Movies - Looney Tunes

Home > Listing Index > Movies > Looney Tunes

	Movies - Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in movie theatres from 1930 to 1969. It preceded the Merrie Melodies
series, and is both WB's first animated theatrical series and the second longest continuous animated series in any medium. The regular Warner Bros. animation cast also became known as the "Looney Tunes" (often misspelled, intentionally or not, as "Looney Toons").

History

The two series were given two separate names because originally, Warner Bros. wanted them to be two separate cartoons series (in the same manner that Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies
were separate from the Mickey Mouse
series).

In the beginning years, both Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies drew their storylines from Warner's vast music library. However, eventually the two series distinguished themselves by Looney Tunes becoming the umbrella for the studio's various recurring characters, while Merrie Melodies continued with the use of one-shot characters. Also, from 1934 to 1943 Merrie Melodies were produced in color and Looney Tunes in black and white; after 1943, however, both series were produced in color; the only real difference between the two series was in the variation between the opening theme music and titles. Both series by this time also made use of the various Warner Bros. cartoon stars. By 1943, the theme music for Looney Tunes was "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin; the theme music for Merrie Melodies was an adaptation of "Merrily We Roll Along" by Charles Tobias, Murray Mencher and Eddie Cantor. The reason for the Looney Tunes changeover to color was Warner Bros' decision to re-release only the color Merrie Melodies for their Blue Ribbon Classics series of cartoons, noted by the special "Blue Ribbon" title card.

Bosko was Looney Tunes first major star, debuting in the short Sinkin' in the Bathtub
in 1930. After several years and a move to rival studio MGM in an entirely different incarnation, Buddy took his place as the studio's main star. 1935 saw the debut of the first truly major Looney Tunes star, Porky Pig, after which followed the debuts of other memorable Looney Tunes stars such as Daffy Duck (in 1937) and the most famous of the Looney Tunes cast, Bugs Bunny (in 1940). Bugs appeared originally in the color Merrie Melodies and formally joined the Looney Tunes crew when it switched to color. Bugs' only appearance in a black and white Looney Tune was a gag appearance at the end of the Frank Tashlin 1943 cartoon Porky Pig's Feat
.

While the early thirties cartoons never directly catered to a younger audience, the cartoons consisted mostly of musical singing/dancing and generally contained a sense of innocence (mostly as a result of imitating the Disney style). By the late thirties, the series had become way More Edgy, and was more obviously targeted to the adult moviegoers of the time.

The Looney Tunes series' popularity was strengthened even more when the shorts began airing on network and syndicated television in the mid-to-late 1950s under various titles and formats. However, since the syndicated shorts' target audience was children and because of concerns over children's television in the 1970s, the Looney Tunes shorts began to be edited to remove scenes featuring innuendos, ethnic stereotypes and extreme violence.

The original Looney Tunes theatrical series ran from 1930 to 1969 (the last short being Injun Trouble, starring Cool Cat). During part of the 1960s the shorts were produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises after Warner Bros shut down their animation studios. The shorts from this era can be identified by the fact that they open with a different title sequence featuring stylized limited animation and graphics on a black background and a re-arranged version of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down," performed by William Lava. Theatrical animated shorts then went dormant until 1987 when new shorts were made to introduce Looney Tunes to a new generation of audiences. New shorts have been produced and released sporadically for theaters since then, usually as promotional tie-ins with various family movies produced by Warner Bros. This lasted until 2004.
[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Looney Tunes ]

Some related entries: Sopyonje | Consenting Adults | Le Samouraï | And Soon the Darkness | Dead Heat | 11'9''01 September 11 | Kamen Rider Verde | Mary Shelley's Frankenstein | Lone Wolf McQuade | In The Presence of a Clown | Äideistä Parhain
This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Looney Tunes; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Movies - Looney Tunes

History

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay