ReFrederator Blog

We wrap up “Mother Goose Week” with another Friz Freleng Merry Melodies offering, “Foney Fables” from 1942. Spot gags all about fairy tales — lots of wartime jokes and plenty of catch phrases.

For me, the most interesting aspect here is an odd little cinematic experiment worthy of Pudovkin. Mel Blanc attaches two of his most familiar, well established voice characterizations onto a couple of one-shot bystanders. The goose that lays the golden egg abruptly starts talking like Daffy Duck and, well, I guess that’s supposed to be part of the joke. But the boy who cried wolf talks, even stands and poses like Bugs Bunny, and the effect is startling. The same voice that makes a lanky rabbit so confident, so spunky, so likable seems pretty darn obnoxious when coming out of the mouth of a freckle faced humanoid adolescent. Which is, apparently, the point. Things don’t work out too well for the kid, and the audience presumedly thinks this is funny, not gruesome. Weird.

Next week we’re looking at cartoons that were inspired by the funny pages. “Comic Strip Week” begins Monday on ReFrederator.

Dave Kirwan