Tuesday 3 May 2016

Cartoon Drunks

Drunken fish singing “Moonlight Bay” was one of the highlights of Porky’s Duck Hunt, a 1937 cartoon from Tex Avery’s unit at Warner Bros. Chuck Jones and writer Tedd Pierce picked up on the gag and expanded it eight years later in Trap Happy Porky. Instead of fish, we get cats.



Porky thinks he’s solved the problem by buying a bulldog to get rid of the cats. That’s not quite what happens. Porky hears a noise. Smear animation time.



And we don’t quite get an Avery take, but we get the kind Jones was comfortable with.



Porky’s reaction to us.



And he joins in as the iris closes.



Ken Harris, Bobe Cannon and Ben Washam had been sharing rotating animation credits in the Jones unit during 1944 and into ‘45. Washam gets it in this cartoon. Whether Cannon had left Warners by this time, I don’t know. Lloyd Vaughan would start getting screen credit after this cartoon was made and he was called upon to do smear animation.
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5 comments:

  1. J Lee3 May 2016 at 10:26

    Jones' pacing on the end "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" number is a little slower than the rest of the fast-paced (and short) cartoon, but it's justified because it sets up Porky's "Whattyagonnado?" take into the camera, before we get to the final chorus and the iris out.

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  2. bgrauman3 May 2016 at 22:42

    "As we sang love's old sweet song on Moonlight-----"/*they dash off for another swallow of booze from their jugs, and zip back into their places, more "smashed" than ever...*/"----Bay!!!!!"/"On-n-n-n-a Moonlight a-B-a-a-a-a-a-y-y-y-y!!!!"/"*HIC!* Yer flat."

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  3. Loren Broaddus4 May 2016 at 10:02

    I think Cannon animated the first time the cats sing. The hands are like jelly and it resembles Cannon's earlier work for Jones.

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  4. Pokey7 May 2016 at 20:26

    The ending of this has the theme arrangement created for 1942-43's "Wacky Wabbit",a slightly tuneless take on the Merrie Melodies theme (also tacked onto "The Merry Old Soul",1935; "Peck up your Troubles",1945; "Tick Tock Tuckered",1944; "Booby Hatched",1944;
    and maybe a few others).SC

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  5. ExDrummer5 June 2016 at 10:03

    Loved this ending and I think in addition to Porky's voice, Mel Blanc does the singing cats, as well.

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