Merrie Melodies
About Merrie Melodies
Welcome to the Big Cartoon DataBase listing of Merrie Melodies Classic Cartoons. Among the films from the Classic Cartoons era, the Merrie Melodies series is one of the most enduring and endearing, running over 500 shorts in the series, and still shown on television today.
This series was Warner Bros. second theatrical animated series (preceded by the Looney Tunes cartoon series by about a year), and ran in many movie theaters from 1931 to 1969. Originally conceived as a new cartoon series that would feature music from the soundtracks of current Warner Bros. films, producer Leon Schlesinger funded the series by convinced the studio heads that Merrie Melodies would be the perfect promotional tool for Warner Bros. theatrical musical films. The series had no recurring characters (unlike the Looney Tunes), but was extremely popular with audiences, and even earned an Academy Award nomination it's second year (for It's Got Me Again!).
Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising left the studio in 1933, taking their characters with them to MGM. Leon Schlesinger took over producing the cartoons from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger took the series over to color (Cinecolor) in 1934; Looney Tunes would take a further 8 years to move over to color. By this time, the Merrie Melodies were much less music oriented, and the two sister theatrical series became almost indistinguishable.
In September of 1943, beginning with A Feud There Was, Warner Bros. began re-releasing select color cartoons in their Blue Ribbon program. Typically the Blue Ribbon reissues received new opening sequences with Blue Ribbon title cards and standardized music. Cartoon production credits were also removed. Between ten and fifteen cartoons were released in any given year, with cartoons coming from as far back as 1935. The reissues continued until the close of the studio in the 1960's.
All Blue Ribbon cartoons were released as "Merrie Melodie" cartoons regardless of the original series. The only current prints of many of these cartoons are the Blue Ribbon releases, although restoration of these cartoons with original elements and titles is always ongoing.
Schlesinger sold the cartoon studio to Warner Bros. in 1944, and they produced their cartoons in-house until 1963. After that, both series were outsourced to DePatie-Freleng Enterprises until 1967, with essentially the same crew from the Warner Bros. days. Warner Bros.- now called "Warner Bros.-Seven Arts"- re-assumed production for the series' final two years.
Here is the full listing of all the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes series cartoons, include cast and crew lists, cartoon pictures and synopsis of these Cartoon Classics from Warner Bros.
Cartoons
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Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!
Foxy dreams about being a trolley conductor on a trolley car to yesteryear running wild down the tracks to Memory Lane.
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Lady, Play Your Mandolin!
Customers in a south-of-the-border saloon are whooping it up and singing the title tune, while an ape waiter is serving everyone liquor. Meanwhile, Foxy is riding along on his horse while w…
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One More Time
A crime wave in the city? Not while our hero is on patrol. Cops and robbers to a hot tune.
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You Don't Know What You're Doin'!
A wild, surrealistic trip through the swingin' nightlife of the big city with a drunken, joyriding Piggy. Wild goings-on with a hot band throughout. Minimal plot with maximum visuals. Piggy…
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Hittin' The Trail For Hallelujah Land
A kindly old Uncle Tom brings Fluffy down to her sweetheart Captain Piggy's riverboat. As he drives back in his horse and buggy, Uncle Tom ends up in a graveyard where various skeletons com…
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Red-Headed Baby
When the toymaker goes to bed, the toys come to life for a hot swing session. Of course, they sing and dance a Tin Pan Alley tune of the day. The evil spider kidnaps the red-headed baby, an…
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Pagan Moon
A South Seas tropical island is the setting for this tuneful account of a little native boy and girl singing and dancing on the beach. The boy's tipple falls into the water, so he dives in…
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Freddy The Freshman
College! College! Rah, Rah, Rah! The big game on campus is coming up, and Freddy's the big man in the raccoon coat to handle it.
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Crosby, Columbo, And Vallee
A tribe of Indians complain about the three paleface crooners who have stolen away the hearts of all their papooses (all the squaws now just want to listen to radio stars). Meanwhile, a boy…
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Goopy Geer
In a crowded nightclub setting, Goopy Geer is the star entertainer. The happy-go-lucky piano player woos his girlfriend while food gags run rampant. The jazzistic energy of the cartoon reac…
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It's Got Me Again!
When the cat's away, the mice will play! An early mouse-in-the-house sound cartoon.
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Moonlight For Two
A good old-fashioned hoedown in hillbilly country has even the pot-bellied stove shakin' a tootsie. The stove won't sing because he might hit a "clinker" and he's afraid of making an "ash"…
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The Queen Was In The Parlor
Old King Cole, a merry old soul, is looking for the queen! Nursery rhyme characters (and radio star parodies) join in the search.
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I Love A Parade
All kinds of fun and musical gags at a circus, with four spectators in the stands singing the title song. There are the tumbling Clownie character and sideshows.
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You're Too Careless with Your Kisses!
A drunk honeybee stumbles home late at night from a "buzz" on the town and awakens his wife. Furious that he's still drinking, she stomps outside among the flowers, only to be kidnapped by…
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I Wish I Had Wings
A little black chick wishes to get to the other side of the fence, where food lies. After singing the title song, he manages to improvise a pair of wings and fly over the chicken coop, but…
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A Great Big Bunch Of You
A junk peddler jettisons his load into the city dump, where a discarded, mustachioed mannequin comes to life and sings, accompanying himself on a makeshift piano. Now the fun begins as he l…
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Three's A Crowd
Book-cover characters climb off their volumes and come to life. The film opens with an old man in a rocking chair reading Alice in Wonderland. He blows out his candle, puts his book aside a…
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The Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives
A Christmas fable with a twist: on a cold Christmas Eve, a poor little boy wanders through a snowy village to his "shanty" on the other side of the tracks knowing that Santa Claus will neve…
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One Step Ahead Of My Shadow
In happy China, a young boy is on his way to seeing his girlfriend. They perform a song that's the same title as this cartoon (as many of the other, earliest Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies sh…
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Young And Healthy
A jolly old king, bored with all the foolish people in his court, goes off to find a group of children playing who are really young and healthy.
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The Organ Grinder
The lost art of the organ grinder and his monkey is celebrated in this grand Depression-era cartoon! A beloved Italian organ grinder plays his music and sings his song through a immigrant-…
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Wake Up The Gypsy In Me
A rare politically themed toon. In old Russia, the happy Cossacks, peasants, Volga boatmen and Gypsies sing the title song while a happy musician strums his balalaika with a herring. Meanwh…
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I Like Mountain Music
In a drugstore, after hours, characters out of magazines in a magazine rack come to life. Cowboys out of a Western magazine sing and play "I Like Mountain Music" while the characters from a…
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Shuffle Off To Buffalo
An inside look at the stork's baby factory.
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The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon
It's midnight in a bakery. The title tune is sung as we peer inside "Ye Olde Bake Shoppe" on a dark and stormy night. Several kettles begin to whistle in time with the song, as various plat…
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We're In The Money
Late at night, after the watchman locks up and turns off the lights, all the different articles for sale in a department store come to life to dance and sing the title song.
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I've Got To Sing A Torch Song
Blackout gags and music, including the title song.
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Sittin' On A Backyard Fence
It's the middle of the night, and everyone's asleep except for the house cat (a girl) and alley cats (boys) on the fence competing for her attentions. A bull and three cows from ad posters…
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Pettin' In The Park
It must be spring, 'cause all God's creatures have their hormones on the rise.... Love in the springtime is in evidence, as performed mostly by bird characters. But too, there are the beat…
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Honeymoon Hotel
A pair of "Bugtown" newlyweds spend their wedding night at the Honeymoon Hotel, where all guests sign in (by rubber stamp) as "Mr. and Mrs. John Smith," and where all the staff seem to take…
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Beauty And The Beast
A little girl is eating too many snacks when she doesn't realize that it is her bedtime. Then the Sandman comes out of nowhere and, sure enough, the girl falls asleep in the blink of an eye…
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Those Were Wonderful Days
A look back to 1898 America, with handlebar mustaches, ladies in dresses with bustles, full-body swimsuits and the start of the motor car age, a time of free beer, boxing matches and player…
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Goin' To Heaven On A Mule
A lazy farmhand must choose between "good" and "evil" regarding alcohol. An angel and a devil fight it out (literally) for the soul of the black sharecropper, who likes the moonshine a litt…
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How Do I Know It's Sunday
Merchandise in the general store- everything from sardines and potatoes to characters on package labels- comes to life to perform a musical revue. All the items on the grocery store shelves…
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Why Do I Dream Those Dreams
A fantasy version of Rip Van Winkle involving beer-guzzling leprechauns and other strange creatures. Rip Van Winkle is thrown out of his house by his shrew of a wife. After singing a refrai…
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The Miller's Daughter
This musical cartoon, featuring household objects come to life, has many cute characters and inventive animated sequences. A tabletop figurine of a young male shepherd searches for his girl…
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The Girl At The Ironing Board
Underwear comes to life late at night in a laundry.
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Shake Your Powder Puff
Three rabbits- Honey, Bunny and Floe- perform a vaudeville act about catching a boyfriend. A vast ensemble of early cartoon characters attends an evening of orchestra music, singers and oth…
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Rhythm In The Bow
Singing and dancing hobos on a train enjoy the footloose life on and under the rails. Lots of politically incorrect gags here as the happy homeless enjoy their free ride. A violin-playing h…
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Those Beautiful Dames
A poor orphan girl looks into a store window at all the pretty toys, then enters a run-down shack to escape the snowstorm. As she sleeps, the toys come to life, redecorate the shack and put…
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Pop Goes Your Heart
When spring comes to the woods, forest animals go about their business: turtles teach their young to swim, grasshoppers show their offspring how to spit, etc.
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Mr. And Mrs. Is The Name
Buddy (as a Merman) is playing tag with a girl (Mermaid) on the sea floor. They discover an old sunken ship with treasure and an old piano in the hold. She plays the piano and sings the tit…
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Country Boy
Instead of going to school, Peter Cottontail, a very mischievous little rabbit, ignores his sister's warning and raids a farmer's garden... and lives to regret it.
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I Haven't Got A Hat
In a school, the kids perform for their class. In his first cartoon appearance, Porky stands before his classmates to recite- or attempt to recite- Longfellow's famous poem "Paul Revere's R…
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Along Flirtation Walk
A college setting with a football theme and humanlike chicken students. It opens at a dance on the night before the big game, with couples dancing to a funny animal band and then listening…
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My Green Fedora
A little boy rabbit is left in charge of his baby brother Elmer, who is a cranky brat. A salivating weasel eventually kidnaps him and tries to make soup of him. Big brother (a part-time Joe…
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Into Your Dance
The showboat comes to town, piloted by Captain Benny. The William Tell Overture plays; we see a big steamship with "Show Boat" written on the side of it. A blackface quartet sings the title…
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Country Mouse
Elmer the "Hickville Threat" goes off to prove himself in the city.
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The Merry Old Soul
This seldom-seen cartoon combines two nursery rhymes to illustrate the ill-advised marriage of Old King Cole to the Woman in the Shoe and the King's unfortunate attempts to keep her "many c…
