44-416: Little Red Walking Hood is a 1937 Merrie Melodies cartoon supervised by Fred Avery . The short was released on November 6, 1937, and features the first appearance of an early character who later became Elmer Fudd . The cartoon features the basic plot of Little Red Riding Hood , with a few twists and oddball Tex Avery -like gags, such as Red displaying a Katharine Hepburn persona, or Grandma ordering
88-442: A "Psychopathic" Hospital along with the frog, who continues serenading the hapless patient. Following his release, the now haggard and destitute man — still carrying the box with the frog inside — notices the construction site where he originally found the box. He joyously dumps it into the new cornerstone for the future " Tregoweth Brown Building" and runs away, finally rid of what has become his burden. A century later, in 2056,
132-511: A horned toad "discovered" in an 1897 time capsule inside the cornerstone of the Eastland County, Texas courthouse in 1928, is also said to have inspired the premise. Some of the Frog's physical movements are evocative of ragtime-era greats such as Bert Williams , who was known for sporting a top hat and cane, and performing the type of flamboyant, high-kick cakewalk dance steps demonstrated by
176-565: A 1944 Cary Grant film entitled Once Upon a Time involving a dancing caterpillar in a small box, marks the debut of Michigan J. Frog : an anthropomorphic frog with a talent for singing and dancing that he demonstrates for no one except whoever possesses the box wherein he resides. This popular short contained a wide variety of musical entertainment, with songs ranging from " Hello! Ma Baby " and " I'm Just Wild About Harry ", two Tin Pan Alley classics, to " Largo al Factotum ", Figaro's aria from
220-404: A Warner Bros. song. Warner Bros. requested that these songs be performed by name bands whenever possible, but this lasted only through the first few shorts. The policy annoyed the animators of Merrie Melodies , since the songs often interrupted the cartoons' momentum and pacing (the 1938 Merrie Melodie A Feud There Was , for example, sarcastically uses the obligatory musical number as a shift in
264-408: A case of gin, while the wolf waits impatiently for her to get off the phone so he can chase her again. The cartoon opens with the wolf playing on a vintage pinball machine. He notices Red walking by outside the window and drives after her along the sidewalk in his car. His advances fail and he decides to take a shortcut to her grandmother's house after being given the route by Elmer J. Fudd. As soon as
308-456: A few Merrie Melodies prior to mid-1942) appeared mainly in Looney Tunes that year. It was not until 1945 that the two series appeared completely indistinguishable, and that Bugs appeared in more Looney Tunes than Merrie Melodies . By 1937, the theme music for Looney Tunes was " The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down " by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin , and the theme music for Merrie Melodies
352-432: A new program that they called Merrie Melodies "Blue Ribbon" classics. For the reissue, the original front-and-end title sequences were altered. The revised main title card began with the zooming WB logo, followed by the title logo set against a background featuring a "blue ribbon" (hence the re-release program's title) and a Grand Shorts Award trophy, followed by the name of the cartoon. This revised title sequence eliminated
396-528: A restoration program in the early 2000s as part of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD releases. TVLine lists the theme song from the series among the best animated series themes of all time. One Froggy Evening One Froggy Evening is a 1955 American Technicolor animated musical short film written by Michael Maltese and directed by Chuck Jones , with musical direction by Milt Franklyn . The short, partly inspired by
440-418: A sister series to Warner Bros. His selling point was that the new cartoons would feature music from the soundtracks of Warner Bros. films and would thus serve as advertisements for Warner Bros. recordings and sheet music. The studio agreed, and Schlesinger dubbed the series Merrie Melodies . Walt Disney Productions had already scored with their Silly Symphonies . Since cartoon production usually began with
484-531: A soundtrack, animating a piece of music made it easier to devise plot elements and even characters. The origins of the Merrie Melodies series begin with the failure of a live action series of musical shorts called Spooney Melodies , which featured popular songs of the day. These shorts included segments with a popular artist singing along with appropriate background sequences. Warner Bros. wanted to promote this music because they had recently acquired (in 1930)
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#1732856057465528-582: Is about to be eaten by a starving man deserted on an island, he is abducted by Marvin the Martian , who discovers the frog understands the Martian language. The frog invites Marvin to hear him sing, and they perform a duet as the spaceship flies away. The background crowd in the Roman Empire includes caricatures of Jones, animated by Warren O'Neill, and Siskel and Ebert , animated by Mort Drucker . The premise of One Froggy Evening has some similarity to that of
572-520: Is an American animated comedy short film series distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures . It was part of the Looney Tunes franchise and featured many of the same characters. It originally ran from August 2, 1931, to September 20, 1969, during the golden age of American animation , though it was revived in 1979, with new shorts sporadically released until June 13, 1997. Originally, Merrie Melodies placed emphasis on one-shot color films in comparison to
616-545: Is shown to have always existed. Men from the Stone Age (during the erection of Stonehenge ), Roman Empire , and American Revolutionary War , all of whom resemble the man from the original short, fail to profit off the singing frog, who still performs early 20th-century-style showtunes regardless of the time period. In some shots, the frog displays a degree of anthropomorphism, but not musical talent, in front of others by willingly hiding himself in his box. Finally, just as Michigan
660-508: The Looney Tunes Golden Collection , Jones states that he started calling the character "Michigan Frog" in the 1970s. During an interview with writer Jay Cocks , Jones decided to adopt "J" as the Frog's middle initial, after the interviewer's name. In 1995, Chuck Jones reprised Michigan J. Frog in a cartoon titled Another Froggy Evening , with Jeff McCarthy providing the frog's voice. In Another Froggy Evening , Michigan
704-615: The National Film Registry . The film is included in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2 DVD box set (Disc 4), along with an audio commentary , optional music-only audio track (only the instrumental, not the vocal), and a making-of documentary, It Hopped One Night: A Look at "One Froggy Evening" . It was also featured on the VHS release of Little Giants . A mid-1950s construction worker involved in
748-484: The black-and-white Looney Tunes films. After Bugs Bunny became the breakout character of Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes transitioned to color production in the early 1940s, the two series gradually lost their distinctions and shorts were assigned to each series randomly. Merrie Melodies was originally produced by Harman–Ising Pictures from 1931 to 1933 and Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944, and
792-412: The 1944 Columbia Pictures film Once Upon a Time starring Cary Grant in which a dancing caterpillar is kept in a shoebox. It was common for Warner Bros. to parody scenes from well-known live action films for its Merrie Melodies productions. Once Upon a Time , in turn, was based on "My Client Curley", a 1940 radio play adapted by Norman Corwin from a magazine story by Lucille Fletcher . Ol' Rip ,
836-501: The Brown Building is being disintegrated by futuristic demolition workers. The box with the frog is discovered again, this time by one of the 21st-century crew members. After envisioning a cash bonanza of his own, the worker absconds with the frog, thus starting the cycle anew. The cartoon has no spoken dialogue or vocals except by the frog. The frog's vocals are provided by singer and bandleader Bill Roberts. The frog had no name when
880-470: The Living Duck (1988) and (Blooper) Bunny (1991). The Night of the Living Duck got a theatrical release through the compilation film Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (1988), while (Blooper) Bunny was shelved from its intended 1991 release until it premiered on Cartoon Network on June 13, 1997. Beginning in late 1943, WB, in a cost-conserving effort, began to reissue its backlog of color cartoons under
924-579: The Warner Bros. Cartoons (ranked as Looney Tunes ) the third Greatest Cartoon of All Time (out of 60), one of only six film series to make the list (the other five being the Pink Panther series, Popeye the Sailor , Mighty Mouse , Woody Woodpecker and Tom and Jerry ). Producer Leon Schlesinger had already produced the music-based Looney Tunes series, and its success prompted him to try to sell
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#1732856057465968-619: The action, with the lead characters singing the number into a KFWB microphone and ceding the mike to an announcer who reads a commercial). By 1940, the animators had been released from this obligation, and the Merrie Melodies shorts came to resemble more closely the black-and-white Looney Tunes series. In addition, several new characters were created to (initially) appear exclusively in the Merrie Melodies series, such as Egghead , Elmer Fudd , Inki , Sniffles , and even Warner Bros.' most popular cartoon star, Bugs Bunny . In 1943, Schlesinger began producing Looney Tunes in color as well, and
1012-447: The cartoon was made, but Chuck Jones later named him Michigan J. Frog after the song "The Michigan Rag", which was written for the cartoon. Jones and his animators studied real-life frogs to achieve the successful transition from an ordinary frog to a high-stepping entertainer. The character became the mascot of The WB television network in the 1990s. In a clip shown in the DVD specials for
1056-413: The cartoons began to end with the slogan "That's all Folks!" which had previously only been used on the Looney Tunes series. The old slogan "So Long, Folks!" was completely abandoned at this time. The same year, Merrie Melodies began using the bulls-eye opening and closing title sequences (in 1942, Looney Tunes would use the same titles, usually in thicker rings). Also by 1936, Disney's exclusivity on
1100-423: The demolition of the "J. C. Wilber Building" pries off the top of the cornerstone and finds a metal box within. The unnamed man opens the box and finds, along with a commemorative document dated April 16, 1892, a live frog inside , who dons a top hat and cane. After the frog suddenly performs a musical number on the spot, the man sees an opportunity to cash in on the frog's anthropomorphic talents and sneaks away from
1144-482: The door opens. He chases grandma around the house until she hops on a chair and crosses her fingers declaring King's X. She uses the phone to make a grocery order while the wolf waits impatiently for her to resume the chase. As the characters begin chasing each other again, grandma hides in the closet and the wolf asks her for her clothes as Red is at the door. The wolf hops into bed and asks Red to come closer. When Red exclaims, "Oh Grandmother, what large teeth you present"
1188-521: The end of the cartoons. In 1934, Schlesinger produced his first color Merrie Melodies shorts, Honeymoon Hotel and Beauty and the Beast , which were produced in two-strip Cinecolor ( Disney then had exclusive animation rights to the richer three-strip Technicolor process). Their success convinced Schlesinger to produce all future Merrie Melodies shorts in color, using two-strip Technicolor. Looney Tunes continued in black and white until 1943. In 1936,
1232-536: The following year. During its final years, the series was produced by Warner Bros. Animation . The films Tweetie Pie , Speedy Gonzales and Birds Anonymous each won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and another three ( Duck Amuck , One Froggy Evening , and What's Opera, Doc? ) have been inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress . In 2013, TV Guide ranked
1276-636: The frog in Hello! Ma Baby . Williams was also a prominent figure in The Frogs club. Film critic Jay Cocks said that the short "comes as close as any cartoon ever has to perfection" in a 1973 Time profile of Chuck Jones. In the 2000 documentary film Chuck Jones: Extremes & Inbetweens – A Life in Animation , filmmaker Steven Spielberg called the short "the Citizen Kane of the animated short". In 1994, it
1320-441: The frog on his own. The frog performs atop a high wire behind the closed curtain, while the man struggles to get an audience and succeeds with the promise of "Free Beer". As the frog winds down the song, the man breaks the cord of the curtain he is trying to open. By the time the man reaches and pulls what remains of the cord, fully revealing the frog to the crowd, the frog has again reverted to his ordinary state. The angry crowd pelts
1364-403: The man with rotten vegetables. Following these failures, the man is now homeless and living on a park bench; there, the frog still performs only for him. A policeman overhears the singing and approaches the man, who points to the frog as the singer. When the frog again presents himself as ordinary, the policeman arrests the man, ostensibly for vagrancy but also as insane. The man is committed to
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1408-409: The newly renamed Warner Bros. Cartoons continued production until 1963. It was outsourced to DePatie–Freleng Enterprises and Format Productions from 1964 to 1967, and Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Animation resumed production for its final two years of the golden age era. When the series was revived in 1979, DePatie–Freleng produced new shorts briefly, but they were replaced by Chuck Jones Productions
1452-481: The opening technical credits. The ending title card was also revised, replacing the original versions. Also, sometimes the title of the short was slightly altered for the rerelease; the "Blue Ribbon" version of the Bugs Bunny short A Wild Hare was retitled The Wild Hare for reissue, for example. Many of these "Blue Ribbon" prints were the versions used for television broadcasts for many years until Warner Bros. began
1496-491: The opera Il Barbiere di Siviglia . The short was released on December 31, 1955, as part of Warner Bros. ' Merrie Melodies series of cartoons . In 1994, it was voted No. 5 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. In 2003, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", and selected it for preservation in
1540-478: The ownership of Brunswick Records along with four music publishers for US $ 28 million. Because of the success of their Looney Tunes series, Warner Bros. decided to develop a new series of animated musical shorts called Merrie Melodies . Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising led the development. It was meant to be a series of musical cartoons that featured hit songs of the day, especially those then owned by Warner Bros. and featured in their musical films. In 1931, many of
1584-430: The public. In 1932, a Merrie Melodies cartoon, entitled It's Got Me Again! , was nominated for the first Academy Award to be given for animation. When Harman and Ising left Warner Bros., in 1933, they took with them all rights to the characters they had created. Leon Schlesinger had to negotiate with them to keep the rights to the name Merrie Melodies, as well as for the right to use the slogan, So Long Folks, at
1628-454: The shorts featured the orchestra of Abe Lyman , one of the most famous band leaders of his day. The first cartoon of the new Merrie Melodies series was Lady, Play Your Mandolin! , released in 1931. Ising attempted to introduce several characters in his Merrie Melodies films, such as Piggy , Foxy , and Goopy Geer . Eventually however, the series continued without any recurring characters. The shorts proved to be enormously popular with
1672-446: The site with the frog in the box under his arm. Every attempt the man makes to exploit the frog fails: the frog performs exclusively for his owner, and instantly devolves into an ordinary frog the second anyone else sees him. Remaining unaware of this reality, the man takes the frog to a talent agent. After getting kicked out over the frog's apparent inability to act, he uses his life savings to rent an abandoned theater so he can showcase
1716-449: The three-color Technicolor process was lifted, allowing Merrie Melodies a full color palette for the first time, hence the use of the blue concentric rings (as a technical test) for the rest of the 1935–36 season and the 1936–37 season. The Warner Bros. shield was later that year changed to cyan before definitely changing back to red in 1938. Contractually, Merrie Melodies cartoons were obligated to include at least one full chorus from
1760-472: The two series became virtually indistinguishable except by their theme music and opening titles – in addition, characters once exclusive to one series began regularly appearing in the other as well. In 1944, the studio went to an all-color schedule; though for the first year of this, Bugs still appeared mainly in the Merrie Melodies series (not appearing in a Looney Tunes cartoon until the end of August), whereas Daffy Duck and Porky Pig (who each appeared in
1804-412: The two series, as evidenced in an interview quote from director Friz Freleng , "I never knew if a film I was making would be Looney Tunes or Merrie Melodies , and what the hell difference would it make, anyway?". The last Merrie Melodies cartoon was Injun Trouble , released in 1969. The Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoons didn't start up again until 1988 with only two cartoons made, The Night of
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1848-409: The wolf arrives at grandma's house he knocks on the door and imitates an impression of Elmer Blurt from The Al Pearce Show. The grandma tells him to stay away but the wolf decides to burst through the door. This proves unsuccessful when he subsequently crashes through all the doors in the house and ends up in the backyard with his hat over his feet. He pulls the back doors knob and in a pinball reference,
1892-405: The wolf lunges at her and they start fighting in the corner of the room. Two silhouettes of patrons who are late to the screening show up and the wolf asks Red to wait for them to get seated. They resume fighting until Elmer shows up a sixth time and hits the wolf over the head with a mallet. As the "iris" comes back, Elmer is shown repeatedly kissing Red. Merrie Melodies Merrie Melodies
1936-499: Was an adaptation of " Merrily We Roll Along " by Charles Tobias , Murray Mencher and Eddie Cantor (the original theme was " Get Happy " by Harold Arlen, played at a faster tempo). This continued until 1964, when the WB cartoon logos were modernized, and "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" became the theme for the Merrie Melodies as well. When the studio went to full color, even the animators themselves did not make any creative distinction between
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