Release Date:

February 15, 1947

Main Character(s):

None

Summary:

While a couple romances at the park on a lovely spring day, a colony of ants make off with their picnic, where we see ants carrying off food gags.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 8-15, the 8th Merrie Melodie in the 15th release season. This is also the final cartoon to use the old production number system, as every cartoon after this up until the original studio’s closure in 1964 would use the four-digit production numbers.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue. “While Strolling Through the Park” played under the opening credits:

Story: Tedd Pierce and Michael Maltese

Animation: Ken Champin, Virgil Ross, Gerry Chiniquy, and Manuel Perez

Layouts: Hawley Pratt

Backgrounds: Terry Lind

Musical Direction: Carl Stalling

Directed by I. Freleng

This is the second of Freleng’s three cartoons centered around ants with “The Fighting 69 1/2th” being the first, this one being the middle cartoon, and “Ant Pasted” (1953) being the last. This is also the only one that isn’t war-themed.

The cartoon is also similar to “Of Thee I Sting” in that they are both Freleng cartoons centered around insects (that one is focused on mosquitoes).

The title is a pun for the “Gay Nineties”, which makes sense as the cartoon takes place in the 1890’s.

The cartoon is notable for subverting the trope of “everyone loves the female singer” (Tex Avery used this often in his cartoons with Red). Here, the ants’ female singer sings in a very high-pitched voice that all of the other ants (except for the one accompanying her on piano) find annoying and duck for cover to avoid hearing her. There is also no dialogue in this cartoon apart from this scene.

A bottle of jam is labeled as “Frisby’s Pure Jam”, which is a reference to Freleng.

This is the shortest Warner cartoon of 1947 as the circulating Blue Ribbon copy runs for only 6 minutes and 23 seconds.

What I Like About This One:

The entire opening is accompanied by a really fun rendition of “Movie Rag” as one couple and their children do a kick dance while entering the park while another couple has their spoiled brat son do all the peddling on their built-for-three bicycle. The ants also dance out of their anthill, doing a kick dance (animated by Gerry Chiniquy).

As the main couple in the cartoon are first seen, the man is plucking the petals off a flower, presumably doing the “loves me, loves me not” bit. When she looks at him with one eye closed, the left end of his mustache briefly forms into a hand that waves to her. To the tune of “While Strolling Through the Park”, his fingers walk up to hers and then chase them, before their fingers run when the music gets faster. This sequence ends with the man’s fingers getting caught in a mousetrap (animated by Ken Champin).

The ants start their raid with six ants taking one piece of cake each with the cherry on top being suspended in mid-air until an ant with a toothpick appears to carry it off for himself (animated by Virgil Ross).

Makeshift vehicles are also constructed via several connected hot dogs being used as a train, and a few more having donuts for wheels and a banana for a body (animated by Ross).

A running gag involves a sandwich brigade of pairs of ants passing one item for a sandwich a chef ant is constructing down to the next pair of ants. They are told via sign to “Hold the Onion” the first time they do this, so the ants pass it to each other in reverse, with the final four in the brigade tossing it aside. Every time, the chef ant finishes a sandwich, however, it’s grabbed by the man for him to eat, much to the chef ant’s annoyance (animated by Manuel Perez).

Four ants eat through Russian Rye bread and put olives atop their heads before doing the Russian kick dance (animated by Chiniquy).

One ant on skis climbs atop of a mountain of ice cream through a snowstorm effect to get the cherry on top (animated by Ross).

Another group of ants play pool on a sardine can with peas with the pockets being the open mouths of the ants (animated by Chiniquy).

A piano-playing ant (whose instrument is made from another sardine can and sounds very off-key) accompanies a female ant singer who sings “Time Waits for No One” in a very high-pitched voice. Instead of the male ants going crazy over her, they all find the performance irritating. One ant takes refuge in a glass of lemonade and uses the straw to breathe while inside the drink, another hides inside an olive, while another conceals himself in an empty jar. The performance ends with two ants splatting a banana in the singer’s face (animated by Champin).

Eventually, the chef ant becomes so fed up with the man taking his sandwich, that he puts the woman’s hand in between two pieces of bread and puts mustard on it (in real life, that would be disgusting). Oblivious, the man chomps into it, causing the woman to scream before slapping him into the lake (animated by Perez).

The catchy rendition of “Movie Rag” from the beginning returns as the ants dance back into their hole with small foods like strawberries, olives, crackers, and grapes, while another one carries a watermelon, and manages to pull it down into the anthill as the iris-out closes (animated by Chiniquy).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕