Farm Frolics Explained
Farm Frolics is a 1941 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon supervised by Bob Clampett.[1] It was released on May 10, 1941.[2]
Plot
The cartoon starts with the arm of an animator drawing a farm scene which then colors itself, and the camera zooms in as a narrator begins:
- A realistic-looking horse is seen and introduced as a prize-winning show animal; he whinnies (courtesy of Mel Blanc), and a comic triple plays out: The narrator asks him to trot and he obliges. The narrator asks him to gallop and he obliges again. The narrator asks him to "canter" and he immediately changes into more of a cartoon, sporting the bugged eyes, hair, and general mannerisms of the vaudeville star Eddie Cantor singing (vocally impersonated by Cliff Nazarro) "I'm Happy About the Whole Thing" (by Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer). The narrator admonishes him, who returns to his original realistic styling and grins sheepishly.
- The "farmer's faithful old watchdog" is seen lazing on the porch; the narrator describes him as being "no longer very active" though "he still does a few little odd jobs around the house", one of these being fetching the newspaper. A whistle signals its arrival; he springs to alertness and makes a mad dash to the end of the driveway to retrieve it. After he brings it back to the porch, he spreads it out and begins reading the comics. He looks up at the audience and says, "I can hardly wait to see what happened to Dick Tracy!" (This gag would be used by Clampett again in The Great Piggy Bank Robbery.)
- A proud expectant mother hen lovingly covers her eggs and leaves them "sleeping" in her nest; a mean-looking weasel stealthily creeps into the henhouse. The narrator frets but, just as the weasel is about to grab the eggs, they all hatch at once. The newborn chicks shout "BOO!" in unison. The frightened weasel evokes a Joe Penner catch-phrase, "Don't ever DOOO that!" and, with his face turning green, gasps as his heart pounds.
- An owl nestled in a tree is hooting dully until it suddenly breaks into a smile and says, "Who's Yehoodi?"
- The narrator describes a pair of birds laboriously building their nest, "A little twig, a bit of string, and a piece of straw", over and over until they actually create a house, which is approved by the Federal Housing Administration. They then sing, "There's no place like home!"
- The narrator asks a worried-looking field mouse with huge ears what is troubling him and he claims, "I don't know, Doc. I...I just keep hearing things."
- A grasshopper hops along a path, chewing a tobacco-like substance, and is about to spit it out into a spittoon-like plant when he looks at the audience and says, "Sorry, folks! The Hays Office won't let me do it!" (This gag was removed from the Blue Ribbon re-release.)
- Ants are seen coming, going, and communicating with each other around their anthill. The camera and mike zoom in to allow the viewer to understand the "language" a mother will use when she summons her young. We hear her shout, "Hen-REEEE!", to which her son replies, "Coming, Mother!" (the scene reminiscent of the catchphrase from the radio show, "The Aldrich Family").
- A cat and mouse are seen snuggled up together sleeping. The narrator remarks on this odd friendship. The mouse awakens and responds with nods to questions about the relationship. When asked by the narrator if he has anything he would like to say to his friends in the audience, he nods again, yells, "GET ME OUT OF HEEEEEEEEERE!!!!!!!!!", and escapes. A brief circle-around chase ends with the cat catching him, then returning to the cozy snuggling. He shrugs, apparently resigned to the situation.
- A recurring gag has seven piglets eagerly watching an alarm clock. When it finally hits 6pm, one of them bellows, "Dinnertime!" They dash off to their mother to the tune of the military bugle call "Mess Call". She braces for the onslaught as they pile into her side. Zooming in on her rather dejected face, she speaks to the audience in the manner of ZaSu Pitts, "Oh, dear. Every day, it's the same thing."
Voice Cast
- Mel Blanc as Farm Dog/Rosebud/Piggy[3]
- Robert C. Bruce as the Narrator
Public Domain Status & Preservation
The cartoon fell into the public domain in 1970 in the United States when United Artists, the copyright owners to the Associated Artists Productions package, failed to renew the copyright in time. As such, unrestored copies can be seen on various public domain VHS and DVD sets. The public domain short was remastered on the , Disc 3.
2022 Original Title Preservation
On October 3, 2022, a YouTube user named Jerico Dvorak uploaded the original titles and opening and closing bullet-style sequences, as well as the scene with the grasshopper excised from the Blue Ribbon re-release. The video was made private on YouTube a few hours later. It was reuploaded one day later with approval from the Library of Congress. A YouTube user named Clem uploaded the original nitrate print a few days later.[4]
Differences from the Golden Collection Remaster
- In the original opening sequence, a hand wipes away the title card before drawing the farm landscape. The opening song is also sung to completion where it was truncated for the Blue Ribbon re-release.
- The sequence in which the grasshopper chews a tobacco-like substance and leans back to spit I out, only to say that the Hay's Office won't allow him to do so, was cut for the Blue Ribbon re-release.
- When the narrator is about to introduce the piglets for the first time, his quote "Here is a group of cute little piggies here in the mud" is abruptly cut at "mud". In addition, when the camera pan towards them, the scene abruptly cuts as well. This persists in the Golden Collection print, and likely was an editing error when the cartoon was originally released, as the Library of Congress print with the original titles has this error as well.
Reception
The Film Daily called the cartoon "good", saying, "There is no story to this Merrie Melodies but the comments of the animals as the audience is taken around the farm are highly amusing."[5]
Notes
- The vocal group heard at the beginning is the Sportsmen Quartet, who often harmonized in Warner Bros. cartoons of the period, later becoming the resident singing group on Jack Benny's radio and TV shows. It is also on 50 Classic Cartoons Volume 3.
- The cartoon was re-released issued into the Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies program on November 15, 1949.
See also
Notes and References
- Book: Beck . Jerry . Friedwald . Will . Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons . 1989 . Henry Holt and Co . 0-8050-0894-2 . 116.
- Book: Lenburg . Jeff . The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons . 1999 . Checkmark Books . 0-8160-3831-7 . 6 June 2020 . 104–106.
- Book: Lawson . Tim . The Magic Behind the Voices - A Who's Who of Cartoon Voice Actors . Persons . Alisa . University Press of Mississippi . 2004 . 978-1578066964 . 59 . en.
- Web site: Farm Frolics (HD 1080p) (ORIGINAL TITLES) (NITRATE PRINT) . .
- Reviews of Short Subjects . . May 21, 1941 . 79 . 99 . 6 . 13 June 2020.
