Looney Tunes

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Current title card from Looney Tunes, often with Bugs Bunny in the middle

Looney Tunes (to be translated into German as "crazy melodies") is a series of animated films by Warner Bros. for which well-known characters such as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck were developed. These figures are now also called Looney Tunes .

Between 1930 and 1969, the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series produced over 1000 cartoons, each around 7 minutes long. The main directors were Tex Avery , Chuck Jones , Bob Clampett , Friz Freleng , Robert McKimson , Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising .

history

Former Looney Tunes title card

Warner started his animated film series Looney Tunes in 1930 , the name of which is based on Disney's Silly Symphonies . The first "star" of the Looney Tunes was Bosko - a monkey-like figure resembling the Mickey Mouse figure of Walt Disney at the time - who had his first appearance in 1930 in the film Sinking In the Bathtub . Between 1933 and 1935, the follow-up character Buddy appeared in 23 cartoons. Buddy was replaced by a character who is still part of the Looney Tunes today: Piggy Dick . He was followed by other figures who became famous: Daffy Duck in 1937 and Bugs Bunny in 1940.

In 1931 the Merrie Melodies followed as the second series . While the Looney Tunes had fixed main characters, the melodies consisted of films with changing characters. In 1934 the Merrie Melodies became colored, while the Looney Tunes remained black and white until 1943 . From this point on, there were no more differences between the two rows, except for the different opening credits, and the characters appeared in both rows. The signature music of the Looney Tunes was "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin, a variation of "Merrily We Roll Along" by Charles Tobias, Murray Mencher and Eddie Cantor featured the Merrie Melodies .

During the early 1930s, Looney Tunes films mostly featured dance and singing performances, although they were not explicitly aimed at children and adolescents. Later the films were more geared towards the adult audience.

In the 1930s and 1940s, eleven Looney Tunes films with stereotypical characters about Germans , Japanese , Africans , Italians , Arabs and Jews were made . These films, now known as Censored 11 , were taken off the market in 1968. The same fate befell Speedy Gonzales in 1999, but these cartoons were re-released in 2002 after protests by Hispanics.

With the advent of television, Looney Tunes , which had been broadcast there since the mid-1950s, grew in popularity . Since the television stations wanted to reach young viewers in particular with the cartoons, the animated films were defused in the course of a debate about child-friendly television in the 1970s - suggestive and violent scenes were removed.

The Looney Tunes were shown in American cinemas until 1969 and then disappeared there - in the truest sense of the word - from the scene. In order to attract new viewers, the cartoons were shown again in theaters from 1987 - usually as opening credits for family films by Warner Bros.

In the films Wrong Game with Roger Rabbit (1988), Space Jam (1996) and Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), the Looney Tunes appeared in movies in which cartoon characters appeared together with real actors. However, the latter film turned out to be a financial flop.

The television series, which usually always combined the same characters, were far more successful. The best-known include Sylvester, Tweety and Granny , Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote or Daffy Duck and Porky Pig. In the 1990s, the offshoot Tiny Toons came out, in which the original Looney Tunes were often represented.

In addition to the Disney characters, the Looney Tunes are the most famous cartoon characters in Western culture.

characters

The most famous characters:

Other figures:

  • 1930s: Beans, Buddy, Cookie, Egghead, Fluffy, Gabby Goat, Goopy Geer, Ham and Ex, Honey, Little Kitty, Oliver Owl, Piggy, Petunia Pig, Roxy, Sniffles, Towser, Wilbur
  • 1940s: Ali Baba, Babbit and Catstello, The Barnyard Dawg, Beaky Buzzard, Bobo the Elephant, Cecil Turtle, Charlie Dog, Claude Cat, Colonel Shuffle, Goofy Gophers, Gossamer, Granny, Gruesome Gorilla, Henery Hawk, Hippety Hopper, Hubie and Bertie, Inki, Mac & Tosh, The Mynah Bird, Penelope Pussycat, Quentin Quail, Rocky and Mugsy, The Three Bears, Wacky Worm, Willoughby the dog
  • 1950s: Clyde Bunny, Crusher, Frisky Puppy, Hector the Bulldog, Honey Bunny, Jose and Manuel, Marc Antony and Pussyfoot, Michigan J. Frog, Miss Prissy, Pete Puma, Ralph Phillips, Sam Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf, Slowpoke Rodriguez , Spike the Bulldog and Chester the Terrier, Sylvester Junior, Witch Hazel
  • 1960s and later: Bunny and Claude, Colonel Rimfire, Cool Cat, Cornbread, Melissa Duck, Merlin the Magic Mouse, Second Banana

synchronization

Here is a list of the speakers for the ZDF synchronization :

role German speakers
Bugs Bunny Gerd Vespermann
Daffy Duck Dieter Kursawe
Wilfried Herbst
Elmer Fudd Kurt Zips
Herbert Weißbach
Yosemite Sam Klaus W. Krause
Walter Reichelt
New Years Eve Toni Herbert
Paul Bürks
Tweety Angelika Pawlowski
Foghorn Leghorn Martin Hirthe
Herbert Weicker
Barnyard Dawg Leon Rainer
Henery Hawk Peter Thom
Wile E. Coyote Fred Maire
Piggy Dick Walter Gross
Wolfgang Spier
Pepé le Pew Paul Lasner
Friedrich Schoenfelder
Speedy Gonzales Joachim Tennstedt
guard dog Michael Rüth
Marvin the Martian Eberhard Storeck
Tasmanian devil Kurt E. Ludwig
Bulldog Edgar Ott

Oscar winner

The following Warner cartoons received the Oscar for best animated short film :

Others

The successful reggaetón producer duo Luny Tunes named themselves after the American comic heroes.

Web links

Wikiquote: Looney Tunes: Back in Action  - Quotes