Who's Who in the Zoo

Who's Who in the Zoo is a 1942 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Norman McCabe.[2] The short was released on February 14, 1942.[3]

Who's Who in the Zoo
Directed byNorman McCabe
Produced byLeon Schlesinger
Story byMelvin Millar
StarringMel Blanc (uncredited)
Narrated byRobert C. Bruce (uncredited)
Music byCarl W. Stalling
Edited byTreg Brown (uncredited)
Animation byJohn Carey
I. Ellis (uncredited)
Vive Risto (uncredited)
Cal Dalton (uncredited)
Layouts byChuck Jones (uncredited)[1]
Color processBlack and White
3-strip color (1992 3D computer color version)
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date
Running time
7 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

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 Egghead 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: "Oh, for goodness' sake, mind your own business!"
  • 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

  1. https://archive.org/details/CartoonNetworkToonHeadsDirectorNormanMcCabefirstHalf
  2. 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.
  3. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 100–102. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.


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