View source for Mess O' Blues (partially found "Johnny Bravo" prototype animated short; 1993)

{{InfoboxLost
|title=<center>Mess O' Blues</center>
|image=Mess O' Blues.png
|imagecaption=The direct quality version of the original snapshot.
|status=<span style="color:orange;">'''Partially Found'''</span>
}}
'''''Mess O' Blues''''' is an original short film about a "over the hill aging rock star who thinks he's Elvis" created by Van Partible in 1993 for his senior thesis project that would serve as a basis for the Cartoon Network original show ''Johnny Bravo''. 

==Origins==
[[File:Mess O' Blues Concept Art.png|thumb|250px|right|Concept art.]]
While working at Loyola Marymount University, Partible decided to pursue a career in animation, and so he started working on a senior thesis project intitled ''Mess O' Blues''.

Partible started with the concept of three Elvis Presley impersonators (or "Elvi" as Van Partible puts it) who fought crime. However, due to his time constraints and the fact that he was doing all of the work himself, the idea was cut down to just one Elvis impersonator. 

==Becoming Johnny Bravo==
[[File:Johnny-Bravo-tv-01.jpg|thumb|215px|left|Johnny Bravo.]]
Dan McLaughin (Partible's animation professor) showed the short to a friend working at Hanna-Barbera Productions.

The studio saw the short and loved it so much they asked Partible if he could do a pitch for a seven-minute short cartoon, with ''Mess O' Blues'' as the inspiration.  This became the original ''Johnny Bravo'' short.
 The character was changed so that, as Partible put it, ''" he would be more of this '50's iconic James Dean-looking character that talked like Elvis."''<ref>[https://archive.org/details/bringingupjohnnybravo The ''Bringing Up Johnny Bravo'' mini-documentary] Retrieved 16 Oct '19</ref>

Other changes include his hair colour, name, physical appearance, and personality. 

This new pilot was later aired on ''World Premiere Toons'' (also known as ''What a Cartoon!'').

==Resurfacing==
Despite its success, ''Mess O' Blues'' has never been released or even seen publicly, unlike the widely available and similarly made ''What a Cartoon'' predecessor ''The Whoopass Girls'' - which would later become ''The Powerpuff Girls''.

The only footage that has ever been made available are a few short, mute clips from a short mini-documentary that was included as a bonus feature on the ''Johnny Bravo: Season 1 (Cartoon Network Hall of Fame)'' DVD entitled ''Bringing Up Johnny Bravo''.

==Footage==
In January 2017, Lost Media Wiki user [[User:YoshiKiller2S|YoshiKiller2S]] got ahold of the ''Johnny Bravo Season 1'' DVD and preceded to ripped and uploaded ''Bringing Up Johnny Bravo'' to YouTube and then later to Archive.org and with it, was a total of 15 mute seconds of ''Mess O' Blues'' footage. YoshiKiller2S also discovered four Mess O' Blues animation cels from a YouTube video, which was uploaded by the official Loyola Marymount University channel.

{{Video|perrow  =2
  |service1     =youtube
  |id1          =C7BUPi4S0ig
  |description1 =All ''Mess O' Blues'' clips from ''Bringing Up Johnny Bravo''.
  |service2     =youtube
  |id2          =HjZt4k3wsrc
  |description2 =LSuperSonicQ's video on the topic.
}}
{{Video|perrow  =3
  |service1     =youtube
  |id1          =pBfAfiLyaG0
  |description1 =''How Van Partible ’93 Gave Life to Johnny Bravo'' which includes the four animation cels.
  |service2     =archiveorg
  |id2          =bringingupjohnnybravo
  |description2 =The ''Bringing Up Johnny Bravo'' mini-documentury.
  |service3     =youtube
  |id3          =2Ipit990Sr8
  |description3 =A Speech Bubble interview with Van Partible where he talks about ''Mess O' Blues''.
}}
==Animation Cels & Photos==
<gallery mode=packed heights=175px>
File:Mob 1.png
File:Mob 2.png
File:Mob 3.png
File:Mob 4.png
The Original Mess O' Blues Snapshot.png|The original snapshot of ''Mess O' Blues''.
</gallery>

==Reference==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Lost animation]]
[[Category:Lost films]]
[[Category:Partially found media]]