The Fella with a Fiddle | |
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Directed by | I. Freleng |
Produced by | Leon Schlesinger |
Starring | Mel Blanc Billy Bletcher Bernice Hansen |
Music by | Carl Stalling |
Animation by | Cal Dalton Ken Harris |
Color process | Technicolor |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. Vitaphone |
Release dates |
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Running time | 7:22 (one reel) |
Language | English |
The Fella with a Fiddle is a 1937 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. [1] The short was released on March 27, 1937. [2]
The title is derived from the cartoon's theme song, written by Charlie Abbott.
When the kids fight over a coin for ice cream, J. Field Mouse tells his grandchildren the story of a mouse whose greed and dishonesty became his undoing. Feigning blindness and playing the fiddle, he collects enough money to live an opulent lifestyle. His home, marked by a shabby exterior, is in fact a mansion where he lives a lavish lifestyle with his riches. This life of luxury is in jeopardy when a tax assessor knocks on the door. The fiddler hurriedly presses a series of buttons to hide his opulence and make his home look like a hovel. He succeeds in confusing the tax assessor to the point that he flees in frustration, but an eavesdropping cat plays on the fiddler's greed and lures him into his jaws by placing a gold crown there. That, says J. Field Mouse to his grandchildren, was the end of the greedy mouse. One of the grandchildren asked if the greedy mouse was eaten. The grandfather says, "Yes, he ate him all up". But one of his grandchildren notices a gold tooth hanging on display and realizes that things were not quite what they seem.
Looney Tunes is an American animated franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. It began as a series of short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, along with its spin-off series Merrie Melodies, during the golden age of American animation. Following a revival in the late 1970s, new shorts were released as recently as 2014. The two series introduced a large cast of characters, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig. The term Looney Tunes has since been expanded to also refer to the characters themselves.
Isadore "Friz" Freleng, credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, director, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from the 1930s to the early 1960s. In total he created more than 300 cartoons.
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Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was an American animation studio, serving as the in-house animation division of Warner Bros. during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, it was primarily responsible for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated short films. The characters featured in these cartoons, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig, are among the most famous and recognizable characters in the world. Many of the creative staff members at the studio, including directors and animators such as Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson, Tex Avery, Robert Clampett, Arthur Davis, and Frank Tashlin, are considered major figures in the art and history of traditional animation.
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