''From A to Z-Z-Z-Z'' is a 1954 Warner Bros. ''

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series '' Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation. ...

animated cartoon Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

short directed by

Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, director, and painter, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the '' Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He wrote, pro ...

. The short was released on October 16, 1954, and stars Ralph Phillips. Written by

Michael Maltese Michael Maltese (February 6, 1908 – February 22, 1981) was an American story man for classic animated cartoon shorts. He is best known for working in the 1950s on a series of '' Merrie Melodies'' cartoons with director Chuck Jones, notably " ...

and produced by Edward Selzer, it was animated by Ken Harris, Lloyd Vaughan and Ben Washam. Voice actors Dick Beals,Ralph Phillips
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

Archived
from the original on November 4, 2016.

Mel Blanc Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for comedy r ...

and Norman Nesbitt were uncredited. Sources are divided whether the uncredited teacher was voiced by

Bea Benaderet Beatrice Benaderet ( ; April 4, 1906 – October 13, 1968) was an American actress and comedienne. Born in New York City and raised in San Francisco, she began performing in Bay Area theatre and radio before embarking on a Hollywood career that s ...

. The short was nominated for " Best Short Subject, Cartoons" at the 1954 Academy Awards. Ralph appears in a sequel cartoon, '' Boyhood Daze'', released in 1957.

Plot

The cartoon begins with an exterior shot of an elementary school classroom. Through the windows, schoolchildren are visible at their desks. They are learning arithmetic by rote. The main character, Ralph Phillips, is bored with this lesson; on seeing a bird outside, he imagines that he is free to use his arms and legs to propel himself through the air. Miss Wallace interrupts this

daydream Daydreaming is the stream of consciousness that detaches from current, external tasks when attention drifts to a more personal and internal direction. This phenomenon is common in people's daily life shown by a large-scale study in which partici ...

and sends Ralph to the blackboard to add a column of numbers. He is so intimidated by the problem, he fantasizes that the numbers come to life and laugh at him. He appears as a chalk drawing on the blackboard, sneaks toward the numbers and removes the line above where the sum should be; the numbers (having no support) collapse. A 5 suddenly stands up, using a 4 as a sword and Ralph fights it using the line as a weapon. Ralph sticks the line into the 5, defeating it. The other numbers get up and give chase. Ralph takes the capital D and Y from the alphabet row above and uses them to make a bow and arrow; he fires at an 8, destroying it. He then takes the dots from both the lowercase i and j and loads them into the i, using the i as a weapon similar to a shotgun. Miss Wallace brings Ralph back to reality and sends him out to mail a letter. He responds by becoming a

Pony Express The Pony Express was an American express mail service that used relays of horse-mounted riders. It operated from April 3, 1860, to October 26, 1861, between Missouri and California. It was operated by the Central Overland California and Pike ...

courier who braves a horde of Indians on what becomes his desert journey. Back in the classroom, he finds the geography lesson tedious until the sight of a fish in an aquarium triggers his next daydream — as a deep-sea diver, with no gear except a knife, who dives to a depth of "seven hundred farthings" to kill a shark which is guarding an immobilized submarine. He then lifts the submarine, allowing it to float freely to safety (on board is Miss Wallace dressed as a nurse; she holds up a sign reading, "Oh, thank you, thank you, Ralph!") As Ralph is acknowledging this, an octopus tentacle grabs him around his throat; this turns out to be Miss Wallace escorting him by his shirt collar into the corner, for not paying attention during class. This, however, does not stop him from turning the classroom into a boxing ring where he knocks out the champ. As he is celebrating this, the scene segues back into the classroom, where the boxing ring bell turns out to be the classroom bell. The children have all left for the day and Miss Wallace tells Ralph he may go too. As he is walking from the room, Ralph imagines himself as a striding

Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was ...

and repeats the general's most famous line: "I shall return."

Reception

Darrell Van Citters writes, "Of all the Warner Bros. directors, Chuck Jones seems to have relied least on conventional formulas for his story material. Part of this was probably due to his personal preferences and part of it was due to his ace story man, Mike Maltese... Credit goes to Maltese for suggesting such a gentle cartoon in a studio that relied heavily on adversarial relationships in its films, and credit to Jones for agreeing to make it. It also provided rich material for production designer Maurice Noble's vision of the role of animation design in a cartoon. For a film to work as well as this one does means that the material has to resonate with all members of the creative team."

Home media

This short is included on Disc 2 of the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1 DVD and

Blu-ray Disc The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

sets.

References

External links

* * *All abou
Ralph Phillips
on

Official Website. {{Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies 1954 films 1954 animated films 1954 short films Looney Tunes shorts Short films directed by Chuck Jones 1950s Warner Bros. animated short films Films scored by Carl Stalling Cultural depictions of Douglas MacArthur Films with screenplays by Michael Maltese Films set in schools 1950s English-language films