Release Date:

October 16, 1954

Main Character(s):

Ralph Phillips

Summary:

At Valley View School, a little boy named Ralph Phillips constantly daydreams and imagines himself in numerous heroic scenarios.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1297 and was released as a Looney Tune.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue. When it was restored for the Academy Awards Animation Collection DVD set in 2008, the original opening and closing rings were put back in. This is also the latest cartoon to have been given a reissue but having its original titles retained for its restoration.

This is the first of two Golden Age appearances of Ralph Phillips, who has a very wild imagination and constantly envisions himself as a hero. He would also appear in 1957’s “Boyhood Daze” (also directed by Jones and written by Michael Maltese). He would appear as a teenager in two cartoons made for the Army (similar to the Private Snafu cartoons during World War II) encouraging re-enlisting and recruitment respectively, with those being “90 Day Wondering” (1956) and “Drafty Isn’t It” (1957). He would be a child again in the 1962 TV pilot “The Adventures of the Roadrunner” and in an episode of his own in Looney Tunes Cartoons, “Livin’ the Daydream” (2023).

Ralph’s voice is provided by an actor named Dick Beals, who was noted for his short stature and high voice as he apparently never went through puberty (in his teenage form in the aforementioned Army cartoons, Ralph is voiced by Daws Butler).

Ralph could be considered a precursor to when Snoopy would imagine start having a creative imagination in “Peanuts” (most notably as the “World War I Flying Ace”, the first strip of which was published nearly a whole 11 years after this cartoon was released), and to Calvin’s imagination in “Calvin and Hobbes”.

The cartoon was nominated for an Academy Award. It is also the studio’s first Oscar nominee since “Mouse Wreckers” from five years earlier in 1949 (they also hadn’t been acknowledged by the Academy Awards since “For Scent-imental Reasons” won the Oscar that same year).

The title is a pun for “from A to Z”.

The cartoon is in the 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons book.

The entirety of the cartoon (minus the opening and closing rings and opening credits) would be reused in the aforementioned “The Adventures of the Roadrunner”.

This is one of the very few Warner cartoons to not feature any anthropomorphic animals.

Favorite Scene:

Ralph’s fight against the number “warriors” on the chalkboard.

What Happens in This One:

At Valley View School, the students are seen reciting their math lesson aloud, “2 and 2 is 4; 4 and 4 is 8; 8 and 8 is 16; 16 and 16 is 32; 32 and 32 is 64”. Everyone that is, except Ralph, who is dreamily staring out the window and looking at a bird flying outside. The bird morphs into Ralph as Ralph imagines himself flying around in the air. Another Bird comes up to him and then begins saying, “Well, Mr. Phillips?” It turns out to actually be the teacher, Miss Wallace, “Daydreaming, again?” Ralph wakes up and gives a wide awake smile. Miss Wallace asks, “Oh, I’m so sorry. You were wide awake, weren’t you?” Ralph nods, so Miss Wallace requests, “Then perhaps you’ll show us how to do the problem on the blackboard” (animated by Lloyd Vaughan).

Ralph walks up to the blackboard and sees a very large sum written on it. He imagines the numbers are all laughing at him. A drawing of Ralph sneaks onto the blackboard and stops the numbers from laughing by pulling out the line that the answer would go under out from under them, causing the numbers to fall down into a pile. A number 5 gets up and uses a number 4 as a sword to fight Ralph with. Ralph shoves his stick through the 5’s body, causing it to collapse backward. More numbers charge at Ralph so he gets an uppercase “D” to use as a bow and an uppercase “Y” as an arrow, enabling him to deflate a charging number 8. Ralph then takes the dots off of both a lowercase “i” and a lowercase “j” and uses the former letter as a gun. He shoots a number 3 in half, before this soon fades back into reality where Ralph is imitating shooting the “i” gun, everyone laughing over this, and Miss Wallace saying his name over and over to get him to snap out of it (animated by Ben Washam).

Once Ralph finally does snap out of it, Miss Wallace decides, “You know, dear, what you need is a little fresh air (animated by Washam). Uh, will you drop this letter in the mailbox for me, please? Thank you, Ralph”. Ralph going out to mail the letter leads to him imagining himself as a Pony Express rider (from the “Pony Egspres Statiun”, and with backwards N’s) who is pursued by a tribe of Indians. They fire numerous arrows at him in pursuit but Ralph manages to hold them back with his gun where the word “BANG!” appears whenever he fires. After Ralph delivers the letter to the fort’s (actually the school’s) mailbox, he goes back and is chased by the Indians again. Though he is again able to hold them back with his shooting, he comes back with his right arm in a sling and full of arrows and his head bandaged . Back in reality, Ralph comes back to the room walking slowly and assuring, “Don’t you worry none about your ranch, Miss Wallace, ma’am. The money for the… mortgage has… gone through” before he passes out. The children all laugh again while Miss Wallace looks at the camera and lets out an “Mmm, yeah” (animated by Ken Harris).

Later, everyone is reciting about the geography of the US, with Ralph struggling to stay awake. Taking notice of the fish tank to his right, he goes into another daydream and imagines the fish as a “saber-tooth tiger shark” and a rock in the tank as a sunken US Navy ship. Above sea level is a US Navy Diving Ship where the captain tells Ralph, imagining himself as a sailor, “The submarine is 700 farthings deep. Can you do it, Phillips?” Ralph salutes and promises, “Even though I got a ‘C’ in Arithmetic, you can- I mean- you may depend on me, your Captain ship, sir”. A fellow sailor informs him, “Your deep sea diving suit is ready, me brave lad” (animated by Harris), only for Ralph to dismiss it, “We won’t be able to use a suit. The flanges would never hold up at such a deep depth”. Ralph only goes up to the top of the master shirtless and carrying a knife in his mouth, as everyone is heard talking about his bravery, “He’ll never possibly make it”; “What devotion”; “These waters are infested with the dread saber-tooth tiger shark. Why, they’re sure to get him”. The saber-tooth tiger shark sees Ralph swimming down toward the ship and goes down to ambush him. Becoming aware of his presence, Ralph swims up to the saber-tooth tiger shark with his knife and ends up slicing him in two. He then goes to the sunken ship and manages to lift up before having it float back up to the surface to safety. The nurse inside the sub holds up a sign, “Oh, Thank You, Thank You, Ralph!” Ralph swims up to the porthole and gives a “You’re Welcome” gesture, only for him to be grabbed by one of the tentacles of an octopus (animated by Washam).

Said octopus turns out to actually be Miss Wallace who has once more woken Ralph up from his daydream and is carrying him off to the corner, much to the children’s amusement, “Alright, young man. We’ll see if standing in the corner will wake you up”. Ralph then imagines this as the corner of a boxing ring where he is the challenger and is going up against the champ, who is several feet taller than him. He dodges the champ’s attacks before punching him in the stomach before walking away and then knocking the champ out by running up to him and punching him hard, defeating him (animated by Washam).

Ralph holds his arms up in victory when the boxing bell starts ringing. In reality, this is actually the school bell for the end of the day (animated by Washam). Miss Wallace asks him sweetly, “What’s the matter, dear? Didn’t you hear the bell? Don’t you wanna go home?” Ralph begins to walk out but then imagines himself as Douglas MacArthur and states, “I shall return!” before leaving (animated by Vaughan).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕