Category: Cartoons from the 40’s

My personal favorite decade from Warner Bros. The majority of my favorites came from this era. (It was the last one where we still had Avery and Clampett)

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Fast and Furry-ous

“Beep-beep!”

Chuck Jones said that every Roadrunner cartoon would consist of 11 gags that would lead to a big finish. Since every one has the same plot, I will detail them in uh… detail. Starting with the first one ever, this one. So (Spoilers ahead) if you don’t want to know how it ends, don’t read.

We start with a bunch of signs telling us the title of the short. Something zooms by ripping them out of the ground. We freeze-frame to see its a roadrunner (Acelerati incredibulis). Panning over, we see he is being watched by a predator, a coyote (Carnivorus vulgaris). He grabs some utensils and gives chase. The bird sees him and gives a burst of speed leaving the canine in the dust. Shocked at the speed, he decides to use strategy.

First he holds up a pot lid. The r.r. stops short and seeing the c., he runs off. C. throws the lid down in frustration and begins to chase, but at the last second the r.r. returns and holds the lid up. C. crashes into it. Next he throws a boomerang and immediately gets hit by one thrown by the r.r. It runs off and c begins to chase, only to get hit with the one he originally threw. A school girl disguise doesn’t fool the bird and his rocket just fires him up into a cliff. Pulling a key stone out from under a rock just causes it to fall on him and a fake tunnel keeps turning real and fake again.

He tries a detonator that just explodes in his face and tries his first Acme product (a super suit) which was probably for fun only. He tries an easy to ski snow trail, but it just causes him to fall off a cliff. Next, trying rocket shoes, he nearly catches his prey, but they short out just as he is about to reach it. He decides to take the shortcut. Hiding behind a rock he hears a ‘beep’ sound and jumps into the road and is immediately hit by a bus. However he did hear the bird…it was riding in the back seat.

Personal Rating: 4

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Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears

“Someone’s been sleeping in my bed, and here he is, still been sleeping in my bed.”

Once upon a time there were 3 bears and… whoa deja-vu. I swear I said this stuff before. Better stop just to be on the safe side.

We find our ursine family being hungry when Henry gets an idea. They’ll lure Goldilocks home so they can fest on her flesh. (Well, they ARE bears.) But from the moment that Ma says they have no porridge and only carrots with which to make carrot soup, the title makes perfect sense. Bugs proceeds to carry out the story but can’t fool Ma who is ready to clobber him. He romances her and she falls for him, and now he can’t get rid of her. He also has to worry about Henry and Jr. who are still intent on having rabbit for dinner. Warner bros. did good work spoofing fairy tales. This, of course, is one of their better ones. The humor even continues after the iris out. (Briefly)

Personal Rating: 4

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Elmer’s Candid Camera

“Shucks. I don’t even know the guy.”

This is our boy Elmer’s first cartoon! I mean he has his dang name! Even the rabbit in this short was just Proto-Bugs. (He has a deeper voice and a laugh like Woody Woodpecker. That’s not Bugs.) Now for the plot.

Elmer has just read a book about photographing wildlife and decides it sounds like a good hobby. As to be expected. his subject is a rabbit that most definitely does not want to be photographed. For the rest of the short he drives Elmer insane. Good stuff. Unlike Bugs, this rabbit eats apples. My favorite part is after annoying him, he gets Elmer to growl like a dog. Its the simple stuff that makes this short great.

Personal Rating: 3

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Porky Chops

“Some guys don’t never learn.”

This is one of my favorite Porky cartoons. Is it popular? Not to my knowledge. Is it one of the best? No. Is it funny? Heck yeah it is! One of the reasons it’s so great is because Porky is a jerk in it. (Nice change of pace.) He’s a lumberjack who is trying to chop down a tree that has a squirrel in it. The squirrel asks Porky to stop (since he’s on vacation) but Porky refuses and declares all out war. The squirrel is funny but he has no name. So I need a name for him. Any ideas?

Personal Rating: 3

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Yankee Doodle Daffy

“♪I’m a cowboy, yes sir I am!♪”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love music! And this short is full of it. I don’t really understand the title though. That song is nowhere in it, and it has nothing to do with patriotism. Still its wonderful and almost the whole cartoon is singing. Like if they remade every Looney Tune into a full length animated feature, this one would be a musical. So whats is all about? Singing. That’s all I’m going to say. Its basically Daffy just singing to Porky. (It works!)

Personal Rating: 4

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Scaredy Cat

“Welcome to our new home, Sylvester”

Yeah, I probably should have talked about the putty tat before this, but it can wait for another time. This happens to be the first time the name was used. Porky and Sylvester were great together and this is no exception. We find them in a house that’s full of mice that want to kill them for no apparent reason. Sylvester must protect the clueless Porky from all the dangers. It’s always nice to see a time where Sylvester is not a bully or an idiot. Here he’s a coward who just wants to protect his master and his own skin. This is my favorite role for him.

Personal Rating: 4

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Dough for the Do-Do

“Hello, Bobo.”

What can I say? This cartoon is pure genius. Sadly, it is pretty much a color remake of “Porky in Wackyland.” It does, however, have new gags, but they are pretty much just ones reused from “Tin Pan Alley Cats”. (The sequel to Wackyland) But now we got the complaints out of the way the good stuff is to come.

Porky is setting out to find the last of the dodo birds which is worth 6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000! (what he’ll do after that is any ones guess.) Surprisingly, he finds it in Wackyland, located in darkest Africa. (The dodo was found on the island of Mauritius) He comes to a wonderful, crazy, insane, and goofy place that I’m pretty sure is heaven. Color, music, and gags aplenty; this would be in my top 10 Looney tunes. (If I had one)

Personal Rating: 3

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Triple feature: Blooper Bunny, My Dream is Yours, Two Guys from Texas

“Gosh, I’m so unimportant.”

Everyone loves triple features right? The first one was for Bugs’ fifty first and a half birthday so its kinda after the time of the classic shorts. The other two both came out in 1949. Bugs made cameos in these movies. As for “Blooper Bunny” it’s possibly one of the funniest thing I ever saw. Sorry to leave you with so little info, but I really want you to experience it for yourself.

Personal Rating: (Blooper Bunny) 4

Personal Rating: (My dream is yours) 3

Personal Rating: (Two guys from Texas) 2

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Wabbit Twouble

“West and wewaxation at wast!”

Two words to describe this cartoon: friggin, hilarious. It’s one of those cartoons where Bugs does not need to be heckled; he actually wants to bother Fudd, who is camping in the area. In this short, unless you are a imbecile, you will notice that Elmer is fat. This is because for a brief time Elmer was drawn to resemble his voice actor, Arthur Q. Bryan.

Another reason this is great, is that the title and credits are all written in “Fuddese.” The gags are spectacular! One is Bugs tricking Elmer into thinking it’s night and then morning in only 2 minutes. It takes all my power to remind myself that Elmer has not been there for two days.

Personal Rating: 4

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My Bunny Lies Over the Sea

“Fore? Three and a half!”

This is a true story. I was once watching this with some friends of mine and they got all mad because the person Bugs outwits in this short is Scottish and they had Scottish ancestry. (They called it an attack on their people) Come on! Its not making fun of Scottish people, it just happens because Bugs took another wrong turn at Albuquerque. Some people are just way too sensitive. The golf gags are fantastic and as usual, I recommend a watch.

Personal Rating: 3