Hare-Less Wolf Backgrounds

Boris Gorelick came up with some neat backgrounds in Hare-Less Wolf (1958). It's filled with purple rolling hills and trees in various shades of autumnal red.



Here are some others. Several of these were longer than TV frame, but I can't snip them together without characters getting in the way. You can see cels outside the Charles M. Wolf cave entrance.



Gorelick is credited with only seven cartoons for the Friz Freleng unit, and then he is replaced by Tom O'Loughlin. We wrote about him in this post.

Maybe the best part of Warren Foster's story in this cartoon is naming the forgetful antagonist after Chuck Jones. Many of the gags are reminiscent of ones you've seen in other Bugs Bunny cartoons.

June Foray is here with her Marjorie Main voice as Mrs. Wolf.

A Close Nazi Shave

Cat equals Nazi in The Fifth Column Mouse, 1943 Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Friz Freleng.

Fifth columnists were traitors who supported the enemy from inside their homeland. In this cartoon, mice are persuaded by the Fifth Column Mouse that a cat invading their home won’t hurt them.

If there’s any doubt the cat is a stand-in for the Axis, even before hearing the patriotic war song “We Did It Before” by marching soldier-mice, the cat scrapes ice off a window, with the clear spot forming what suspiciously looks like Hitler’s hair. The cat doesn’t need a German accent; the “hair” and the attitude that a cat is an enemy of mice is enough. (When the cat whispers his plot to the gullible mouse, Carl Stalling plays “Ach Du Lieber Augustine” in the background).

A good portion of the short is a chase, which adds to the energy of the cartoon. A fun freeze-frame scene is when one mouse takes an electric shaver to the cat. Here are some of the frames of multiples characters.



This is another cartoon featuring a “Buy Bonds” poster in the background. And it includes the Beethoven’s Fifth notes that signify Morse Code for the letter “V” for “Victory” as the cat looks at its shaved body.

The cartoon has been Blue Ribboned, so there are no credits.

The Forest Rabbits

Forest rabbit Bugs Bunny is reading “Little Hiawatha” and gets to a line about the “mighty warrior” hunting “the forest rabbit.” Bugs suddenly realises that means him.



Bugs runs around in circles before leaving, stage left. To make the exit seem faster, Bugs develops multiples of himself. Some drawings.



Maybe Leon Schlesinger liked this cartoon as he put it into Oscar contention, but Hiawatha is too much of a dullard for me. (Clampett. Re-used footage. Yes, I know).

The original credits said Gil Turner animated some of this short for the Friz Freleng unit.

Granny's Holiday Home

Granny (Bea Benaderet) will force the Christmas spirit on Sylvester (who has tried and failed to eat Tweety) and her bulldog (who has tried and failed to eat Sylvester) whether they want it or not in Gift Wrapped, a 1952 Merrie Melodies cartoon.

The short ends with Granny playing a secularised version of “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” at her old organ.



Cut to Tweety happily singing.



Cut to Tweety, and a glowering Sylvester and dog. There’ll be no more swallowing now. Fade out.



Whoever animated this has the characters’ turning from side to side and up and down a bit to ensure the scene isn’t static.

Ken Champin, Manny Perez, Virgil Ross and Art Davis are the credited animators for director Friz Freleng with fine backgrounds by Irv Wyner. If I had to pick a favourite Warners Christmas cartoon, this would be it.

The Timeless Pepper Gag

It goes back to Felix and Disney's knock-off version of the cat in the silent film days. The old pepper/sneeze gag (my guess is it was in comic strips before that).

Here is how it unfolds in Warners' Prince Violent (1961). Bugs Bunny is fed up with Viking Sam's elephant shooting boulders into his castle with his snout. The poses below are fun. Well, I like them.



Dave Detiege's story has some other old favourites in the comedy. They all still work.

Here’s an inside gag on the opening title card: the Warners shield. Hawley Pratt had been moved up to co-director at this point; Willie Ito was the layout artist with Tom O’Loughlin painting backgrounds.



And here's a pun that some of you might not get.



Back in the days of network radio and pre-network television, watch companies sponsored time-checks. One was Gruen. Ages ago, E.O. Costello put up a site devoted to explaining dated references in Warners cartoons. It's a little dated itself, but still useful. You can find it by clicking here.