Release Date:

October 13, 1956

Main Character(s):

Sylvester, Elmer Fudd

Summary:

Elmer Fudd, as the King of the Elves, is surprised to see that all of his “W” elves are missing and finds out that those elves are helping the Shoemaker. He sends his messenger elf to get them back, but Sylvester, as the Shoemaker’s cat, keeps tricking his owner into saying “Jehoshaphat”, which gradually turns elves into mice. Elmer eventually arrives and teaches the Shoemaker the importance of capitalism.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1441 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue.

This is the last of the three cartoons produced for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and also the only one to be a fairy tale parody.

Sylvester only has two lines of dialogue in this one with those being “HA!” and “Sufferin’ succotash!”

The title is a pun for Yankee Doodle (which also plays under the opening credits).

Daws Butler’s voice for the messenger sounds similar to his voices for the title characters in Hanna-Barbera’s “Pixie and Dixie” (1958-1961).

“Powerhouse” plays during Elmer’s lecture.

Elmer pronounces “W” as “wubbleyou”.

This is the final pairing of Sylvester and Elmer.

Favorite Scene:

The “Jehoshaphat” subplot, especially when the Shoemaker reads out a Happy Birthday telegram written by Sylvester rather than singing it.

What Happens in This One:

In the woods where the elves reside, Elmer is finishing up his roll call of the elves, “Zacawinch?; “Ziggledee Dee?”; “Tom Doberman?”; “Zizzerzich?” After seeing they’re all present, Elmer says, “That compwetes the woll call fwom A to Z!” before looking at his list and realizing, “All the W’s are missing! Where’s Company W?” The messenger comes up and answers, “Those elves are helping the Shoemaker!” Elmer: “Shoemaker? What Shoemaker?” Messenger: “The Shoemaker of the story, ‘The Shoemaker and the Elves’! You remember!” Elmer reacts to this with a “What!?” that causes his crown to come off of his head. “That was a hundwed and fifty years ago! Doesn’t that Shoemaker know this is the 20th centuwy? Get them back! And if ya don’t, I’m gonna mark them all A. W. O. L!” As the messenger runs off to get them back, Elmer calls out to him, “And wemember, if you get in any twouble, say the magic word: wumplestiltskin!” After assuring Elmer that he’ll remember, the messenger walks off repeating “Rumplestiltskin” to himself (animated by Gerry Chiniquy).

At the Elf Shoe Co., the “W” elves are busy making the shoes while the Shoemaker is on the phone while laughing, “No, no! Nah, I’m not in the market for any machinery! Eh, my elves do all the work by hand and I don’t have to pay them anything either! Isn’t that nice? Hmm?” The messenger then comes in through the window as a small floating dot that glows. The Shoemaker then hangs up while chuckling, “Goodbye!” before noticing the glowing dot and mistaking it for a fly, which he hits with a fly swatter. The dot then changes into the messenger, who staggers around from the hit. The Shoemaker realizes, “A strange elf! Uh, What are YOU doing here?” After coming to, the messenger answers, “I’ve been sent to take all the elves back”. The Shoemaker becomes horrified at the thought and exclaims, “WHAT!?” before stammering, “But how can I run my business, uh, without elves!?” (animated by Virgil Ross)

The messenger replies, “Hm, that’s easy. Run it like the other manufacturers do!” The Shoemaker explains, “Uh, but I don’t know HOW the other manufacturers run their business! Oh, what’ll I do!? Great Jehoshaphat!” Jehoshaphat is revealed to be a trigger word as it causes the messenger to grow a mouse’s tail. The messenger warns, “Don’t ever say that word again! It changes we elves into mice!” (animated by Ross)

Upon hearing the word “mice”, Sylvester, who’s sleeping atop a large piece of furniture, looks at the messenger and his mouse tail. The messenger notices Sylvester as the Shoemaker apologizes, “Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll never say Jehosha-”, before the messenger runs up to pull on his upper lip to get him to prevent him saying the entire word, “No! Don’t say it!” He then points to Sylvester, who gives a devious expression at this. The messenger then tries to remember, “Mm, let’s see now. What was that magic word? Rumple? Roomple? Eh, rumple?” (animated by Arthur Davis)

Sylvester sneaks off the furniture and out the door. As the messenger paces back and forth trying to remember the magic word, the Shoemaker asks him, “Uh, but what about my business?” The messenger tells him, “I’ll help you before I take the elves!” The phone then rings so the Shoemaker goes to answer it. Calling him from the other end is Sylvester from a phone booth (animated by Davis). The Shoemaker answers into the phone, “Yes? Eh, Mr. Who? Eh, no, no! There’s no Mr. Jehoshaphat here!” This causes the messenger to now grow mouse ears before he scolds, “NOW look what you’ve done!” He continues pacing back and forth, “I’ve just GOT to think of that magic word!” (animated by Chiniquy). Sylvester then slides a telegram under the door, which the Shoemaker notices and opens up to read it. He reads it aloud rather than singing it, “Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Jehoshaphat-”, before slapping his mouth in horror upon realizing what he just said. This time, the messenger fully transforms into a mouse (animated by Davis).

Sylvester bursts into the room on all four’s while exclaiming, “HA!” and then chases the messenger into a mouse hole in the wall. Sylvester grabs a nearby wire and bends it to become a hook in an attempt to reach for the messenger. Due to the messenger being up against the wall out of the way, Sylvester mistakenly hooks an electric wire that gives him a tremendous electric shock when the wire touches the other one next to it. The messenger runs out of the hole and up to a table to look through a phone book, “I just got to remember that word!” He flips through the pages, “A… P… Q…R…” and then starts reading through the R’s, tearing off a small part of the page when Sylvester picks him up to eat, “Rumplemayor”; “Rumplemeyer”; “Rumpleritter”; “Rumplestein”; “Ah, here it is! Rumplestiltskin!” This causes him to change back to his usual self, much to Sylvester’s displeasure, “Sufferin’ succotash!” (animated by Davis)

The Shoemaker then comes in and picks Sylvester up to put him atop the furniture he was sleeping on earlier, “Now, kitty, you stop interfering!” The messenger chuckles, “Sorry to disappoint you, pussycat!” before another small glowing dot floats in. It turns out to be Elmer, whose crown falls off when the dot becomes him. “Oh, dwat it!”, he exclaims as he puts his crown back on his head. “Now, will somebody expwain why the elves haven’t weturned yet!?” The Shoemaker replies, “But I want to stay in business. How can I do it?” (animated by Chiniquy)

Elmer asks, “Business? Well,….” as he pulls out his magic wand, “Wet me expwain it THIS way”. The wand makes a flannel-graph with a photo of an old-fashioned shed at work and a horse coming out to pull a carriage as he explains, “A manufactuwer who sticks to old equipment cannot compete and must fail. To survive, he must persuade people to wisk savings in his business”. After a few checks are shown on the flannel-graph, the old-fashioned shed is replaced with a larger, modern one before two trucks drive out of it, “He can then buy new equipment, incwease pwoduction, and show a pwofit!” (animated by Chiniquy)

The Shoemaker assumes, “And HE keeps the profit!” Elmer chuckles, “Oh, no! That’s what a wot of people think! But he DOESN’T!” He continues, “Out of pwofit, he must pay dividends to investors. Pwofit must be put back into the business to buy newer and better machinewy”. Several trucks are seen driving out of the modern shed on the flannel-graph. The Shoemaker asks, “Spend his profit on machinery? Uh, when does it all end?” Elmer replies, “It NEVER ends! Constant wepwacement with the watest machinewy makes the industwy more efficient, thus enabling it to pay higher wages and still make a pwofit!” Cars are shown departing from the ACME Tool Co. as a worker goes home. While various trucks on a busy highway and then numerous department stores are shown, Elmer finishes, “This efficient opewation also wesults in more goods, a better quality, and pwoduces them at a lower cost to evewyone!” Inspired, the Shoemaker stands up and declares, “By thunder, if that’s the way it’s done, I’LL do it!” (animated by Ross)

Months pass from May to October and the Elf Shoe Co. is now significantly larger with more people parking near it. The interior is also a lot richer than it previously was and the Shoemaker is now wearing much nicer clothes. Elmer returns as a glowing, floating dot, which causes the Shoemaker to ask, “Is that you again?” When the dot becomes Elmer, who drops his crown once more, Elmer tells him, “I came back to see how you were pwogwessing!” The elated Shoemaker opens a large filing cabinet, “Oh, just wonderful! Look at all the orders! We’ve got 500 people working now, and next month we’re expanding! (laughs) The whole town’s marching forward! Boots! Boots! Boots!”, as he marches in place. “Uh, which reminds me, I have to think of a name for our new line. Ah, I’ve got it! The Jehoshaphat Boot!” This causes Elmer to fully transform into a mouse, and get the attention of Sylvester, who was sleeping on a couch. Elmer also forgets the word that’s supposed to change him back, “Now, what was that magic word?” and runs out with Sylvester chasing him as the Shoemaker watches. During the chase, Elmer frantically says similar-sounding nonsensical words before the iris-out closes on him shouting, “Wumplestiltskin!” (animated by Chiniquy)

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½