39-543: Merrie Melodies 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
78-403: 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
117-462: 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
156-452: A film's atmosphere, character, and story, and therefore, the labels "drama" and "comedy" are too broad to be considered a genre. Instead, his taxonomy argues that comedy is a type of film that contains at least a dozen different sub-types. A number of hybrid genres have emerged, such as action comedy and romantic comedy . The first comedy film was L'Arroseur Arrosé (1895), directed and produced by film pioneer Louis Lumière . Less than
195-483: A mainstream audience. The success of the American television show Saturday Night Live drove decades of cinema with racier content allowed on television drawing on the program's stars and characters, with bigger successes including Wayne's World , Mean Girls , Ghostbusters and Animal House . Parody and joke-based films continue to find audiences. While comedic films are among the most popular with audiences at
234-509: A minute long, it shows a boy playing a prank on a gardener. The most notable comedy actors of the silent film era (1895–1927) were Charlie Chaplin , Harold Lloyd , and Buster Keaton , though they were able to make the transition into “ talkies ” after the 1920s. Film-makers in the 1960s skillfully employed the use of comedy film to make social statements by building their narratives around sensitive cultural, political or social issues. Such films include Dr Strangelove, or How I Learned to Love
273-432: 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
312-670: A new series based on the Arabian Nights , but were unable to obtain funding. Disney called them back when he began work for Charles Mintz , producing the Alice Comedies live-action/animation hybrid shorts and the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons. After a dispute over money, Mintz forced out Disney in 1928 and lured most of his animators, Harman and Ising included, to join him. After Carl Laemmle replaced Mintz with
351-555: 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. Comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor . These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending , with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy
390-649: A separate genre, but rather, provides a better understanding of the film. Hugh Harman Hugh Harman (August 31, 1903 – November 25, 1982) was an American animator. He was known for creating the Warner Bros. Cartoons and MGM Cartoons studios and his collaboration with Rudolf Ising during the Golden Age of American animation . He began his work with Walt Disney in 1922, working on Disney's early Laugh-O-Gram Cartoons . When that company went bankrupt, Harman and partner Rudolf Ising tried to start
429-418: 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
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#1732780671095468-538: 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)
507-562: A young Walter Lantz in early 1929, Harman and Ising, alongside a number of former Oswald animators put together a pilot short, " Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid", featuring a character Harman created in 1928 as sound films were becoming popular. The short gained them a contract with Warner Brothers studios to produce animated cartoons with Leon Schlesinger as manager. Harman and Ising started the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons in 1930 and 1931, respectively (Harman would direct
546-480: Is one of the oldest genres in film, and it is derived from classical comedy in theatre . Some of the earliest silent films were slapstick comedies , which often relied on visual depictions, such as sight gags and pratfalls, so they could be enjoyed without requiring sound. To provide drama and excitement to silent movies, live music was played in sync with the action on the screen, on pianos, organs, and other instruments. When sound films became more prevalent during
585-484: 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
624-494: The "Happy Harmonies" series in color (incidentally replacing fellow 1920s-era Disney veteran Ub Iwerks ), in which Harman redeveloped Bosko into a realistic African-American kid. After yet another money-related quarrel, Harman and Ising were fired by MGM in 1937, being replaced by an in-house cartoon studio headed by Fred Quimby . That same year, Disney borrowed the Harman-Ising Ink and Paint unit for Snow White and
663-440: The 1920s, comedy films grew in popularity, as laughter could result from both burlesque situations but also from humorous dialogue . Comedy, compared with other film genres , places more focus on individual star actors, with many former stand-up comics transitioning to the film industry due to their popularity. In The Screenwriters Taxonomy (2017), Eric R. Williams contends that film genres are fundamentally based upon
702-593: The Bomb , Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? and The Graduate . In America, the sexual revolution drove an appetite for comedies that celebrated and parodied changing social morals, including Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and Fanny Hill . In Britain, a camp sensibility lay behind the successful Carry On films , while in America subversive independent film-maker John Waters made camp films for college audiences with his drag queen friends that eventually found
741-476: 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
780-570: The Looney Tune shorts), and produced them until 1933. Following a number of clashes with Schlesinger over budgets, they decided to leave WB and look for another distributor. Harman and Ising took Bosko with them, having previously copyrighted him to avoid facing the same situation Disney had with Oswald. In the meantime, Harman-Ising Pictures outsourced a number of Cubby Bear cartoons for The Van Beuren Corporation . In early 1934, Harman and Ising were hired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , which launched
819-575: The Seven Dwarfs and the studio also outsourced a number of cartoons for the Silly Symphonies series, although Disney ultimately only accepted Merbabies , the other shorts being released by MGM in early 1938, which after a rocky start with the in-house studio, decided to take Harman and Ising back some time later as production supervisors. After leaving Metro in 1941, Harman founded a new studio with Disney veteran Mel Shaw. In 1943,
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#1732780671095858-594: 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
897-619: 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
936-571: The army and for educational films. After a two year hiatus, Harman returned to the animation industry with The Littlest Angel , a collaboration between his company and Coronet Films . Harman's final film he did (albeit incomplete and entirely shipped to Coronet, completed by Gordon A. Sheehan ) was Tom Thumb in King Arthur's Court. Harman worked on the film extensively with Mel Shaw , but ultimately gave production to Coronet because he couldn't complete it. After Harman-Ising Studios closed in
975-719: The box office, there is an 'historical bias against a close and serious consideration of comedy' when it comes to critical reception and conferring of awards, such as at the Academy Awards . Film writer Cailian Savage observes "Comedies have won Oscars, although they’ve usually been comedy-dramas, involved very depressing scenes, or appealed to stone-hearted drama lovers in some other way, such as Shakespeare in Love ." According to Williams' taxonomy , all film descriptions should contain their type (comedy or drama) combined with one (or more) sub-genres. This combination does not create
1014-413: 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
1053-466: The duo signed a deal with Orson Welles to adapt The Little Prince , in which Welles would play the role of the aviator while a random child actor would portray the prince. A few months later, Welles fell ill with hepatitis, nearly dying while recovering in Florida. After this, the deal fell through and the film was scrapped. From 1945 to 1947, his production company would produce various cartoons for
1092-547: The early 1960s, Harman fell in a state of abject poverty. He lived in a ramshackle house, no longer being able to afford a car, although he often disguised his precarious state by frequently having breakfast at a Beverly Hills restaurant. He had to constantly borrow money from Ising, as well as colleagues Friz Freleng and Roy O. Disney in the 1970s to keep afloat. He also received a monthly allowance from his brother Fred, until Fred's death in January 1982. After that point, Harman
1131-524: 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,
1170-618: 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
1209-408: 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
Merrie Melodies - Misplaced Pages Continue
1248-487: 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
1287-478: 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
1326-430: 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
1365-452: 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
1404-449: 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
1443-472: 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
1482-412: 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
1521-501: 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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