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Warner Bros. Cartoons

Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. (known as Leon Schlesinger Productions until 1944) was an American animation studio, serving as the in-house animation division of Warner Bros. during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, it was primarily responsible for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated short films. The characters featured in these cartoons, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig, are among the most famous and recognizable characters in the world. Many of the creative staff members at the studio, including directors and animators such as Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson, Tex Avery, Robert Clampett, Arthur Davis, and Frank Tashlin, are considered major figures in the art and history of traditional animation.

Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc.
Final logo, used from 1944 to 1948 and from 1953 to 1964
FormerlyLeon Schlesinger Productions (1933–1944)
Company typePrivate
IndustryAnimation
Motion pictures
PredecessorHarman-Ising Productions
FoundedJune 1933; 90 years ago (1933-06)[1]
FounderLeon Schlesinger
DefunctMay 1963; 60 years ago (1963-05)[2]
FateClosed
SuccessorsDePatie–Freleng Enterprises (1964–1980)
Warner Bros.–Seven Arts Animation (1967–1969)
Chuck Jones Enterprises (1970–2000)
Warner Bros. Animation (1980–present)
HeadquartersLos Angeles, California, U.S. (1933–1955)
Burbank, California, U.S. (1955–1963)
Key people
Leon Schlesinger, Edward Selzer, Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, Mel Blanc, John W. Burton Sr., David H. DePatie, William L. Hendricks, Robert McKimson, Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Arthur Davis, Frank Tashlin
ProductsAnimated theatrical short subjects
Television shows
OwnerWarner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
ParentIndependent (1933–1944)
Warner Bros. (1944–1963)

Warner Bros. Cartoons was formed in 1933 by Leon Schlesinger as Leon Schlesinger Productions. Schlesinger sold the studio to Warner Bros. in 1944, after which the Warner Bros. Cartoons name was adopted. The studio closed in 1963, and Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were subsequently subcontracted to Freleng's DePatie–Freleng Enterprises studio from 1964 to 1967. Warner Bros. Cartoons re-opened that year, under Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, before closing again in 1969. It was succeeded by Warner Bros. Animation, which was established in 1980.

History edit

1930–1933: Harman-Ising Productions edit

Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising originated the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated short subjects in 1930 and 1931, respectively. Both cartoon series were produced for Leon Schlesinger at the Harman-Ising Studio on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California, with Warner Bros. Pictures releasing the films to theaters. The first Looney Tunes character was the Harman-Ising creation Bosko, The Talk-ink Kid. Despite the fact that Bosko was popular among theater audiences, he could never match the popularity of Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse, or even Max Fleischer's Betty Boop. In 1933, Harman and Ising parted company with Schlesinger over financial disputes,[3] and took Bosko with them to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. As a result, Schlesinger set up his own studio on the Warner Bros. lot on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.[4]

1933–1944: Leon Schlesinger Productions edit

 
Leon Schlesinger Productions studio, (also nicknamed Termite Terrace) part of the Old Warner Brothers Studio, 1351 North Van Ness Avenue, Los Angeles, CA
 
Former Leon Schlesinger-Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, 2003

The Schlesinger studio got off to a slow start, continuing their one-shot Merrie Melodies and introducing a Bosko replacement named Buddy into the Looney Tunes. Disney animator Tom Palmer was the studio's first senior director, but after the three cartoons he made were deemed to be of unacceptable quality and rejected by the studio, former Harman-Ising animator/musical composer Isadore "Friz" Freleng was called in to replace Palmer and rework his cartoons where every cartoon Freleng directed from 1933 to 1963 was created/directed by Freleng's musical compositions and methods.[5][6] The studio then formed the three-unit structure that it would retain throughout most of its history, with one of the units headed by Ben "Bugs" Hardaway, and the other by Earl Duvall, who was replaced by Jack King a year later.

In 1935, Freleng helmed the Merrie Melodies cartoon I Haven't Got a Hat, which introduced the character Porky Pig.[7] Hardaway and King departed, and a new arrival at Schlesinger's, Fred "Tex" Avery, took Freleng's creation and ran with it. Avery directed a string of cartoons starring Porky Pig that established the character as the studio's first bona fide star.[7] Schlesinger also gradually moved the Merrie Melodies cartoons from black and white, to two-strip Technicolor in 1934, and finally to full three-strip Technicolor in 1935. The Looney Tunes series would be produced in black-and-white for much longer, until 1943.[8]

Because of the limited spacing conditions in the Schlesinger building at 1351 N. Van Ness on the Warner Sunset lot, Avery and his unit – including animators Robert Clampett and Chuck Jones – were moved into a small building elsewhere on the Sunset lot, which Avery and his team affectionately dubbed "Termite Terrace."[9] Although the Avery unit moved out of the building after a year, "Termite Terrace" later became a metonym for the classic Warner Bros. animation department in general, even for years after the building was abandoned, condemned, and torn down. During this period, four cartoons were outsourced to the Ub Iwerks studio; however, Iwerks struggled to adapt his style to the type of humor that the Looney Tunes had developed by this time, and so Clampett took over as director (using Iwerks' staff) for the last two of these outsourced cartoons. Schlesinger was so impressed by Clampett's work on these shorts that he opened a fourth unit for Clampett to head, although for tax reasons this was technically a separate studio headed by Schlesinger's brother-in-law, Ray Katz.

From 1936 until 1944, animation directors and animators such as Freleng, Avery, Clampett, Jones, Arthur Davis, Robert McKimson, and Frank Tashlin worked at the studio. During this period, these creators introduced several of the most popular cartoon characters to date, including Daffy Duck (1937, Porky's Duck Hunt by Avery), Elmer Fudd (1940, Elmer's Candid Camera by Jones), Bugs Bunny (1940, A Wild Hare by Avery), and Tweety (1942, A Tale of Two Kitties by Clampett). Avery left the studio in 1941 following a series of disputes with Schlesinger, who shortly after closed the studio for two weeks due to a minor strike similar to the better known one that occurred at Disney. A few months earlier he banished all unionized employees in what became known in retrospect as the "Looney Tune Lockout"; this time Schlesinger lost nearly all of his employees of the Avery unit. Clampett and several of his key animators took over Avery's former unit, while Clampett's own position as director of the Schlesinger-Katz studio was taken by Norm McCabe, a Clampett animator whose cartoons focused in war-related humor; McCabe, in turn, lasted barely a year before being drafted, and Frank Tashlin returned to the studio to replace him.

By 1942, the Schlesinger studio had surpassed Walt Disney Productions as the most successful producer of animated shorts in the United States.[10] Between 1942 and 1945, the Schelsinger studio produced a number of films for the United States military in support of its efforts in World War II. Under the command of the US Air Force's First Motion Picture Unit, headed from 1942 to 1944 by Major Theodor Seuss Geisel (better known as Dr. Seuss), the studio produced the Private Snafu and (with Walter Lantz Productions) Mr. Hook cartoons for the servicemen's entertainment.[11]

1944–1963: Warner Bros. Cartoons edit

'No Buddy Atoll', Private Snafu cartoon directed by Chuck Jones in 1945

On July 1, 1944, Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. for $700,000, which renamed the company Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc., and Edward Selzer (who by Jones' and Freleng's accounts had no sense of humor or admiration of cartoons), was appointed by Warner Bros. as the new head of the cartoon studio after Schlesinger retired. In September 1944 Frank Tashlin left, and in May 1945, Bob Clampett left. Tashlin's unit was initially taken over by Robert McKimson who later took over Clampett's unit.[12][13] The remaining animators of the initial McKimson unit were assigned to Arthur Davis. Although inheriting most of their staff, these units have been the least known among the four, apart from having lower budgets than Jones and Freleng. In 1948, the studio moved to a larger building on the Sunset Boulevard lot. Davis' separate unit was dissolved in November 1947, and he became an animator for Freleng.[14]

The four units units became noted by their respective styles, mostly influenced by their budgets: Jones' cartoons (having the largest budgets) featured a more visual and sophisticated art style, and focused more on unique story telling and characterization over traditional gags, Freleng's cartoons (having a smaller budget then Jones) developed a conservative directorial style which uses sharp timing, jokes and use of music for comedic effect[15] McKimson's cartoons (also with a smaller budget) kept up the traditional screwball antics-based direction into the 50s, while trying to maintain a fully-animated style,[16] and Davis' cartoons (having the smallest budget of the four units) prioritizes its animation and jokes over the stories, as Davis was said to had an insecurity with his story men.[17]

Among the Warner Bros. cartoon stars who were created after Schlesinger's departure include Pepé Le Pew (1945, Odor-able Kitty by Jones), Sylvester (1945, Life with Feathers by Freleng), Yosemite Sam (1945, Hare Trigger by Freleng), Foghorn Leghorn (1946, Walky Talky Hawky by McKimson), Marvin the Martian (1948, Haredevil Hare by Jones), Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner (1949, Fast and Furry-ous by Jones), Granny (1950, Canary Row by Freleng), Speedy Gonzales (1953, Cat-Tails for Two by McKimson) and The Tasmanian Devil (1954, Devil May Hare by McKimson). In later years, even more minor Looney Tunes characters such as Freleng's Rocky and Mugsy, Jones's Gossamer and Michigan J. Frog have become significantly popular.[18]

After the verdict of the United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. anti-trust case in 1948 ended the practice of "block booking", Warner Bros. could no longer force theaters into buying their features and shorts together as packages; shorts had to be sold separately. Theater owners were only willing to pay so much for cartoon shorts, and as a result, by the late-1950s the budgets at Warner Bros. Cartoons became tighter. Selzer forced a stringent five-week production schedule on each cartoon (at least one director, Chuck Jones, cheated the system by spending more time on special cartoons such as What's Opera, Doc?, less time on simpler productions such as Road Runner entries, and had his crew forge their time cards). With less money for full animation, the Warner Bros. story men — Michael Maltese, Tedd Pierce, and Warren Foster — began to focus more of their cartoons on dialogue. While story artists were assigned to directors at random during the 1930s and 1940s, by the 1950s each story man worked almost exclusively with one director: Maltese with Jones, Foster with Freleng, and Pierce with McKimson.

With the advent of the 3-D film craze in 1953, Warner Bros. shut its cartoon studio down in June of that year, fearing that 3-D cartoon production would be too expensive (only one Warner Bros. cartoon was ever produced in 3-D, Jones' Lumber Jack-Rabbit starring Bugs Bunny). The creative staff dispersed (Jones, for example, went to work at Disney on Sleeping Beauty, Maltese went to Walter Lantz Productions, and Freleng went into commercial work). Warner Bros. Cartoons re-opened five months after its close, following the end of the 3-D craze. In 1955, the staff moved into a brand new facility on the main Warner Bros. lot in Burbank. KTLA television took over the old studio location on Van Ness; the old Warner Sunset Studios is today called Sunset Bronson Studios.

Also on February 19, 1955, Warner Bros. sold its library of black and white Looney Tunes to Guild Films. The package consisted of 191 cartoons which began showing on television that year.[19]

By 1958, Selzer had retired, and veteran Warner Cartoons production manager John Burton took his place.[20] Warner Bros. also lost its trio of staff storymen at this time. Foster and Maltese found work at Hanna-Barbera Productions, while Pierce worked on a freelance basis with writing partner Bill Danch. John Dunn and Dave Detiege, both former Disney men, were hired to replace them.

During Burton's tenure, Warner Bros. Cartoons branched out into television. In the fall of 1960, ABC TV premiered The Bugs Bunny Show, which was a package program featuring three theatrical Warner Bros. cartoons, with newly produced wraparounds to introduce each short. The program remained on the air under various names and on all three major networks for four decades from 1960 to 2000. All versions of The Bugs Bunny Show featured Warner Bros. cartoons released after July 31, 1948, as all of the Technicolor cartoons released before that date were sold to Associated Artists Productions on June 11, 1956.[21]

David H. DePatie became the last executive in charge of the original Warner Bros. Cartoons studio in 1961. The same year, Chuck Jones moonlighted to write the script for a UPA-produced feature titled Gay Purr-ee. When that film was picked up by Warner Bros. for distribution in 1962, the studio learned that Jones had violated his exclusive contract with Warners and he was terminated in July. Most of Jones' former unit subsequently re-joined him at Sib Tower 12 Productions to work on a new series of Tom and Jerry cartoons for MGM.[22]

In late 1962, at the height of television popularity and decline in moviegoing, DePatie was sent to a board meeting in New York, and he was informed that the cartoon studio was going to be shut down. DePatie completed the task by 1963.[23] The final project at the studio was making the animated sequences, directed by McKimson, for the 1964 Warner Bros. feature The Incredible Mr. Limpet.[22][24] With the studio closed, Hal Seeger Productions in New York had to be contracted to produce the opening and closing credits for The Porky Pig Show, which debuted on ABC on September 20, 1964.[25] This marked one of the first times that the Looney Tunes characters were animated outside of the Los Angeles area.

1964–1967: DePatie–Freleng Enterprises and Format Productions edit

David H. DePatie and Friz Freleng started DePatie–Freleng Enterprises in 1963, and leased the old Warner Bros. Cartoons studio as their headquarters. In 1964, Warner Bros. contracted DePatie–Freleng to produce more Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, an arrangement that lasted until 1967. The vast majority of these paired off Daffy Duck against Speedy Gonzales, and after a few initial cartoons directed by Freleng, Robert McKimson was hired to direct most of the remaining DePatie–Freleng Looney Tunes.

In addition to DePatie–Freleng's cartoons, a series of new shorts featuring The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote was commissioned from an independent animation studio, Herbert Klynn's Format Productions. Veteran Warner animator Rudy Larriva, who had worked for years under Road Runner creator Chuck Jones, assumed directorial duties for these films, but even with the Jones connection, Larriva's Road Runner shorts were considered to be inferior and witless compared to Jones' by critics. McKimson also directed an additional two Road Runner shorts with the main DePatie–Freleng team, which are more highly regarded than Larriva's efforts.

After three years of outsourced cartoons, Warner Bros. decided to bring production back in-house. DePatie–Freleng had their contract terminated (they subsequently moved to new studios in the San Fernando Valley), and Format was commissioned to produce three "buffer" cartoons with Daffy and Speedy (again, directed by Rudy Larriva) to fill the gap until Warner Bros.'s own studio was up and running again.

1967–1969: Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Animation edit

Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Animation
 
Founded1967; 57 years ago (1967)
FounderWilliam L. Hendricks
DefunctOctober 10, 1969; 54 years ago (1969-10-10)[26]
FateClosed
Key people
Alex Lovy
Robert McKimson
Cal Howard
Bob Kurtz
William L. Hendricks
Mel Blanc
Larry Storch
William Lava
Hal Geer
Don Douglas
David Hanan
Robert Givens
Laverne Harding
Lin Larsen
Bob Abrams
Bob Inman
Bob McIntosh
ProductsCool Cat
Speedy Gonzales
Daffy Duck

The new cartoon studio was to be founded and headed by studio executive William L. Hendricks, and after an unsuccessful attempt at luring Bob Clampett out of retirement, former Walter Lantz Productions and Hanna-Barbera animator Alex Lovy was appointed director at the new studio. He brought his longtime collaborator, Laverne Harding to be the new studio's chief animator, and brought in Disney animator Volus Jones and Ed Solomon who also started at Disney as an assistant, which contributed to make cartoons from this era of the studio stylistically quite different from the studio's "Golden Age". Lovy also brought in animator Ted Bonnicksen and layout artist Bob Givens, both veterans of the original studio. Shortly after the studio opened, Warner Bros. was bought out by Seven Arts Associates, and the studio renamed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts.

Initially, Lovy's new team produced more Daffy and Speedy cartoons, but soon moved to create new characters such as Cool Cat and Merlin the Magic Mouse, and even occasional experimental works such as Norman Normal (1968), the only cartoon not to be in either series. Lovy's cartoons were not well received, and many enthusiasts regard them (particularly his Daffy and Speedy efforts) as the worst cartoons ever produced by the studio.

After a year, Alex Lovy left and returned to Hanna-Barbera, and Robert McKimson was brought back to the studio. He focused on using the characters that Lovy had created (and two of his own creation: Bunny and Claude). The studio's classic characters appeared only in advertisements (as for Plymouth Road Runner) and cartoon show bumpers. McKimson's films of the era have more adult-oriented humor than Lovy's. However, on October 10, 1969, Warner Bros. ceased production on all its short subjects and shut the studio down for good when Warner Bros.-Seven Arts was acquired by Kinney National Company. The back catalog of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts would remain a popular broadcast and syndication package for Warner Bros. Television well into the 2000s, by which time it had reacquired the rights to the pre-August 1948[21] shorts it sold to Associated Artists Productions (known as a.a.p.) on June 11, 1956.

Warner Bros. Cartoons staff, 1933–1969 edit

Studio heads edit

Directors edit

Storyboard artists/writers edit

Layout/Background artists/designers edit

Animators edit

Voices edit

Music edit

Musical Directors

Orchestrations

Film (Sound effects) editors edit

Filmography edit

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ Barrier (1999); p. 324
  2. ^ Warner Club News (1963)
  3. ^ Barrier, Michael (1999). Hollywood Cartoons. New York: Oxford University Press. Pg. 164. ISBN 0-19-516729-5.
  4. ^ Barrier, Michael (1999). Pg. 323.
  5. ^ "Irreverent Imagination: The Golden Age of Looney Tunes - video dailymotion". Dailymotion.
  6. ^ Barrier, Michael (1999). Pg. 324–8.
  7. ^ a b Barrier, Michael (1999). Pg. 329–33.
  8. ^ "Looney Tunes 1942-43: Hello, Technicolor! |".
  9. ^ Maltin, Leonard (1980, rev. 1987). Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. Penguin Books. Pg.s. 229–30 ISBN 0-452-25993-2.
  10. ^ "Warner Bros. Studio biography". AnimationUSA.com. Retrieved June 17, 2007.
  11. ^ Coons, Robbin (February 15, 1944). "Private Snafu Army Favorite". Prescott Evening Courier. Retrieved July 5, 2011.
  12. ^ Schneider, Steve (1988). That's all folks! : the art of Warner Bros. animation. Henry Holt and Company. pp. 88–90. ISBN 9781854102904.
  13. ^ Barrier (1999); pg. 467
  14. ^ "Animator Profiles: ARTHUR DAVIS |".
  15. ^ "Friz Freleng". lambiek.net. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
  16. ^ "Bob McKimson". lambiek.net. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
  17. ^ "Animator Profiles: ARTHUR DAVIS |". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
  18. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 187–8.
  19. ^ "Billboard". February 19, 1955. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  20. ^ "The Life and Death of Looney Tunes Producers: Schlesinger and Selzer |". cartoonresearch.com.
  21. ^ a b The Warner Bros. cartoon in the Associated Artists Productions package with the latest release date was Haredevil Hare, released on July 24, 1948.
  22. ^ a b Barrier, Michael (1999). Pg. 562–3.
  23. ^ Maltin (1980); p. 271
  24. ^ . Archived from the original on February 2, 2010. Retrieved June 14, 2009.
  25. ^ Mackey, Dave "The Porky Pig Show February 4, 2015, at the Wayback Machine".
  26. ^ International Television Almanac. Quigley Publishing Company. 1982. ISBN 9780900610271. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
  27. ^ Barrier (1999) pg. 324
  28. ^ Shorts from 1964 to 1966 were produced by DePatie's very own studio DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
  29. ^ Barrier (1999) pg. 328-329;435
  30. ^ "In His Own Words: Bob Clampett at Warners |".
  31. ^ Barrier (1999) pg. 352
  32. ^ Barrier (1999) pp. 334-335;435
  33. ^ "A Chat with Paul Fennell |".
  34. ^ "A.C. Gamer: Captain (Or Lieutenant) of the Clouds |".
  35. ^ Barrier (1999) pg.338

References edit

  • Maltin, Leonard (1987) [1980]. Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons. New York: Plume. ISBN 0-452-25993-2.
  • Barrier, Michael (1999). Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516729-5.
  • Jones, Chuck (1989). Chuck Amuck : The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux. ISBN 0-374-12348-9.
  • Beck, Jerry (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. New York: Holt Paperbacks. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.

External links edit

  • Warner Bros. official site

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Warner Bros Cartoons Inc known as Leon Schlesinger Productions until 1944 was an American animation studio serving as the in house animation division of Warner Bros during the Golden Age of American animation One of the most successful animation studios in American media history it was primarily responsible for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated short films The characters featured in these cartoons including Bugs Bunny Daffy Duck and Porky Pig are among the most famous and recognizable characters in the world Many of the creative staff members at the studio including directors and animators such as Chuck Jones Friz Freleng Robert McKimson Tex Avery Robert Clampett Arthur Davis and Frank Tashlin are considered major figures in the art and history of traditional animation Warner Bros Cartoons Inc Final logo used from 1944 to 1948 and from 1953 to 1964FormerlyLeon Schlesinger Productions 1933 1944 Company typePrivateIndustryAnimationMotion picturesPredecessorHarman Ising ProductionsFoundedJune 1933 90 years ago 1933 06 1 FounderLeon SchlesingerDefunctMay 1963 60 years ago 1963 05 2 FateClosedSuccessorsDePatie Freleng Enterprises 1964 1980 Warner Bros Seven Arts Animation 1967 1969 Chuck Jones Enterprises 1970 2000 Warner Bros Animation 1980 present HeadquartersLos Angeles California U S 1933 1955 Burbank California U S 1955 1963 Key peopleLeon Schlesinger Edward Selzer Friz Freleng Chuck Jones Mel Blanc John W Burton Sr David H DePatie William L Hendricks Robert McKimson Tex Avery Bob Clampett Arthur Davis Frank TashlinProductsAnimated theatrical short subjectsTelevision showsOwnerWarner Bros Pictures Inc ParentIndependent 1933 1944 Warner Bros 1944 1963 Warner Bros Cartoons was formed in 1933 by Leon Schlesinger as Leon Schlesinger Productions Schlesinger sold the studio to Warner Bros in 1944 after which the Warner Bros Cartoons name was adopted The studio closed in 1963 and Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were subsequently subcontracted to Freleng s DePatie Freleng Enterprises studio from 1964 to 1967 Warner Bros Cartoons re opened that year under Warner Bros Seven Arts before closing again in 1969 It was succeeded by Warner Bros Animation which was established in 1980 Contents 1 History 1 1 1930 1933 Harman Ising Productions 1 2 1933 1944 Leon Schlesinger Productions 1 3 1944 1963 Warner Bros Cartoons 1 4 1964 1967 DePatie Freleng Enterprises and Format Productions 1 5 1967 1969 Warner Bros Seven Arts Animation 2 Warner Bros Cartoons staff 1933 1969 2 1 Studio heads 2 2 Directors 2 3 Storyboard artists writers 2 4 Layout Background artists designers 2 5 Animators 2 6 Voices 2 7 Music 2 8 Film Sound effects editors 3 Filmography 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 External linksHistory edit1930 1933 Harman Ising Productions edit Main article Harman and Ising Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising originated the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated short subjects in 1930 and 1931 respectively Both cartoon series were produced for Leon Schlesinger at the Harman Ising Studio on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood California with Warner Bros Pictures releasing the films to theaters The first Looney Tunes character was the Harman Ising creation Bosko The Talk ink Kid Despite the fact that Bosko was popular among theater audiences he could never match the popularity of Walt Disney s Mickey Mouse or even Max Fleischer s Betty Boop In 1933 Harman and Ising parted company with Schlesinger over financial disputes 3 and took Bosko with them to Metro Goldwyn Mayer As a result Schlesinger set up his own studio on the Warner Bros lot on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood 4 1933 1944 Leon Schlesinger Productions edit nbsp Leon Schlesinger Productions studio also nicknamed Termite Terrace part of the Old Warner Brothers Studio 1351 North Van Ness Avenue Los Angeles CA nbsp Former Leon Schlesinger Warner Bros Cartoons studio 2003The Schlesinger studio got off to a slow start continuing their one shot Merrie Melodies and introducing a Bosko replacement named Buddy into the Looney Tunes Disney animator Tom Palmer was the studio s first senior director but after the three cartoons he made were deemed to be of unacceptable quality and rejected by the studio former Harman Ising animator musical composer Isadore Friz Freleng was called in to replace Palmer and rework his cartoons where every cartoon Freleng directed from 1933 to 1963 was created directed by Freleng s musical compositions and methods 5 6 The studio then formed the three unit structure that it would retain throughout most of its history with one of the units headed by Ben Bugs Hardaway and the other by Earl Duvall who was replaced by Jack King a year later In 1935 Freleng helmed the Merrie Melodies cartoon I Haven t Got a Hat which introduced the character Porky Pig 7 Hardaway and King departed and a new arrival at Schlesinger s Fred Tex Avery took Freleng s creation and ran with it Avery directed a string of cartoons starring Porky Pig that established the character as the studio s first bona fide star 7 Schlesinger also gradually moved the Merrie Melodies cartoons from black and white to two strip Technicolor in 1934 and finally to full three strip Technicolor in 1935 The Looney Tunes series would be produced in black and white for much longer until 1943 8 Because of the limited spacing conditions in the Schlesinger building at 1351 N Van Ness on the Warner Sunset lot Avery and his unit including animators Robert Clampett and Chuck Jones were moved into a small building elsewhere on the Sunset lot which Avery and his team affectionately dubbed Termite Terrace 9 Although the Avery unit moved out of the building after a year Termite Terrace later became a metonym for the classic Warner Bros animation department in general even for years after the building was abandoned condemned and torn down During this period four cartoons were outsourced to the Ub Iwerks studio however Iwerks struggled to adapt his style to the type of humor that the Looney Tunes had developed by this time and so Clampett took over as director using Iwerks staff for the last two of these outsourced cartoons Schlesinger was so impressed by Clampett s work on these shorts that he opened a fourth unit for Clampett to head although for tax reasons this was technically a separate studio headed by Schlesinger s brother in law Ray Katz From 1936 until 1944 animation directors and animators such as Freleng Avery Clampett Jones Arthur Davis Robert McKimson and Frank Tashlin worked at the studio During this period these creators introduced several of the most popular cartoon characters to date including Daffy Duck 1937 Porky s Duck Hunt by Avery Elmer Fudd 1940 Elmer s Candid Camera by Jones Bugs Bunny 1940 A Wild Hare by Avery and Tweety 1942 A Tale of Two Kitties by Clampett Avery left the studio in 1941 following a series of disputes with Schlesinger who shortly after closed the studio for two weeks due to a minor strike similar to the better known one that occurred at Disney A few months earlier he banished all unionized employees in what became known in retrospect as the Looney Tune Lockout this time Schlesinger lost nearly all of his employees of the Avery unit Clampett and several of his key animators took over Avery s former unit while Clampett s own position as director of the Schlesinger Katz studio was taken by Norm McCabe a Clampett animator whose cartoons focused in war related humor McCabe in turn lasted barely a year before being drafted and Frank Tashlin returned to the studio to replace him By 1942 the Schlesinger studio had surpassed Walt Disney Productions as the most successful producer of animated shorts in the United States 10 Between 1942 and 1945 the Schelsinger studio produced a number of films for the United States military in support of its efforts in World War II Under the command of the US Air Force s First Motion Picture Unit headed from 1942 to 1944 by Major Theodor Seuss Geisel better known as Dr Seuss the studio produced the Private Snafu and with Walter Lantz Productions Mr Hook cartoons for the servicemen s entertainment 11 1944 1963 Warner Bros Cartoons edit source source source source No Buddy Atoll Private Snafu cartoon directed by Chuck Jones in 1945On July 1 1944 Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros for 700 000 which renamed the company Warner Bros Cartoons Inc and Edward Selzer who by Jones and Freleng s accounts had no sense of humor or admiration of cartoons was appointed by Warner Bros as the new head of the cartoon studio after Schlesinger retired In September 1944 Frank Tashlin left and in May 1945 Bob Clampett left Tashlin s unit was initially taken over by Robert McKimson who later took over Clampett s unit 12 13 The remaining animators of the initial McKimson unit were assigned to Arthur Davis Although inheriting most of their staff these units have been the least known among the four apart from having lower budgets than Jones and Freleng In 1948 the studio moved to a larger building on the Sunset Boulevard lot Davis separate unit was dissolved in November 1947 and he became an animator for Freleng 14 The four units units became noted by their respective styles mostly influenced by their budgets Jones cartoons having the largest budgets featured a more visual and sophisticated art style and focused more on unique story telling and characterization over traditional gags Freleng s cartoons having a smaller budget then Jones developed a conservative directorial style which uses sharp timing jokes and use of music for comedic effect 15 McKimson s cartoons also with a smaller budget kept up the traditional screwball antics based direction into the 50s while trying to maintain a fully animated style 16 and Davis cartoons having the smallest budget of the four units prioritizes its animation and jokes over the stories as Davis was said to had an insecurity with his story men 17 Among the Warner Bros cartoon stars who were created after Schlesinger s departure include Pepe Le Pew 1945 Odor able Kitty by Jones Sylvester 1945 Life with Feathers by Freleng Yosemite Sam 1945 Hare Trigger by Freleng Foghorn Leghorn 1946 Walky Talky Hawky by McKimson Marvin the Martian 1948 Haredevil Hare by Jones Wile E Coyote and the Road Runner 1949 Fast and Furry ous by Jones Granny 1950 Canary Row by Freleng Speedy Gonzales 1953 Cat Tails for Two by McKimson and The Tasmanian Devil 1954 Devil May Hare by McKimson In later years even more minor Looney Tunes characters such as Freleng s Rocky and Mugsy Jones s Gossamer and Michigan J Frog have become significantly popular 18 After the verdict of the United States v Paramount Pictures Inc anti trust case in 1948 ended the practice of block booking Warner Bros could no longer force theaters into buying their features and shorts together as packages shorts had to be sold separately Theater owners were only willing to pay so much for cartoon shorts and as a result by the late 1950s the budgets at Warner Bros Cartoons became tighter Selzer forced a stringent five week production schedule on each cartoon at least one director Chuck Jones cheated the system by spending more time on special cartoons such as What s Opera Doc less time on simpler productions such as Road Runner entries and had his crew forge their time cards With less money for full animation the Warner Bros story men Michael Maltese Tedd Pierce and Warren Foster began to focus more of their cartoons on dialogue While story artists were assigned to directors at random during the 1930s and 1940s by the 1950s each story man worked almost exclusively with one director Maltese with Jones Foster with Freleng and Pierce with McKimson With the advent of the 3 D film craze in 1953 Warner Bros shut its cartoon studio down in June of that year fearing that 3 D cartoon production would be too expensive only one Warner Bros cartoon was ever produced in 3 D Jones Lumber Jack Rabbit starring Bugs Bunny The creative staff dispersed Jones for example went to work at Disney on Sleeping Beauty Maltese went to Walter Lantz Productions and Freleng went into commercial work Warner Bros Cartoons re opened five months after its close following the end of the 3 D craze In 1955 the staff moved into a brand new facility on the main Warner Bros lot in Burbank KTLA television took over the old studio location on Van Ness the old Warner Sunset Studios is today called Sunset Bronson Studios Also on February 19 1955 Warner Bros sold its library of black and white Looney Tunes to Guild Films The package consisted of 191 cartoons which began showing on television that year 19 By 1958 Selzer had retired and veteran Warner Cartoons production manager John Burton took his place 20 Warner Bros also lost its trio of staff storymen at this time Foster and Maltese found work at Hanna Barbera Productions while Pierce worked on a freelance basis with writing partner Bill Danch John Dunn and Dave Detiege both former Disney men were hired to replace them During Burton s tenure Warner Bros Cartoons branched out into television In the fall of 1960 ABC TV premiered The Bugs Bunny Show which was a package program featuring three theatrical Warner Bros cartoons with newly produced wraparounds to introduce each short The program remained on the air under various names and on all three major networks for four decades from 1960 to 2000 All versions of The Bugs Bunny Show featured Warner Bros cartoons released after July 31 1948 as all of the Technicolor cartoons released before that date were sold to Associated Artists Productions on June 11 1956 21 David H DePatie became the last executive in charge of the original Warner Bros Cartoons studio in 1961 The same year Chuck Jones moonlighted to write the script for a UPA produced feature titled Gay Purr ee When that film was picked up by Warner Bros for distribution in 1962 the studio learned that Jones had violated his exclusive contract with Warners and he was terminated in July Most of Jones former unit subsequently re joined him at Sib Tower 12 Productions to work on a new series of Tom and Jerry cartoons for MGM 22 In late 1962 at the height of television popularity and decline in moviegoing DePatie was sent to a board meeting in New York and he was informed that the cartoon studio was going to be shut down DePatie completed the task by 1963 23 The final project at the studio was making the animated sequences directed by McKimson for the 1964 Warner Bros feature The Incredible Mr Limpet 22 24 With the studio closed Hal Seeger Productions in New York had to be contracted to produce the opening and closing credits for The Porky Pig Show which debuted on ABC on September 20 1964 25 This marked one of the first times that the Looney Tunes characters were animated outside of the Los Angeles area 1964 1967 DePatie Freleng Enterprises and Format Productions edit David H DePatie and Friz Freleng started DePatie Freleng Enterprises in 1963 and leased the old Warner Bros Cartoons studio as their headquarters In 1964 Warner Bros contracted DePatie Freleng to produce more Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies an arrangement that lasted until 1967 The vast majority of these paired off Daffy Duck against Speedy Gonzales and after a few initial cartoons directed by Freleng Robert McKimson was hired to direct most of the remaining DePatie Freleng Looney Tunes In addition to DePatie Freleng s cartoons a series of new shorts featuring The Road Runner and Wile E Coyote was commissioned from an independent animation studio Herbert Klynn s Format Productions Veteran Warner animator Rudy Larriva who had worked for years under Road Runner creator Chuck Jones assumed directorial duties for these films but even with the Jones connection Larriva s Road Runner shorts were considered to be inferior and witless compared to Jones by critics McKimson also directed an additional two Road Runner shorts with the main DePatie Freleng team which are more highly regarded than Larriva s efforts After three years of outsourced cartoons Warner Bros decided to bring production back in house DePatie Freleng had their contract terminated they subsequently moved to new studios in the San Fernando Valley and Format was commissioned to produce three buffer cartoons with Daffy and Speedy again directed by Rudy Larriva to fill the gap until Warner Bros s own studio was up and running again 1967 1969 Warner Bros Seven Arts Animation edit Warner Bros Seven Arts Animation nbsp Founded1967 57 years ago 1967 FounderWilliam L HendricksDefunctOctober 10 1969 54 years ago 1969 10 10 26 FateClosedKey peopleAlex LovyRobert McKimsonCal HowardBob KurtzWilliam L HendricksMel BlancLarry StorchWilliam LavaHal GeerDon DouglasDavid HananRobert GivensLaverne Harding Lin LarsenBob AbramsBob InmanBob McIntoshProductsCool CatSpeedy GonzalesDaffy DuckThe new cartoon studio was to be founded and headed by studio executive William L Hendricks and after an unsuccessful attempt at luring Bob Clampett out of retirement former Walter Lantz Productions and Hanna Barbera animator Alex Lovy was appointed director at the new studio He brought his longtime collaborator Laverne Harding to be the new studio s chief animator and brought in Disney animator Volus Jones and Ed Solomon who also started at Disney as an assistant which contributed to make cartoons from this era of the studio stylistically quite different from the studio s Golden Age Lovy also brought in animator Ted Bonnicksen and layout artist Bob Givens both veterans of the original studio Shortly after the studio opened Warner Bros was bought out by Seven Arts Associates and the studio renamed Warner Bros Seven Arts Initially Lovy s new team produced more Daffy and Speedy cartoons but soon moved to create new characters such as Cool Cat and Merlin the Magic Mouse and even occasional experimental works such as Norman Normal 1968 the only cartoon not to be in either series Lovy s cartoons were not well received and many enthusiasts regard them particularly his Daffy and Speedy efforts as the worst cartoons ever produced by the studio After a year Alex Lovy left and returned to Hanna Barbera and Robert McKimson was brought back to the studio He focused on using the characters that Lovy had created and two of his own creation Bunny and Claude The studio s classic characters appeared only in advertisements as for Plymouth Road Runner and cartoon show bumpers McKimson s films of the era have more adult oriented humor than Lovy s However on October 10 1969 Warner Bros ceased production on all its short subjects and shut the studio down for good when Warner Bros Seven Arts was acquired by Kinney National Company The back catalog of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts would remain a popular broadcast and syndication package for Warner Bros Television well into the 2000s by which time it had reacquired the rights to the pre August 1948 21 shorts it sold to Associated Artists Productions known as a a p on June 11 1956 Warner Bros Cartoons staff 1933 1969 editStudio heads edit Leon Schlesinger 1933 1944 27 Eddie Selzer 1944 1958 John Burton 1958 1961 David H DePatie 1961 1963 28 William L Hendricks 1967 1969 Directors edit Tex Avery 1935 1942 credited as Fred Avery 29 Ted Bonnicksen 1963 Bernard B Brown 1934 Gerry Chiniquy 1964 Bob Clampett 1937 1946 credited as Robert Clampett 30 Cal Dalton 1938 1940 Arthur Davis 1946 1949 1962 Earl Duvall 1933 1934 Friz Freleng 1934 1938 1940 1965 credited until late 1936 as Isadore Freleng and until late 1955 as I Freleng Ben Hardaway 1934 1935 1938 1940 Ken Harris 1959 Rudy Larriva 1965 1967 Cal Howard 1938 Ub Iwerks 1937 Chuck Jones 1938 1964 credited until late 1940 as Charles Jones and until late 1955 as Charles M Jones 31 Jack King 1934 1936 Abe Levitow 1959 1962 Alex Lovy 1967 1968 Norman McCabe 1940 1943 Robert McKimson 1946 1969 Phil Monroe 1963 1964 Maurice Noble 1961 1964 Tom Palmer 1933 Hawley Pratt 1961 1964 Frank Tashlin 1936 1938 1943 1946 32 Richard Thompson 1963 Bill Tytla 1964 Irv Spector 1965 Storyboard artists writers edit Howard Baldwin Nick Bennion David Detiege John Dunn Warren Foster Friz Freleng Ben Hardaway George Hill Cal Howard Rich Hogan Chuck Jones Bob Clampett Lew Landsman Lou Lilly Sid Marcus Michael Maltese George Manuell Robert McKimson Melvin Tubby Millar Jack Miller Dave Monahan Fred Neiman Tedd Pierce Bill Scott Dr Seuss Lloyd Turner Layout Background artists designers edit Pete Alvarado Philip DeGuard Gene Fleury Nic Gibson Robert Givens Robert Gribbroek Alex Ignatiev John Didrik Johnsen Willie Ito Paul Julian Earl Klein John McGrew Tom McKimson Maurice Noble Ernie Nordli Tom O Loughlin Hawley Pratt David Rose Micheal Sasanoff Don Smith William Butler Richard H Thomas Cornett Wood Irv Wyner Animators edit Fred Abranz Art Babbitt Warren Batchelder Robert Bentley Richard Bickenbach Norm Blackburn Ted Bonnicksen Jack Bradbury Bob Bransford Pete Burness George Cannata Robert Bobe Cannon John Carey Jack Carr Ken Champin Gerry Chiniquy Robert Clampett Ben Clopton Herman Cohen Shamus Culhane Cal Dalton Keith Darling Basil Davidovich Arthur Davis Jim Davis Phil DeLara Jaime Diaz Joe D Igalo Russ Dyson Robert Edmunds Izzy Ellis Paul Fennell 33 John Freeman Ed Friedman Ace A C Gamer Effects Animator 34 John Gibbs George Grandpre Manny Gould Lee Halpern Rollin Hamilton Laverne Harding Ken Harris Emery Hawkins Alex Ignatiev Chuck Jones Fred Jones Volus Jones Jack King Anatolle Kirsanoff Rudy Larriva Art Leonardi Abe Levitow Harry Love Effects Animator Bob Matz Max Maxwell Norman McCabe Tom McDonald John McGrew Charles McKimson Robert McKimson Thomas McKimson Bill Melendez Phil Monroe Al Pabian Jim Pabian Ray Patin Manuel Perez Tom Ray Bob Richardson Vive Risto Phil Roman Virgil Ross Rod Scribner Larry Silverman Hank Smith Paul Smith Ed Solomon Irven Spence Robert Stokes Cecil Surry Sid Sutherland Bob Taylor Richard Thompson Riley Thomson Frank Tipper Gil Turner Lloyd Vaughan Sandy Walker Elmer Wait Ben Washam Volney White Bob Wickersham Don Williams Voices edit Mel Blanc Tex Avery Dave Barry Dick Beals Bea Benaderet Julie Bennett Sara Berner Billy Bletcher Lucille Bliss Billy Booth Robert C Bruce Arthur Q Bryan Daws Butler Pinto Colvig Joe Dougherty June Foray Stan Freberg Joan Gerber Frank Graham Bernice Hansen Margaret Hill Talbot Trust Howard Paul Julian Abe Lyman Tedd Pierce Alan Reed Marian Richman Kent Rogers Hal Smith John T Smith Larry Storch Bill Thompson Danny Webb Nancy Wible Music edit Musical Directors Bernard B Brown 1933 1936 Norman Spencer 1933 1936 Carl W Stalling 1936 1958 credited until late 1946 as Carl W Stalling 35 Eugene Poddany 1951 Milt Franklyn 1954 1962 John Seely 1958 William Lava 1962 1969 credited until 1967 as Bill Lava Walter Greene 1966 1967 Frank Perkins 1967 Orchestrations Milt Franklyn 1936 1962 Film Sound effects editors edit Treg Brown Irvin Jay Lee Gunther Hal GeerFilmography editMain article List of Warner Bros Cartoons productionsSee also editHarman and Ising The Golden Age of American animation Looney Tunes Merrie Melodies Warner Bros Animation List of animation studios owned by Warner Bros DiscoveryNotes edit Barrier 1999 p 324 Warner Club News 1963 Barrier Michael 1999 Hollywood Cartoons New York Oxford University Press Pg 164 ISBN 0 19 516729 5 Barrier Michael 1999 Pg 323 Irreverent Imagination The Golden Age of Looney Tunes video dailymotion Dailymotion Barrier Michael 1999 Pg 324 8 a b Barrier Michael 1999 Pg 329 33 Looney Tunes 1942 43 Hello Technicolor Maltin Leonard 1980 rev 1987 Of Mice and Magic A History of American Animated Cartoons Penguin Books Pg s 229 30 ISBN 0 452 25993 2 Warner Bros Studio biography AnimationUSA com Retrieved June 17 2007 Coons Robbin February 15 1944 Private Snafu Army Favorite Prescott Evening Courier Retrieved July 5 2011 Schneider Steve 1988 That s all folks the art of Warner Bros animation Henry Holt and Company pp 88 90 ISBN 9781854102904 Barrier 1999 pg 467 Animator Profiles ARTHUR DAVIS Friz Freleng lambiek net Retrieved January 16 2024 Bob McKimson lambiek net Retrieved January 16 2024 Animator Profiles ARTHUR DAVIS cartoonresearch com Retrieved January 16 2024 Sperling Millner and Warner 1998 p 187 8 Billboard February 19 1955 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help The Life and Death of Looney Tunes Producers Schlesinger and Selzer cartoonresearch com a b The Warner Bros cartoon in the Associated Artists Productions package with the latest release date was Haredevil Hare released on July 24 1948 a b Barrier Michael 1999 Pg 562 3 Maltin 1980 p 271 Kevin Lima to direct the Incredible Mr Limpet Cartoon Brew Leading the Animation Conversation Archived from the original on February 2 2010 Retrieved June 14 2009 Mackey Dave The Porky Pig Show Archived February 4 2015 at the Wayback Machine International Television Almanac Quigley Publishing Company 1982 ISBN 9780900610271 Retrieved January 2 2020 Barrier 1999 pg 324 Shorts from 1964 to 1966 were produced by DePatie s very own studio DePatie Freleng Enterprises Barrier 1999 pg 328 329 435 In His Own Words Bob Clampett at Warners Barrier 1999 pg 352 Barrier 1999 pp 334 335 435 A Chat with Paul Fennell A C Gamer Captain Or Lieutenant of the Clouds Barrier 1999 pg 338References editMaltin Leonard 1987 1980 Of Mice and Magic A History of American Animated Cartoons New York Plume ISBN 0 452 25993 2 Barrier Michael 1999 Hollywood Cartoons American Animation in Its Golden Age Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 0 19 516729 5 Jones Chuck 1989 Chuck Amuck The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist New York Farrar Straus amp Giroux ISBN 0 374 12348 9 Beck Jerry 1989 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros Cartoons New York Holt Paperbacks ISBN 0 8050 0894 2 External links editWarner Bros official site Warner Bros Animation Chronology 1930 to the Present Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Warner Bros Cartoons amp oldid 1206810930, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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