Thanks to McWhorter‘s recent piece at The New York Times, I spent way too much time this morning watching old Looney Tunes clips. Here is a taste:
During these times so utterly glum, I’m in a mood to share a couple of discoveries that have provided a bit of joy, which I hope will bring some joy to you and, if you’re a parent, your kids as well. Two pandemic delights, to be specific, which I’ve held on to as life gropes toward some form of normalcy.
I’m a Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies fanatic and have been all my life. There were about 1,000 shorts made from 1930 to 1964, I’ve seen almost all of them and every facet of these cartoons keep me coming back.
The animation dazzles. Take a look at “Hare Trimmed,” from 1953, to see the way the animator Virgil Ross made Bugs Bunny act like an exaggerated aristocratic Frenchman as he challenges Yosemite Sam, complete with haughty facial expression, gloved fingers in just the right pose and a turn of the body gesticulated perfectly in character. This isn’t just a talking rabbit; this is art.
And on the voices, Mel Blanc was a genius performer: Watch the end of “Tortoise Wins By a Hare,” from 1943, when Bugs is on the verge of winning his race against his nemesis Cecil Turtle, first proclaiming victory in almost hysterical ecstasy as he sprints down the homestretch, then sobbing and screaming with frustration as a dopey band of rabbit thugs, hoodwinked by Cecil, prevent Bugs from crossing the finish line. It’s not just voice-over, it’s superlative comic acting.
And, ah, the music. Almost anyone from a certain generation will recall Elmer Fudd’s epic “Kill the wabbit!” refrain in “What’s Opera, Doc?” from 1957. But equally memorable, and for decades running through hundreds of shorts, was Carl Stalling’s background music. Along with Milt Franklyn, who arranged the instrumentation for many of Stalling’s scores, he created magic again and again, as he did in “Tick Tock Tuckered,” from 1944 (a remake of “Porky’s Bedtime Story” from 1937), wherein a sleepy Porky Pig does battle with a pesky window shade. It’s a sequence accompanied and pointed up by a creamy rendition of “By the Light of the Silvery Moon,” complete with a suave and lovely key change. It’s not just background toodling, but art.
Read the rest here. And watch: