Having exhausted their imagination on that one pun (“We rob carrot patches”), Warners proceeded to fill the screen for six more minutes.
In the late ‘40s, Bob McKimson prided himself on “calming” the expressive animation of Rod Scribner. In 1968, McKimson’s animators were so calm the action in this short is barely a step above Hanna-Barbera’s Saturday morning cartoons—made all the more noticeable by being slathered in Hanna-Barbera sound effects (even though the designs remind you a DePatie-Freleng TV show).
Tex Avery used to have fun with literal gags like the “road block.” Writer Cal Howard’s just phoning it in, topping with a gag that might appeal to someone under age seven.
And Claude doesn’t even have a lower body in one scene.
I’ll spare you an assessment of Bill Lava’s score.
The cartoon may have had a bit of an effect a couple of years later. From Variety, April 14, 1970:
Bette Davis AIP'a Gunslinging 'Bunny'The title of Davis’ film was changed to Bunny O’Hare, probably to avoiding conflicting with the title of the cartoon. Miss Davis appeared in some stinkers over her career, but nothing as bad as this cartoon.
Bette Davis has been signed by AIP to star in "Bunny and Claude."
Gerd Oswald will produce and direct the film, to roll July 1 in New Mexico and Arizona. Screenplay is by Stanley Z. Cherry. Miss Davis will portray a gun-slinging grandma.
As I believe Jerry Beck and Will Friedwald noted in their book, Bunny's later line "Is that's all you ever think about -- carrots?" was about the only gag in the entire cartoon not pointed towards the 12-and-under set, as if the edict was to make sure the cartoons were Saturday-morning ready during production (though overall, McKimson's W/7 efforts annoy me slightly less than the Alex Lovy ones, since by then, the studio was using nothing but their post-1966 characters other than Bob's Plymouth Road Runner commercials).
ReplyDeleteI've seen some TV airings where the "...a rabbit and his broad" lyric from the opening credits is edited out.
DeleteWhat was with the term "fink" in the 1960s? It seemed to come up an awful lot. "The King is a fink!" was said in the Wizard of Id often, and there's Batfink (which had nothing to do with a fink) ...
ReplyDeleteDon't forget DFE's Roland and Rattfink! (spelt with 2 T's interestingly)
DeleteAlso, Ed "Big Daddy" Roth's Rat Fink - and Ray Dennis Steckler's Batman spoof "Rat Pfink a Boo Boo" (sic).
DeleteSpeaking of DFE, the first Pink Panther short was entitled "The Pink Phink".
DeleteYou can actually JUST see some of Claude's leg in that shot. But only just!
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ReplyDeleteRobGems.ca Wrote:
And you can't beat Allen Sherman's "Ratfink" from the million-selling Warner Brothers album "Allen Sherman Says Nutty Things This Time With Strings" in 1963. Also, the music by Bill Lava is mediocre, but Billy Strange's sung theme song isn't too bad, it's quite catchy.(it's not as good as Georgie Fame's "The Ballad Of Bonnie & Clyde" song from the UK issued on Columbia /EMI Records in the UK, and Epic/CBS Records in the US.,though.)
THat was the last series WB produced that saw more than one cartoon (unlike a Chimp/Zee or Rapid Rabbit)...I woinder if Billy Sgtrange wrote the theme song,too..good song there.
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