| Merrie Melodies | |
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 One of the series' classic title cards, as seen on several 1937–1938 releases | |
| Directed by | |
| Story by | |
| Based on | Looney Tunes |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Music by | |
| Animation by | |
| Layouts by | |
| Backgrounds by |
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| Color process |
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Production companies |
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Release dates | August 2, 1931 — June 13, 1997 |
Running time | 6–10 minutes (one reel) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Merrie Melodies is an American animatedcomedyshort film series distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures. It was part of theLooney Tunes franchise and featured many of the same characters.[1] Originally running from August 2, 1931, to September 20, 1969 (during thegolden age of American animation), it was revived in 1979 with new shorts being sporadically released until June 13, 1997.Merrie Melodies originally placed emphasis onone-shot color films in comparison to theblack-and-whiteLooney Tunes films. AfterBugs Bunny became thebreakout character ofMerrie Melodies andLooney Tunes transitioned to color production in the early 1940s, the two series gradually lost their distinctions and shorts were assigned to each series randomly.
Merrie Melodies was originally produced byHarman–Ising Pictures from 1931 to 1933 andLeon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944, and the newly renamedWarner Bros. Cartoons continued production until 1963. It was outsourced toDePatie–Freleng Enterprises andFormat Productions from 1964 to 1967, andWarner Bros.-Seven Arts Animation resumed production for its final two years of the golden age era.[2] When the series was revived in 1979, DePatie–Freleng produced new shorts briefly, but they were replaced byChuck Jones Productions the following year. During its final years, the series was produced byWarner Bros. Animation.
The filmsTweetie Pie,Speedy Gonzales andBirds Anonymous each won theAcademy Award for Best Animated Short Film and another three (Duck Amuck,One Froggy Evening, andWhat's Opera, Doc?) have been inducted into theNational Film Registry of theLibrary of Congress.[3][4][5][6]
In 2013,TV Guide ranked the Warner Bros. Cartoons (ranked asLooney Tunes) the third Greatest Cartoon of All Time (out of 60), one of only six film series to make the list (the other five being thePink Panther series,Popeye the Sailor,Mighty Mouse,Woody Woodpecker andTom and Jerry).[7]
ProducerLeon Schlesinger had already produced the music-basedLooney Tunes series, and its success prompted him to try to sell a sister series to Warner Bros. His selling point was that the new cartoons would feature music from the soundtracks of Warner Bros. films and would thus serve asadvertisements for Warner Bros. recordings and sheet music. The studio agreed, and Schlesinger dubbed the seriesMerrie Melodies.Walt Disney Productions had already scored with theirSilly Symphonies. Since cartoon production usually began with a soundtrack, animating a piece of music made it easier to devise plot elements and even characters.
The origins of theMerrie Melodies series begin with the failure of a live action series of musical shorts calledSpooney Melodies, which featured popular songs of the day. These shorts included segments with a popular artist singing along with appropriate background sequences. Warner Bros. wanted to promote this music because they had recently acquired (in 1930) the ownership ofBrunswick Records along with four music publishers for US$28 million. Because of the success of theirLooney Tunes series, Warner Bros. decided to develop a new series of animated musical shorts calledMerrie Melodies.Hugh Harman andRudolf Ising led the development. It was meant to be a series of musical cartoons that featured hit songs of the day, especially those then owned by Warner Bros. and featured in their musical films. In 1931, many of the shorts featured the orchestra ofAbe Lyman.
The first cartoon of the newMerrie Melodies series wasLady, Play Your Mandolin!, released in 1931.[2] Ising attempted to introduce several characters in hisMerrie Melodies films, such asPiggy,Foxy, andGoopy Geer. Eventually however, the series continued without any recurring characters.[8] The shorts proved to be enormously popular with the public. In 1932, aMerrie Melodies cartoon, entitledIt's Got Me Again!, was nominated for the firstAcademy Award to be given for animation.
When Harman and Ising left Warner Bros., in 1933, they took with them all rights to the characters they had created. Leon Schlesinger had to negotiate with them to keep the rights to the nameMerrie Melodies, as well as for the right to use the slogan, "So Long Folks", at the end of the cartoons. In 1934, Schlesinger produced his first colorMerrie Melodies shorts,Honeymoon Hotel andBeauty and the Beast, which were produced in two-stripCinecolor (Disney then had exclusive animation rights to the richer three-stripTechnicolor process).[9] Their success convinced Schlesinger to produce all futureMerrie Melodies shorts in color, using two-strip Technicolor.Looney Tunes continued in black-and-white until 1943. In 1934, the cartoons began to end with the slogan "That's all Folks!" which had previously only been used on theLooney Tunes series. The old slogan "So Long, Folks!" was completely abandoned at this time. The same year,Merrie Melodies began using the "bulls-eye" opening and closing title sequences; beginning in 1942,Looney Tunes used the same titles, usually with thicker rings. By 1936, Disney's exclusivity on the three-color Technicolor process ended, allowingMerrie Melodies a full color palette for the first time, hence the use of the blue concentric rings (as a technical test) for the rest of the 1935–36 season and the 1936–37 season. The Warner Bros. shield was changed to cyan later that year before definitely changing back to red in 1938.
Contractually,Merrie Melodies cartoons were obligated to include at least one fullchorus from a Warner Bros. song.[8] Warner Bros. requested that these songs be performed by name bands whenever possible, but this lasted only through the first few shorts. The policy annoyed the animators ofMerrie Melodies, since the songs often interrupted the cartoons' momentum and pacing. The 1938 Merrie MelodieA Feud There Was, for example, sarcastically uses the obligatory musical number as a shift in the action, with the lead characters singing the number into aKFWB microphone and ceding the mike to an announcer who reads a commercial. By 1940, the animators had been released from this obligation, and theMerrie Melodies shorts came to resemble more closely the black-and-whiteLooney Tunes series. In addition, several new characters – such asEgghead,Elmer Fudd,Inki,Sniffles, and even Warner Bros.' most popular cartoon star,Bugs Bunny – were created with the initial intention of appearing exclusively in theMerrie Melodies series.
In 1942, Schlesinger began producingLooney Tunes in color as well, and the two series became virtually indistinguishable except by their theme music and opening titles – in addition, characters once exclusive to one series began regularly appearing in the other as well. In 1944, the studio went to an all-color schedule; though for the first year of this, Bugs still appeared mainly in theMerrie Melodies series (not appearing in aLooney Tunes cartoon until the end of August), whereasDaffy Duck andPorky Pig (who each appeared in a fewMerrie Melodies prior to mid-1942) appeared mainly inLooney Tunes that year. It was not until 1945 that the two series appeared completely indistinguishable, and that Bugs appeared in moreLooney Tunes thanMerrie Melodies.
By 1937, the theme music forLooney Tunes was "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" byCliff Friend andDave Franklin, and the theme music forMerrie Melodies was an adaptation of "Merrily We Roll Along" byCharles Tobias, Murray Mencher andEddie Cantor[10] (the original theme was "Get Happy" by Harold Arlen, played at a faster tempo). This continued until 1964, when the WB cartoon logos were modernized, and "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" became the theme for theMerrie Melodies as well. When the studio went to full color, even the animators themselves did not make any creative distinction between the two series, as evidenced in an interview quote from directorFriz Freleng, "I never knew if a film I was making would beLooney Tunes orMerrie Melodies, and what the hell difference would it make, anyway?". The lastMerrie Melodies cartoon wasInjun Trouble, released in 1969. TheMerrie Melodies theatrical cartoons didn't start up again until 1988 with only two cartoons made,The Night of the Living Duck (1988) and(Blooper) Bunny (1991).The Night of the Living Duck got a theatrical release through the compilation filmDaffy Duck's Quackbusters (1988), while(Blooper) Bunny was shelved from its intended 1991 release until it premiered onCartoon Network on June 13, 1997.
Beginning in late 1943, WB, in a cost-conserving effort, began to reissue its backlog of color cartoons under a new program that they calledMerrie Melodies "Blue Ribbon" classics. For the reissue, the original front-and-end title sequences were altered. The revised main title card began with the zooming WB logo, followed by the title logo set against a background featuring a "blue ribbon" (hence the re-release program's title) and a Grand Shorts Award trophy, followed by the name of the cartoon. This revised title sequence eliminated the opening technical credits. The ending title card was also revised, replacing the original versions. Also, sometimes the title of the short was slightly altered for the rerelease; the "Blue Ribbon" version of theBugs Bunny shortA Wild Hare was retitledThe Wild Hare for reissue, for example. Many of these "Blue Ribbon" prints were the versions used for television broadcasts for many years until Warner Bros. began a restoration program in the early 2000s as part of theLooney Tunes Golden Collection DVD releases.
TVLine lists the theme song from the series among the best animated series themes of all time.[11]
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