1939 Number: 032
Title: A Day At The Zoo
Studio: Warner Brothers
Date: 3/11/39
Credits: None listed on viewed print
Series: Merrie Melodies (according to Blue Ribbon title)
Running time (of viewed version): 7:03
Synopsis: A series of blackout gags centered around the zoo.
Comments: The wolf's natural habitat is "at the door". "Pack of camels", even if smoking references were allowed, would probably be disallowed as advertising today (unless they paid for the placement, of course). They might let the greyhound one slide tho; public transit feels like an exception... I don't think the character designer ever saw a groundhog; it looks more like a weasel. The owl vocalization gags are different. Egghead is trying to steal Lou Costello's "I've been a baaaad boy" line. There's a bit with "two restless panthers pacing back and forth in their cage", and they are saying "bread and butter" over and over again; I don't know what it means. Wildcat references his name being called at bank night (the popular theater come on) and not being there as what caused him to be wild. Hopefully the lion eating Egghead at the end will ensure his continuing death...
I don't know the origin, but people used to say "bread and butter" when either
ReplyDeletea) walking alongside someone and allowing something, say a telephone pole, to pass between them,
or
b) passing someone going the other direction.
Referenced in several WB cartoons.
The director was Tex Avery. The loss of credits is one of the tragedies of these Blue Ribbon releases, but really, a Tex Avery gag is hard to mistake for anything else.
ReplyDeleteYes, Avery directed,
ReplyDeleteMelvin "Tubby" Millar wrote.
Rollin Hamilton was credited for animation.
Music by Carl Stalling.