Scrambled Eggs (1939 film) - Misplaced Pages

1939 American film

Scrambled Eggs
Title card
Directed by	Alex Lovy
Story by	Elaine Pogany
Produced by	Walter Lantz
Starring	Marjorie Tarlton Sara Berner Danny Webb Victor McLeod
Music by	Frank Marsales
Animation by	Hicks Lokey Frank Tipper Willy Pogany
Backgrounds by	Ed Kiechle
Color process	Technicolor
Production company	Walter Lantz Productions
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	November 20, 1939 (1939-11-20)
Running time	10 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Scrambled Eggs is a cartoon produced by Walter Lantz Productions in 1939 by Universal Pictures featuring a mischievous satyr-like creature named Peterkin.

Production

This cartoon was production #984 for Walter Lantz Productions, the fourth in the Cartune Classics series.

The story is by Elaine Pogany, with designs and backgrounds by her husband Willy Pogany, both of whom are given prominent credit. There were no other Peterkin cartoons produced by Walter Lantz, although the character was featured the following year in a children's book called Peterkin, created together by the Poganys, with Elaine doing the story and Willy doing the artwork.

This cartoon was one of the first done in color by Lantz. It can be found in the Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection DVD box set.

Story

It's dawn in the woods. Mother and Father Swan, with their little cygnets, coast across a pond. The Night Watchman of the forest, Mr. Owl, awakens. He looks down at the sleeping Peterkin, a young boy faun, and wonders what mischief he will get into today. Peterkin wakes up, and, prodded by a croaking frog, picks up his flute and starts to play it loudly. When the mother birds in their nests up above tell him to "Be quiet!" and boast about their own well-behaved families (i.e., their eggs), Peterkin decides to get back at them.

He sneaks up the massive "Maternity Tree", and covertly switches all the eggs in all the nests. Soon, the eggs hatch - each bird couple has a baby bird of a type different from themselves: for example, the tiny English sparrows hatch a huge mockingbird, who quickly begins "mocking" the sparrow father by speaking in an English accent, and the canaries hatch a pirate-talking parrot. The father birds look suspiciously at their wives, who fly off to "the club" to pout, while the mother birds "go home to mother". Peterkin is about to play his flute again, but this mass desertion by all the parent birds leave the baby birds hungry, and crying for food and attention.

Peterkin is the only one left to take care of them, a task he gamely tries, but one for which he finds he is totally unsuited. Worn out, an exhausted Peterkin goes to the club, where the father birds are moping, missing their wives, and confesses his shenanigans to the father birds, hoping they will take over their parental duties. However, Mr. Owl and the father birds, growing suspicious at his confession, are outraged and furious, and chase after a retreating Peterkin in order to catch and punish him. In the end, all the families are restored to normal, and Peterkin is sentenced to laundry duty. Although Peterkin promises not to do any such mischief ever again, he winks at the camera and says he'll find something mischievous to do tomorrow, revealing that he had his fingers crossed before the cartoon ends.

Cast

Marjorie Tarlton as Peterkin, Mrs. Canary, Baby Voices (uncredited)
Sara Berner as Mrs. Woodpecker, Mrs. Parrot, Mrs. Sparrow, Mrs. Mockingbird (uncredited)
Victor McLeod as Owl (uncredited)
Danny Webb as Fred Allen Stork, English Sparrow, Blackbird, Baby Bird Yelling (uncredited)

References

Scott, Keith (2022). Cartoon Voices from the Golden Age, 1930-70. BearManor Media. p. 217. ISBN 979-8-88771-010-5.
Grant, John (2001) "Masters of Animation" Watson-Guptill Publishers, ISBN 0-8230-3041-5, page 144
^ Scott, Keith (3 October 2022). Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2. BearManor Media.

External links

Scrambled Eggs webpage on the Internet Movie Database website

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