#leon schlesinger

[comic-covers]

(1943)

[thebarroomortheboy]

LITTLE RED RIDING RABBIT (1944) | dir. Friz Freleng

[stone-cold-groove]

Looney Tunes Porky Pig lobby standee. A Vitaphone Short Subject - 1935.

[acmeoop]

Life Guard Hare “Elmer’s Candid Camera” (1940)

[punster-2319]

Looney Tunes 95th Anniversary

On April 19 1930, Warner Bros. released their first Looney Tunes short, Sinkin’ in the Bathtub, thus a legacy was born. Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies were originally made to compete with the Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony cartoons being made by Disney at the time, which really shows in a lot of their earlier works (ie. Bosko, Foxy, Buddy, etc.), but around the mid/late-1930s and onward, they started forming into their own identity and eventually became the most popular theatrical cartoons of the animation golden age. They’ve left such a big impact on pop culture and has some of the most influential humor, especially when it comes to slapstick.

The classic theatrical Looney Tunes shorts are my all-time favorite cartoons. The comedic timing during their prime is some of the best ever to film. I also really like how the various directors who’ve worked on those shorts have individual styles and approaches to their directing that you don’t often see in a lot of cartoons after that era (Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett cartoons are practically night and day in terms of differences). The characters have strong personalities and great voices, with most of them being voiced by the legendary “Man of a Thousand Voices” Mel Blanc. As stated above, Looney Tunes influenced many cartoons, arguably more so than Disney has. During the 1940s, most of the studios (including Disney) started incorporating more slapstick into their cartoons (Tom and Jerry cartoons from MGM being the best examples imo). The Looney Tunes style of humor also played a big part at influencing the Animation Renaissance during the late-1980s/1990s with great movies like Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Aladdin (1992), and animated great tv shows such as Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, and most of Nickelodeon’s and Cartoon Network’s lineups. Overall, the classic Looney Tunes cartoons still hold up well for the most part (unfortunately there are a few here and there from the 1930s-1950s that have aged poorly due to outdated stereotypes, especially during WWII). Here’s a well-known disclaimer from the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD sets that addresses the issue:

Thankfully, those handful of problematic cartoons don’t take up much room in the Looney Tunes filmography (Warner Bros produced a little over 1000 cartoons from 1930 to 1969). The cartoons that hold up definitely outweigh the ones that don’t.

Again, when Looney Tunes cartoons are good, they’re really good. I’m glad they’re still around entertaining people young and old for nearly a century now. Shoutout to @ducktracy for keeping the Looney Tunes fandom very active on this site with their great analysis on the Looney Tunes cartoons and characters. This post is getting lengthy, so there’s only one note to end it on:

[browsethestacksofficial]

Looney Tunes And Merrie Melodies Comics #021

Bugs Bunny And Porky Pig

Art by Leon Schlesinger

Dell Comics (1943)

[mikyapixie]

𝐊𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐭 𝐌𝐈𝐋-𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐘-𝐔𝐌 𝐌𝐚𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐢 & 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 (𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟗)

[pulpsandcomics2]

Super-Rabbit (1943)