From A to Z-Z-Z-Z

From A to Z-Z-Z-Z is a 1954 animated cartoon short by Chuck Jones in the Looney Tunes series. It was released by Warner Bros. in 1954.

The short and Edward Selzer were nominated for "Best Short Subject, Cartoons" at the 1954 Academy Awards.

Plot

The cartoon begins with an exterior shot of an elementary school classroom. Through the windows, schoolchildren are visible at their desks. They are learning arithmetic by rote. The main character, Ralph Phillips, is bored with this lesson; on seeing a bird outside, he imagines that he is free to use his arms and legs to propel himself through the air.

Miss Wallace interrupts this daydream and assigns Ralph to add a column of numbers on the blackboard. He is so intimidated that the numbers come to life and laugh at him. He fights back by using letters as weapons.

Miss Wallace brings Ralph back to reality and sends him out to mail a letter. He responds by becoming a Pony Express courier who braves a horde of Indians across his desert journey.

Back in the classroom, he finds the geography lesson tedious until the sight of a fish in an aquarium triggers his next daydream — as a deep-sea diver who kills a shark and rescues an immobilized submarine, before a tentacle from an octopus grabs him away... which turns out to be Miss Wallace dragging Ralph into the corner for not paying attention during class.

This, however, doesn't stop him from turning the classroom into a boxing ring where he knocks out the champ. The scene then segues into the classroom, where the boxing ring bell turns out to be the classroom bell as everyone leaves for the day. On being sent home, Ralph imagines himself as Douglas MacArthur and repeats the general's most famous line: "I shall return."

Edited versions

• On ABC and Cartoon Network (barring its appearance on The Chuck Jones Show), Ralph's daydream as a Pony Express courier was edited to shorten the many times Ralph shoots at the Indians attacking him.

External links

• From A to Z-Z-Z-Z at the Internet Movie Database