You Don't Know What You're Doin'!

Last updated
Piggy en You Don't Know What You're Doin Piggy Merrie Melodies.jpg
Piggy en You Don't Know What You're Doin

You Don't Know What You're Doin'!
Directed by Rudolf Ising
Isadore Freleng
Produced by Hugh Harman
Rudolf Ising
Leon Schlesinger
Starring Johnny Murray
Rochelle Hudson (both uncredited)
Music by Frank Marsales
Animation byIsadore Freleng
Norm Blackburn
Uncredited:
Larry Martin
Rollin Hamilton
Robert McKimson
Bob Clampett
Color process Black and white, Color (1987 Korean redrawn colorized version)
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date
  • October 21, 1931 (1931-10-21)
Running time
6 minutes
LanguageEnglish

You Don't Know What You're Doin'! is a 1931 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon short directed by Rudolf Ising. [1] The short was released on October 21, 1931, and stars Piggy, one of the series' early recurring characters. [2] The film is perhaps one of the most amusing and effective of the cartoons from the studio's earliest years.

Contents

Plot

The story involves the character Piggy, who picks up his girlfriend Fluffy and takes her to a theater where a hot jazz orchestra is playing. Piggy mocks the trumpet soloist, then crashes the stage to play a corny chorus of the 1873 hit "Silver Threads Among the Gold" on the saxophone. The audience, led by three shabbily-dressed drunken dogs in the balcony, mock Piggy with the title song "You Don't Know What You're Doin,'" as Piggy defends his self-perceived "talent."

One of the tipplers (a black dog, perhaps a prototype of Goopy Geer) bounces on a drum and joins Piggy onstage. The dog drinks from a bottle of bootleg hootch (the film was made during alcohol Prohibition in the US) and belches in Piggy's face. The fumes on his breath instantly intoxicate Piggy. Piggy snatches the booze and runs out of the theater with the dog chasing him. He pours some of it into the radiator of an automobile, which arches its back like a frightened cat and takes Piggy for a wild ride through the city. Even the streets, lampposts, telephone poles, and background buildings seem to come to life in a loopy, drunken state.

The dog continues to chase after Piggy, but both of them eventually end up in the back of a truck which dumps them into a trash can. Both of them shout out "Whoopee!" as the cartoon comes to an end.

Music

The musical soundtrack was done by the then-nationally famous Abe Lyman Orchestra (though on some prints mis-attributed to the Gus Arnheim band), which adds a happy energy throughout the cartoon. The eccentric virtuoso trombone playing of Orlando "Slim" Martin is prominently featured. Martin played not only music but also some rather bizarre effects on his horn (the techniques he used to produce some of his sounds continue to puzzle other trombonists). His trombone solo representing the drunken automobile is especially memorable. The Schlesinger Studio had their sound effects department construct mechanical devices to roughly reproduce some of Martin's sounds, which became standard cartoon sound effects.

Colorized version

The short was redrawn colorized in 1987. This version suffered from many issues, such as missing frames and animation much inferior to the original.

Home media

You Don't Know What You're Doin'! is available on disc 3 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 6 .

Related Research Articles

<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 is the partner series to Looney Tunes 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.

Spike the Bulldog and Chester the Terrier are animated cartoon characters in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Spike is a burly, gray bulldog wearing a red sweater, a brown bowler hat, and a perpetual scowl. Chester is a Jack Russell terrier who is just the opposite, small and jumpy with yellow fur and brown, perky ears.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goopy Geer</span> Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon character

Goopy Geer is an animated cartoon character created in 1932 for the Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros. He is a singing, dancing, piano-playing dog who is considered to be "the first Merrie Melodies star", although he only starred in three cartoons.

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'!

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

Foxy is an animated cartoon character featured in the first three animated shorts in the Merrie Melodies series, all distributed by Warner Bros. in 1931. He was the creation of animator Rudolf Ising, who had worked for Walt Disney in the 1920s.

Hop, Look and Listen is a 1948 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Robert McKimson. The short was released on April 17, 1948, and stars Sylvester and Hippety Hopper, in the latter's first appearance.

<i>Now Hear This</i> (film) 1963 American film

Now Hear This is a 1963 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble, and written by Jones and John Dunn. The short was released on April 27, 1963. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film the following year.

<i>Hittin the Trail for Hallelujah Land</i> 1931 Merrie Melodies cartoon

Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land is a 1931 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Rudolf Ising. The short was released on November 28, 1931, and stars Piggy.

One More Time is a 1931 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Rudolf Ising. The short was released on October 3, 1931, and stars Foxy as a Prohibition-era cop. This was Foxy's last theatrical appearance.

<i>Farm Frolics</i> 1941 film

Farm Frolics is a 1941 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon supervised by Bob Clampett. It was released on May 10, 1941.

<i>Apes of Wrath</i> 1959 film

Apes of Wrath is a 1959 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on April 18, 1959, and stars Bugs Bunny. This cartoon recycles the plot from the 1948 cartoon Gorilla My Dreams. The title is a parody of John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barnyard Dawg</span> Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon character

Barnyard Dawg is a Looney Tunes character. A feisty anthropomorphic basset hound, he is a friend and the archenemy of Foghorn Leghorn. He was created by Robert McKimson, who also created Foghorn, and was voiced by Mel Blanc. Dawg also feuds with other notable Looney Tunes characters as well, such as Henery Hawk, Daffy Duck and Sylvester. He appeared in 23 Golden Age–era Warner Bros. shorts.

<i>Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!</i> 1931 animated film

Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! is a 1931 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon short directed by Rudolf Ising. The short was released on September 5, 1931, and features Foxy, an early Merrie Melodies star.

The High and the Flighty is a 1956 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Robert McKimson and written by Tedd Pierce. The short was released on February 18, 1956, and stars Daffy Duck, Foghorn Leghorn and the Barnyard Dawg.

Speedy Ghost to Town is a 1967 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Rudy Larriva. The short was released on July 29, 1967, and stars Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales. It is the first cartoon released under the newly reopened animation department of Warner Bros. in 1967, as from 1964 to 1967, all Looney Tunes cartoons were developed at DePatie–Freleng Enterprises and Format Productions instead. It is also the first Warner Bros. cartoon to be directed by Alex Lovy.

Trap Happy Porky is a 1945 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes short directed by Chuck Jones and written by Tedd Pierce. The short was released on February 24, 1945, and features Porky Pig, along with Hubie and Bertie, an early version of Claude Cat and a prototype of Hector the Bulldog.

<i>Aint Nature Grand!</i> 1931 film

Ain't Nature Grand! is a February 1931 Looney Tunes cartoon featuring Bosko. It was directed by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising.

Ups N' Downs is a 1931 Looney Tunes cartoon featuring Bosko. It was released in April 1931 and is directed by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising. The film score was written by Frank Marsales.

<i>Red-Headed Baby</i> 1931 film

Red-Headed Baby is a 1931 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Rudolf Ising. The short was released on December 26, 1931.

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. 6. ISBN   0-8050-0894-2.
  2. ↑ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 118. ISBN   0-8160-3831-7.
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.