You Ought to Be in Pictures
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| ''You Ought To Be In Pictures'' | |
| Looney Tunes/Daffy Duck and Porky Pig series | |
| Directed by | I. Freleng |
|---|---|
| Story by | Jack Miller |
| Animation by | Herman Cohen |
| Voices by | Mel Blanc |
| Music by | Carl W. Stalling |
| Produced by | Leon Schlesinger |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
| Release date | May 18, 1940 (USA) |
| Format | black and white, 8 min (one reel) |
| Language | English |
| IMDb page | |
You Ought to Be in Pictures is a 1940 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes short film featuring Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. The film combined live-action and animation, and features live-action appearances by Leon Schlesinger, writer Michael Maltese, and other Schlesinger Productions staff members.
[edit] Summary
Daffy wants to be the top star in the studio. To this end, he persuades Porky to resign from the Schlesinger studios to pursue a career in feature films. Porky goes to Leon Schlesinger and asks to have his contract torn up. Schlesinger reluctantly agrees, and wishes Porky the best of luck. "He'll be back!" chuckles Schlesinger after Porky is out of earshot.
The rest of the short involves Porky trying to get into the lots and sets of various un-named studios, all with the same degree of success (none, that is). One scene features Porky dodging his cartooned car in and out of traffic, a schtick anticipating Who Framed Roger Rabbit by five decades. After several failures, he decides to see if Schlesinger will take him back. He returns to Schlesinger's office, only to see Daffy doing a wild audition. He invites Daffy out to have a "talk" with him. After Porky gets his revenge on Daffy, he hurriedly runs into Schlesinger's office to beg for his job back. Schlesinger, laughing heartily and saying "I knew you'd be back!", reveals that he didn't really rip up Porky's contract, and tells him to get back to work. Porky gladly runs back into the animation paper that he was in when the short started. Daffy, still not quite having learned his lesson after being beaten by Porky, again attempts to persuade Porky to resign, only to get splattered with a tomato.
[edit] Trivia
- This was Friz Freleng's first short to be made after coming back to Warner Bros. after a stint as animator at MGM
- As noted, many staff members have cameos in this short:
- Leon Schlesinger--appears as himself
- Chuck Jones--one of the crowd rushing out during the lunch break
- Michael Maltese--the studio security guard (voiced by Mel Blanc)
- Gerry Chiniquy--studio director calling for quiet
- Henry Binder, Paul Marin--stagehands also calling for quiet. Binder is also the stagehand throwing Porky off the set
- Because the animation unit did not have access to location sound recording equipment, all of the footage was shot silently. The voices had to be looped in later (which is why most of them were dubbed by Mel Blanc).
- To keep the short on-budget, relatively few special effects were used to marry the animation and live action. Where possible, the crew simply took still pictures of the office background and had them enlarged and placed directly on the animation stand.
- Because it was made in black-and-white, the short appeared only occasionally on television. In 1995, the film was computer colorized and became a regular part of the Cartoon Network rotation.
[edit] References
- Beck, Jerry and Friedwald, Will (1989): Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Company.
