Wacky Blackout
About Wacky Blackout
Mel Blanc narrates a tour of a farm getting ready for war, told as separate blackout gags. A dog is trained to spit out fires. A cow complains that her milk is taken every day, and a turkey tries to lose weight so it will not be cooked. Turtle eggs hatch and one hatchling claims to be a jeep. Fireflies practice a blackout, a bird imitates a dive bomber, and elderly carrier pigeons sing about sons sent to war. A woodpecker keeps pecking a cat's tail.
Cast & crew
More about Wacky Blackout
Bob Clampett directed the Looney Tunes short for producer Leon Schlesinger. Warren Foster wrote the story. Sid Sutherland animated. Warner Bros. released it on 11 July 1942. The running time of the surviving print is 7 minutes 52 seconds.
Themes
Background
Released in July 1942, the first summer of American fighting in the Second World War, when blackout drills and home-front jokes were already cartoon material.
Making
Schlesinger's unit turned the blackout and scrap-drive jokes of 1942 into a farm full of animals, with Clampett directing and Foster stacking the gags.
Music
Carl W. Stalling scored the short under Mel Blanc's narration.
Preservation
The short survives, including a copy on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Mel Blanc narrates. Sara Berner and Kent Rogers are also credited with voices.
- One gag has a dog come back from a blackout prank with lipstick on him.
- Another has the swallows of Capistrano reported stranded over the ocean instead of home from the war.
- Carl W. Stalling wrote the music.
- It is a wartime spot-gag cartoon, not a Bugs Bunny story.
Scenes
- A dog trained as a fire fighter spits the flames out.
- A newly hatched turtle announces that it is a jeep.
- Fireflies run a blackout drill.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Wacky Blackout 190611 LTGC.webm)
