I recently saw a very uplifting documentary celebrating the life of Mel Blanc. It’s called “Mel Blanc: The Man of a Thousand Voices” and it was rated 8.0 on IMDB which is extremely high.
For those of you who may not know, Mel Blanc was the voice of all the Merry Melody cartoons. That includes Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester the Cat, Woody Woodpecker, Tweetie Bird, Speedy Gonzales and the list seems endless. He received thousands of letters from kids all over the world and he always answered every single one by hand. One lady once wrote him and told him she had a little girl relative who just loved Bugs Bunny (or one of the other characters he voiced - I don’t remember which one) and she asked if he would telephone this child on her birthday and wish her a happy birthday using the voice of that character. Once people learned that he did that, he started getting those kinds of requests and TTBOMK, he also honored all of them as well. This documentary film is full of examples of how Mel Blanc gave back to the community and to his fans which is why I call it “uplifting”.
In honor of Mel Blanc, I’d like to ask, “What is your favorite cartoon?” It doesn’t have to be one that was voiced by Mel Blanc. I’m not asking you to name a cartoon character such as “Woody Woodpecker”. I’m not asking for a series of cartoons like “The Flintstones” or “Merry Melodies” (from Warner Bros). I’m asking if you can describe one single cartoon that was shown in a movie theatre before a movie played. You likely won’t know the title. Please feel free to just describe the plot if you like. My favorite is one called, “One Froggy Evening” and Mel Blanc does not appear in it at all. IMO, it is the most enjoyable cartoon I’ve ever seen - by far. I’ve watched it about 100 times and it still cracks me up every time I see it. You may remember the story. Here it is:
Some workman is helping to demolish an old building and he comes across a time capsule box that was placed into the foundation when the building was dedicated - many years ago. He opens the box and an amazing frog jumps out and starts singing Broadway show tunes. The workman has visions of his becoming wealthy by charging people to come and see this amazing frog who sings in a beautiful baritone voice. He takes the frog to a talent agent. But when he opens the box, the frog doesn’t sing. In fact, the frog never sings when anyone else besides the workman is present. But when the workman and the frog are alone, the frog sings up a storm. The workman obviously becomes very distressed. He spends all the money he has in the world trying to find a way to make his amazing frog pay off. He rent out halls and offers free admission to the public to come see this astounding talented frog. But the frog never sings if anyone else is present. Eventually, he winds up impoverished. The cartoon ends when the workman puts the box into a new time capsule in another building so that someone in the distant future will have the same experience.
I always found this cartoon to be side splitting - except for one thing. What a horrible message to give to children. If you have some terrible misfortune, you should pass it along to a total stranger so they will suffer the same catastrophe? What kind of a message is that for little kids?
In any event, I loved this cartoon and I never saw another one that comes close to being as funny. Do you have a favorite cartoon you’d like to share?
“One Froggy Evening” is my favorite, too, but in the interest of variety, I’ll offer up my number two (also by Chuck Jones and Maurice Nobel - but for MGM) “The Dot and the Line” - YouTube
I love One Froggy Evening but I don’t think the message is if you get into trouble, pass it along to someone else. The protagonist in the cartoon sees the new building cornerstone as a way to back out of his commitment to the frog. Since he found the singing frog in a building cornerstone, it was okay to leave it in another building cornerstone, and run away like it never happened.
The future poor sap is just another get rich quick schemer. If anything, the cartoon’s message is human nature never changes.
My favorite cartoon? Too, too many to choose from. Of the Warner Brothers vastly superior oeuvre, *Birds Anonymous * comes to mind. Sylvester tries to kick his bird addiction.
It was Mel Blanc’s favorite turn as Sylvester, and he won an Oscar for it.
Of the non-Warner’s, I like Canada’s Richard Condie’s stuff. The Big Snit is a comedy about nuclear war, and La Salla is a computer generated gem with the immortal line, “Once I had everything. Now, there’s a cow in my nose.”
And it makes perfect sense.
Fleischer Bros. “Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor” is probably my favorite, with “Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba’s Forty Thieves” a close second.
I remember one with a dragon sleeping in a cave on a mountaintop. He wakes up and looks outside. He sees an airliner flying below. He pounces. Clutching the plane in his claws, he rides it like a surfboard, having a grand old time, while utterly terrifying the passengers.
I could not find that one on Youtube. But I did find Canfilm, which uses canned foods as a metaphor for totalitarian dictatorship.
For some reason, I’ve always liked Bugs and Thugs, a cartoon in which Bugs Bunny is accidentally taken to the hideout of a gang of bank robbers. It featured the classic line, “Would I throw a lighted match in the oven if my pal was in here?”
Mel Blanc was great, but he wasn’t Woody’s voice. The Pecker was voiced by Grace Stafford, who was Walter Lantz’s wife. Overall, I like Woody the best. “Bunny Hugged” is my favorite overall, though.
I cannot name one single cartoon, I can only name three:
The incomparable Book Revue (1946)
Uncle Tom’s Cabaña (1947) and Little Ol’ Bosko in Baghdad (1938) are available on Dailymotion and YT, respectively. My fondness for the escalation built into their stories, certain characterizations and overall energy transcends my disgust at their grotesquely racist aspects.
Rabbit Fire kicks off with the classic Duck-Season-Rabbit-Season-Duck-Season schtick, and quickly runs through Bugs impersonating Daffy, and Daffy impersonating Bugs, and Bugs dressing up as a girl, and then circles back around to bickering over whether it’s Duck Season or Rabbit Season; and then that ending floored me as a kid.