| Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Adventure Comedy |
| Written by | Chuck Menville Len Janson |
| Directed by | Hal Sutherland |
| Voices of | Mel Blanc Jane Webb Howard Morris Larry Storch Jay Scheimer Lou Scheimer Dallas McKennon |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Producers | Norm Prescott Lou Scheimer |
| Running time | 1 hour |
| Production companies | Filmation Warner Bros. Television |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC |
| Release | December 16, 1972 (1972-12-16) |
| Related | |
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Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies is a 1972 American animated one-hourtelevision movie (with a live-action segment near the end) that was broadcast onABC on December 16, as an episode of the anthology seriesThe ABC Saturday Superstar Movie.[1][2] In thisFilmation-produced movie,Daffy Duck,Porky Pig, and otherLooney Tunes characters interact with the characters from the Filmation seriesGroovie Goolies.[3]
This movie is notable for being the one and only time thatWarner Bros. "loaned out" their famousLooney Tunes characters to appear in a Filmation production (otherwise they were a silent partner). Warner Bros. had shut down their animation studio in 1969. While Warner Bros. had outsourced production to other companies since the 1960s, it was usually to studios run by former Warner Bros. alumni (such asFriz Freleng and laterChuck Jones), something that was not the case with Filmation.
Daffy Duck is inHollywood producing a movie aboutKing Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, starring himself; also appearing in the film arePorky Pig,Petunia Pig (in her first on-screen appearance since the 1930s),Sylvester,Tweety,Wile E. Coyote (without his usual foil the Road Runner),Pepé Le Pew,Elmer Fudd,Yosemite Sam,Foghorn Leghorn, andCharlie Dog. (Bugs Bunny, the usual foil of Elmer and Sam, was absent.)
At Horrible Hall, theGroovie Goolies are watching a television interview in which Daffy is talking about his new movie, when their program is interrupted by a ghoulish being calling himself The Phantom of the Flickers; he announces his intention to destroy every film that Daffy Duck and the company ever made, including their current King Arthur film. Being a huge fan of Daffy, Frankie goes to Hollywood to offer his help, and the other Horrible Hall residents go along with him.
Mayhem ensues when the Looney Tunes and the Goolies first meet, but they eventually settle down and continue filming the movie. But when the Phantom disguises himself as each of the Goolies, Daffy and the others then think that they are in league with the Phantom and run off. The Phantom suddenly grabs the film and, disguised as Hauntleroy, tries to escape from the Goolies by running through a magicmirror into "Mad Mirror Land" (where the animation shifts to live action, stop-motionpixilation). Frankie, Drac, and Wolfie chase after him, and after a cartoonishly slapstick pursuit they bring (or more rather sneeze) the Phantom and the film back to the hand-drawn animated world.
The Phantom turns out to be Drac's long-lost uncle Claude Chaney, a formerly famoussilent film actor. Chaney's pale complexion left him out of work whencolor films became popular. Daffy, impressed with Chaney's disguise skills, gives Claude a job.King Arthur wins anOzzie Award, and the Goolies head for home.
The following (uncredited) actors appeared in the live-action segment:
In early 1971,Warner Bros. Television signed a long-term contract with Filmation under which the latter would produce new animated films and future television series based on Warner Bros.' existing properties, and the former would handle distribution off-network across the world. The deal also called for production of new theatrical cartoons by Filmation for distribution by Warner Bros. to theaters and television. Warner Bros. subsidiary Licensing Corp. of America would continue to exclusively represent both companies' properties for character licensing and merchandising.[4][5][6] In early November, a television series based onWile E. Coyote and Road Runner was announced to be in the works, but was never produced.[7] In January 1972, Warner Bros. announced an expansion on the agreement, with a three-year series of animated feature films calledFamily Classics, each budgeted at $1 million and set at 90 minutes and announced as a co-production. They would hold network and syndication rights. The titles announced for the series includedTreasure Island,Oliver Twist,Cyrano De Bergerac,Swiss Family Robinson,Don Quixote,From the Earth to the Moon,Robin Hood,Noah's Ark,Knights of the Round Table,Arabian Nights, andJack London's Call of the Wild.[8]
According toLou Scheimer,Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies was the strangest project that came from the contract.Chuck Menville andLen Janson were hired to write the film's story, where the Groovie Goolies went to Hollywood to meet Warner Bros.'Looney Tunes characters. Warner Bros. had shut down their animation department in 1969, so Filmation obtained the rights to use most of the mainLooney Tunes characters, exceptBugs Bunny (who had not been seen since the closure of the Warner Bros. studio in 1964),Speedy Gonzales and the Road Runner.Mel Blanc reprised several of his roles for the film, though the characters sounded a little different from the classic shorts; Filmation incorrectly sped up Blanc's voice recordings forDaffy Duck andTweety Bird higher than normal, with the former sounding like his early "screwball" incarnation byTex Avery andBob Clampett, and forgot to speed upPorky Pig's voice.Elmer Fudd,Sylvester the Cat,Foghorn Leghorn,Wile E. Coyote andPepé Le Pew's voices sounded deeper than usual, due to Blanc's dissatisfaction about working on the film and him struggling to get Elmer's voice "right" (Elmer's normal voice actor,Arthur Q. Bryan, had died in 1959).Yosemite Sam is the only character who does not sound different from the classic shorts.Larry Storch andHoward Morris reprised their roles as Drac, Hagatha (Storch), Frankie, Wolfie, Mummy and Hauntleroy (Morris). The villain of the film, the Phantom of the Flickers, was a parody ofThe Phantom of the Opera, voiced by Storch, with the name "Claude Chaney" derived fromLon Chaney, Sr. (who played the title role in the1925 film) andClaude Rains (who starred in the1943 film).[9] Additional voices were provided by Storch, Scheimer, and his wife Jay Scheimer (asPetunia Pig and the Nurse). Most of the Warner Bros. characters were drawn well (veteran Warner Bros. animatorVirgil Ross was working there at the time, along with other animators that had worked for Warner Bros. in the late 1960s, such asLaverne Harding andEd Solomon), though Wile E. and Pepé were drawn scruffier than usual.
The live-action segment was filmed inWestlake Village nearThousand Oaks, usingstop motion,pixilation andundercranking to enable the actors to move like cartoon characters. Menville and Janson had previously used the techniques for three short films of their own:Stop Look and Listen,Blaze Glory andSergeant Swell of the Mounties. The actors were music producer Ed Fournier as Frankie, musicianEmory Gordy Jr. as "Hauntleroy",Dick Monda as Drac, and songwriter Jeffrey Thomas as Wolfie.[10] The segment was a modified version of an unused segment forSabrina and the Groovie Goolies, named "The Haunted Heist", in which the Goolies chase the real Hauntleroy into Mad Mirror Land after the latter steals Wolfie's guitar. It would later air in reruns in 1975 and as part of the syndicatedThe Groovie Goolies and Friends anthology series in 1978.[11]
After Filmation produced the film, as well asOliver Twist andTreasure Island (both of which had been finished by late 1973), Warner Bros. decided to drop theFamily Classics line, due to a negative test screening forOliver Twist.[12]
The special is not liked by manyLooney Tunes fans due to its limited animation and weak storyline. InThat's All, Folks! The Art of Warner Bros. Animation, Steve Schneider dismissed the film as "a low moment in Warner's animation; the less said about this work, the better".[13] Animation historianJerry Beck called the film "the low point in the history of animation" and "an abominable mess, with limited animation, voices sped up incorrectly and an annoying laugh track (not to mention the bland stock background music)".[14][15] Michael N. Salda called it "the worst Arthurian cartoon ever" in his bookArthurian Animation: A Study of Cartoon Camelots on Film and Television, stating:
Even an all-star cast could not overcomeDaffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies's pedestrian draftsmanship, inconsistent voices, humorless gags, stock music loops, and empty characterization. The two segments devoted directly to Daffy'sKing Arthur film are no better than the rest of the cartoon that encompasses them. It is painful to watch. If the rest of the cartoon were any better, one could argue that Daffy's producer/director/actor effort is supposed to be deeply flawed, as it is, for example, inDaffy Duck in Hollywood,Hollywood Daffy andThe Scarlet Pumpernickel. These three earlier cartoons were fine Warner Bros. releases that entertained even as, and because, they underscored Daffy's arrogance and many foibles. But Daffy's embeddedKing Arthur film is as unrelentingly weak asDaffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies itself. There is no joke here. Despite the conclusion that shows Daffy proudly accepting an 'Ozzie' for King Arthur and making a speech in which he thanks himself repeatedly as producer, director, star, et cetera, the rest of the world took a dimmer view of Filmation's cartoon. Although the Phantom of the Flickers was speaking exclusively of Daffy's Arthurian film when he judged it a 'full-length flop', his condemnation could easily be extended toDaffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies and much of Arthurianimation in the 1960s and early 1970s as a whole.[16]
TheAnimaniacs episode "Back In Style" was loosely based on Warner Bros. "loaning out" theLooney Tunes characters to appear in the film, withYakko, Wakko, and Dot being loaned off to limited animation television cartoons, including a parody of Filmation'sFat Albert and the Cosby Kids namedObese Orson.[17]
This movie has never been officially released on home video in the United States (due to various rights issues), but traders on the Internet have been recording and sellingDVDs of this film, most of which were originally black-and-whitekinescopes of the original broadcast.
Distributor Select Video released the film in a number of European countries, including Germany and Denmark.[18] The German version of the movie was released in 1983 asGroovie Goolies: Muntere Monster in Hollywood ("Groovie Goolies: Groovie Goolies in Hollywood"), and re-released in 1986 asDuffy Duck und Co. ("Daffy Duck and Co."), and again in 1990 asDie Lustige Monster Show: Duffy Duck und Co. in Hollywood ("Groovie Goolies: Daffy Duck and Co. in Hollywood"). The original laugh track from the movie was removed for these releases. In January 1985, the movie was released in the UK asGroovie Ghouls. In those instances, the live-action sequence was replaced by an out-of-shot collision before rejoining the original animated sequence. The sequence in these releases was cut for time, as the German versions contained trailers for other Select Video titles. Another notable feature of the German and UK releases was that the Select Video ident was shorter, and had no jingle. In addition, the end credits were different, as they had to edit out the names of the actors in the live-action sequence which was not included, and also had other credits, presumably for Europe-based post-production at Select Video.[19]
Despite the aforementioned rights issues, the film remains part of theGroovie Goolies syndication package (split into two half-hours), as of the mid-2000s,[20] and has been rebroadcast several times on television. On January 1, 1983, the movie was broadcast onAntenne 2 in France asLes Croque-monstres à Hollywood ("Groovie Goolies in Hollywood").[21]Sky One broadcast the movie in the United Kingdom on July 4, 1992.[22]USA Network broadcast the movie as a Halloween special in the mid-to-late 1990s shortly before it stopped broadcasting cartoons altogether.[23] The movie was broadcast on German television asMonsterparty auf Schloß Blutenburg: Daffy Duck und das Phantom Der Seifenoper ("Groovie Goolies: Daffy Duck and the Phantom of the Flickers") in 2002, 2007 and 2013.[24][25]
We also made a deal with Warner Bros., to produce animated films for them.
On February 1, 1971, more information came out about our deal with Warner. The agreement was that we would create animated films based on existing WB film and TV characters, titles, and properties, which would then be distributed exclusively off-network on a global basis. We were also supposed to animate feature films for Warner. Said projects would be sold around the world by Licensing Corp. of America (which was licensing Warner and National-DC properties at the time), although CMA remained our agent. Although WB TV head Gerald J. Leider announced the deal, our contact at Warner was Jacqueline Smith. This deal led to a very strange collaboration in 1972, and a few other interesting projects, before changing into something else entirely.
In early November the trades reported that one of our co-ventures with Warner was going to be an ABC series of the Road Runner. Let's just say that plans for that went the way of most of Wile E. Coyote's plans... but it didn't mean our deal with Warner wasn't about to take some interesting turns.
In mid-January 1972, Warner announced an expansion on their agreement with us from the previous year, with ten feature animated films—each budgeted at $1 million and set at 90-minutes—announced as a co-production. The three-year project was noted in trades as being the largest deal of its kind in animation history. The tagline for the series of films was "Family Classics", and Warner held network and syndication rights. Titles announced were:Oliver Twist,Cyrano De Bergerac,Swiss Family Robinson,Don Quixote,From the Earth to the Moon,Robin Hood,Noah's Ark,Knights of the Round Table,Arabian Nights, andJack London's Call of the Wild. All of the works were based on books or concepts in the public domain, but not animated by any other studio. Warner was owned at that point by Kinney Services, a cable TV company, and with us owned by TelePrompTer the cable market—and the eventual home video market—was being closely eyed for these films as a continual revenue stream, not unlike Disney's features. For us it meant we could employ an animation team of 400 people year-round!
That was the weirdest project for us and really sprang out of that deal we had with Warner Bros. We had the rights to use some of their characters, so we did this special in which the Groovie Goolies came out to Hollywood and wanted to meet the Warner Bros. characters. We used a lot of the main Warner characters, except Bugs Bunny and the little mouse guy, Speedy Gonzales. And I think it's one of the few times we used that wonderful voice actor, Mel Blanc, although he may have been ill then. He had a terrible accident, and that may be the time his son did some stuff for us, imitating his dad. The villain of the story was "Claude Chaney", which was our little nod to Lon Chaney and Claude Rains. Overall, it was really a strange project.
There was a live-action segment in this special with the Goolies as well, in which they went through "Mad Mirror Land" into the real world, chasing after the disguised Phantom of the Flickers. We filmed it in a kind of stop-motion called "pixelation", so they had kind of a cartoon feel. That even enabled us to have Drac appear to fly by flapping his cape without using wires to hold him up. It was filmed in Westlake Village near Thousand Oaks. The four guys who portrayed the live-action monsters were: Michael Richard Monda, a.k.a. "Daddy Dewdrop" (Drac); songwriter Jeffrey Thomas (Wolfie); musician Emory Lee Gordy, Jr. (Hauntleroy); and music producer Ed Fournier (Frankie). They did a great job portraying their animated counterparts, and, if we had pursued any live Goolies show, they would have been a lock for it.
We had completed work onOliver Twist, and I think even onTreasure Island from our deals with Warner. And then Warner changed their mind and decided to drop the "animated classics" line. I think they did one test screening forOliver Twist, which didn't go well, and they just dropped it all. And we were then out $50,000 per picture because we put in more than they gave us to do them.
