Little Orphan Airedale
| Little Orphan Airedale | |
|---|---|
| Looney Tunes (Reissued as Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies) series | |
 Blue Ribbon title card | |
| Directed by | Charles M. Jones |
| Produced by | Edward Selzer (uncredited) |
| Story by |
Michael Maltese Tedd Pierce |
| Voices by | Mel Blanc |
| Music by | Carl Stalling |
| Animation by |
Lloyd Vaughan Ben Washam Ken Harris Phil Monroe |
| Studio | Warner Bros. Cartoons |
| Distributed by |
Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
| Release date(s) | October 4, 1947 |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 7 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Porky's Pooch |
| Followed by | Awful Orphan |
Little Orphan Airedale is a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Charles M. Jones and released on October 4, 1947. It was later reissued as a Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies short. Its major significance is its status as the debut of Jones's character Charlie Dog. The title is a play on Little Orphan Annie.
Plot
The cartoon's story (which is essentially a re-working of Bob Clampett's 1941 short Porky's Pooch) is about a dog named Rags McMutt, who has just escaped from the dog pound and accidentally meets Charlie, an old friend of his in a car he used as a hiding place. Charlie tells Rags about the troubles he has had finding a new master (Porky Pig), and keeping him after that. In the end of the film, Porky throws both dogs out of his car and tells them he doesn't want a dog. When Rags sees how Charlie begs Porky to keep him as a pet, he decides to go back to the pound (even though he has a hard time getting back in).
Home video release
This is one of the 300+ Warner Bros. cartoons that were sold to Associated Artists Productions (a.a.p.) in 1956, later to be owned by United Artists and MGM. These cartoons were bought by Turner Entertainment in 1986, and licensed video distribution to MGM. This particular cartoon was released on video in the "Cartoon Moviestars" series (on a video collection called "PORKY!") in the late 1980s. In 1996, Time Warner bought Turner, allowing WB to regain ownership of the a.a.p. cartoon package (technically held by Turner and WB's TV division), and then acquired video rights in 1999.