| Who's Who in the Zoo | |
|---|---|
 Title Card | |
| Directed by | Norman McCabe |
| Story by | Melvin Millar |
| Produced by | Leon Schlesinger |
| Music by | Carl W. Stalling |
| Animation by | John Carey |
| Color process | Black and White 3-strip color (1992 3D computer color version) |
| Production company | Leon Schlesinger Productions |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
| Release date |
|
| Running time | 7 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Who's Who in the Zoo is a 1942 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Norman McCabe. The short was released on February 14, 1942.
Plot
Who's Who in the Zoo is one of the cartoons that Warner would occasionally produce, particularly in the World War II era, that featured a series of loosely related gags, usually based on outrageous stereotypes and plays on words, as a narrator (in this case Robert C. Bruce) describes the action. The plot is substantially similar to that of 1939's A Day at the Zoo, except that Porky Pig (voiced by Mel Blanc as usual) appears as the zookeeper of the "Azusa Zoo," and that the now-discontinued Elmer Fudd is absent. Some excerpts:
- In a comic "triple", a timber wolf is shown, then a gray wolf, then a "Hollywood wolf" (a frequent reference in the 1940s WB cartoons).
- Other creatures include a "missing lynx", a "tortoise and the hair", "March hares" who march to a drumbeat, a down-on-his-luck "bum steer", an Indian elephant attired as an American Indian, and a bald eagle wearing a toupee.
- There is also a running joke about a lion who is awaiting the arrival of the ice cream truck.
- An Alaskan Bear who's known for hugging its prey to death picks up and starts hugging a defenseless sheep. When the narrator begs the bear to stop hugging the sheep, the sheep responds, in a feminine voice sounding like Sterling Holloway: "Oh, for goodness' sake, mind your own business!"
- A group of seals that the narrator says only eat fresh mountain trout. Porky attempts to feed them a mackerel instead, claiming it to be indistinguishable, but a seal plants a sign saying "No substitutes accepted".
- Some gags reference the then-ongoing World War II, including a black panther drinking cream from its dish, then noticing the dish is aluminum and throwing it into a scrap pile, a reference to the Salvage for Victory campaign; as well as a distressed rabbit father of dozens of babies given a note from the government to "increase your production 100%," as the song "What's The Matter with Father" plays in the background.
See also
References
- Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 125. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
- Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 100–102. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
External links
- The short film Who's Who in the Zoo is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.
- Who's Who in the Zoo at IMDb
This Looney Tunes–related article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it. |
- 1942 films
- 1940s American animated films
- Looney Tunes shorts
- Films directed by Norman McCabe
- Films scored by Carl Stalling
- Porky Pig films
- Animated films about wolves
- Animated films about big cats
- Films about turtles
- Animated films about rabbits and hares
- Animated films about cattle
- Animated films about elephants
- Animated films about birds
- Animated films about lions
- Animated films about bears
- Animated films about sheep
- Animated films set in zoos
- 1940s English-language films
- English-language short films
- American animated black-and-white films
- 1942 animated short films
- Looney Tunes stubs