#9 -- High Note

Title - High Note

Director - Chuck Jones

Released - 1960

Interesting Fact -- Nominated for Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Cartoons

Reason for Placement --

This goes down as one of the most creative ideas ever put to pen and paper. A group of music notes come to life and create sheet music for the classic waltz, "The Blue Danube". However, one of the notes has stumbled into Joseph Winner's song "Little Brown Jug", has become intoxicated, and proceeds to run amok throughout the waltz, causing the conducting note to chase after him and get him back where he belongs in the song.

I've got to confess that, as an artist, this was probably the most inspirational cartoon I've ever seen; the idea of giving life to music notes and the way Jones and his team were able to create every-day objects out of musical symbols really helped jump-start my creativity and open my eyes to what could be done with art and animation.

I should also point out that when I got to junior high and joined the school band, I couldn't look at my sheet music without thinking of this cartoon. Some people might have just seen music notes, but for me, whole notes will always be eggs, sharps will always be tic-tac-toe boards, and quarter rests will always be dogs.

High Note, a classic cartoon that is, quite literally, music to everyone's eyes.

#10 -- Knighty Knight Bugs

Title - Knighty Knight Bugs

Director - Friz Freleng

Released - 1958

Interesting Fact -- May I have the envelope, please? Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the only Bugs Bunny cartoon to ever win an Oscar.

Reason for Placement --

Using Freleng's usual method of placing our characters in historic locations, Bugs finds himself the court jester of King Arthur himself, who is looking for someone to retrieve his mystical Singing Sword from the Black Knight (played by everyone's favorite hot-tempered villain, Yosemite Sam). Bugs tells the King that, "Only a fool would go after the singing sword!" King Arthur's response: "A good idea... Fool!!" And so Bugs is sent to retrieve the sword from the Black Knight and his fire-breathing dragon.

Freleng and writer Warren Foster really outdid themselves with this masterpiece, it's probably one of the most well-written toons to come out of Warner Bros. The visual gags here are plenty, but the one-liners that Bugs and Sam throw back at one another give this short a real life that most other cartoons never got close to touching. It really all goes back to Freleng's remarkable sense of timing: it wasn't just with music and sound effects, it applied to the character's lines as well.

It's also probably worth mentioning that the Oscar for this short was a major plot-point in an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures, titled, "Who Bopped Bugs Bunny?" In the episode, Bugs is kidnapped by a jealous rival, Slap-Happy Stanley the Elephant, whose cartoon he beat out for the Academy Award. While Stanley was never seen outside this short, it does parody another cartoon, Terrytoon's Sidney's Family Tree (staring Sidney the Elephant), which was indeed nominated the same year as Knighty Knight Bugs.

#11 -- Show Biz Bugs

Title - Show Biz Bugs

Director - Friz Freleng
Released - 1957

Reason for Placement --

It's well known that of all the great pairings/rivalries in Looney Tunes history, none stick out so much like the classic combination of Bugs vs. Daffy. The pair worked so well together on the screen, it's no surprise that the two are still considered the mascots of Warner Bros. animation. Show Biz Bugs was a great short that really put the rivalry between the two characters into the spotlight and showed us just why Daffy hates the long-eared rabbit so much.

The toon starts with our main characters preparing to do a show together at a theatre. Daffy is determined to prove that he's the star of the show, but no matter what he does, he just can't get any respect (or applause for that matter) from the audience. This is the start of one of the longest gags in this pairing: all Bugs has to do is show up on stage, smile, and the audience goes nuts; Daffy pulls out all the stops in his singing and dancing, but all we hear are crickets. But this is what really fuels Daffy's jealousy: he's not just arrogant and competitive, he really wants to get his due on the stage, and we can all identify with that. It's not just about wanting to be on top... it's about wanting to be noticed in the first place.

Personally, I don't think I'll ever fully understand why Daffy never gets a hint of applause from the audience, but in reality, I don't really want to know. Part of the fun is knowing that no matter what Daffy does, no matter how hard he tries, he's always going to come in second place... that is, until the last gag in the show.

Daffy decides to whip out his biggest act, dresses in a devil costume, and literally drinks a number of flamable liquids, swallows a match, and EXPLODES! (And yes, this scene has been edited countless times for broadcast, Lord knows parents can't have their kids thinking it's cool to drink gasoline and nitro glycerin). Well, the act is a success and Daffy finally gets the applause he wanted so badly... it's too bad that he can only do the act once.

#12 -- Porky in Wackyland

Title - Porky in Wackyland

Director - Bob Clampett

Released - 1938

Interesting Fact -- Selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress

Reason for Placement --

If you took the images of movies made by David Lynch, Terry Gilliam, and add Salvador Dali to taste... you'd have a tenth of the surrealism featured in Clampett's early opus, Porky in Wackyland.

This cartoon is like an acid trip, it is so bizarre. Porky goes on an expedition to find the long-thought extinct Dodo Bird, finding him in Wackyland (which is apparently located in the darkest regions of Africa). As the sign on the entrance explains, "IT CAN HAPPEN HERE"... and it pretty much does. I really wish I could explain half of the stuff Porky runs into, but frankly, it's all so abstract and strange that I honestly don't think I could do it justice. That's how crazy it all is. The design of this cartoon brings to mind one of those nightmares you had but refused to tell anyone about it because you were scared they'd think you'd lost your mind.

Also, this is one of the few cartoons that was pretty much remade in later years. In 1949, Friz Freleng oversaw a new version of the cartoon in full color, re-titled Dough for the Do-Do. The two films are nearly identical, though there are a few changes: a couple of gags are cut and a few new ones are put in, the voices are slightly different, and most of the backgrounds are altered just a bit.

Still, despite being so unbelievably bizarre, this cartoon really helped pave the way for Clampett's career with Warner Bros., and was a major jumping point for Termite Terrace to distance themselves from their Disney rivals. The plain & simple truth is that despite its updated remake from Freleng, there really was no other cartoon like Porky in Wackyland, and honestly, I don't think there will ever be another one like it.

Porky in Wackyland, a heavy-dose of eye-popping surrealism that serves as a reminder that no matter where we end up in life... at least it's not there.

#13 -- Birds Anonymous

Title - Birds Anonymous

Director - Friz Freleng

Released - 1957

Interesting Fact -- Won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Subject

Reason for Placement --

Ask any die-hard Looney Tunes fan, and they'll tell you in a heartbeat that Birds Anonymous is an essential part of their collection. And it's not just the fact that it's one of the five Termite Terrace creations to win an Oscar.

First of all, this short parodies what is actually a rather adult topic: addiction. Alcoholics Anonymous wasn't a new program, but it wasn't until around this time that the general public really knew about it. In Birds Anonymous, Sylvester is invited to join the group of said name, in hopes that he will stop chasing Tweety (one cat at the meeting mentions that he joined B.A. after his addiction cost him five homes, but as Granny doesn't make an appearance in this short, it's hard to think about whether or not Sylvester would lose his happy home). So yeah, it's pretty obvious that for Sylvester, his obsession with Tweety is not one that can be so easily kicked.

There's also the fact that Mel Blanc himself said that this was his favorite toon to do voices for. Not all that surprising, the short features what could easily be considered a powerhouse performance by Sylvester, especially as he tries to fight off his addiction. Near the end, Sylvester finally breaks down and starts throwing a tantrum on the floor. Even though it's animated, we can actually feel the cat's frustration and depression as he falls victim to his desire for birds, sobbing and pounding the floor with his fists.

It's also worth mentioning that this was the only short that Blanc actually got an Oscar for: when Eddie Selzer (producer for Termite Terrace) passed away, he bequeathed the statuette to Blanc (in the "Behind the Tunes" on the Golden Collection Vol. 3, it's mentioned that Selzer promised Blanc he would get him an Oscar for his performance).

And, of course, there's the moral that Tweety gives at the end:

"Once a bad ol' puddy tat, ALWAYS a bad ol' puddy tat!"

**I'd like to apologize to my readers for taking so long to get back to the list, I am currently trying to start my own business, and had my hands full this month. Again, I'm sorry.

#14 -- Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z

Title - Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z

Director - Chuck Jones

Released - 1956

Interesting Fact -- Last cartoon where Jones credited himself as "Charles M. Jones".

Reason for Placement --

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you what is probably one of the quintessential Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner cartoons. This was the 8th toon featuring this classic pair, but it contains some of the most memorable visual gags ever featured in the Looney Tunes.

So, let's get right down to it and look at the gags that help make this such a great cartoon. For me, there are two moments that help Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z really stand out. In the first one, Wile E. orders a Bat-Man suit that will allow him to fly after the Road Runner (no, not DC's Batman, this is a green suit with bat wings [see above photo], no Christian Bale jokes necessary). He spreads his wings all menacing-like, dives off the cliff... and starts plummeting to the ground. But instead of splatting as usual, Wile E. actually gains control at the last minute and start soaring! We see Wile E. flying, smiling proudly (no music in the background, just great sound effects provided by Treg Brown), it looks like he's really got the hang of the suit, and... WHAM! Right into the cliffside! And NOW we get the scene of him falling and splatting on the ground. Great build-up with even better pay-off, this is easily one of the greatest moments ever in WEC/RR history.

The second is the last gag: Wile E. straps a pair of handlebars on a jet engine and uses it to zoom after the Road Runner (accompanied by everyone's favorite Raymond Scott selection, "Powerhouse"). However, as the Road Runner nears the edge of a cliff, he does a U-turn, and Wile E. zips right past him, off the cliff! But he doesn't fall, and the engine keeps going with the coyote onboard, completely unaware that he's gone off the road. Disgruntled at having lost his dinner, Wile E. turns off the engine to think, still in mid-air, just inches away from the other cliffside. The Road Runner (who made it to the other end of the cliff), beeps to alert his foe of what is going on. Wile E. then violates the #1 cartoon law of physics: when defying the law of gravity... NEVER LOOK DOWN!

As he falls to his doom (yet again), Wile E. hold up a sign asking the director to end the cartoon before he hits. Jones is apparently willing to grant the coyote his last wish and irises out, but not before Wile E. can hold up another sign, thanking the animators.

#15 -- The Scarlet Pumpernickel

Title - The Scarlet Pumpernickel

Director - Chuck Jones

Released - 1950

Interesting Fact -- Voted #31 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field in 1994

Reason for Placement --

Who would have thought even cartoon characters get tired of being comedians? In this short, Daffy begs his boss to let him do a dramatic part, and reads to him a script that he wrote, "The Scarlet Pumpernickel". This was a major change for Daffy, as we see him in this new role as a masked bandit, channeling his own version of Errol Flynn as he saves his lady love, Melissa from the tyranny of... Sylvester and Porky. Yep, they're the villains in this one.

The Scarlet Pumpernickel is one of those cartoons that is not only fun to watch, but has so many interesting little details. First of all, this short has one of the biggest casts of Looney Tunes stars: you have Daffy, Sylvester, Porky, and even Elmer Fudd and Henery Hawk make cameo appearances. Second, this was only one of a few shorts that had numerous references to its birthplace, Warner Bros. Studios (Daffy even holds a conversation with co-founder Jack Warner, who remains off-screen and is referred to as J.L.). Also, there's the fun fact that as Mel Blanc used the same voice for Daffy and Sylvester (Daffy's voice was sped-up to give him a higher pitch), so the scenes of them together is essentially Blanc talking to himself... in the same voice!

And finally, you have what is probably the most controversial ending ever in a Looney Tunes short: after he finished plugging his script to J.L., Daffy pulls himself up, completely exhausted, and says, "...there was nothing left for the Scarlet Pumpernickel to do, but blow his brains out... which he did."

BANG!

"It's getting so you have to kill yourself to sell a story around here!"

#16 -- Rabbit of Seville

Title - Rabbit of Seville

Director - Chuck Jones

Released - 1950

Interesting Fact -- Voted #20 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field in 1994

Reason for Placement --

It's Rabbit Season again, and Bugs is on the run from Elmer, hiding out backstage at a large theater. However, as Elmer accidentally runs onstage looking for his prey, the curtain goes up, and Bugs and Elmer find themselves the stars of a new twist on the classic opera, The Barber of Seville.

While it goes without saying that Friz Freleng was the master of timing to music in Looney Tunes, the few music-based shorts that Jones directed truly stand out amongst some of the most memorable cartoons ever created. Carl Starling outdoes himself with this short, combining Rossini's brilliant opera with his own arraignments to help give the short an amazing musical score, punctuated with Elmer and Bugs' singing (interestingly enough, the two only sing through the first half, the rest is done without dialogue). The animation matches perfectly with each note; in fact, during the scene where Bugs "plays piano" on Elmer's head, Jones gives us the only animated sequence where Bugs is featured with five fingers to help match up with the hand of a piano player.

#17 -- Baby Bottleneck

Title - Baby Bottleneck

Director - Bob Clampett

Released - 1946

Reason for Placement --

Each of the Termite Terrace directors were known for having one particular trait that helped their toons to stand out: Friz Freleng was known for his timing, Bob McKimson had personality, and Chuck Jones was known for his style. Clampett, however, was known for his squash-and-stretch animation techniques which helped Warner Bros. to take the leap needed to disassociate themselves with Disney's animation department.

Baby Bottleneck is probably the best example of Clampett's animation. The Baby Boom had started, couples were all ready to start families, and Clampett played off of this by featuring what is literally a "baby factory": a facility designed to help get newborns to their expecting parents. Porky and Daffy are managing the factory, but run into some serious difficulty when they come across an unhatched egg with no address or name.

If you go frame by frame in this cartoon, you will actually see dozens of poses in each shot; the characters literally stretch themselves all over the screen, nothing is done in a simple blur shot. In one scene, Porky tries to force Daffy to sit on the unhatched egg, constantly pushing the duck across the screen and towards the egg. Just take a look at the screen shots and you'll see how much detail Clampett put into the animation.

It's also worth noting that the factory scenes include probably the most well-known use of "Powerhouse" by Raymond Scott, playing off the "assembly line"-style of the music with the babies as they are rolled out in the factory.

#18 -- Chow Hound

Title - Chow Hound

Director - Chuck Jones

Released - 1951

Reason for Placement --

If any of the Looney Tunes shorts developed a "cult following", it would have to be Chow Hound. This is one of those unique cartoons that doesn't have any recurring Looney Tunes stars and never really got any kind of recognition when it was released, but virtually everyone knows it.

Part of what makes it stand out is that it goes against the normal cat vs. dog formula that multiple cartoons had done in the past: instead of the cat being the villain against the noble dog, the dog in Chow Hound is a merciless bully, who puts the cat through various scams to earn him more food.

The other part that helps this toon to stay so popular is the ending, which shows the cat (and a mouse also used for a few of the scams) finally getting their revenge on the dog. I'll go ahead and admit that for a cartoon, this was a pretty dark ending, with the cat and mouse torturing the dog as he lies helpless on a vet's table after eating too much food. Ever heard of water-boarding? Well, this cartoon introduces us to "gravy-boarding"!

#19 -- Bully for Bugs

Title - Bully for Bugs

Director - Chuck Jones

Released - 1953

Reason for Placement --

There are actually two reasons I'm putting this toon on the countdown. First of all, there is the simple fact that this is a fun toon with one of the most famous moments in Looney Tunes history: the Slap Dance, set to the tune of "Las Chiapanecas".

The second reason is the story behind why Jones and Michael Maltese decided to make this short: while working at Termite Terrace one day, Eddie Selzer, who took over the position of studio head after Leon Schlesinger in 1944, burst in and announced (for apparently no reason whatsoever) that bull fights were not funny and they were not to make a cartoon about one. So what do Jones and Maltese do? Yep, make a bull-fighting cartoon. According to Jones' biography Chuck Amuck, they felt they had to as Selzer had proven time and time again to be wrong about virtually anything. And of course, he was easily wrong about this.

#20 -- Robin Hood Daffy

Title - Robin Hood Daffy

Director - Chuck Jones

Released - 1958

Interesting Fact -- According to the commentary on Looney Tunes Golden Collection #3, this is the favorite short of Linda Jones Clough, the director's daughter

Reason for Placement --

Let's face it: if you ran into this guy in the woods and he claimed to be Robin Hood, you probably wouldn't believe him. And neither does Porky, setting up one of Jones' best shorts, Robin Hood Daffy. Porky is on his way to join up with Robin Hood, but refuses to believe that the little black duck in front of him is the hero he searches for. In an attempt to prove himself, Daffy sees a rich traveler in the woods, and decides to steal his gold.

I'll go ahead and admit that this is one of my all-time favorite shorts, and I could watch it a million times over again. But more than that, it's a prime example of why Jones remains one of the top animation directors in history. First, the writing of Michael Maltese is great, with classic one-liners that virtually any animation fan knows. All one has to do is say, "YOIKS... AND AWAY!", and we all know what you're talking about.

Second, the animation in this short balances perfectly. On one end, you have heavy cartoon slapstick, such as the scene over the bridge, where Daffy challenges Porky to a duel with his "trusty quarterstaff" ("Actually, it's a buck-and-a-quarter-quarterstaff, but I'm not telling him that!"). Then you have a great piece of subtle animation when Daffy fails yet again to catch the rich traveller in the woods: all we see is Daffy's disappointed face, and in the distance we can see Porky with his sarcastic grin, waving to Daffy. It's not over the top, nor does it need to be.

I could probably go on for hours about how beautiful the animation in this short really is. The background shows us yellow skies with blue trees, which sounds weird but actually works well. Then you have great little bits like the rich traveller riding through the woods (gotta love how he never actually moves besides the mule's skipping), the recurring gag of Daffy's bill getting bent as a sign of frustration, and even something as simple as Porky's heaving belly as he laughs at Daffy. It's these little details that pull the entire short together and help Robin Hood Daffy leave such a memorable impression.

#21 -- Hyde and Go Tweet

Title - Hyde and Go Tweet

Director - Friz Freleng

Released - 1960

Reason for Placement --

After taking a nap on a window ledge (outside the office of one Dr. Jekyll), Sylvester starts doing what he does best and goes after Tweety. In an attempt to lose the puddy-tat, Tweety ducks into the doctor's office and hides in a bottle... too bad he didn't see the label that said "Hyde Formula". Meanwhile, Sylvester starts going through the doctor's office, only to confront a huge monstrous Tweety Bird!

This was the third cartoon Freleng made that parodied the classic story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the first two being 1954's Dr. Jekyll's Hide and 1955's Hyde and Hare, but this one is easily the best, if for no other reason that the chase scenes. Throughout the toon, Tweety repeatedly changes back into his monstrous form, quickly turning Sylvester from predator to prey and back again. The whole thing is made even funnier with the fact that Sylvester fails to put 2 and 2 together and see that the little canary he's been chasing is actually the monster that keeps coming after him!

#22 -- Hare-Way To The Stars

Title - Hare-Way To The Stars

Director - Chuck Jones

Released - 1958

Reason for Placement --

This is going down as probably one of the toughest decisions I've had to make in a long time: which Bugs Bunny/Marvin the Martian toon most belongs on the countdown? These are some of Jones' best shorts, and I love all of them, but sadly, there is only room for one.

Marvin had appeared in two other shorts which stared Bugs Bunny. In the first one, Haredevil Hare, Bugs runs into Marvin on the moon and must stop him from blowing up the Earth. This was a great short, but Marvin really didn't make much of an impression on audiences. In the second short, The Hasty Hare, Marvin and K-9 (his Martian dog) come to Earth to find and capture an Earth creature for study... and I'll give you three guesses who they find. This one was definitely funnier; plus, Marvin's voice was changed from the nasally high-pitched one to the deeper, but still soft-spoken voice we all know and love.

So that leads us to Hare-Way To The Stars, in which Bugs is accidentally sent to Mars (via a rocket that was placed over his hole), and runs into Marvin, once again trying to destory the Earth with his Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator. This time, however, they do give us a reason for his desire to get rid of the Earth: it obstructs his view of Venus.

There are actually a couple of reasons this particular toon gets the coveted spot. First of all, the Space Race had just started when this toon aired, and you can really feel the excitement behind the world's fascination with outer space (especially since the satellite that hits Bugs is modeled to look exactly like Sputnik). Second, Jones re-uses a previous creation of his from Jumpin' Jupiter: the dehydrated Martians, which actually give us one of the best chase sequences outside of a Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner toon. Finally, the background designs are incredible; Maurice Noble really outdid himself with the look of Mars, showcasing a one-of-a-kind abstract style that I honestly cannot get enough of.

#23 -- The Dover Boys at Pimento University or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall

Title - The Dover Boys at Pimento University or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall

Director - Chuck Jones

Released - 1942

Reason for Placement --

While this toon doesn't contain any Looney Tunes stars, and the humor is more subtle than usual, most consider this short to be the first real classic piece that Chuck Jones churned out while at Termite Terrace.

This was the first short that Jones really experimented with stylized animation (using shape-heavy designs with minimal movement), and he would later say that this was the first toon he made that he actually found funny.

What always intrigued me about The Dover Boys was its ability to remain so classic. After all, the story parodies a juvenile book series from the early nineteenth century, so it's not like anyone today remembers where the original source material comes from. Plus, the humor manages to stay away from some of the stronger visual gags that Jones would later make part of his signature style.

If I had to pick why I love this short, I'd have to go with the scene in Dan Backslide's cabin, as "dainty" Dora Standpipe cries for the heros to come and rescue her... all while giving Backslide a savage beating that would make Anderson Silva shed a few tears! In the end, you really can't blame him for crying out for help as well!