''Sheep Ahoy'' is a 1954

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

'' Merrie Melodies'' cartoon directed by Chuck Jones. The short was released on December 11, 1954, and stars Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog. Mel Blanc provided for the voices of all the characters in this cartoon, however, like all Sam Wolf and Ralph Sheepdog shorts, this short is mostly composed of

visual gag In comedy, a visual gag or sight gag is anything which conveys its humour visually, often without words being used at all. The gag may involve a physical impossibility or an unexpected occurrence. The humor is caused by alternative interpretatio ...

s. This is the second short featuring Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog. The title is a play on the phrase "Ship ahoy!"

Plot

This story revolves around Ralph Wolf (here named George) trying to steal the sheep guarded by Sam Sheepdog (here called Fred), who has just exchanged shifts with co-worker Fred Sheepdog (here called Ralph). As Ralph runs off with a sheep, Sam pushes a rock over the ledge, which falls on the wolf's head. Ralph promptly lets the sheep go before falling over in a daze, a lump consequently growing on his head. # Ralph first attempts to drop a large boulder on Sam, but a tree branch catches the boulder and propels it upwards again as it crushes Ralph. # Ralph then tries to pole vault over Sam, but Sam grabs the pole, lowers it over the edge until Ralph is eye level with Sam, and punches him in the face. # Ralph surrounds himself with a cloud of smoke from an Acme

smoke bomb A smoke bomb is a firework designed to produce a large amount of smoke upon ignition. History Early Japanese history saw the use of a rudimentary form of the smoke bomb. Explosives were common in Japan during the Mongol invasions of the 13 ...

to avoid detection. However, Sam, having headed him off at the pass, drops a stick of dynamite in his smoke cloud, blowing Ralph up. Ralph stumbles backwards uncoordinated and, unable to watch where he's going, falls off a log perched above a cliff. # Ralph uses an Acme disguise, an artificial rock, but Sam isn't fooled; he pulls out a sledgehammer, walks over to the "rock", and hits it with such force that Ralph breaks apart into a number of pebbles, which all move into Ralph's cave. # Ralph dives off a cliff while tied to a very large helium balloon and carrying a fishing rod to snag a sheep. He accidentally snags his balloon with his

fish hook A fish hook or fishhook, formerly also called angle (from Old English ''angol'' and Proto-Germanic ''*angulaz''), is a hook used to catch fish either by piercing and embedding onto the inside of the fish mouth (angling) or, more rarely, by impal ...

and rips it, sending him flying into the horizon before he finally comes crashing down. # Ralph tunnels under the field. As he reaches up through the holes, he feels what appears to be a sheep and pulls it into his tunnel. Unfortunately, it's actually four fake sheep legs strapped to a drum of

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

(presumably placed there by Sam), which goes off. After the explosion, Ralph places the drum back where it was sitting before politely refilling his hole. # Ralph swims through a stream with a pedal-powered submarine to catch a sheep which is taking a drink of water. As he swims towards his target, Sam holds a sign in front of his periscope which reads "DETOUR". Ralph follows it and realizes too late that he was tricked into going over a waterfall. Ralph vainly tries to pedal back as he falls off the waterfall. By the time he re-emerges from the water, pedaling off in a fit of delusion, the submarine is badly damaged and broken. # Finally, Ralph tries to propel Sam off his perch by placing a teeter totter under Sam and dropping a rock on it from a large height. Sam is propelled straight upward toward Ralph's cliff, where he grabs Ralph by the neck and begins punching him in the face. Eventually, the time clock whistle blows and Ralph and Sam change shifts with their replacements

Wile E. Coyote Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner are a duo of cartoon characters from the '' Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' series of animated cartoons, first appearing in 1949 in the theatrical cartoon short '' Fast and Furry-ous''. In each episod ...

(here called Sam) and Fred Sheepdog. Their replacements stand in the same position that Sam and Ralph were standing in before the whistle blew and Fred begins punching Wile E. in the face.

Inconsistency in naming

Like '' Don't Give Up the Sheep'', the names of the characters are inconsistent in this short compared to the rest of the shorts. At the beginning of the short, Sam the sheepdog is coming on duty to replace another sheepdog named Fred. As the two pass, Fred calls Sam "Fred" and Sam calls Fred "Ralph". At the end of the short they reverse the names. This is also the only Ralph Wolf/Sam Sheepdog cartoon to feature Wile E. Coyote, he appears as Ralph's replacement and he refers to Ralph as "George", and Ralph refers to Wile E. as "Sam".

Home media

This short is available on the ''Looney Tunes Collectors Edition: Canine Corps'' VHS from Columbia House.

References

External links

* {{Chuck Jones 1954 films 1954 animated films 1954 short films Merrie Melodies short films Short films directed by Chuck Jones Animated films about dogs Animated films about wolves 1950s Warner Bros. animated short films Films with screenplays by Michael Maltese Films scored by Milt Franklyn 1950s English-language films Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog films

Plot

Inconsistency in naming

Home media

See also

References

External links