The Miller's Daughter (1934 film)

Last updated
The Miller's Daughter
Directed by Friz Freleng
Produced by Leon Schlesinger
Music by Norman Spencer
Animation by Rollin Hamilton
Charles M. Jones
Color process Black and White
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date
  • October 13, 1934 (1934-10-13)
Running time
7 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Miller's Daughter is a 1934 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. [1] The short was released on October 13, 1934. [2]

Contents

Plot

A cat trying to catch a caged bird knocks over a small ceramic figurine of a young country girl, breaking it. A maid gathers the broken pieces and puts them in a bin in the attic. The matching boy figurine, a shepherd, comes to life, and he and his lamb go to the attic to rescue their companion. After the shepherd boy glues the girl back together, they dance to a medley including "The Miller's Daughter" by Lou Handman and Al Bryan, a Cuban instrumental, and the Blue Danube Waltz. The lamb unwisely awakens a lion figurine, who pursues him. As the girl, boy, and lamb escape the attic, the lion dashes himself to pieces against the attic door. The shepherd boy, girl, and lamb escape back downstairs, breaking a table lamp in the process. The maid, believing the cat to have broken the lamp, swats it with a broom and chases it outside.

Production

According to animation historian Michael Barrier, the film is among the first Merrie Melodies short films directed by then-new director Friz Freleng. It was only his 7th film for the series. Freleng became the main director of this series in early 1934. Barrier found that some of the earliest films directed by Freleng came "surprisingly close" to the contemporary Disney animated shorts in both spirit and execution. The Miller's Daughter in particular was "rich in production values". Barrier finds that the "painstaking" drawing of the film, its modeling, and the use of rotoscoping for the movement to attest to the effort devoted to its production. It was an improvement over previous Merrie Melodies films. [3]

The drawing of the film was "Disneyish", but Barrier finds that the subject matter (china figurines coming to life) is reminiscent of an actual Disney short. The film is similar to The China Shop , released by Disney as part of the Silly Symphonies earlier that year. [3] The film was one of the few Freleng-directed films that came close to matching the Silly Symphonies on their own terms. However, competing with Disney turned out to be too difficult and expensive. The production budgets for the animated films of Leon Schlesinger Productions (the company later known as Warner Bros. Cartoons) were lower than their counterparts for Walt Disney Productions. [3] The directors of the Schlesinger studio also completed animated short films at a faster pace than the Disney directors. A new Schlesinger film was ready for release every four or five weeks. Any extra time that Freleng devoted to the production of a single film, would come at the cost of cutting corners in the production of another one. [3]

The Miller's Daughter is a black and white film, one of the last Merrie Melodies released in black and white. In April 1934, the first Merrie Melodies film directed by Freleng was released. It was Beauty and the Beast , a color film using a two-color process. However, the next six films directed by Freleng (including The Miller's Daughter) were all in black and white. [3] A new release season started in November 1934, with the release of Those Beautiful Dames in color. From then on, all Merrie Melodies were color films. Meanwhile, the sibling Looney Tunes series continued to be released in black and white. [3] Barrier notes that the change in color came with an increase in payments made from Warner Bros. to producer Leon Schlesinger. Warner Bros. made a payment of 1,750 dollars for each black-and-white Merrie Melodies film. It made a payment of $9,250 for the color films of the series. [3] Despite an increase in the production budget of the series, the Schlesinger budgets continued to be smaller than the Disney ones. According to Barrier, the switch to color did not translate to "greater refinement" for the Merrie Melodies under the direction of Freleng. [3]

Sources

Related Research Articles

<i>Looney Tunes</i> Warner Bros. animated short film series and media franchise

Looney Tunes is an American animated franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. It began as a series of short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, along with its spin-off series Merrie Melodies, during the golden age of American animation. Following a revival in the late 1970s, new shorts were released as recently as 2014. The two series introduced a large cast of characters, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig. The term Looney Tunes has since been expanded to also refer to the characters themselves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friz Freleng</span> American animator, cartoonist, director, and producer (1905–1995)

Isadore "Friz" Freleng, credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, director, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from the 1930s to the early 1960s. In total he created more than 300 cartoons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Clampett</span> American animator (1913–1984)

Robert Emerson Clampett Sr. was an American animator, director, producer and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes animated series from Warner Bros. as well as the television shows Time for Beany and Beany and Cecil. He was born and raised not far from Hollywood and, early in life, showed an interest in animation and puppetry. After dropping out of high school in 1931, he joined the team at Harman-Ising Productions and began working on the studio's newest short subjects, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert McKimson</span> American animator (1910–77)

Robert Porter McKimson Sr. was an American animator and illustrator, best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros. Cartoons and later DePatie–Freleng Enterprises. He wrote and directed many animated cartoon shorts starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Foghorn Leghorn, Hippety Hopper, Speedy Gonzales, and the Tasmanian Devil, among other characters. He also developed Bugs Bunny's design in the 1943 short Tortoise Wins by a Hare.

<i>Merrie Melodies</i> Cartoon series owned by Warner Bros. (1931–1969 and 1988–1997)

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.

Buddy (<i>Looney Tunes</i>) Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon character

Buddy is an animated cartoon character in the Looney Tunes series by Leon Schlesinger Productions. He was the second star of the series, after Bosko.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rudolf Ising</span> American animator (1903–1992)

Rudolf Carl "Rudy" Ising was an American animator best known for collaborating with Hugh Harman to establish the Warner Bros. and MGM Cartoon studios during the early years of the golden age of American animation. In 1940, Ising produced William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's first cartoon, Puss Gets the Boot, a cartoon featuring characters later known as Tom and Jerry.

Piggy (<i>Merrie Melodies</i>) Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon character

Piggy is the name of two animated cartoon characters in the Merrie Melodies series of films distributed by Warner Bros. The first character was a fat, black pig wearing a pair of shorts with two large buttons in the front, and his first film was You Don't Know What You're Doin'!

Arthur Davis was an American animator and director known for his time at Warner Brothers' Termite Terrace cartoon studio.

Beans (<i>Looney Tunes</i>) Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon character

Beans the Cat is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Cartoons series of cartoons from 1935–1936. Beans was the third Warner Bros cartoon character star after Bosko and Buddy. He was voiced by Billy Bletcher. He was created by director Friz Freleng. The character was featured in nine cartoons made in 1935 and 1936.

<i>Tweetie Pie</i> 1947 short film by Bob Clampett and Friz Freleng

Tweetie Pie is a 1947 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on May 3, 1947, and stars Tweety with Sylvester, who is called "Thomas" in this cartoon.

<i>I Havent Got a Hat</i> 1935 film

I Haven't Got a Hat is a 1935 animated short film, directed by Isadore Freleng for Leon Schlesinger Productions as part of the Merrie Melodies series. Released on March 2, 1935, the short is notable for featuring the first appearance of several Warner Bros. cartoon characters, most notably future cartoon star Porky Pig. Beans the Cat, a minor Looney Tunes star in 1935-1936, also made his first appearance in this cartoon.

Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was an American animation studio, serving as the in-house animation division of Warner Bros. during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, it was primarily responsible for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated short films. The characters featured in these cartoons, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig, are among the most famous and recognizable characters in the world. Many of the creative staff members at the studio, including directors and animators such as Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson, Tex Avery, Robert Clampett, Arthur Davis, and Frank Tashlin, are considered major figures in the art and history of traditional animation.

Tin Pan Alley Cats is a 1943 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies directed by Bob Clampett. A follow-up to Clampett's successful Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs, released earlier in 1943, Tin Pan Alley Cats focuses upon contemporary themes of African-American culture, jazz music, and World War II, and features a caricature of jazz musician Fats Waller as an anthropomorphic cat. The short's centerpiece is a fantasy sequence derived from Clampett's black and white Looney Tunes short Porky in Wackyland (1938).

Cal Dalton was an American animator and director at Warner Bros. Cartoons.

Owen Earl Duvall was an American artist and animator best known for his work on Disney comic strips in the early 1930s and for a handful of animated short films he directed at Warner Bros. Cartoons.

James Patton "Jack" King was an American animator and short film director best known for his work at Walt Disney Productions.

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.

Beauty and the Beast is a 1934 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short film, directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on April 14, 1934.

Robert Herman Givens was an American animator and character designer, responsible for the creation of Bugs Bunny. He was the leading character designer for Leon Schlesinger, creating over 25 successful characters for both Leon Schlesinger Productions and later Warner Bros. Cartoons. He also did the storyboards and layout designs. He worked for numerous animation studios during his career, including Walt Disney Animation Studios, Warner Bros. Cartoons, Hanna-Barbera, and DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, beginning his career during the late 1930s and continuing until the early 2000s. He was a collaborator with the Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes directors at Warner Bros. and Chuck Jones' production company.

References

  1. ↑ Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 29. ISBN   0-8050-0894-2.
  2. ↑ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 104–106. ISBN   0-8160-3831-7 . Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Barrier (2003), Warner Bros., pp. unnumbered pages
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.