A Day at the Zoo
Encyclopedia
A Day at the Zoo is a 1939 Warner Bros.
animated cartoon
in the Merrie Melodies
series. It was directed by Tex Avery
, with musical direction by Carl Stalling
. It was written by Melvin Millar. No voice credits are given. Mel Blanc
provides most of the incidental voices. The narrator is Robert C. Bruce
.
, and topical references, as a narrator (Robert C. Bruce) describes the action. This one is about a "tour
" of a zoo
(the "Kalama Zoo") where the animals have nonsensical names, display anthropomorphic
behavior, illustrate pun
nish gags, or any combination thereof:
This final scene would be alluded to a decade later in Hare Do
, in which Elmer Fudd (which evolved from Egghead) is swallowed up by a lion as part of the closing gag. This cartoon was one of Egghead's final appearances, along with 1939's Believe It or Else, a parody of Ripley's Believe It or Not!
.
The cartoon is available on Cartoon Craze Volume 14 from Digiview Entertainment.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
animated cartoon
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
in the Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...
series. It was directed by Tex Avery
Tex Avery
Frederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery was an American animator, cartoonist, voice actor and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros...
, with musical direction by Carl Stalling
Carl Stalling
Carl W. Stalling was an American composer and arranger for music in animated films. He is most closely associated with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts produced by Warner Bros., where he averaged one complete score each week, for 22 years.-Biography:Stalling was born to Ernest and...
. It was written by Melvin Millar. No voice credits are given. Mel Blanc
Mel Blanc
Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros...
provides most of the incidental voices. The narrator is Robert C. Bruce
Robert C. Bruce
Robert C. Bruce, Jr. was a voice actor, and the son of Robert C. Bruce who was also an actor. He was the narrator for a number of Warner Bros. cartoons in the 1930s and 1940s...
.
Plot summary
This is one of the cartoons that Warner would occasionally produce featuring few or none of its stable of characters. It contains a series of gags, usually based on outrageous stereotypes and plays on wordsWord play
Word play or wordplay is a literary technique in which the words that are used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement...
, and topical references, as a narrator (Robert C. Bruce) describes the action. This one is about a "tour
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
" of a zoo
Zoo
A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....
(the "Kalama Zoo") where the animals have nonsensical names, display anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...
behavior, illustrate pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
nish gags, or any combination thereof:
- Some animals are seen in their "natural settings": a wolf at someone's door; "a pack of camelCamelA camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...
s" smoking cigarettes (underscored by "The Campbells Are Coming"; a North American GreyhoundGreyhound LinesGreyhound Lines, Inc., based in Dallas, Texas, is an intercity common carrier of passengers by bus serving over 3,700 destinations in the United States, Canada and Mexico, operating under the well-known logo of a leaping greyhound. It was founded in Hibbing, Minnesota, USA, in 1914 and...
; "two bucks and five scents" (two deerDeerDeer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
and five skunkSkunkSkunks are mammals best known for their ability to secrete a liquid with a strong, foul odor. General appearance varies from species to species, from black-and-white to brown or cream colored. Skunks belong to the family Mephitidae and to the order Carnivora...
s); and "two friendly ElksBenevolent and Protective Order of ElksThe Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is an American fraternal order and social club founded in 1868...
" (conventioneers named "Bill" greeting each other). - The monkey house includes monkeyMonkeyA monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...
s tossing peanuts to zoo patrons; a baboonBaboonBaboons are African and Arabian Old World monkeys belonging to the genus Papio, part of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. There are five species, which are some of the largest non-hominoid members of the primate order; only the mandrill and the drill are larger...
and a man who look alike and who end up trading places; and a CapuchinCapuchin monkeyThe capuchins are New World monkeys of the genus Cebus. The range of capuchin monkeys includes Central America and South America as far south as northern Argentina...
yelling at the top of its lungs, to a lady who tries to feed him some peanuts in defiance of the "Do Not Feed the Animals" sign: "Hey, sister, can'cha read?" - A ground-hogGroundhogThe groundhog , also known as a woodchuck, whistle-pig, or in some areas as a land-beaver, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. Other marmots, such as the yellow-bellied and hoary marmots, live in rocky and mountainous areas, but...
[sic], along with its shadowGroundhog DayGroundhog Day is a holiday celebrated on February 2 in the United States and Canada. According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter-like weather will soon end...
in a separate cage, both pacing in sync. - A skunk cage is a "scenter of interest" (second time for that joke) with the observers keeping a safe distance; the skunk is seen reading How to Win Friends and Influence PeopleHow to Win Friends and Influence PeopleHow to Win Friends and Influence People is one of the first bestselling self-help books ever published. Written by Dale Carnegie and first published in 1936, it has sold 15 million copies world-wide....
. - A giraffe is being fed to the tune of the bugle "Mess CallMess CallMess Call is a bugle call which signals mealtime.Mess call is associated with the following lyrics:Mess Call is a bugle call which signals mealtime.:Mess call is associated with the following lyrics:...
"; the food chunks roll down its throat and into its stomach with the sound effects of junk crashing loudly. - White rabbitRabbitRabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
s are seen "multiplying" - operating adding machineAdding machineAn adding machine was a class of mechanical calculator, usually specialized for bookkeeping calculations.In the United States, the earliest adding machines were usually built to read in dollars and cents. Adding machines were ubiquitous office equipment until they were phased out in favor of...
s (a stock joke for the Warner cartoons) - The bird house includes a "wise old owlOwlOwls are a group of birds that belong to the order Strigiformes, constituting 200 bird of prey species. Most are solitary and nocturnal, with some exceptions . Owls hunt mostly small mammals, insects, and other birds, although a few species specialize in hunting fish...
", who seems reluctant to accept the label; a parrotParrotParrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three families: the Psittacidae , the Cacatuidae and the Strigopidae...
who talks like a street tough and wants a beer instead of a cracker; and an "Alcatraz jail-bird", with a voice like Edward G. RobinsonEdward G. RobinsonEdward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...
claims innocence, "I didn't do it, I tell ya!" In the cage next door, the "stool pigeon", in a somewhat effeminate voice, retorts, "Oh, he did so do it; I saw him with my very own eyes; so there!' - A mother ostrichOstrichThe Ostrich is one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member of the genus Struthio. Some analyses indicate that the Somali Ostrich may be better considered a full species apart from the Common Ostrich, but most taxonomists consider it to be a...
on her nest, clucking like a chicken, stumbles and breaks her large egg, which contains a dozen chicken eggs, and the narrator comments, "Well! A jackpot!" - A newly arrived elephant is missing its proboscis, and after calling the express office on the phone, he tells the audience: "Ya know, those guys have had my twunk fow a week!"
- Some winged pink elephantsSeeing pink elephants"Seeing pink elephants" is a euphemism for drunken hallucination, caused by alcoholic hallucinosis or delirium tremens. The first recorded use of the term is by Jack London in 1913, who describes one kind of alcoholic, in the autobiographical John Barleycorn, as "the man whom we all know, stupid,...
are seen "left over from that last New Year's Eve party!" - A pair of pantherPantheraPanthera is a genus of the family Felidae , which contains four well-known living species: the tiger, the lion, the jaguar, and the leopard. The genus comprises about half of the Pantherinae subfamily, the big cats...
s are pacing in their cage, saying, "bread and butter", every time they pass a post. - A retired lion tamerLion tamingLion taming is the practice of taming lions, either for protection, whereby the practice was probably created, or, more commonly, entertainment, particularly in the circus. The term is also often used for the taming and display of other big cats such as tigers, leopards, jaguars, cheetahs, and pumas...
, who used to put his head in a lion's mouth as part of his act, puts down the paper he's reading and is seen to be headless. - A Rocky Mountain wildcatWildcatWildcat is a small felid native to Europe, the western part of Asia, and Africa.-Animals:Wildcat may also refer to members of the genus Lynx:...
is seen jumping around and acting crazy. The narrator asks, "What made you wild?", and in a very topical joke, the cat responds, "They called my name out at Bank NightBank NightBank Night was a popular fad lottery game franchise in America during the Great Depression. It was invented and marketed by Charles U. Yaeger, a former booking agent for 20th Century Fox....
and I wasn't there!", and resumes his crazy antics. - A running gagRunning gagA running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling....
features Egghead teasing a ferocious lion, with the narrator repeatedly warning him to stop. Egghead slinks away, invoking Lou CostelloLou CostelloLouis Francis "Lou" Costello was an American actor and comedian best known as half of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Bud Abbott...
's catch phraseCatch phraseA catchphrase is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through a variety of mass media , as well as word of mouth...
, "I'm a baaad boy!", but keeps returning. Finally, the lion is seen alone, and the narrator comments that Egghead has learned his lesson. The lion slowly shakes his head, smiles and opens his mouth. The eyes of Egghead appear from within the lion's stomach, and Egghead's voice echoes forth, "I'm a baaad boy!" Iris-out.
This final scene would be alluded to a decade later in Hare Do
Hare Do
Hare Do is a 1948 Merrie Melodies Cartoon starring Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd which was released in 1949. It is one of the few Bugs Bunny/ Elmer Fudd pairings directed by Friz Freleng that was released after Hare Trigger, the debut of Yosemite Sam...
, in which Elmer Fudd (which evolved from Egghead) is swallowed up by a lion as part of the closing gag. This cartoon was one of Egghead's final appearances, along with 1939's Believe It or Else, a parody of Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Ripley's Believe It or Not! is a franchise, founded by Robert Ripley, which deals in bizarre events and items so strange and unusual that readers might question the claims...
.
The cartoon is available on Cartoon Craze Volume 14 from Digiview Entertainment.
Cast
- Tex AveryTex AveryFrederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery was an American animator, cartoonist, voice actor and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros...
as Other Elk named Bill (voice) (uncredited) - Mel BlancMel BlancMelvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros...
as Egghead / Elk named Bill / Monkey / Parrot / Stool Pigeon / Mother Ostrich / Joe *Jumbo / Wildcat (voice) (uncredited) - Robert C. BruceRobert C. BruceRobert C. Bruce, Jr. was a voice actor, and the son of Robert C. Bruce who was also an actor. He was the narrator for a number of Warner Bros. cartoons in the 1930s and 1940s...
as the Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Censorship
- When this cartoon aired on Cartoon Network, the brief shot of camels smoking cigarettes was cut.
See also
- Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1929–1939)
- List of films in the public domain