Wacky Blackout
Encyclopedia
Wacky Blackout is a 1942
1942 in film
The year 1942 in film involved some significant events, in particular the release of a film consistently rated as one of the greatest of all time, Casablanca.-Events:...

 Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 cartoon in the Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...

 series. It was directed by Bob Clampett
Bob Clampett
Robert Emerson "Bob" Clampett was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes animated series from Warner Bros., and the television shows Time for Beany and Beany and Cecil...

, animated by Syd Sutherland and an uncredited Rod Scribner, and musical direction by Carl Stalling
Carl Stalling
Carl W. Stalling was an American composer and arranger for music in animated films. He is most closely associated with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts produced by Warner Bros., where he averaged one complete score each week, for 22 years.-Biography:Stalling was born to Ernest and...

.

Plot sypnosis

  • The cartoon starts at a farm, and a narrator (done by Mel Blanc
    Mel Blanc
    Melvin 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...

    ) shows people how farmers being prepared for any emergency during the war
    World War II
    World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

    . We see a farmer trying to put out a fire, and the narrator says that the farmer has trained his dog to put out fires. The narrator says that the dog is a "full-blooded spitz", as the dog puts out the fires by spitting.
  • The narrator then says that a cow has increased her production and she has given 5000 quarts of milk a day. The cow (voiced by Sara Berner) then says that they come in and take it from her, and cries. Meanwhile, a baby cow says, "What a performance.".
  • A turkey is eating food, and the narrator says that when the turkey reaches 20 pounds, they put him in the oven. The turkey then hears that, and goes to an exercising machine, reading a book on how to loose weight in 18 days.
  • As turtle eggs get ready to hatch, the narrator says that the turtles are born with a natural bombshell shelter on their backs. Two turtle eggs hatch, and the final one pops out of the shell, zooming around. The turtle stops, and says that he's a jeep, and continues zooming, laughing. The last turtle's beeping is similar to the Road Runner's
    Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner
    Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner are a duo of cartoon characters from a series of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. The characters were created by animation director Chuck Jones in 1948 for Warner Bros., while the template for their adventures was the work of writer Michael Maltese...

     beeping.
  • Back on the farm, a dog tries to ask his lover, Marie-Alana, something. The dog wishes there was a blackout. He sees a lightswitch, and yells "BLACKOUT!". After a short blackout, the dog has lipstick stains on his face, and he turns off the lights again, yelling "BLACKOUT!".
  • Glum caterpillars appear, as the narrator has no idea why they are glum. Just then, a happy caterpillar comes crawling on-screen. The caterpillar says that he's happy because he just got a retread
    Retread
    A retread, or "recap," is a previously worn tire which has gone through a remanufacturing process designed to extend its useful service life.Retreading starts with a safety inspection of the tire. The old tread is then buffed away, and a new rubber tread is applied to the bare "casing" using...

    . He laughs, and rolls off.
  • The narrator says that fireflies are gonna stage a practice blackout. The fireflies then turn off their lights. Meanwhile, the narrator tells a turtle to go into his shell because it's a blackout, but the turtle doesn't want to. The turtle then climbs into his shell, and the narrator asks him why he didn't want to go into his shell. The turtle then says that he's afraid of the dark. The narrator tells the fireflies that the blackout is over, and all the fireflies turn their lights back on... except for one. The firefly notices and asks the others who stole his bulb, and the one behind him gives his bulb back.
  • A mother bird is teaching her son how to fly. After she shows him an example, the bird says that he wants to be a dive bomber
    Dive bomber
    A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target reduces the distance the bomb has to fall, which is the primary factor in determining the accuracy of the drop...

    . The bird flies around, mimicking a plane engine, and the mother bird shrugs to the audience. The mother bird's son would be the appearance of Tweety
    Tweety
    Tweety Bird is a fictional Yellow Canary in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated cartoons. The name "Tweety" is a play on words, as it originally meant "sweetie", along with "tweet" being a typical English onomatopoeia for the sounds of birds...

     in another Clampett cartoon, A Tale of Two Kitties
    A Tale of Two Kitties
    A Tale of Two Kitties is an American cartoon, released in 1942, notable for the first appearance of A yellow canary, who would come to be known as Tweety. It was directed by Bob Clampett, written by Warren Foster, and features music by Carl W. Stalling. It was also the first appearance of Babbit...

    .
  • The narrator says that the only living things to not be affected by the war are the famous swallows of Capistrano
    Capistrano
    - External links :* * * * *...

    . The narrator also says that the birds return to a mission on a certain day each year. He also says that they are just in time for their return. Just then, a delivery person comes and says that there is a telegram for the audience. The message says: "We are out over the ocean. We can't even get close to land. We can't fly to Capistrano, past the Fourth Interceptor Command. Signed, the Swallows".
  • Elderly carrier pigeons are in their home. The narrator says that they give their sons to the service during each war. Pa says, "Well, Ma...", then the two pigeons start singing "We did it before and we can do it again". Then, they watch their sons fly in the sky, heading to war.
  • A running gag in this cartoon is a woodpecker (voiced by Kent Rogers
    Kent Rogers
    Kent Rogers was a Hollywood impressionist who appeared in several live-action shorts and features and a voice actor for Warner Bros..-Career:...

    , doing a Red Skelton
    Red Skelton
    Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing...

     voice) pecking a cat named Old Tom's tail. In gag 5, he says that he pecked the cat's tail again. In the final gag, Old Tom says that he ate the woodpecker, and the woodpecker pecks through his stomach.

Cast

  • Mel Blanc
    Mel Blanc
    Melvin 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...

     as the Narrator, Baby Cow, Turkey, Turtle, Caterpillar, Firefly, Baby Bird, Delivery Person, Pa Pigeon, Old Tom
  • Sara Berner as the Cow, Mother Bird, Ma Pigeon
  • Kent Rogers
    Kent Rogers
    Kent Rogers was a Hollywood impressionist who appeared in several live-action shorts and features and a voice actor for Warner Bros..-Career:...

     as the Dog, the Woodpecker, the Turtle

Crew

  • Director: Robert Clampett
    Bob Clampett
    Robert Emerson "Bob" Clampett was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes animated series from Warner Bros., and the television shows Time for Beany and Beany and Cecil...

  • Producer: Leon Schlesinger
    Leon Schlesinger
    Leon Schlesinger was an American film producer, most noted for founding Leon Schlesinger Productions, which later became the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, during the golden age of Hollywood animation.-Early life and career:...

  • Writer: Warren Foster
    Warren Foster
    Warren Foster , was a writer, cartoonist and composer for the animation division of Warner Brothers and later with Hanna-Barbera....

  • Musical Direction: Carl W. Stalling
    Carl Stalling
    Carl W. Stalling was an American composer and arranger for music in animated films. He is most closely associated with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts produced by Warner Bros., where he averaged one complete score each week, for 22 years.-Biography:Stalling was born to Ernest and...

  • Orchestrator: Milt Franklyn
    Milt Franklyn
    Milton J. Franklyn was a musical composer and arranger who worked on the Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes animated cartoons....

  • Film Editor: Treg Brown
    Treg Brown
    Tregoweth Edmond "Treg" Brown was a motion picture sound editor who was responsible for the sound effects in Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons starting in 1940. He also won the 1965 Academy Award for Sound Effects for his work on the film The Great Race.In the famous Warner...

  • Sound Effects: Treg Brown
  • Animation: Sidney Sutherland and Rod Scribner
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