| Beans | |
|---|---|
| Leon Schlesinger Productions character | |
 Beans inHollywood Capers | |
| First appearance | I Haven't Got a Hat (1935) |
| Last appearance | Westward Whoa (1936) |
| Created by | Friz Freleng |
| Voiced by | Billy Bletcher (1935) Tommy Bond (1935–1936) |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Cat |
| Gender | Male |
Beans the Cat is ananimatedcartoon character in theWarner Bros. Cartoons series of cartoons from 1935–1936.[1] Beans was the thirdWarner Bros cartoon character star afterBosko andBuddy. He was voiced byBilly Bletcher (and occasionally byTommy Bond). He was created by directorFriz Freleng. The character was featured innine cartoons made in 1935 and 1936.[2]
In 1933, cartoon animators/directorsHugh Harman andRudolf Ising left producerLeon Schlesinger forMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer, taking their main creation,Bosko, with them. Desperate to maintain his contract withWarner Bros., Schlesinger founded an animation studio of his own,Leon Schlesinger Productions, to produce newLooney Tunes andMerrie Melodies cartoons in-house and collected employees fromDisney,Ub Iwerks, and other animation studios. Schlesinger set up his new studio on theWarner Bros. lot, onSunset Boulevard. Among the staff Schlesinger had accrued wasTom Palmer, a former Disney animator who was appointed director ofLooney Tunes andMerrie Melodies.[3] Schlesinger intended to effectively compete with Disney andFleischer Studios, and he needed a continuing, star character to compete withMickey Mouse andBetty Boop. Palmer introducedBuddy to be that character. Like Bosko and Mickey, Buddy had a girlfriend and a pet dog as supporting characters.[3] The Buddy character, however, was not a success and Palmer was fired after completing two short films for Schlesinger. Following the departure of Palmer's replacement,Earl Duvall, Schlesinger ran short of directors (composerBernard B. Brown even receiving credits for directing twoMerrie Melodies shorts) and began to search for new directors to effectively keep the Schlesinger studio afloat.[3] According to animation historianMichael Barrier, all the animated short films produced by the Schlesinger studio under its early directors lacked in cuteness and charm of any kind and were frequently incoherent.[3] The shorts of this period had much smaller production budgets than their main competitor, Disney.[3]
By 1934, Schlesinger had assigned directorial duties on theMerrie Melodies series to former Harman-Ising animatorFriz Freleng, and theLooney Tunes series toJack King. Schlesinger tasked the two with creating new characters to replace the sterile Buddy, and the two created a group ofanthropomorphic animals to show to Schlesinger, which included Beans, a mischievous cat, Little Kitty, a female cat and Beans' love interest, twin puppies named Ham and Ex, Oliver Owl, a stubborn, spectacled owl, andPorky, a stuttering pig. Beans and his friends made their first appearances onI Haven't Got a Hat, aMerrie Melodies animated short directed by Freleng.[2] TheMerrie Melodies series lacked continuing characters by this point. But the film served as a showcase for the new characters, that were being groomed to replace Buddy as the stars of theLooney Tunes series.[3] Schlesinger hoped that some of them would catch on with audiences and becomebankable stars, and when the characters became popular with audiences, Buddy was discontinued and Beans became the star ofLooney Tunes.
Beans' first "crack at stardom" was his first soloLooney Tunes film,A Cartoonist's Nightmare.[3] The film was directed by Jack King, who would go on to direct a total of eight animated shorts featuring Beans before returning to Disney in 1936. Michael Barrier describes Beans under King's direction as resembling the Mickey Mouse version of the early 1930s. Their designs were certainly similar, with both characters having a white face and black body. But in characterization Beans was a pint-sized hero, resembling the plucky, boyish, and heroic Mickey featured inThe Klondike Kid (1932) andThe Mail Pilot (1933).[3] Beans was voiced byBilly Bletcher andTommy Bond.
Also in 1935, the studio gained a third full-time director, working in addition to Freleng and King. He wasTex Avery, a former inker for the short-lived Winkler Studio and theUniversal Studio Cartoons. Avery had started working as an inker in 1928 and was promoted to an animator by 1930. While at Universal, he used to work under directorBill Nolan. Nolan used to delegate work to Avery, and Avery reportedly was the uncreditedde facto director for a couple of films credited to Nolan.[3] Avery had lost his job in Universal in April 1935, and was hired by Schlesinger a few months later. According to a later interview with Avery, Avery had falsely claimed that he was an experienced director when applying for the job: "'Hey, I'm a director.' Hell! I was no more a director than nothing, but with my loud mouth, I talked him [Schlesinger] into it."[3] Avery's production unit received its own building within the studio lot. Avery got exclusive use of four animators for his unit:Bob Clampett,Chuck Jones,Sid Sutherland, andVirgil Ross. The first animated short film produced by this unit wasGold Diggers of '49 (1935), the thirdLooney Tunes film starring Beans. Beans was also featured in the film's title card, signifying that he was the intendedprotagonist. The film had aWestern setting and cast Beans as agold miner. Also featured in the film was a redesigned Porky Pig, making his second appearance.[4]
Beans began appearing with characters from the cast ofI Haven't Got a Hat, most frequentlyPorky Pig. However, after a number of Porky and Beans outings, it became clear that the character audiences were talking about was Beans' stuttering sidekick, Porky Pig, and afterWestward Whoa, Beans was phased out and Porky replaced him as the star ofLooney Tunes.
According to Barrier, Beans made one last appearance inShanghaied Shipmates (1936), a short film directed by Jack King. It was to be the last animated short featuring either Beans or the rest of the cast ofI Haven't Got a Hat, with the exception of Porky Pig.[3] Barrier suggests that Leon Schlesinger may have been giving Avery a vote of confidence, when deciding to keep only Porky as a continuing character and to drop Beans. Porky had already been the main star in Avery's films, while Beans had continued to serve as the main star of King's films. After losing use of Beans, Jack King directed only three films starring Porky Pig. By April 1936, King was hired again by the Disney studio. He would go on to serve as a director in films starringDonald Duck.[3]
In 1937 and 1938, Schlesinger's studio began creating various potential replacements for Beans, producing characters such asGabby Goat,Petunia Pig,Daffy Duck and a little white hare. Daffy would become Porky's most enduring comic partner, while Gabby and Petunia both disappeared after a few shorts; the white hare would rarely ever appear with Porky again but would, over the course of a few years, evolve into Warner Bros.'s biggest star,Bugs Bunny.
| Title | Release date |
|---|---|
| I Haven't Got a Hat | March 2, 1935 |
| The Country Mouse (cameo) | July 13, 1935 |
| A Cartoonist's Nightmare | September 21, 1935 |
| Hollywood Capers | October 19, 1935 |
| Gold Diggers of '49 | November 2, 1935 |
| Alpine Antics | January 18, 1936 |
| The Phantom Ship | February 1, 1936 |
| Boom Boom | February 29, 1936 |
| The Fire Alarm | March 9, 1936 |
| Westward Whoa | April 25, 1936 |
| Plane Dippy (cameo) | April 30, 1936 |
| Space Jam (picture cameo) | November 15, 1996 |
| The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (picture cameo) | March 14, 2025 |
