Meatless Flyday | |
---|---|
![]() Title card | |
Directed by | Friz Freleng |
Written by | Michael Maltese |
Starring | Mel Blanc, Cy Kendall |
Music by | Carl W. Stalling |
Production company | Leon Schlesinger Studios |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 6 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Meatless Flyday is a 1944 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies directed by Friz Freleng. [1] The short was released on January 29, 1944. [2]
The title is a pun on meatless Friday, a reference to the traditional Roman Catholic practice of abstinence from meat on Fridays.
An overconfident and guffawing spider (voiced by Cy Kendall) spots his intended prey, a mute fly, on the ceiling, and indulges in various cat-and-mouse schemes to try to catch him for food, including painting a load of buckshot with "Kandy Kolor" and luring the fly to eat it and drawing him closer with a magnet, which only succeeds in attracting a set of metal cutlery which the spider has to dodge to save himself. At one point the fly manages to set fire to the spider's feet, and as the spider nose-dives like a plane he exclaims "Look! I'm a Zero, I'm a Zero," referring to the Mitsubishi Zero used by the Japanese during World War Two. He sees the fly on a wedding cake as a bride and dresses as the groom only to be blown up by a dynamite stick.
Eventually, the spider catches his prey, and, when he is about to carve him up while singing the song "Would You Like to Take a Walk?", the fly points to a wall calendar giving the day as "Meatless Tuesday", a reference to food rationing during World War II. The frustrated spider runs to the United States Capitol and rants to Congress "You can't do this to me! You just can't! You can't! You can't! You can't! You can't!"
Charlie Dog is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes series of cartoons. The character was featured in nine cartoons between 1941 and 1958. He is generally characterized as a friendly wise guy.
Merrie Melodies is an American animated comedy short film series distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was part of the Looney Tunes franchise and featured many of the same characters. It originally ran from August 2, 1931, to September 20, 1969, during the golden age of American animation, though it was revived in 1979, with new shorts sporadically released until June 13, 1997. Originally, Merrie Melodies placed emphasis on one-shot color films in comparison to the black-and-white Looney Tunes films. After Bugs Bunny became the breakout character of Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes transitioned to color production in the early 1940s, the two series gradually lost their distinctions and shorts were assigned to each series randomly.
The Censored Eleven is a group of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons originally produced and released by Warner Bros. that have been withheld from syndication in the United States by United Artists (UA) since 1968. UA owned the distribution rights to the Associated Artists Productions library at that time, and decided to pull these 11 cartoons from broadcast because the use of ethnic stereotypes in the cartoons, specifically African and African-American stereotypes, was deemed too offensive for contemporary audiences.
Fresh Hare is a Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, written by Michael Maltese, and produced by Leon Schlesinger. It was released to theatres on August 22, 1942.
Pigs Is Pigs is a 1937 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on January 30, 1937.
Angel Puss is a 1944 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Chuck Jones. The short was released on June 3, 1944.
Birds Anonymous is a 1957 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short, directed by Friz Freleng and written by Warren Foster. The short was released on August 10, 1957, and stars Tweety and Sylvester.
Babbit and Catstello are fictional characters, based on the comedic duo Abbott and Costello, that appeared in Warner Bros. animated cartoons. The characters appeared in four cartoons between 1942 and 1946: once as cats, once as dogs, and twice as mice.
Dough for the Do-Do is a 1949 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on September 2, 1949, and stars Porky Pig. The short is a remake of Bob Clampett's 1938 cartoon Porky in Wackyland, as well as using footage from his 1943 cartoon Tin Pan Alley Cats.
Transylvania 6-5000 (1963) is a Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short directed by Chuck Jones. The short was released on November 30, 1963, and stars Bugs Bunny.
An Itch in Time is a 1943 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon, directed by Bob Clampett. The short was released on December 4, 1943 and features Elmer Fudd, with a dog and cat that look similar to Willoughby and Claude Cat.
Hollywood Steps Out is a 1941 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon short directed by Tex Avery and produced by Leon Schlesinger. The short was released on May 24, 1941.
What's Cookin' Doc? is a 1943-produced, 1944 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Bob Clampett, and stars Bugs Bunny. The short was also written by Michael Sasanoff, and was animated by Robert McKimson, along with uncredited work by Rod Scribner, Phil Monroe and Virgil Ross. The film was released on January 8, 1944.
Hare Ribbin' is a 1944 animated short film in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Robert Clampett and featuring Bugs Bunny. The plot features Bugs' conflict with a red-haired hound dog, whom the rabbit sets out to evade and make a fool of using one-liners, reverse psychology, disguises and other tricks. It was released in theaters by Warner Bros. on June 24, 1944. The title is a pun on "hair ribbon".
This is a listing of all the animated shorts released by Warner Bros. under the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies banners between 1940 and 1949.
Tree Cornered Tweety is a 1956 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on May 19, 1956, and stars Tweety and Sylvester. The title is a play on "three-cornered hat".
Gopher Broke is a 1958 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon short directed by Robert McKimson. The cartoon was released on November 15, 1958, and features the Goofy Gophers and the Barnyard Dawg. The voices are performed by Mel Blanc and Stan Freberg. The title is a pun on the phrase "go for broke".
Birdy and the Beast is a 1944 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies directed by Bob Clampett. The short was released on August 19, 1944, and stars Tweety.
The Hypo-Chondri-Cat is a 1950 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies short directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. The cartoon was released on April 15, 1950 and stars Hubie and Bertie and Claude Cat. The title is a play on "hypochondriac".
The Lyin' Mouse is a 1937 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on October 16, 1937.