Looney Tunes: September 2004
Cover
Pepe stands in a stunned Taz's mouth, holding it open. Pepe explains, "No, monsieur Taz! I am zee lover... not zee fighter!"
Credits
Synopsis
Once again Pepe Le Pew chases Penelope through Paris. The chase leads into a beauty salon, which quickly evacuates. A hair dryer accident leaves Penelope's fur big and frazzled. Meanwhile, Taz has escaped and winds up in the same salon where he sees the hapless cat. The Tasmanian devil mistakes her for a she-devil.
Pepe does not welcome his rival, challenging Taz to a duel. Taz accepts, slapping Pepe aside. Pepe tries attacking with a broom, only to have it transformed into a stub. At this, Pepe seems ready to give up but then Taz uses one of Pepe's lines and that's more than he can stand. Pepe uses a bucket to clobber Taz, but then Penelope uses the same technique on Pepe.
Penelope shows she has chosen the dazed Taz over Pepe. Le Pew is stunned at his defeat, but he doesn't give up easily. Instead, he manages to get his fur to be unruly and resumes the chase. Both Taz and Penelope flee from the persistent skunk.
Did You Notice...
Penelope is shown with a white stripe of fur down her back from the start of the story. This has happened at least once in animation as well.- Pepe, not known for speaking proper French, uses a humorously wrong word for the citizenry of Paris. The usual line, however, makes a bit more sense as it indicates seeing the sites of Paris.
- Pepe's line isn't quite original to Pepe Le Pew. His character is based on that of Pepe le Moko, played by Charles Boyer, in the 1938 movie Algiers (itself based on the original French version, 1937's Pepe le Moko). It is one the curiousities of perceived film history differing from the actual that the famous Casbah line was never said by Boyer in the film. The Casbah, by the way, is simply the older section of a city in northern Africa or the Middle East. (EC)
Technical Nits
Credits
Synopsis
A starving Pete Puma thinks his hunger has him hearing music when Yosemite hikes by, singing to himself. Sam begins exploring a cave as Pete figures him for a meal. The puma tries to crush Sam with a rock, but ends up traveling with the rock instead. While Pete deals with his situation, Sam finds diamonds covering the cave walls and sets a rather large explosive charge.
Pete manages to return in time to get clobbered by diamonds freed in the blast, though Sam notices neither Pete nor any freed diamonds. Determined to get the gems, Yosemite Sam sets up a rocket on rails to blast the diamonds out. The puma, assuming it's Sam on the rails, plans to grab Sam as he passes by, but gets clobbered by the rocket instead.
Sam finally resorts to his pick and barely taps the cave wall. Unlike the big blasts, this causes an avalanche of cave wall and gems which sweep both Sam and Pete into a pit. Climbing out isn't possible, according to Sam, and Pete still hasn't eaten. Sam suggests barbecuing the diamonds. The pair heat the gems over a fire and the puma samples them, declaring them rather crunchy as he loses his teeth.
Did You Notice...
- Yosemite Sams's lamp looks like an oil lamp, but has a light bulb rather than a flame for light.
- What doesn't Yosemite Sam have in that pack?
- Just in case anyone is wondering what happens when diamonds are heated, they do decompose. This decomposition takes place, in air, at temperatures over 1000 degrees Fahrenheit which are rather hotter than cooking temperatures. However, being carbon, diamonds can and do burn so it's a good thing the pile of gems isn't too close to the fire.
- If this story seems odd, it's because it doesn't follow the usual formula for a Yosemite Sam cartoon. Usually Sam does something that causes trouble, is retaliated against, and the story is one of escalating conflict. Here, Sam is taking most if not all the initiative action and is not fighting a retaliating Pete, but nature. In a way, it's rather like Sam is playing the part of Wile E. Coyote as Pete Puma plays a luckless version of Road Runner.
- There is a diamond mine in the U.S., in Arkansas. It's the only major diamond mine in the U.S. and has produced a few, though not many, gem-quality diamonds. (EC)
Technical Nits
The diamonds all seem to have been cut and facetted, which is not how they look when mined. Then, this is a comic story and how many folks have seen rough diamonds?- When Sam first unrolls the tracks, there seems not to be any rail on the side away from Sam, at least on the unrolled part.
- A properly prepared buffalo (or bison) steak is not tough, though someone used to cooking beef, which is not as lean, might easily overcook it.
Credits
Synopsis
In the early hours of the morning Sylvester's loud stomach rumblings wake him up. The cat tries yet again to satisfy his hunger with Tweety. This time Tweety stuffs Sylvester's mouth with a sandwich. Sylvester finds himself in pain as the sandwich was loaded with hot sauce. The cat takes a drink offered by Tweety, but it's the hot sauce rather than a cola. The cat bolts through a wall, and Tweety figures Sylvester will sleep well when he stops running.
Did You Notice...
- The picture on the hot sauce label in the second to last panel appears to be of a jalapeño pepper, which is one of the hotter, spicier peppers.
Technical Nits
- Hoagie is one of the many names used to describe a sandwich made from a long roll cut lengthwise and filled with various sandwich fixings. The sandwich shown in this comic, made with two slices of white bread, is not a hoagie.
- The hot sauce label is curious. Either "red hot" should not be upside down, or "sauce" should be upside-down as shown.
Credits
Synopsis
In television-like panels Road Runner is shown kicking a boulder off of a cliff and Wile E. Coyote is shown in the boulder's shadow at the bottom the cliff. After the crash, the last thing shown in a TV-screen panel, Daffy takes pictures of himself atop the boulder as he proclaims himself the world's best private investigator. Meanwhile Porky actually examines the scene.
Porky quickly makes an accurate, if obvious, diagnosis and Daffy notices a rope. Daffy's first reason for considering the rope useful is a silly, but it is evidence. The duck does come with an idea of what happened, though he does mention less than ethical means of getting that idea. Daffy demonstrates the events that events that he thinks lead to the coyote's crushing. In the process, he crushes himself. Despite Porky's doubts, Daffy proclaims the coyote's situation to be a self-inflicted accident.
Not much later Daffy and Porky are alarmed as they look under a sheet. What they see is not the mangled coyote, but an indignant Elmer Fudd who had been resting in what seems to be a carrot patch. As Daffy examines a partly eaten carrot, Bugs appears. The rabbit suggests that maybe there was a carrot avalanche and then empties a truck load of carrots onto the doubting duck. Elmer says that is what really did happen.
After quickly dealing with lab results completely unrelated to case, Daffy accuses Bugs of being behind Elmer's mishap. Bugs seems to go along with that, but warns the duck away from a shed. Naturally Daffy has to look inside that shed and finds it filled with weapons and explosives. Elmer realizes the shed belongs to him and not Bugs, confirming Daffy's suspicions. Porky escapes in time to see Bugs push a plunger and set off all the explosives...
Did You Notice...
- Daffy's pose in the third panel of the first page resembles a scene of Daffy admiring himself in a mirror in What Makes Daffy Duck? (Davis, 1948). Also, if Daffy's looks are like eggs in omelette, wouldn't that mean that they're broken? (EC)
- The transition at the end of the fourth page can seem poor if one doesn't get the joke that it's not supposed to be a smooth transition, but a classic switcheroo. That Daffy, seemingly knowingly, slights the narration makes it even funnier.
- Porky seems to take unusual pleasure in setting Daffy's and in the duck's pain. Then, having to listen to Daffy's bragging all the time, can you blame him?
- Daffy's current and former lines of introduction echo that of James Bond.
- The mirror gag first appeared in Scrap Happy Daffy (Tashlin, 1943). (EC)
Technical Nits
- Road Runner takes an unusually active role in causing Wile E. Coyote's problems. This violates to so-called "11 Rules" that Jones and Maltese had for Coyote and Road Runner cartoons.
- Assuming this story has a contemporary setting, Daffy's camera seems a bit dated. The bulb flash setup went out of style in the early 1960s as the flashcube and electronic flash took over. (JM)
- Bugs' theory of carrot avalanche, and Elmer's agreement, doesn't fit with the fact that when Elmer first appeared in this story, the carrots around him were not all jumbled, but as one would expect to see them growing in a garden.
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Last updated 05 February 2005