| Granny | |
|---|---|
| Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies character | |
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| First appearance | Canary Row (October 7, 1950; 75 years ago (1950-10-07)) |
| Created by | Friz Freleng |
| Voiced by | Bea Benaderet (1950–1955) June Foray (1955–2013) Ge Ge Pearson (1965) Joan Gerber (1965) Mel Blanc (1974–1978)[1] Linda Weinrib (briefly; talking toy)[2] Tress MacNeille (1998;Bugs Bunny's Learning Adventures) Stephanie Courtney (2011; young,The Looney Tunes Show) Robyn Moore (2012, 2017;Warner Bros. Movie World live shows)[3] Lauri Fraser (2014;Looney Tunes Dash) Candi Milo (2017–present) Eric Bauza (2018;Looney Tunes: World of Mayhem)[4] |
| In-universe information | |
| Full name | Emma Webster |
| Gender | Female |
| Relatives | Floyd Minton (nephew) |
| Nationality | American |
Granny, whose full name is presented asEmma Webster, is a fictional character created byFriz Freleng, best known from theLooney Tunes andMerrie Melodies animated short films of the 1950s and 1960s. She is the owner ofTweety and, more often than not,Sylvester andHector. Her voice was first provided byBea Benaderet from 1950 through 1955, then byJune Foray for almost 60 years. Following Foray's death,Candi Milo took over in 2017.
Granny is a good-natured widow who is extremely protective of her beloved bird, Tweety. Granny's overprotectiveness becomes apparent whenever Tweety is threatened, usually by her sometimes pet, Sylvester. Although having the appearance of a kind old woman, Granny has demonstrated her cleverness in many cartoons.
At least until the mid-1950s, Granny is depicted as an elderly spinster who wears spectacles, a gray bun and a late 19th-century-like schoolmarm dress; other old fashioned characteristics include her mode of transportation (usually, aFord Model T or ahorse and buggy) and her inability to relate to present fads (such as her telling Tweety she's about to try on a new "bikini bathing suit", which turns out to be a full one-piece outfit from the turn-of-the-20th century). After 1955 — in particular, the years after Foray began voicing the character — the character's wardrobe was updated and her old-fashioned tastes and ways of life were de-emphasized, and she was sometimes given newer careers, such as a nurse or a bus driver.[citation needed]
The idea of the cartoon Granny began with theLittle Red Riding Hood character in spoofs of the story, first appearing as such in the 1937 animated shortLittle Red Walking Hood which also featured the first appearance ofElmer Fudd, directed byTex Avery.[5] Subsequent appearances of a similar "granny" character includedThe Cagey Canary (1941), directed by Avery andBob Clampett;Hiss and Make Up (1943), directed byFriz Freleng; andHare Force (1944), featuringBugs Bunny and Sylvester the dog (a one-off character distinct from the later Sylvester the cat). Finally, the character was solidified into her current role inCanary Row in 1950, withBea Benaderet providing her voice.June Foray, who had been providing Granny's voice for her appearances onCapitol Records since 1950,[6] took over the role officially in 1955, and would perform the role for most of the rest of the character's theatrical run. Granny would continue to appear in several more animated shorts from the 1950s on, as a foil forSylvester, who was always attempting to eat her pet bird Tweety.
Foray did not voice Granny for her last two theatrical shorts, possibly for budgetary reasons;Ge Ge Pearson andJoan Gerber each voiced the character in one short, both of which were released in 1965.[7] Foray would return to the role in later television productions.
Although she was almost always shown on-screen with at least one of her two animal companions, Granny would appear in three animated shorts without them. In the 1953 shortHare Trimmed, she starred as a rich widow who was being fought over by two suitors,Yosemite Sam andBugs Bunny (the latter out to thwart the former's evil plan to marry her and then get her money).[8] Sam called her "Emma" and later "Emmy". Granny would later appear in the 1955's shortThis Is a Life?, where she hitsDaffy Duck with her umbrella for interrupting the live program. Her last solo appearance was the 1965 shortCorn on the Cop, where she appears alongsideDaffy Duck andPorky Pig as twoKeystone Cops who mistake her for a crook disguised like her.[9] The short would also disclose Granny's surname as "Webster" by Daffy and Porky's superior officer.
Granny was going to have a cameo in the 1988 filmWho Framed Roger Rabbit, but was later dropped for unknown reasons.
She has appeared as a professor at Acme Looniversity and the mentor and favorite teacher of Mary Melody inTiny Toon Adventures (in thereboot seriesTiny Toons Looniversity, she appears as the university's dean), a world-travelingdetective inThe Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, and a timekeeper inBugs Bunny and Taz Time Busters. Granny donned a cheerleader uniform for the Tune Squad in the 1996 filmSpace Jam. She was the children's grandmother and new characterFloyd's aunt inBaby Looney Tunes, and made two cameo appearances in the 2003 filmLooney Tunes: Back in Action as the main character's next door neighbor, although in one of those appearances this "Granny" was actually the Acme Chairman in disguise. She also appeared inBah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas and inTweety's High-Flying Adventure. Foray reprises her role in all of these appearances.
An episode ofLoonatics Unleashed featured characters named Queen Grannicus (voiced byCandi Milo), the Royal Tweetums and Sylth Vester (the latter being a parody ofDarth Vader). However, another episode features a cameo of Granny herself, apparently still alive in the year 2772.
InThe Looney Tunes Show, Granny is one of Bugs and Daffy's neighbors and is again voiced by Foray while her younger self is voiced byStephanie Courtney, and Sylvester and Tweety are her pets. This version of Granny seems to be somewhat hard-of-hearing and slightly senile. A running gag is that Sylvester is constantly chasing Tweety around her house, to which Granny seems oblivious. In "Eligible Bachelors", it is revealed that during World War II, Granny/Emma was a member of theWAC and along with Tweety she stopped Nazi Colonel Frankenheimer from stealing theEiffel Tower and various paintings fromthe Louvre. During the flashback of her World War II adventure to Daffy, she appears as an attractive red-headed young woman in a WAC uniform. In "The Grand Old Duck of York", it is revealed that Granny teaches piano lessons when Daffy wants to learn how to play the piano. This series marked the final time Foray voiced the character before her death in 2017.
Granny appears inNew Looney Tunes voiced by Candi Milo, who has voiced the character in subsequent appearances.
Granny appears in the 2021 filmSpace Jam: A New Legacy voiced again by Milo. After she andSpeedy Gonzales were picked up fromThe Matrix part of the Warner Bros. 3000 server-verse, Granny became a member of the Tune Squad during their basketball match against the Goon Squad. In one scene, she defeats Chronos by activating the time-control device on his left shoulder to age him to 132 years. During the credits, a photograph shows Granny going up againstRonda Rousey.
Granny appears as a major character in the 2022 filmKing Tweety.[10]
