Hello my friends and welcome back for a special Thanksgiving edition of Saturday morning cartoons.
First up is a true Thanksgiving classic, Tom Turk and Daffy (1944). Unlike Christmas or Halloween, there really aren't a wide variety of Thanksgiving cartoons, which is odd once you think about how hunting a turkey is a perfect subject for a cartoon. However the idea of hunting a turkey in a cartoon was done to perfection in this film. The cartoon was directed by Chuck Jones, who is often credited with playing a major role in turning Daffy from his early crazy self into a self centered character bent on self-preservation-ism. While Daffy had not fully turned into that character by this point this cartoon shows that sneaking into the character. In this film Daffy is willing to sell-out his friend he vowed to protect when temptation gets the better of him (Those darn canned yams!). The idea of Daffy simply being too weak to resist temptation is fully in line with the Daffy we would see in later Jones cartoons. Yet he is still has the wild energetic streak that characterized the older Daffy Duck cartoons. In an interview with film historian Joe Adamson, Chuck would state, "What you do is multiply your own weakness, I guess, in a character like Daffy. There was no problem after I began to understand what he was all about. My Daffy and Friz's [Looney Tunes director, Friz Freleng] are also a little bit different , Friz was the one you might say, who got him into that cowardly self-preservation. The minute he did it, I understood what that was; I knew how I'd feel. It's that awfulness, when you're on the battlefield, of realizing when your buddy is shot that your basic feeling is one of relief: that it wasn't you. Well Daffy says that. He says, 'I may be a mean little duck but I'm an alive little duck.' or when he gave Bugs up to the Abominable Snowman, he said, 'I'm not like other people: I can't stand pain - it hurts me.' When I'd go home, I'd tell Dorothy [Chuck's wife] a line like that, which just occurred as I was working. I'd say, 'You know what that guy Daffy did today?' and I'd repeat the line and then she'd look at me. She never got used to this, She'd say, 'Well, you were drawing it you did it.' I'd say 'That's not true! It just developed! That's what he said. It was natural for him to say it.'" Despite this cartoon being Thanksgiving themed, Jerry Beck and Will Friedwald's book, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to Warner Brothers Cartoons, lists the film release date as February 12th, 1944. The story credit for this film goes to "The Staff" and as far as I know this is the only Warner cartoon with that credit. I do not know the reason for this if any of you do please let me know.
Next comes another Thanksgiving cartoon starring Daffy Duck, Holiday For Drumsticks (1949). This movie was directed by Art Davis, who was only a director of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons for a short period of time but whose cartoons have gain a strong following from Looney Tunes fans for their unique and very funny sense of humor and characterizations. The film was written by Lloyd Turner, who wrote most Davis' cartoons for Warners (often he would co-write them with the future voice of Bullwinkle, Bill Scott). Turner would go on to write for many TV sitcoms including Get Smart, All in the Family, The Jeffersons, The Partridge Family and Mork and Mindy.
Next comes one of the greatest Thanksgiving films (short or feature length) of all time, Tex Avery's Jerky Turkey (1945). The design for the pilgrim in this cartoon had been used by Tex earlier in Big Heel-Watha (1945).
Next is an extremely charming Hugh Harman film, Tom Turkey and his Harmonica Humdingers (1940). A review in The Film Daily called this movie, "...a mildly amusing cartoon." A review in Motion Picture Daily stated, "This falls short of the Hugh Harman standard." A review in The Exhibitor stated, " Loaded with laughs and music this jitterbugging affair had a projection room audience eating out of its hands." A review from Boxoffice Magazine calls this movie, "A neat burlesque of a well know harmonica virtuoso, with its chief protagonists country store barnyard clubmen, this item has regulation animation and continuity and should make pleasant diversion." The well know harmonica virtuoso mentioned in that review is Borrah Minevitch and His Harmonica Rascals.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Short Story, 1940
Now for a commercial break.
Thanksgiving is a time when many families get together. So let us see our friend Koko the Clown get together with his family in Reunion (1922).
Next we join our old friend Scrappy for a trip to Holiday Land (1934). This movie marks not only Scrappy's first appearance in color, but is the first color cartoon from the Columbia studio. This is also the first film of Columbia's Color Rhapsody series.
The Film Daily, 1934
Today's cartoon selection ends with the TV Special, Garfield's Thanksgiving (1989).
Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for more animated treasures. Until then may all your tunes be looney and your melodies merry.
Resources Used
Chuck Jones: Conversations Edited by Maureen Furniss
Tex Avery by John Canemaker
Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to Warner Brothers Cartoons by Jerry Beck and Will Friedwald
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