I managed to get some more commentary onto Anthony's Animation Talk channel. This time it was for a cartoon called Catty Cornered. As I mentioned in the video, this is one of my Top 5 Sylvester & Tweety shorts and if you have ever seen this cartoon in its entirety you could probably see why. My dialogue starts at about the 16:30 mark but I'd still recommend watching the whole video. It's loaded with info and insights that you wouldn't want to miss.
Oh hey, I did another commentary on Anthony's channel more than a year ago but I never got around to posting it here for some bizarre reason. I participated in a massive pastiche of commenters for the cartoon Rabbit Fire. For those who don't know, that's the first of three "duck season / rabbit season" cartoons. There are many guest commentators plus a guest appearance from the original director's daughter. I forget exactly where exactly my bit starts. I guess you'll have to watch the whole thing to find out. Whatever! Enjoy!
I did some more commentary on Anthony's channel recently. You may recall the previous time I was on that channel. I talked about whether a skunk was Pepe Le Pew or not. In the commentary above, I add my 2¢ to an actual indisputably genuine Pepe Le Pew cartoon. I come in at about the 10:49 mark, but I do recommend the dialogue of the entire video because it is good and well informed.
He mercifully cut out what I said about James Gunn. That could be for the best because James it would've made him mad or some level of belligerent. Meh, he's probably used to that by now.
Either way, enjoy the commentary, folks. There's lots to take in.
Back in May, I did some commentary on two cartoons with Anthony Kotorac. Sadly, the videos links in that post of mine no longer work because Anthony had some trouble with the Warner Bros legal team over copyright issues and so had to take that particular video down. He's also had to reformat every one of his videos in order to keep his channel going. Thankfully, he's managed to do that and so he's back up and running. Here's hoping his channel and his dedication gives him all the admiration he deserves.
That video embedded at the top is the most recent commentary I did on that channel. As you can see, it's for a cartoon called Odor of the Day. I put forth the notion that the skunk in that cartoon is NOT Pepe Le Pew even though it quite often is listed as such. Ever since this cartoon was put onto a Le Pew VHS set back in the 1980's it always puzzled me as to why it was included. The skunk didn't seem to be Pepe Le Pew at all to me. However, on that same cassette is a cartoon about a squirrel and a coconut called Much Ado About Nutting which had nothing to do with Pepe even remotely. But, of course, that one was just added to break up what to some might seem like a monotony of just Pepe's cartoons. So that's what I chalked up the inclusion of Odor of the Day to be as well, just a one off added for variety.
However, as time went on, I noticed that this cartoon was being put within Le Pew's filmography quite often. Whether it was a casual mention on an internet message board or some dvd release or TV broadcast, it was always categorized as a Pepe cartoon. That raised my eyebrow every time. But, of course, I always kept it floating at the back of my mind because I always had more immediate situations in my life to worry about, still do. Then, the aforementioned Mr. Kotorac came along with his commentary channel, so I decided to use this opportunity to air that minor grievance and see what happens. I'll also use this blog post to further elaborate on my position because that video could only be so long. Here we go:
As mentioned in the video, one big BIG difference between this skunk and Pepe Le Pew is that...
...this skunk knows full well that he stinks and even wields that stinky tail of his like a weapon.
Not only that, when the dog catches a cold with a stuffy nose, he can no longer smell that odorous tail. The skunk's reaction to that development is devastation. That's not like Pepe Le Pew at all.
A big part of Pepe's schtick is for his odor to linger over people and be completely oblivious to its effects. That, plus the lack of any love interest, is too big a departure to simply be "director Art Davis' own take on the Pepe character".
This leads me to another point that I didn't find a chance to make in that commentary: I don't think Chuck Jones would've allowed such a deviation from one of his characters. He was very adamantly protective of everything he created. He kept tabs on how they looked, how they acted, and how they felt. One big example I can give is in the 1990's when the WB Network used Michigan J Frog in all of their commercials for it. Chuck hated that with a passion. He said that Michigan's character is to only sing for whoever discovers him, just like that construction worker in One Froggy Evening did. For that worker, Michigan never stops singing but for everyone else, he just flops down and acts like a regular frog. So, for the WB to make Mr J Frog sing for all of America was violation of his character that Chuck couldn't stand. With that in mind, I doubt that if Art Davis had approached Chuck and said, "Hey, I'd like to use your skunk character in a cartoon of mine. However, he won't be French and he won't fall in love with
any girls that look like skunks. Instead he will compete for shelter with a dog and even deliberately attack him with the stink from his tail" that Chuck would be fine with that. I think Chuck would've, at the very least, exploded onto Art for even suggesting such a change. Chuck Jones wrote not one but two autobiographies. You'd think at least in either one of those there'd be some rant about Mr. Davis sullying his Pepe character. So, since there is no such rant in those books and I haven't heard of any such rant anywhere else, this leads me to fully conclude that the skunk in Odor of the Day is not Pepe Le Pew at all. Really, if Art Davis had wanted to change Pepe so drastically for this cartoon, why wouldn't he just use a whole other character? That seems to make the most sense to me.
There has been some reaction to the video so far. The responses on both Youtube and Facebook have been mixed for, against, or 'starting to lean towards but not quite all the way towards' my argument. Such as:
This guy on Facebook agrees that this is not Pepe. So, point for me I guess.
This Facebook person says "100% Pepe" and makes a point thusly. I can see the point he makes but I think he might've glossed over some stuff, but that's for a whole other post at a whole other time.
I grabbed both of these Facebook comments at the same time because they were exact opposites right next to each other. One says "no" while the other says "yes". Who knew this cartoon could be so divisive.
Over on Youtube, things are a little more nuanced. This guy gives a rather lengthy paragraph basically saying "maybe". But, he does raise the point that there are more questions than answers when it comes to this cartoon's origin.
This Youtuber says "yes" to this being Pepe and sites animation historian Jerry Beck as a source. Yes, Mr. Beck is indeed a tremendous source of animation information as well as being a lovely approachable person. I met him in person once in Ottawa about 11 years ago. He's a tiny little leprechaun of a man but inside the mind of this pseudo-gaelic gnome is a guy who's as nice and as knowledgable as I mentioned before.
However, he is still a mortal human and thus subject to err and/or make a too quick leap to judgement. He has certainly declared Odor of the Day as a bonefide Pepe Le Pew cartoon, but I'd like to know on what grounds he bases that opinion. Is it just in his own opinion or is there an unpublished or unreleased interview with the now late Art Davis that would fill in this puzzle piece? What does he know? Either way, this would certainly be a topic for discussion that I'd like to have with him someday.
Actually, speaking of Jerry, on the topic of this very cartoon I've noticed that some opinions from historians are also mixed. For instance, in this book...
...A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons, in the listing for Odor of the Day it does have Pepe Le Pew as one of the characters.
However, the same can't be said for Steve Schneider's book That's All Folks! The Art of Warner Bros. Animation.
There's a complete filmography in the very back of this book. In there, Odor of the Day is simply listed as what's called a "one shot".
So, who's correct, Jerry or Steve? This may be a trivial question to some, but such questions are always worth discussing to any historian. Just as other scholarly historians may speculate and postulate on what started the fire at the Library of Alexandria, so too do animation historians stop to ponder the origin and the storyboard pitch as well as any other back room happenings that may have lead to the creation of this cartoon. Keep searching for the truth, my friends.
I've managed to have yet another opportunity to do some commentary on Youtube talking about cartoons and whatnot. In recent years I've done some with Trevor Thompson (you can revisit some of my commentaries with him right here). But this time around I've done with another fellow Looney Tunes enthusiast named Anthony Kotorac. I'm in Canada and he's in Australia, but ultra modern technology allowed us to do this commentary in real time at the same time (within vastly different time zones of course). For the recording, we both relaxed.
I.... like... fired up the Coleman and put on some back bacon, eh.
He put his "shrimp on the barbie".
....and we were underway.
To hear our scintillating commentary, you'll have to of course go right to Anthony's channel, which you can do at this link here. I highly recommend subscribing to his channel while you're there. The task he's set for himself is to do commentary for every Looney Tunes cartoon ever made and doing so in the chronological order in which they were released. Here's the first video he did talking about the "one that started it all":
As you can hear, he did a fine job there. That was a cartoon made in 1929. The cartoons that he and I just recorded were released in 1944. So, you can well imagine, he's done many commentary videos so far and he has many many more to do for the next big while. Like I said, subscribe to his channel now and get his numbers way up there.
I do know that commentary on a video can seem tedious for anything you haven't seen before. So, with that in mind, I'll provide full video files of the two cartoons that we did. The first one we did was The Weakly Reporter:
The next one we did was Duck Soup to Nuts:
There we go. So now that you've watched both of those cartoons, you can ready for when our commentary videos are available on his channel. Have fun!
I didn't know he had a "situation" going on. And I'm sure Covid-19 didn't exactly help things either. Oh well. I'm glad he's slowly but surely getting back on his feet and continues to keep trucking along with his channel. Here's hoping he'll get that coveted Golden Play Button someday soon.
Like he said, the commentaries we did will appear on his channel every Saturday during the month of February 2021 (barring any other unexpected roadblocks). The first one will appear this coming Saturday February 6th. Don't forget to "toon" in.
I'd also like to expand a bit on what Trevor said about what the women in his life said about Pepe. They do make an accurate assertion when they say that poor Penelope the Cat has no agency and is completely at the mercy of this "chad skunk". They're not wrong. You can see it in this exchange from the cartoon Scent-imental Romeo:
"...sontez vous, sontez vous wherever you..."
"...are."
BONGGGGGGG!
"Flirt"
Just look at the horror in Penelope's eyes. She is essentially living in #MeToo Hell. "That mallet to the skull wasn't enough to stop him???!!!", her face seems to scream as she stares into the crippling abyss of what she realizes is her life now.
If you've seen even one Pepe Le Pew cartoon, you know for sure that she cannot run and she cannot hide and EVEN BRUTAL BLUNT PHYSICAL ASSAULT won't stop this indestructible romeo. What are her options? She's like Sarah Conner running away from a combination of Warren Beatty and The Terminator.
I like their comparison to the women in Johnny Bravo who are not so put upon and have all of the resources to resist and fend off Johnny's advances. They're living a better life for sure. But, of course, I don't believe for a second creator Chuck Jones' intentions was to take pleasure in watching a female cat get psychologically tortured. As I mentioned on a blogpost I made about Pepe Le Pew many moons ago, Chuck's inspiration was him watching writer Tedd Pierce constantly trying to woo any one of the Ink & Paint girls even though he hadn't bathed for a few days. The lack of self-awareness on Tedd's part along with the awkward discomfort of the poor lady trying to escape the encounter are comically exaggerated in the Pepe/Penelope dynamic. That's all that's happening. As per other examples, if anyone in real life saw the violent way Moe interacted with Curly....
....or the volatile and often condescending manner in which Basil dealt with Manuel on Fawlty Towers...
...so many Human Resource Centres wouldn't hesitate to draw up paperwork to help extract these people from such an abusive situation. That is certainly not cooperative human behaviour.
There's also that trope in cartoons that most often cats are tortured for our amusement, as the filmographies of Sylvester, Tom, and Catnip can demonstrate:
Penelope could just be one of many cartoon cats that suffers a different yet similar fate.
However, all of these scenarios were made to laugh at human foibles, not to celebrate them. In other words, it's just comedy.
But, of course, it being comedy, one is tempted to ask if the comedy is funny or not. That right there is just simply open to a wide variety of opinions, none more valuable than the next. Whether you find Pepe Le Pew funny or not is completely up to you.
In my opinion, he may not be the funniest, but he is certainly a wonderfully elegant character made elegant in a way only Chuck Jones could've achieved and fully deserves his Oscar win. I know pretty much every animation enthusiast reading this knows full well Pepe Le Pew's oscar win is the truth. But, I think some casual greenhorn fans might be doubting such a win. Well, for them, I will en this post with footage of the cartoon For Scent-imental Reasons winning that very award. Enjoy!
That's right. The good people at Ferris Wheelhouse invited me back to do some more commentary on Looney Tunes videos. I and host Trevor Thompson had such fun last time and it looked like most of the response to those videos was positive, so we got back at it again. The two of us recorded them just last week. We did all Pepe Le Pew cartoons. His plan is to release them all on every Saturday in February in time for Valentine's Day. So February looks like it could be a fun and romantic month. Everyone can curl up with a significant other and bask in the amorous glow of Pepe's raging hormones accompanied by commentary by me and the self-appointed Looney Tunes critic.
"Cwitic eh? Wook at him swandering me! I'll bwast him to smiveweens wif my...."
Hold it! No! No, Elmer. I'm not doing that routine in this blog post this time. For one, it's somewhat redundant. For two, the last time I did that I............ broke somebody.
Please observe a moment of silence for the that person's two lonely brain cells who died that day.
Now on with it. The commentary we did was...
"Why that doggone stubborn little.... I'LL GET THAT CRITIC!! WAGHWAGHWAGHWAGH!!!!"
Donald, you're at a different studio. You have nothing to worry about.
"If that Trevor Thom[stone] ever dares to critique me I'll bring down a slab of bronto-ribs on his head!"
Jeez, Fred. Are cartoons from every other studio going to vent for the sake of their delicate egos now or....?
"Oh! A critic on the internet! Is-is-is-is is that what's happening now? Why don't you just SHOOT ME IN THE HEAD??!! RIGHT NOW!! COME ON!!!"
Okay! Back through the timeline portal you came from Rick. Mr. Poopy Butthole says "hi".
Yeesh! That was a mess. Anyway, like I said, expect to see new commentary from me and Trevor in February. In the mean time though, I'll embed all of the commentaries we did the first time. Whether it's your first time seeing them or your 10,000,000,000,000,000,000th time, enjoy!
A while back on this blog I posted a video in which I did some commentary on a WB cartoon with the good people at Ferris Wheelhouse. Well, embedded above is some more commentary I did but this time for the Elmer Fudd cartoon Ant Pasted.
What a neat coincidence that I got to talk about this cartoon in particular because it allowed me to revisit a theory I have about this cartoon that I posted on this very same blog a way long time ago. I opined that this cartoon was a subversive satirical attack on Joe McCarty's communist witch hunt.
"WHUT?! DUH WB WENT N GONE N MADE SPORT A ME?? WHY I OUGHTA....."
I'll walk you through my thought process with screen captures this time (something I couldn't do for that old post). {begin animation nerd dissertation now}
The cartoon starts with Elmer Fudd celebrating the 4th of July by lighting fireworks and throwing them. Elmer Fudd represents Joe McCarthy and the fireworks represent Joe's aggressively overt patriotism.
However, one of Elmer's fireworks lands next to an ant colony injuring one of the ants. The ant, in this moment, represents an average American citizen does not quite share the same zeal as Mr. McCarthy and so feels overwhelmed by it.
When Elmer sees his fireworks have disturbed the ants, he's inspired to throw several of his lighted explosives directly at the ants. This of course represents McCarthy's Human Unamerican Activities Committee going after anyone they considered "communist subversives" (whether they had evidence or not).
Although one aspect is different from the real history of that era. Back then, anyone who found themselves snared by the HUAC net had no choice but to go along with the proceedings which would get them blacklisted in some way. In the cartoon in question here, the ants answer this onslaught with full militarized retaliation.
My comparison to McCarthy with this cartoon is further solidified for me when at one point during the battle Elmer Fudd shouts "Why don't you ant go under gwound where you bewong!"
I mean, that's why Joe started his crusade in the first place, so that he could drive all he considered undesirable to go underground and (to his hope) out of society.
But, like I said, the ants retaliate against Elmer in a highly successful attack that has Fudd running for his safety.
His retreat is all for naught because the ants manage to obliterate him with his own explosives. The cartoon ends with the ants throwing a patriotic salute to Elmer's (Joe's) destruction.
It would be of no surprise to me if my hypothesis of Ant Pasted were proved correct. One of McCarthy's biggest target of interest was Hollywood, which the WB animation department was very much a part of. You can bet everyone there was worried that no stone would be left unturned and soon HUAC would be coming after them. I do think they did throw in some nods to patriotism for the soul purpose of keeping these men away from them.
One example I can think of off the top of my head is Forward March Hare in which Bugs Bunny accidentally joins the army. When the general informs Bugs that the army is not equipped to accommodate rabbits as soldiers, Bugs responds with, "Isn't there something a patriotic rabbit can do for his country?" I'm sure Joe pleasured himself after hearing Bugs say that.
Another example I recall is a gag in the cartoon Fowl Weather. Sylvester cranks up a little toy soldier and sets it marching in front of the hens in the henhouse. The hens all stand up to salute. This gives Sylvester a chance to look for Tweety who may be hiding among the baby chicks (spoiler: he was). Although, I think this may have been another subtle jab at Joe.
And of course there are the three cartoons that were commissioned to be economic lessons:
By Word of Mouse
Heir Conditioned
and Yankee Dood It
I looked through some of the comments of that video and found this dissenting assertion that I'd like to address:
OK, whoever made this comment (I cropped out the name so nobody finds and harasses this guy) contradicts himself a bit. He says that the president ant declaring war may be a caricature of Harry Truman since he was president when production of this cartoon began at some point in the early 1950's but was released after Eisenhower had since won the 1952 election by the time of its release in 1953. However, he then claims this cartoon was more about the Korean War coming to an end. Ant Pasted was released May 9 of 1953 while the Korean War was halted with a cease fire in September of that year. How could the director Friz Freeing be inspired to make a cartoon about the end of the Korean War at a time when Truman was still president and still determined to keep that war going? And yet he thought my comparison to Joe McCarthy was "off base" even though that was a deeply pressing concern in that time period starting way further back in the late 40's. Meh. What's the point of addressing this guy's ramblings any further?
Forget it, Jake. It's the Youtube comment section.
Well really neither of our statements hold much weight because who knows what the director of Ant Pasted, Friz Freleng, would say about our hypotheses if through some miracle of science he could still be alive today. Maybe he would say "No, this cartoon was me telling Arthur Godfrey that he's a son of a bitch and should stay away from my wife." But we'll never know, and what does it matter in the grand scheme of time and space? No matter whose assessment is true or not, I think most animation enthusiasts can agree that many of the WB cartoons are some of the best and most clever short films of all time. The fact that different people can read different things into what are essentially basic premises whose structure is used as a showcase for quick gags. That's all part of their genius. Whatever your opinion is, definitely continue to enjoy the cartoon Ant Pasted with or without commentary.
