Book Revue (later re-issued as
Book Review) is a 1945
Looney TunesLooney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theaters from 1930 to 1969. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and is Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. The regular Warner Bros...
cartoon short featuring
Daffy DuckDaffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Daffy was the first of the new breed of "screwball" characters that emerged in the late 1930s to supplant traditional everyman characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Popeye, who...
, released in 1946, with a plotline essentially similar to 's
Have You Got Any Castles?Have You Got Any Castles? is a seven minute animated short film that premiered in theaters in June 1938. It was a part of the Merrie Melodies series produced by Leon Schlesinger, and distributed by Vitaphone.- Background :...
. It is directed by
Bob ClampettRobert Emerson "Bob" Clampett was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes series of cartoons from Warner Bros. and the television shows Time for Beany, and Beany and Cecil.-Early career:Clampett showed an interest in animation and...
(in his final credited role at the studio), written by
Warren FosterWarren Foster , was a writer, cartoonist and composer for the animation division of Warner Brothers and later with Hanna-Barbera....
and scored by
Carl StallingCarl W. Stalling was a noted American composer and arranger of music for animated cartoons. He is most closely associated with the Looney Tunes shorts produced by Warner Bros., where he worked, averaging one complete score each week, for twenty-two years.-Biography:Stalling was born and grew up in...
. An uncredited
Mel BlancMelvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros...
and
Sara BernerSara Berner was an American Jewish actress in films, animation and radio. Her supporting roles included two for Alfred Hitchcock...
provided the voices. As originally released, the title is a pun, as a
RevueA revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th-century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from ca. 1916-32...
is a variety show, while a
ReviewA review is an evaluation of a publication, such as a movie, video game, musical composition, book, or a piece of hardware like a car, home appliance, or computer. In addition to a critical statement, the review's author may assign the work a rating to indicate its relative merit...
is an evaluation of an artwork.
The plot is a send-up of Warner Brothers' own "books come to life" cartoons of the type that frequently appeared under the
Merrie MelodiesMerrie Melodies was the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in...
banner (such as 1938's
Have You Got Any CastlesHave You Got Any Castles? is a seven minute animated short film that premiered in theaters in June 1938. It was a part of the Merrie Melodies series produced by Leon Schlesinger, and distributed by Vitaphone.- Background :...
).
Book Revue (later re-issued as
Book Review) is a 1945
Looney TunesLooney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theaters from 1930 to 1969. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and is Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. The regular Warner Bros...
cartoon short featuring
Daffy DuckDaffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Daffy was the first of the new breed of "screwball" characters that emerged in the late 1930s to supplant traditional everyman characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Popeye, who...
, released in 1946, with a plotline essentially similar to 's
Have You Got Any Castles?Have You Got Any Castles? is a seven minute animated short film that premiered in theaters in June 1938. It was a part of the Merrie Melodies series produced by Leon Schlesinger, and distributed by Vitaphone.- Background :...
. It is directed by
Bob ClampettRobert Emerson "Bob" Clampett was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes series of cartoons from Warner Bros. and the television shows Time for Beany, and Beany and Cecil.-Early career:Clampett showed an interest in animation and...
(in his final credited role at the studio), written by
Warren FosterWarren Foster , was a writer, cartoonist and composer for the animation division of Warner Brothers and later with Hanna-Barbera....
and scored by
Carl StallingCarl W. Stalling was a noted American composer and arranger of music for animated cartoons. He is most closely associated with the Looney Tunes shorts produced by Warner Bros., where he worked, averaging one complete score each week, for twenty-two years.-Biography:Stalling was born and grew up in...
. An uncredited
Mel BlancMelvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros...
and
Sara BernerSara Berner was an American Jewish actress in films, animation and radio. Her supporting roles included two for Alfred Hitchcock...
provided the voices. As originally released, the title is a pun, as a
RevueA revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th-century American popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from ca. 1916-32...
is a variety show, while a
ReviewA review is an evaluation of a publication, such as a movie, video game, musical composition, book, or a piece of hardware like a car, home appliance, or computer. In addition to a critical statement, the review's author may assign the work a rating to indicate its relative merit...
is an evaluation of an artwork.
Plot
The plot is a send-up of Warner Brothers' own "books come to life" cartoons of the type that frequently appeared under the
Merrie MelodiesMerrie Melodies was the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in...
banner (such as 1938's
Have You Got Any CastlesHave You Got Any Castles? is a seven minute animated short film that premiered in theaters in June 1938. It was a part of the Merrie Melodies series produced by Leon Schlesinger, and distributed by Vitaphone.- Background :...
). The cartoon is loaded with puns and pop culture references, even by Warner standards. After this lampoon, Warner never issued another of that genre.
The cartoon starts out in the same, pastoral "after midnight at a closed bookstore" fashion of previous versions, to the strains of
Moonlight SonataThe Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia", Op. 27, No. 2, by Ludwig van Beethoven, is popularly known as the "Moonlight" Sonata . The work was completed in 1801 and rumored to be dedicated to his pupil, 17-year-old Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, with whom Beethoven was, or had...
. The storefront is realistic, suggesting it was
rotoscopeRotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films. Originally, pre-recorded live-action film images were projected onto a frosted glass panel and re-drawn by an animator...
d. Initially the cartoon has a serious feel to it. Then, an inebriated "cuckoo bird" pops out of a
cuckoo clockA cuckoo clock is a clock, typically pendulum-driven, that strikes the hours using small bellows and pipes that imitate the call of the Common Cuckoo in addition to striking a wire gong...
to announce the arrival of midnight (and signaling the "cuckoo" activities to follow), the cartoon's first lampoon and pun appears, a book cover called
"COMPLETE WORKS of Shakespeare". Shakespeare is shown in silhouette while his literally-rendered "works" are clockwork mechanisms, along with old-fashioned "stop" and "go" traffic signals, set to the "ninety years without slumbering, tick-tock, tick-tock" portion of "
My Grandfather's Clock"My Grandfather's Clock" is a song written in 1876 by Henry Clay Work, the author of "Marching Through Georgia". It is a standard of British brass bands and colliery bands, and is also popular in bluegrass music....
".
Cut to a book titled
Young Man with a Horn; a caricature of
Harry JamesHarry Haag James was an American musician and bandleader. James was an instrumentalist of the swing era, employing a bravura playing style that made his trumpet work identifiable...
breaks loose with a jazz trumpet
obbligato similar to James' "You Made Me Love You", instead resolving into the standard, "
It Had to Be You"It Had to Be You" is a popular song written by Isham Jones with lyrics by Gus Kahn, and was first published in 1924.The song was performed by Priscilla Lane in the 1939 film The Roaring Twenties and by Danny Thomas in the 1951 film I'll See You in My Dreams. The latter film was based loosely upon...
". A striptease is about to begin on the cover of
Cherokee Strip. Book covers for
The Whistler and
The Sea Wolf show their characters shouting and whistling at the off-screen action. (The Sea Wolf's howl segués into a sentence, sometimes rendered as "Howwwww old is she?" but that phrasing is unclear, perhaps purposely.) The now-panting Shakespeare silhouette's inner workings explode in a shower of gears and clocksprings.
The catcalls continue with
Henry VIIIHenry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was also Lord of Ireland and claimant to the Kingdom of France. Henry was the second monarch of the House of Tudor, succeeding his father, Henry VII.Henry VIII was a significant figure in the history of the English monarchy...
also howling like a wolf and then barking like a seal. Referencing a catchphrase of the popular radio program,
The Aldrich FamilyThe Aldrich Family, a popular radio teenage situation comedy , was also presented in films, television and comic books.It is remembered for its unforgettable introduction: awkward teen Henry's mother calling, "Hen-reeeeeeeeeeeee! Hen-ree Al-drich!" The creation of playwright Clifford Goldsmith,...
, the king's "mother" calls out, "Hen-REEEE! Henry the Eighth!" "Coming, mother!" is the king's cracking-voice reply, and he runs to the book cover where Mother waits. As she begins to spank her "naughty boy", a new singing voice and caricature appear, namely that of
Frank SinatraFrancis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became a successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, being the idol of the "bobby soxers." His professional career had stalled by the...
. The gray, blanketed, emaciated character, overemphasizing Sinatra's real-life physique, enters the cartoon on the cover of
The Voice in the Wilderness. A large, male orderly pushes the Sinatra character across the screen in a wheelchair. Sinatra begins to croon the lyrics of "It Had to be You" into a ribbon microphone.
Now the women take their turn at hysteria. Henry's mother, bobby-soxed versions of
Little WomenLittle Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott . Written and set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts, it was published in two parts in 1868 and 1869...
,
Whistler's MotherArrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist's Mother, famous under its colloquial name Whistler's Mother, is an 1871 oil-on-canvas painting by American-born painter James McNeill Whistler. The painting is , displayed in a frame of Whistler's own design, and is now owned by the Musée d'Orsay in Paris....
and
Mother GooseMother Goose is a well-known figure in the literature of fairy tales and nursery rhymes. She is often prominent in Mother Goose stories, also more commonly known as "nursery rhymes"...
(and her hatchling) begin to whistle and catcall (just as the men did for
Cherokee Strip), and swoon and faint at the sound of Sinatra's voice, each of them uttering the catchphrase "Fraaankie!" before passing out.
A full-blown jam session begins, with a lively swing version of "It Had To Be You". Joining Harry James are the Indian on the cover of
Drums Along the Mohawk, who morphs into a realistic-looking
Gene KrupaGene Krupa was an influential American jazz and big band drummer and composer, known for his highly energetic and flamboyant style.-Biography:...
(his drumset is labeled "GK");
Benny GoodmanBenjamin David Goodman was an American jazz musician, clarinetist and bandleader, known as "King of Swing", "Patriarch of the Clarinet", "The Professor", and "Swing's Senior Statesman"....
(as
The Pie-Eyed Piper; some mice cheer, "Yeah, Benny!"); and
Tommy DorseyThomas Francis Dorsey was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing".. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey.". His lyrical trombone style became one of the signature sounds of his band...
.
Annoyed by the revelry,
Daffy DuckDaffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Daffy was the first of the new breed of "screwball" characters that emerged in the late 1930s to supplant traditional everyman characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Popeye, who...
steps out of the cover of a
Looney TunesLooney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theaters from 1930 to 1969. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and is Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. The regular Warner Bros...
comic book (in the background is a book by "Ann Anonymous" titled
The Invisible Man: A Biography of Robert Clampett), dons a
zoot suitA zoot suit is a suit with high-waisted, wide-legged, tight-cuffed, pegged trousers, and a long coat with wide lapels and wide padded shoulders...
and a curly, blond wig, shouts for the celebration to "STOP!" and the jam session screeches to a halt. Daffy stands in front of the cover of "Danny Boy", and effects
Danny KayeDanny Kaye was an American award-winning actor, singer and comedian.-Early years:Born David Daniel Kaminsky to Jewish Ukrainian immigrants in Brooklyn, Kaye became one of the world's best-known comedians...
's Russian-accented characterization heard in Kaye's debut 78 album. Daffy says "POOEY!" to swing music and jazz, and reminisces about his "native willage" and "the happy peoples sitting on their
balalaikaThe balalaika is a stringed instrument of Russian origin, with a characteristic triangular body and 3 strings ....
s, playing their
samovarA samovar is a heated metal container traditionally used to heat and boil water in and around Russia, as well as in other Central, South-Eastern, Eastern European countries, and in the Middle-East...
s" (misusing both Russian terms).
Daffy starts talking about a girl named "Cucaracha", parodying
Lucky StrikeLucky Strike is a famous brand of American cigarettes, often referred to as "Luckies".- History :The brand was first introduced by R.A. Patterson of Richmond, Virginia, in 1871 as cut-plug chewing tobacco and later a cigarette. In 1905, the company was acquired by the American Tobacco Company , and...
cigarette ads: "so round, so firm, so fully packed, so easy on the draw!" Daffy does a wild, short version of "
La Cucaracha"La Cucaracha" is a traditional Spanish folk corrido, that became popular in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. It has additionally become a verse played on car horns.-Origins:...
" in his normal character mode, including his "hoo-hoo" bit. This short segment has a plain background, suggesting it was cartooned separately and inserted tentatively, to be dropped seamlessly in case the censors objected to the somewhat suggestive comments about "Cucaracha".
The previous background returns, along with Daffy's fake Russian accent, as he sings,
Carolina In The Morning"Carolina in the Morning" is a popular song with words by Gus Kahn and music by Walter Donaldson, first published in 1922 by Jerome H. Remick & Co....
("nothing could be feener than to be in Caroleena...") inadvertently teasing the
Big Bad WolfThe Big Bad Wolf is a term used to describe a fictional wolf who appears in several precautionary folkloric stories, including some of Aesop's Fables and Grimm's Fairy Tales.-Interpretations:...
, who at this point is still in the window of "Gran'Ma's House"; Daffy beats a hasty retreat to stage left. Meanwhile,
Little Red Riding HoodLittle Red Riding Hood is a famous fairy tale about a young girl's encounter with a wolf. The story has been changed considerably in its history and subject to numerous modern adaptations and readings....
, based on
Margaret O'BrienMargaret O'Brien is an Academy Award-winning American film actress, and although her career was brief, was one of the most highly regarded child actors in cinema history....
, skips past Daffy and toward Gran'Ma's House.
Noticing Red, Daffy zooms back and stations himself between her and the house, launching into a wild
scatIn vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with random vocables and syllables or without words at all. Scat singing gives singers the ability to sing improvised melodies and rhythms, to create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using their voice....
- again a reference to the same Danny Kaye debut album - to warn her of the wolf, complete with mock chewing on her leg for emphasis. The wolf appears, and Red screams and runs away. The wolf begins to sprinkle salt and pepper on
Daffy's leg. Daffy halfway notices, turns back to "bite" the now-gone Red, then turns toward the wolf with a startled and outrageous double-take, turning into a giant eyeball for a couple of seconds.
The wolf chases Daffy through
Uncle Tom's CabinUncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans and slavery in the United States, so much in the latter case that the novel intensified the...
and other classics, and is stymied trying to cut down Daffy who is hiding in the
Petrified Forest. Meanwhile, the police have been alerted ("Calling all cars!") and the wolf is apprehended by
The Long Arm of the Law.
The Judge sentences the wolf to
Life, as the wolf sings part of the sextette from
DonizettiDomenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. Donizetti's most famous work is Lucia di Lammermoor , and arguably his most immediately recognizable piece of music is the aria "Una furtiva lagrima" from L'elisir d'amore...
's
Lucia di LammermoorLucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
- "You can't do dis to me / I'm a citizen, see!" The wolf is suddenly bonked over the head with a nightstick, and then makes his
Escape and runs through the volumes.
Jimmy DuranteJames Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer and movie icon, pianist, comedian and actor, whose distinctive gravel delivery, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose – his frequent jokes about it included a frequent self-reference that became his nickname:...
, incongruously illustrating the cover of
So Big, turns toward the wolf, and his huge nose trips the wolf, who goes sliding down
Skid RowA skid row or skid road is a run-down or dilapidated urban area with a large, impoverished population. The term originally referred literally to a path along which workingmen skidded logs. Its current sense appears to have originated in the Pacific Northwest...
, nearly falling into
Dante's InfernoInferno is the first part of Dante's Divine Comedy. The poem was written in the early 14th century. It is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through what is largely the medieval concept of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine Circles of suffering...
. The wolf scrambles to the top, but the Sinatra caricature reappears, held in the orderly's hands as if he were a doll. The Wolf, being in the grandma archetype, swoons at the sound of "Frankie!", just as the female characters did, and skids head first into the inferno.
The other book cover characters loudly cheer and dance to a jazz/swing version of "Carolina In The Morning", the Wolf makes one final appearance to shout, "Stop that dancing up there! ... ya sillies!" This last bit is the actual title of a 1944 song by
Harry "The Hipster" GibsonHarry "The Hipster" Gibson was a jazz pianist, singer, proto-rapper and songwriter.Gibson played New York style Stride piano and boogie woogie while singing in an unrestrained, wild style. His music career began in the late 1920s, when he played stride piano in Dixieland jazz bands in Harlem...
, along with a lisping delivery of "sillies" caricaturing
Joe BesserJoe Besser was an American comedian, known for his impish humor, and is now best remembered for his brief stint as a member of the Three Stooges in movie short subjects of 1956-57...
. Clampett's famous "bee-woop!" vocalization ends the cartoon on a sort of "shaggy dog" note.
Influence
- Later releases of the short had the title card replaced with Warner Brothers' "Blue Ribbon" title card on which the title was misspelled (see above). The original title card has since been located and the fully restored short can be seen on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Vol. 2
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2 is a DVD box set that was released by Warner Home Video on November 2, 2004. It contains 60 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons and numerous supplements.- Related releases :...
four-DVD box set and the Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Vol 2 two-DVD set.
- In 1994 it was voted #45 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.
- In one episode of Animaniacs
Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, usually referred to as Animaniacs, is an American animated series, distributed by Warner Bros. and produced by Amblin Entertainment. The cartoon was the second animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven Spielberg and Warner Bros. Animation during...
, Yakko Wakko and Dot held a Video Review after being released in a videostore. Just like the books, they run in and out of films and mingled with movie characters.
- In one segment of the Tiny Toon Adventures
Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures, usually referred to as Tiny Toon Adventures, is an American animated television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. It began production as a result of Warner Bros. reinstating its animation...
episode "Inside Plucky DuckPlucky Allen Duck is a cartoon character from the Warner Bros. animated television series Tiny Toon Adventures. He is also the titular character in Gary A. Lewis's Plucky Duck in the Summer Job. He is arguably the third main character on the show after Buster and Babs. Plucky is voiced by Joe...
", Plucky performs Daffy's giant eye double-take (dubbed "a Clampett Corneal Catastrophe"), only to be stuck in eye form, unable to "de-take" until the segment's end.
- Most of the ostensible "book" titles in this cartoon are actually the titles of contemporary magazines or movies while some of the more surreal backgrounds, particularly those in the scat-singing scene, apparently used actual newsprint. Even Dante's Inferno
Inferno is the first part of Dante's Divine Comedy. The poem was written in the early 14th century. It is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through what is largely the medieval concept of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine Circles of suffering...
was the title of a film released a few years earlier by 20th Century-Fox.
- One of the magazines featured, Life, would eventually be co-owned with Warner Bros. under the Time Warner
Time Warner Inc. is the world's largest entertainment conglomerate , as well as the world's fourth largest media conglomerate, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City...
umbrella.
Censorship
- On Cartoon Network, the part where Daffy is being chased by the Wolf through "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is cut (except for "The Bob Clampett Show
The Bob Clampett Show was an animation anthology television program which ran from 2000 to 2001. Produced by the Cartoon Network, it featured animated theatrical shorts from the Warner Bros. library that were animated or directed by Bob Clampett, as well as a selection of shorts from the Beany and...
" which aired cartoons uncut) due to Daffy leaving the cabin dressed as a black "mammy archetypeThe Mammy archetype is the portrayal within a narrative framework or other imagery of a domestic servant of African descent, generally good-natured, often overweight, and loud....
" holding her "pickaninnyPickaninny is an offensive derogatory term in English that refers to black children or a racist caricature thereof...
" infant. http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/ltcuts/ltcutsb.html Like in other such cases, it is aired uncut on Cartoon Network outside the United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
- When aired on The WB, Daffy's line about La Cucharacha, "So round, so firm, so fully packed, so easy on the draw" was cut (possibly because of its sexual innuendo, though this line is actually one of the taglines for Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike is a famous brand of American cigarettes, often referred to as "Luckies".- History :The brand was first introduced by R.A. Patterson of Richmond, Virginia, in 1871 as cut-plug chewing tobacco and later a cigarette. In 1905, the company was acquired by the American Tobacco Company , and...
cigarettes). http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/ltcuts/ltcutsb.html
External links