Release Date:

March 3, 1951

Main Character(s):

None

Summary:

An elderly curmudgeon of a farmer attempts to get rid of a wise guy crow who wears a double-propellered beanie cap.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1153 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue.

This one includes a guest actor. In this case, it’s radio actor Pat Patrick who voices the crow, basing him off of his character, Ercil Twing from “The Chase and Sanborn Hour”.

This is one of two one-shots to be included on a Looney Tunes Super Stars DVD (this one is available on the Porky and Friends Hilarious Ham set). The other is “Mouse-Placed Kitten” (1959), also directed by McKimson (with that one being available on the Foghorn Leghorn and Friends Barnyard Bigmouth set).

The description for this cartoon on Tubi shamefully copies something that was said about it in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. The original book says, “It looks like a test film for a new series”, meaning it’s theorized as to whether this was intended to be the debut of the crow and farmer or not. Tubi just says, “A test film for a new series”, making it seem like they were intended to be recurring characters. It’s very obvious that whoever was tasked with writing the descriptions for the Warner cartoons for streaming was too lazy to come up with descriptions in their own words, and mostly copied info from the Complete Illustrated Guide to make a description (with the most infamous example being with “Good Night Elmer” where they reworded Jerry Beck’s opinion on the cartoon and put it into that one’s description on streaming platforms as if his view on it is factual).

Speaking of Jerry Beck, this is one of his least favorite Warner Bros. cartoons as he finds the crow to be a very annoying character: “The fact this was the character’s one and only appearance is all we need to know” (I personally rather like the crow’s voice as it sounds a bit similar to Freddie Garrity of “Freddie and the Dreamers”, another 1960’s British band, who had some catchy hits like “I’m Telling You Now” and “You Were Made for Me”. To me, they’re to the Beatles like MGM is to Warner Bros. in that they were both fantastic, but Warner Bros. and the Beatles are the overall winners in their respective categories because their output was consistently strong and made more than twice more cartoons/songs).

The farmer’s calendar on the wall reads “Thomas”, which is a reference to Richard H. Thomas.

The cartoon was originally titled “Shmoe Crow”.

The animator draft for the cartoon can be viewed here.

When the farmer says, “Here, chick, chick, chick, chick”, his mouth doesn’t move. This implies that the line was added into the script AFTER the scene was animated.

This is the last Warner cartoon to feature animation by Bill Melendez (really hope all of you subscribers who are Peanuts fans enjoyed finding out what scenes he animated).

This is one of only two 1950’s cartoons (the other being Freleng’s Oscar-winning masterpiece, “Birds Anonymous”, released in 1957) to have been shown in “The Merrie Melodies Show” (1972), which mostly consisted of 1960’s cartoons.

What I Like About This One:

The crow first rises out of a scarecrow and sings a catchy original in tune to “The Old Apple Tree”: “Oh, you can’t scare a crow with a scarecrow. No matter how much you try. When they put this corny phantom out to guard the golden bantam, I just laughed till I thought I would die!” (animated by Bill Melendez) He then starts collecting corn from the cornfield into a bag and also consumes a few by buzzing them down like typewriters (animated by Phil DeLara).

Upon hearing the farmer ranting, the crow walks off with the corn he stole (animated by DeLara), as the farmer, armed with a rifle, spots crow tracks on the ground and follows them to a stump where the crow is hiding. The farmer shouts, “I’ve got ya, ya thieving varmint! Ha! Begging on your knees won’t save ya! Your time’s come! Take that! And that!” as he starts shooting into the stump several times. After a final blast, the farmer jumps around happily believing, “I got him! I got him! Ha! I’m rid of the crow! (laughs) I’m rid of the crow!” (animated by Rod Scribner) The crow instead flies out of the stump and tells the farmer, “Ya missed me. Uh, well, you didn’t exactly miss me either, but I wasn’t exactly standing where ya shot” (animated by DeLara).

The crow follows the farmer walking in a sore manner into the feed house and also imitates him. When the farmer walks out with a bag of corn kernels, the crow rips it open with his beak, having the kernels fly into his mouth. Calling out, “Here, chick, chick, chick, chick, chick”, the farmer finds he has nothing in his bag, but every time he turns around to look behind him, the crow flies away behind his back before he can be spotted. Eventually, the farmer turns a complete angle and finds the crow flying down: “YOU again!?” (animated by Scribner)

The farmer chases the crow with an ax (animated by Scribner) to a tree and chops it down, only to realize too late that his old-fashioned car is in the way of the tree (animated by John Carey). After attempting to crank it up and start it to no avail, he resorts to pushing it out of the way of the tree’s shadow, but it lands on the car anyway (animated by DeLara).

Later, the farmer answers a knock on his door, which turns out to be from the crow, who flies down and walks into the house in a snooty manner (animated by Carey). The crow then shuts the door to the kitchen before the farmer can go in after him and eats an apple from the refrigerator as the farmer attempts to bang the door down. The farmer eventually busts the door down, as the crow stops him, “Just a minute! Uh, did you know the little light stays on when you close the door?” (animated by Charles McKimson)

An argument of “Does not!”; “Does too!” ensues, before the crow ends it with, “Uh, well, there’s a way to find out. Yes, there is”. Agreeing with this, the farmer decides, “Yer durn tootin’ and I’m a-findin’ out!” He climbs inside the fridge and instructs the crow to shut it. As the crow walks away, the farmer then bangs on the fridge door demanding to be let out. After much thrashing around, the farmer comes out covered in snow, and once it melts off of him, he triumphantly exclaims, “I was right and the critter was wrong! The light WAS out!” (animated by Charles)

As the farmer is looking at a book called “How to Kill Crows”, he hears (animated by Charles) the crow banging out a jazzy tune on the piano. Seeing that the farmer is watching him, the crow stops his playing sharply and tells the farmer, “Uh, nice instrument, junior. I say it’s a nice instrument, junior, that is, all but the C-sharp key. Uh, uh, listen”. Although the C-sharp key sounds just fine, the crow goes inside the piano, claiming it’s something that can be easily fixed. After seemingly repairing it, the crow tells the farmer he can try it to see for himself. When the farmer presses the C-sharp key, it’s revealed that the crow rigged the piano to explode when that particular key is pressed, collapsing it (animated by Melendez).

In the feed house, the farmer drills a hole into an ear of corn and puts a dynamite stick in it, oblivious to the crow watching him. As the farmer is burying the fuse, the crow takes the dynamite corn and puts it in the farmer’s back pocket. He then tricks the farmer into believing he’s about to eat the booby-trapped corn by waving a regular ear of corn and then eating it. When the farmer pushes the TNT plunger, it causes the feed house to briefly fly up into the air before coming back down. The farmer then walks out of the feed house with his rear end smoking (animated by DeLara).

Lastly, the farmer sets up a cannon in front of a hole in the fence with another ear of corn as bait to enable it to blast. Seeing the string going into the dark interior of the cannon, the crow tugs on it, causing the cannon to move around like crazy. Irritated, the farmer runs up to it, just as it turns in his direction and blasts him (animated by Scribner) into the distance where his rear end drags across two hills, and then bounces on the dock into a boat on the lake (animated by Carey). In the middle of the lake, the farmer attempts to toss the cannonball aside, but only succeeds in smashing it through the hull, sinking it (animated by Melendez). As he sinks, the farmer does see one good thing coming out of it, “Well, at least there’s no crows where I’M goin’!” Wearing an old-fashioned swimsuit, the crow tells us, “Uh, not YET, but there will be.” before jumping in, “Goodbye now. Goodby-y-y-y-y-e” with his double-propeller beanie remaining in mid-air for the iris out (animated by Charles).

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕