Rocky and Mugsy
Encyclopedia
Rocky and Mugsy are animated
cartoon characters in the Warner Bros.
Looney Tunes
and Merrie Melodies
series of cartoons. They were created by Friz Freleng
.
, Friz Freleng enjoyed creating new adversaries for Warners' star Bugs Bunny
, since he felt that Bugs' other nemeses, such as Beaky Buzzard and Elmer Fudd
(who actually appeared in many more Freleng shorts than is commonly realized), were too stupid to give the rabbit
any real challenge. Considered revolutionary for almost all of the late 1940s though he might have been, Freleng's own Yosemite Sam
had not yet been proven capable of fully fulfilling his creator's intentions. Freleng introduced two of these more formidable opponents as a pair of gangster
s in the 1946 film Racketeer Rabbit
. In the film, Bugs decides to find himself a new home, but the one he chooses is unfortunately occupied by a duo of bank robbers. The characters here are called "Rocky" (drawn like movie gangster Edward G. Robinson
) and "Hugo" (a caricature
d Peter Lorre
). Both gangsters are performed by the Warner studio's longtime chief voice actor, Mel Blanc
.
Fans of the Warner Brother's Cartoons have debated Rocky's ethnic background as either being Italian
or Jewish.
idea, and he used the concept again in the 1950 short Golden Yeggs
. This time it's Porky Pig
and Daffy Duck
who run afoul of the Mob, only this time Rocky has not only one sidekick, but an entire gang
. Freleng also redesigned Rocky for this short, making him a more generalized caricature of the "tough guy" gangster rather than Robinson in particular. Freleng used several of the same techniques that would make Sam, his other Bugs villain, such a humorous character: Despite Rocky's tough-guy demeanor, everlasting cigar
(or cigarette
) and foppish gangster dress, he really is little more than a dwarf in a much-too-large hat.
In 1953's Catty Cornered
, Freleng set the Mob against another of his comic duos, Sylvester the Cat
and Tweety Bird. Gang leader Rocky, this time aided and abetted by a hulking simpleton named "Nick", kidnaps
Tweety Bird, and when Sylvester's bumbling predations accidentally free the bird, the poor puss is hailed as a hero. The duo reappear in 1954's Bugs and Thugs
, this time in the form Freleng would keep them for the rest of their run. Rocky is aided by a new thug, "Mugsy". Although his body type is similar to that of Nick's, he has less hair and is even less intelligent. Before the Warner studio closed for good in January 1965, Rocky and Mugsy would appear in two more Freleng cartoons: Bugsy and Mugsy
(1957) and The Unmentionables
(1963). Mugsy also appears without his boss in a cameo as one of Napoleon Bonaparte
's guards in the 1956 Freleng short Napoleon Bunny-Part
and also appeared as a bank robber in Satan's Waitin'
.
Rocky and Mugsy have also appeared in various Looney Tunes-related merchandise. They are semi-regular characters in Looney Tunes comic book
s, for example. They also play the villains in the 2002 Xbox
video game Loons: The Fight for Fame
, a vs. fighting game in which the no-good gangsters attempt to run a film studio into the ground so they can buy up the stock
for next to nothing. Also in Bugs Bunny Lost in Time the pair are bosses of the 1930s
era. They also appeared in episodes of The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries
and Duck Dodgers
, as well as made cameo appearances in the movie Space Jam
(they can be spotted among the crowd of spectators at the Looney Tunes' basketball game) and also appeared as themselves in a episode of Tiny Toon Adventures
.
In Loonatics Unleashed
, Stoney and Bugsy (voiced by Joe Alaskey
and James Arnold Taylor
) were brief descendents of Rocky and Mugsy who adopted Pinkster Pig, who was a descendent of Porky Pig
.
episode, Crippled Summer
, in which Nathan (Rocky) is continually trying to arrange fatal accidents for Jimmy Vulmer (a counterpart to Bugs Bunny), but his plans are always ruined by Mimsy (Mugsy)'s stupidity. Various other campers are parodies of other Looney Tunes characters.
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
cartoon characters in the Warner Bros.
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,...
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
and 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 of cartoons. They were created by Friz Freleng
Friz Freleng
Isadore "Friz" Freleng was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros....
.
Character Biography
As an animatorAnimator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence; the images are called frames and key frames. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, video games, and the internet. Usually, an...
, Friz Freleng enjoyed creating new adversaries for Warners' star Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
, since he felt that Bugs' other nemeses, such as Beaky Buzzard and Elmer Fudd
Elmer Fudd
Elmer J. Fudd/Egghead is a fictional cartoon character and one of the most famous Looney Tunes characters, and the de facto archenemy of Bugs Bunny. He has one of the more disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheon . His aim is to hunt Bugs, but he usually ends up seriously injuring...
(who actually appeared in many more Freleng shorts than is commonly realized), were too stupid to give the rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
any real challenge. Considered revolutionary for almost all of the late 1940s though he might have been, Freleng's own Yosemite Sam
Yosemite Sam
Yosemite Sam is an American animated cartoon character in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The name is somewhat alliterative and is inspired by Yosemite National Park...
had not yet been proven capable of fully fulfilling his creator's intentions. Freleng introduced two of these more formidable opponents as a pair of gangster
Gangster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Some gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from mob and the suffix -ster....
s in the 1946 film Racketeer Rabbit
Racketeer Rabbit
Racketeer Rabbit is a 1946 animated short film in the Looney Tunes series produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. It stars Bugs Bunny, who duels with a pair of racketeers or gangsters, Rocky and Hugo forerunners who resemble Edward G. Robinson and Peter Lorre...
. In the film, Bugs decides to find himself a new home, but the one he chooses is unfortunately occupied by a duo of bank robbers. The characters here are called "Rocky" (drawn like movie gangster Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson
Edward 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...
) and "Hugo" (a caricature
Caricature
A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
d Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
). Both gangsters are performed by the Warner studio's longtime chief voice actor, 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...
.
Fans of the Warner Brother's Cartoons have debated Rocky's ethnic background as either being Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
or Jewish.
Appearances
Freleng liked the mobsterOrganized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
idea, and he used the concept again in the 1950 short Golden Yeggs
Golden Yeggs
Golden Yeggs is a 1950 Merrie Melodies short animated film, released on August 5, 1950 by Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. and directed by Friz Freleng...
. This time it's Porky Pig
Porky Pig
Porky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
and Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
who run afoul of the Mob, only this time Rocky has not only one sidekick, but an entire gang
Gang
A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...
. Freleng also redesigned Rocky for this short, making him a more generalized caricature of the "tough guy" gangster rather than Robinson in particular. Freleng used several of the same techniques that would make Sam, his other Bugs villain, such a humorous character: Despite Rocky's tough-guy demeanor, everlasting cigar
Cigar
A cigar is a tightly-rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco that is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, and the Eastern...
(or cigarette
Cigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
) and foppish gangster dress, he really is little more than a dwarf in a much-too-large hat.
In 1953's Catty Cornered
Catty Cornered
Catty Cornered is a 1953 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng,written by Warren Foster, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It features Sylvester and Tweety in a forerunner of the Rocky and Mugsy cartoons, with Rocky having present-day form and manners and Mugsy replaced by a...
, Freleng set the Mob against another of his comic duos, Sylvester the Cat
Sylvester (Looney Tunes)
Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr., Sylvester the Cat or simply Sylvester, is a fictional character, a three-time Academy Award-winning anthropomorphic Tuxedo cat in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies repertory, often chasing Tweety Bird, Speedy Gonzales, or Hippety Hopper...
and Tweety Bird. Gang leader Rocky, this time aided and abetted by a hulking simpleton named "Nick", kidnaps
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
Tweety Bird, and when Sylvester's bumbling predations accidentally free the bird, the poor puss is hailed as a hero. The duo reappear in 1954's Bugs and Thugs
Bugs and Thugs
Bugs and Thugs is a 1953 animated short film in the Looney Tunes series produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc and released in early 1954.It features Bugs Bunny with Rocky and Mugsy. This is the first cartoon with Mugsy in present-day form. The film is a semi-remake of Racketeer Rabbit, with a...
, this time in the form Freleng would keep them for the rest of their run. Rocky is aided by a new thug, "Mugsy". Although his body type is similar to that of Nick's, he has less hair and is even less intelligent. Before the Warner studio closed for good in January 1965, Rocky and Mugsy would appear in two more Freleng cartoons: Bugsy and Mugsy
Bugsy and Mugsy
Bugsy and Mugsy is a 1957 animated short film in the Looney Tunes series produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc.The film's plot features Bugs Bunny with Rocky and Mugsy in a remake of the 1950 Merrie Melodies short Stooge for a Mouse...
(1957) and The Unmentionables
The Unmentionables
The Unmentionables is a 1963 animated short film in the Merrie Melodies series produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. It features Bugs Bunny with Rocky and Mugsy , and spoofs The Untouchables, a popular television crime drama . The title is also a synonym for "underwear"...
(1963). Mugsy also appears without his boss in a cameo as one of Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
's guards in the 1956 Freleng short Napoleon Bunny-Part
Napoleon Bunny-Part
Napoleon Bunny-Part is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon of the Looney Tunes series, directed by Friz Freleng.-Plot:As he has in previous cartoons, Bugs is traveling underground, only this time he winds up in France at the headquarters of Napoleon Bonaparte, aptly called Headquartiers du Napoleon...
and also appeared as a bank robber in Satan's Waitin'
Satan's Waitin'
Satan's Waitin' is a 1953 animated Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, released in 1954, starring Sylvester and Tweety.-Synopsis:...
.
Rocky and Mugsy have also appeared in various Looney Tunes-related merchandise. They are semi-regular characters in Looney Tunes comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s, for example. They also play the villains in the 2002 Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
video game Loons: The Fight for Fame
Loons: The Fight for Fame
Loons: The Fight for Fame is a cell-shaded beat'-em-up game for the Xbox based upon the classic Looney Tunes series.- Story :Rocky and Mugsy, a pair of gangster antagonists from the Looney Tunes cartoon series, try to ruin a film studio through making extremely expensive movies so that they can buy...
, a vs. fighting game in which the no-good gangsters attempt to run a film studio into the ground so they can buy up the stock
Stock market
A stock market or equity market is a public entity for the trading of company stock and derivatives at an agreed price; these are securities listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately.The size of the world stock market was estimated at about $36.6 trillion...
for next to nothing. Also in Bugs Bunny Lost in Time the pair are bosses of the 1930s
1930s
File:1930s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson show the effects of the Great Depression; Due to the economic collapse, the farms become dry and the Dust Bowl spreads through America; The Battle of Wuhan during the Second Sino-Japanese...
era. They also appeared in episodes of The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries
The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries
The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries, produced by Warner Bros. Animation, is an animated television series which aired from 1995 to 2001 on Kids' WB and was later re-run on Cartoon Network...
and Duck Dodgers
Duck Dodgers
Duck Edgar Dumas Aloysius Eoghain Dodgers is the metafictional star of a series of cartoons produced by Warner Bros. He is actually the famous cartoon star Daffy Duck, cast in the role of an intergalactic future hero....
, as well as made cameo appearances in the movie Space Jam
Space Jam
Aside from Jordan, a number of NBA players and coaches appeared in the film. Larry Bird portrays a friend of Jordan who joins him for a game of golf. When the Monstars steal the NBA players' talent, they invade a game between the Phoenix Suns and the New York Knicks, causing the Knicks' Patrick...
(they can be spotted among the crowd of spectators at the Looney Tunes' basketball game) and also appeared as themselves in a episode of Tiny Toon Adventures
Tiny Toon Adventures
Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures, usually referred to as Tiny Toon Adventures or simply Tiny Toons, is an American animated television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. It began production as a result of Warner Bros....
.
In Loonatics Unleashed
Loonatics Unleashed
Loonatics Unleashed is an American animated television series produced by Warner Bros. Animation that ran on the Kids' WB for two seasons from 2005 to 2007 in the United States, Teletoon in Canada, Kids Central in Singapore, Cartoon Network's Boomerang in Australia, Cartoon Network in the UK,...
, Stoney and Bugsy (voiced by Joe Alaskey
Joe Alaskey
Joseph "Joe" Alaskey is an American actor, comedian, and voice artist, credited as one of the successors of Mel Blanc in impersonating the voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and other characters from Warner Bros. cartoons. He was born in Watervliet, New York.-Other work:Alaskey has also done voices...
and James Arnold Taylor
James Arnold Taylor
James Arnold Taylor is an American voice actor, Impressionist, and Announcer. He is the current voice provider for Fred Flintstone as well as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and also the movie Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Johnny Test in Johnny Test...
) were brief descendents of Rocky and Mugsy who adopted Pinkster Pig, who was a descendent of Porky Pig
Porky Pig
Porky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
.
Parodies
Rocky and Mugsy are parodied in the South ParkSouth Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
episode, Crippled Summer
Crippled Summer
"Crippled Summer" is the seventh episode and mid-season finale of the fourteenth season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 202nd overall episode of the series. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on April 28, 2010...
, in which Nathan (Rocky) is continually trying to arrange fatal accidents for Jimmy Vulmer (a counterpart to Bugs Bunny), but his plans are always ruined by Mimsy (Mugsy)'s stupidity. Various other campers are parodies of other Looney Tunes characters.