One Froggy Evening

''One Froggy Evening'' is a 1955 American Technicolor animated musical short film written by Michael Maltese and directed by Chuck Jones, with musical direction by Milt Franklyn. The short, partly inspired by a 1944 Cary Grant film entitled '' Once Upon a Time'' involving a dancing caterpillar in a small box, marks the debut of Michigan J. Frog. This popular short contained a wide variety of musical entertainment, with songs ranging from " Hello! Ma Baby" and "I'm Just Wild About Harry", two Tin Pan Alley classics, to "Largo al Factotum", Figaro's aria from the opera ''Il Barbiere di Siviglia''. The short was released on December 31 1955 as part of Warner Bros.' ''Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons.

In 1994, it was voted of ''The 50 Greatest Cartoons'' of all time by members of the animation field. In 2003, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

The film is included in the '' Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2'' DVD box set (Disc 4), along with an audio commentary, optional music-only audio track (only the instrumental, not the vocal), and a making-of documentary, ''It Hopped One Night: A Look at "One Froggy Evening"''. It was also attached to the theatrical release of '' Little Giants'' in 1994 and was subsequently featured on that film's VHS release.

Plot

A mid-1950s construction worker involved in the demolition of the "J. C. Wilber Building" pries off the top of the cornerstone and finds a metal box within. The unnamed man opens the box and finds, along with a commemorative document dated April 16, 1892, a live frog inside with an appropriately-sized top hat and cane. After the frog suddenly performs a musical number on the spot, the man sees an opportunity to cash in on the frog's anthropomorphic talents and sneaks away from the demolition site with the frog and the box under his arm.

Every attempt the man makes to exploit the frog fails: the frog will perform only when its owner alone is present, and it finishes each performance, devolving into an ordinary croaking frog, before the man can show anyone else its talent. Remaining unaware of this reality, the man first takes the frog to a talent agent. After getting kicked out due to the frog's apparent inability to act, he uses all of his life savings to rent an abandoned theater to showcase the frog on his own (he is only able to get an audience with the promise of "Free Beer"). The frog performs atop a high wire behind the closed curtain, but as the curtain begins rising, he winds down the song and, by the time he is fully revealed to the crowd, he has again reverted to being an ordinary frog, resulting in the man being pelted with rotten vegetables by the booing crowd.

As a result of these failures, the man is now homeless and living on a park bench, where the frog still performs only for him. A policeman overhears the singing and approaches the man, who points to the frog as the singer. When the frog again presents itself as ordinary, the policeman arrests the man for disturbing the peace and has him committed to a psychiatric hospital along with the frog, who continues serenading the hapless patient. Following his release, the now haggard and destitute man, still carrying the box with the frog inside, notices the construction site where he originally found the box and happily dumps it into the new cornerstone for the future " Tregoweth Brown Building" before running away, overjoyed to be finally getting rid of what has become his burden.

In 2056, a century later, the Brown Building is itself being demolished using futuristic tools, and the box with the frog is discovered again by a 21st-century demolition man who, after also envisioning a cash bonanza, absconds with the frog, thus starting the cycle anew.

Production notes

The cartoon has no spoken dialogue or vocals except by the frog. The frog's vocals are provided by singer and bandleader Bill Roberts. The frog had no name when the cartoon was made, but Chuck Jones later named him Michigan J. Frog after the song "The Michigan Rag", which was written for the cartoon. Jones and his animators studied real-life frogs to achieve the successful transition from an ordinary frog to a high-stepping entertainer. The character became the mascot of The WB television network in the 1990s. In a clip shown in the DVD specials for the ''Looney Tunes Golden Collection'', Jones states that he started calling the character "Michigan Frog" in the 1970s. During an interview with writer Jay Cocks

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