Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies (partially found deleted scenes of Warner Bros. animated short films; 1930-1969)

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This article has been tagged as Needing work due to its lack of content and references.


LooneyTunesTitle.png

Intro title card to most shorts.

Status: Partially Found

Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies is a series of shorts starring popular characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and more. The cartoons started airing on TV since the 50s/60s and still air to this day. There have been many shorts made over the years, and some of them have scenes that were deleted.

Baby Bottleneck

Status: Lost

In the scene where the baby crocodile is delivered to a mother pig, who is feeding her children with her breastmilk, after the crocodile fails to drink the mother pig's breast milk, she would've said "Ah, ah, ah, don't touch that dial!" The scene ultimately didn't make the cut due to it being considered innapropiate by the Hays Office censors and remains as completely lost outside of a single frame included in the final cut of the short.

Catch as Cats Can

Status: Lost

According to Thad Komorowski on his podcast Cartoon Logic[1], as well as his review for Looney Tunes Collector's Choice Volume 1 on Cartoon Research[2], there was a scene at the very end of the cartoon where the tombstone belonging to the Bing Crosby parrot was shown that said "Came in before his horse!" which was a joke about Crosby's luck at his betting of horses. This scene does not exist on any prints and is considered to be lost.

Farm Frolics

Status: Found

A scene of a grasshopper getting ready to spit out a "Tabaco like substance" into a spittoon but then stops because the Haze office won't let him.[3] This was cut out when the cartoon was reissued likely because the Haze Code allowed spitting shortly after the cartoon's release. A print was discovered in the Library of Congress by historian David Gerstein was was uploaded to youtube by Jerico Dvorak.

Hare Remover

Status: Lost

There is a scene during the cartoon where Elmer catches Bugs and cheerfully carries him back to his place. During that scene, it suddenly cuts to Elmer looking very grumpy, followed by Bugs saying "Eh, what up doc?". It is unknown what happens between him being happy and him suddenly looking mad while still carrying him.[4] This scene has not been found at all in any available prints of the cartoon, not in any theatrical/home media/streaming version either, however an unused animation production drawing of this short was discovered that is speculated to be from the deleted scene.

Hare Ribbin'

Status: Found

The short was originally supposed to end with the russian dog getting shot by Bugs Bunny after faking being dead and the russian dog fealing guilty, wishing that he was dead. A scene where the russian dog sniffs Bugs' armpits was also shortened in the short's final cut. These deleted scenes would end up getting released via the fifth LaserDisc release of The Golden Age of Looney Tunes in 1997.

Hare-Um Scare-Um

Status: Found

Towards the end of the cartoon, the hunter (named in the press as John Sourpuss) threatens proto-Bugs Bunny by remarking "I can whip you and your whole family!". Afterwards, the hunter is surrounded by a gang of rabbits who proceed to tackle the hunter. Afterwards proto-Bugs rushes on screen with a broken rifle and utters "You outta get that fixed. Someone's liable to get hurt!" before bouncing away on his head. This drives the hunter insane who then also bounces away on his head. For many decades, the original ending was lost with the cartoon abruptly ended after the gang of rabbits surround the hunter. It's not known why the ending was edited out with lots of speculation for what was supposed to happen. It wasn't until 2009 when historian David Gerstein went searching and located an original print with the ending at the UCLA Film and Television archives. [5] Gerstein theorizes that it was cut before release for being to similar to the ending seen in "Daffy Duck and Egghead". According to Thad Komorowski, the short was initially planned to be included on the 2010 DVD set "The Essential Bugs Bunny" but was removed as WB legal mandated Bugs Bunny did not exist before 1940.[6] The short was eventually included uncut on "Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Volume 2". Despite being the ending being restored, the copy on the Boomerang streaming app as well as TV airings still end the cartoon after the rabbits gang up on the hunter.

Hollywood Steps Out

Status: Partially Found

This short later had a reissue in 1948, which ended up cutting out a lot of scenes.[7] The first of these cut scenes was one where a blonde woman walked by Clark Gable and his wife and that Clark would follow her. Another scene that was cut was when Ned Sparks was dancing with Edna Mae Oliver during the conga sequence. The third cut scene was Gary Cooper and Shirley Temple dancing with each other also during the conga sequence. The fourth and final cut scene was the end of the short where Clark Gable saying "I'm a bad boy!".[8] All of these scenes were cut for various reasons, mostly due to them being dated by 1948 (when the cartoon was reissued). Production cels of the deleted Shirley Temple scene exist and small footage of the final scene was discovered in a reel, in addition to that, an unused animation cel exists that shows James Stewart wearing an army outfit. Other than that, the other scenes have yet to be discovered in full and do not exist on any known copies of this cartoon at all. It is said that there was a print in the 80s that contained two of the cut scenes, but apparently it was stolen and may not exist anymore.[9]

Mouse Wreckers

Status: Lost

The last scene of the cartoon has some strange editing with an abrupt black-out that suggests that there is a lost scene.[10] According to Greg Ford, there was in fact an ending that involved Claude coming back down through the chimney, and landing on the fireplace that the mice's started and got shot out. Presumably, this scene was edited out for time. None of the available versions of the cartoon that have aired on TV or are available on home media/streaming has this ending and it has yet to be found.

Porky's Movie Mystery

Status: Existence Unconfirmed

There is an abrupt cut that suggests that a scene was edited out at some point. It happens when Porky goes to look through his magnifying glass and going to the director, and then it suddenly cuts to the villain laughing and walking away. This scene, if it exists, is not available on any known prints.

Porky the Wrestler

Status: Lost

There is an abrupt cut that occurs during a music score right after the singers sing "She was gone-". What supposedly followed was a blackface joke but no film copies or footage of this scene has been found.[11]

The Crackpot Quail

Status: Found

The quail originally was supposed to make a sound that sounded similar to that off a raspberry throughout the cartoon however but before the cartoon was released, the Haze office thought that the sound of a raspberry was too obscene due to it being similar to the sound of a fart. As such, the cartoon had to be re-recorded and the raspberry being replaced with a whistle for it's theatrical release with this being the version that circulated for almost 80 years. Despite this, the original audio track was known to still exist and was planned to be an extra on "The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Volume 5" laserdisc but due to Warner and Turner being uncooperative, it had to be cut.[12] The cartoon was restored in 2020 for HBO Max but it reused audio from the Turner "dubbed" version which was the common whistle version. It wouldn't be until 2021 when Warner Archive rescanned the original audio track and released it as a special feature on "Tex Avery Screwball Classics Volume 3"[13]

The Stupid Cupid

Status: Lost

At the very end of the cartoon, it ends with Daffy kissing the hen, the hen then tells the rooster about Daffy's appearance and the rooster ends up looking shocked and then it abruptly fades to black. According to Greg Ford, there was an extra scene where afterwards it had Daffy saying "If you haven't tried it, don't knock it." and then the cartoon would end. Presumably it was edited out when it was reissued back in 1951.[14] This scene has not been found anywhere, is not available on any known prints of the cartoon, whether it be TV prints, home media, or streaming, and remains lost to this day.

You're an Education

Status: Lost

This short would later receive a blue ribbon reissue, where the title card would be replaced. Not only that but according to Roger Garcia, several scenes that total to around 45 seconds were cut. These cuts occur during the beginning of the cartoon where fade-outs happen and there's a scene where a fish is shown before an abrupt fade to black.[15] It is said that a print of the original version of this cartoon exists in the UCLA Film and Television Archive, however, this version has yet to be released and no other copy of the original version of this cartoon has been found or released that has these scenes. The scenes as a result remain lost.

See Also

References

  1. ↑ https://cartoonlogic.libsyn.com/cartoon-logic-episode-26-art-davis-two-gophers-from-texas
  2. ↑ https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/thad-k-reviews-looney-tunes-collectors-choice-vol-1/
  3. ↑ https://youtu.be/mJDr1rhBl9Y?si=3ltJ694BYfr_hxuW&t=287
  4. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20180214165553/http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-h.aspx
  5. ↑ https://ramapithblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/legendbreakers-hare-um-scare-um.html
  6. ↑ https://cartoonlogic.libsyn.com/cartoon-logic-episode-06-myth-guided-history-the-early-days-of-bugs-and-elmer-wabbit-twouble
  7. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20180214165553/http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-h.aspx
  8. ↑ https://www.patreon.com/posts/revealing-on-out-53637672
  9. ↑ https://blueribbonblues.neocities.org/checklist.html
  10. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20180125101651/http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-m.aspx
  11. ↑ http://www.forcesofgeek.com/2013/07/the-10-best-looney-tunes-not-on-dvd.html
  12. ↑ https://www.dohtem.com/bugs/history/history2.htm
  13. ↑ https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/some-advance-notes-on-tex-avery-screwball-classics-volume-3/
  14. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20180120080450/http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-s.aspx
  15. ↑ https://www.patreon.com/posts/56317664
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