Rain Dog View Post
...almost all of Porkys best work was done with Sylvester actually - see: Jumpin Jupiter.
Relinquish me you foul, gibbering f-feline, you! Porky's is at his finest. And a double appearance of that great gag where Sylvester wraps himself completely around Porky's head. Great stuff.

Clampett had a good short with Porky and an early version of Sylvester is "Kitty Kornered" where he has to put four cats out for the night. Hijinks ensue, of course.

I like cheeeeese.
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post #80 of 87
8/5/10 at 3:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chavez View Post
There was a BB cartoon where a dog thought he killed Bugs and shot himself through the head at the end; and there was a Daffy wartime cartoon where a pigeon got seduced and when he realized what he'd done, shot himself in the head.

In both these, it wasn't graphic, they basically put the gun to their heads and an explosion popped out of the the opposite ear, but it was pretty apparent they weren't going to be getting up.
Something of a digression, but when I remember watching a Tom and Jerry cartoon from when I was little where they do their usual thing in the French king's palace, and at the end, Tom gets blamed for all of the mess and gets sent to the guillotine.

Anyone else seen this, or do I just have a fucked up memory?
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post #81 of 87
8/5/10 at 9:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Z.Vasquez View Post
Something of a digression, but when I remember watching a Tom and Jerry cartoon from when I was little where they do their usual thing in the French king's palace, and at the end, Tom gets blamed for all of the mess and gets sent to the guillotine.

Anyone else seen this, or do I just have a fucked up memory?
It's okay. You're memory is correct. It was called "The Two Mouseketeers"
Not only is Tom sentenced to death by guillotine, Jerry and Nibbles brush it off with a joke.

...so, that scar on your psyche is real.
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post #82 of 87
8/6/10 at 12:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Dickson View Post
He was also great with Dafft in Duck Dodgers and Robin Hood Daffy.
Touché

His scene in Robin Hood Daffy where he can't stop giggling and gets Daffy going as well, is one of those scenes I can't help losing my shit at each and every time I watch it.

"Oh knock it off. How jolly can ya get."
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post #83 of 87
8/6/10 at 1:37am
This thread makes me happy. Like the rest of you, I loved and watched Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies excessively as a kid, but it's just in the past few years (in large part because of the release of the Golden Collections) that I've started to appreciate the Looney Tunes shorts as masterpieces, not just the throwaway little cartoons I took them for granted as during childhood.

Daffy is my favourite character and I generally share his disdain for Bugs Bunny as a glory hound jerk that always gets his way. While I feel sorry for and always root for Daffy when the two of them come into conflict, I love seeing Bugs get the better of Elmer and Yosemite Sam. Just in case anyone hasn't seen it, I recommend reading Ebert's review of three Chuck Jones shorts. I love his reverence for them...I wish he had reviewed more of them.
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post #84 of 87
8/9/10 at 8:07pm
I did a crazy thing this past weekend and completed my Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD sets. Crazy because they're not cheap. Not crazy because they are great collections. So while I sat on my couch with my sketchbook I got to have non-stop LT & MM run across my eyeballs. I wasn't counting, but I think I saw 5 or 6 suicides (more than that if you count the cat's 9 lives in Stupid Cupid), a few accidental deaths and at least one murder (Bugs Bunny shoots the dog at the end of the Director's Cut of Hare Ribbin')

What a wonderful world.

p.s. I checked out a little bit of LT: Back in Action. Shame on you people who recommend this trash. It is incredibly unfunny and while yes, many Warner Bros. cartoons are telling the same joke over and over again and again, this just seemed like ripping off for some reason. Oh, and rule NUMBER 2, if you get someone to do the voice of Bugs Bunny, make sure they can sing in key. Wow, sorry. That sounds pretty harsh. maybe it was my immediate comparison to the old cartoons I was watching just before I gave LT: BIA a try.

Still, if had kids, I wouldn't show them LT: BIA. Even if I had kidnapped the little monsters.
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post #85 of 87
8/9/10 at 9:57pm
Go to about 1:50 for the frog gag which completely validates Pepe Le Pew. So brilliant.


http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x20...f-the-matterho
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post #86 of 87
8/9/10 at 10:31pm
I didn't enjoy Back In Action all that much, either, except for the part where you get to see Robbie the Robot and Daleks. Copious goodwill for Joe Dante helped me through the rough patches, too.

Today's winner: Back Alley Oproar, featuring the seldom-seen combination of Elmer Fudd and Sylvester. Fudd is trying to get a good night's sleep while Sylvester is doing the typical feline thing of yowling through the night. Lots of awesome takes on contemporary music, and one gag in particular had me in stiches: an angry Fudd throws Dashell Hammet's The Thin Man through the window, only to be knocked upside his head by another book thrown in response - that book being The Return Of The Thin Man!
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post #87 of 87
4/7/11 at 7:25pm

Bump bump (or should I say "beep beep")!

 

Cartoon Network has been running lots of previews for the new Looney Tunes show, coming in a month.  I personally am glad that they also started showing the old shorts. I caught the one today with Bugs vs. Wile E. and hadn't seen it in years.

 

Some folks on YouTube have some of the previews online, and I found the new Road Runner one.

 

Here it is.

 

 

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