| Elmer's Candid Camera | |
|---|---|
 Lobby card | |
| Directed by | Chuck Jones |
| Story by | Rich Hogan |
| Produced by | Leon Schlesinger |
| Starring | Mel Blanc Arthur Q. Bryan Marion Darlington[1] |
| Music by | Carl W. Stalling |
| Animation by | Robert McKimson |
| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
Release date |
|
Running time | 7:49 |
| Language | English |
Elmer's Candid Camera is a 1940Warner Bros.Merrie Melodies cartoon short directed byChuck Jones.[2] The short was released on March 2, 1940, and featuresElmer Fudd andan early Bugs Bunny prototype.[3]
Elmer is reading a book on how to photograph wildlife. He walks along whistling as he holds the camera. He finds a rabbit and wants to take a picture of him. The rabbit finds himself a convenient victim to harass as Elmer tries to photograph him. Elmer points to where the rabbit was sleeping and tells him that he wants to take a picture of him.
Throughout the rest of the picture, the rabbit continues to bother Elmer as he tries to photograph other animals in the forest. This all comes to a head when Elmer has had enough of his shenanigans and attempts to catch the rabbit with a net, but is fooled again when the rabbit fakes his suffering. This tormenting eventually drives Elmer insane, causing him to jump into a lake and nearly drown. The rabbit saves him, ensures that Elmer is perfectly all right – and promptly kicks him straight back into the lake. Then, the rabbit throws Elmer's "How To Photograph Wildlife" book on his head, thus ending the cartoon as the screenirises out.
This is the first appearance of a redesignedElmer Fudd, a character previously known as "Elmer" on the Lobby cards forThe Isle of Pingo Pongo (1938) andCinderella Meets Fella (1938), and even on screen inA Feud There Was (1938) and was also referred to as "Egghead's Brother" on theVitaphone Publicity sheet for "Cinderella Meets Fella" (1938) which was shown onMichael Barrier's website (and now voiced byArthur Q. Bryan).[4]
It is also the fourth appearance of the prototype rabbit that would later evolve intoBugs Bunny. Apart from making a fool of Elmer Fudd, the usual characteristics are absent; the voice used byMel Blanc is a low-pitched generic voice, and his laugh is a precursor to the laugh Blanc used forWoody Woodpecker.
Chuck Jones directed this cartoon in a time when he was going for a more slow and methodical approach in vain to works byDisney andHarman and Ising. He would later go on to disavow this short later in his life. In his autobiographyChuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist, he stated:
"In this cartoon we find Bugs stumbling, fumbling, and mumbling around, vainly seeking a personality on which to hang him dialogue and action, or— in better words than mine—'walking around with his umbilical in his hand, looking for someplace to plug it in.' It is obvious when one views this cartoon, which I recommend only if you are going to die of ennui, that my conception of timing and dialogue was formed by watching the action in the La Brea tar pits. It would be complimentary to call it sluggish. Not only Bugs suffered at my hands, but difficult as it is to make an unassertive character like Elmer Fudd into a flat, complete shmuck, I managed. Perhaps the kindest thing to say about “Elmer's Candid Camera” is that it taught everyone what not to do and how not to do it."[5]
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| Preceded by | Bugs Bunny prototype Cartoons 1940 | Succeeded by None |