Merrie Melodies
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Merrie Melodies opening title. |
Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of
animated cartoons distributed by
Warner Bros. Pictures between
1931 and
1969. The series was produced by
Leon Schlesinger Productions until
1944, when Schlesinger sold his studio to the Warners. The newly renamed Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. continued producing the series until
1964.
Producer Leon Schlesinger had already produced one cartoon in the
Looney Tunes series, and its success prompted him to try to sell 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. 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 a soundtrack, animating a piece of music made it easier to devise plot elements and even characters.
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Merrie Melodies closing title from the early 1960s. |
The
Merrie Melodies series was taken on by
Rudy Ising, one of the two
animators (the other being Hugh Harman) who had worked on the original
Looney Tunes short. The first of these was
Lady, Play Your Mandolin!, released in
1931. Ising attempted to introduce new characters in his
Merrie Melodies films, such as
Piggy,
Foxy, and
Goopy Geer, but Foxy was so derivative of
Mickey Mouse that he was dropped, possibly at
Disney's urging. The
Merrie Melodies shorts became largely plotless musicals or romances without any recurring characters and continued in this vein even after Ising left the studio in
1933.
In
1934, Schlesinger produced his first color
Merrie Melodies shorts,
Honeymoon Hotel and
Beauty and the Beast, which were produced in
Cinecolor (
Disney had exclusive rights to the richer
Technicolor process). Their success convinced Schlesinger to produce all future
Merrie Melodies shorts in color as well.
Looney Tunes continued in black and white until
1943.
Contractually,
Merrie Melodies cartoons were obligated to include at least one full
chorus from 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.
In the late
1930s, the animators were released from this obligation, and the
Merrie Melodies shorts came to resemble more closely the black-and-white
Looney Tunes series. In
1943, Schlesinger began producing
Looney Tunes in color as well, and the two series became virtually indistinguishable except by their theme music and opening titles. By this time 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 was an adaptation of "
Merrily We Roll Along" by
Charles Tobias,
Murray Mencher &
Eddie Cantor.
Warner Bros.-owned songs continued to appear in some of the shorts, however, as shown by the frequent repetition of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" and "
Singing in the Bathtub," as well as the music of
Carl Stalling and
Raymond Scott, particularly "
Powerhouse".
Beginning in the 1940s, WB, in a cost-conserving effort, began to reissue its backlog of color cartoons under a new program which they called
Merrie Melodies "Blue Ribbon" reissues. 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 the opening technical credits. The end title card was also revised, replacing the original versions. The revised title sequences were edited right into the original negative, thus the original title sequences were cut away and possibly scrapped. Some of these same revised "blue ribbon" reissues can still be seen on television today. For example, the "blue ribbon" version of the Bugs Bunny short
A Wild Hare was erronously retitled
The Wild Hare for reissue, along with some slight subtle edits (the original unaltered version has been released on both
LaserDisc and
DVD).
For the
Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD releases, WB went through great lengths to track down whatever elements of the original title credits still exist in an effort to re-create as best they could the original versions of the altered 'blue ribbon' shorts. Some pristine prints of the original issues were obtained from the
UCLA Film and Television Archive. As a result, such cartoons as
I Love to Singa and
Book Revue can once again be seen as they were originally intended. Unfortunately, there are some "blue ribbon" reissue versions of cartoons that are represented on the
Golden Collection DVDs as they are the only versions that were made available for exhibition. In any event, to this day there is controversy among animation fans and historians on the alteration of the "blue ribbon" releases.
* Schneider, Steve (1990).
That's All Folks!: The Art of Warner Bros. Animation. Henry Holt & Co.
* Beck, Jerry and Friedwald, Will (1989):
Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Company.
*
Looney Tunes*
Termite Terrace*
Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography*
The Big Cartoon Database entry for Merrie Melodies
