Beauty And The Beast (1934 Film)
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''Beauty and the Beast'' is a 1934
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
''
Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animated comedy short film series distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was part of the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise and featured many of the same characters. Originally running from August 2, 1931, to Septem ...
''
animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...
short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...
, directed by
Friz Freleng Isadore "Friz" Freleng (; August 21, 1905May 26, 1995), credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, Film director, director, Film producer, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons ...
. The short was released on April 14, 1934. Except for its title and the inclusion of a "beastly" character, the film has nothing in common with the fairy tale of the same name.


Plot summary

As the clock strikes ten, a young girl sneaks out of her nursery for a late night snack of fruit and chocolate, which may be the cause of the strange dream that follows. On her return to the nursery, the
Sandman The Sandman is a mythical character originating in Germanic and Scandinavian folklore who puts people to sleep and encourages and inspires beautiful dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes. Representation in traditional folklore The San ...
comes to life from the nursery mural, and sends her in a dream to Toyland, inhabited by fairyland characters. A trio of identical heralds sing her a welcome song, but also warn her of the Beast she must avoid, lest he eat her. The girl witnesses a toy parade and is smitten with a toy soldier ("Ain't he cute?"). The soldier takes her to Fairytale Land, where they open a huge book titled "
Beauty and the Beast "Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy tale written by the French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in (''The Young American and Marine Tales''). Villeneuve's lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and publish ...
" and, reading the text, sing a song about a girl menaced by a monster. When they turn the page, the huge, shaggy, half-human Beast leaps out of the book and seizes the girl. The toy soldier sends a toy airplane to attack the Beast, and tries to fire a cannon at him, but these tactics prove ineffective. And just as it appears that the girl is doomed, she awakens on the floor of her nursery, and when she realizes that it was all a bad dream, she leaps into her crib and cowers under the covers as the flap of her pajamas falls open, revealing her bare buttocks.


Production

By early 1934,
Friz Freleng Isadore "Friz" Freleng (; August 21, 1905May 26, 1995), credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, Film director, director, Film producer, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons ...
was appointed the main director of the ''
Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animated comedy short film series distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was part of the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise and featured many of the same characters. Originally running from August 2, 1931, to Septem ...
'', following the departures of other directors from Leon Schlesinger Productions (the company later known as
Warner Bros. Cartoons Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was an American animation studio, serving as the in-house animation division of Warner Bros. during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, it was ...
). ''Beauty and the Beast'' (released in April 1934) was the first ''Merrie Melodies'' animated short film directed by Freleng. It was a color film, using a two-color process. However, following its release, Freleng would direct six short films in
black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...
. Among them were '' The Girl at the Ironing Board'' and '' The Miller's Daughter''.Barrier (2003), Warner Bros., pp. unnumbered pages From November 1934 onwards, the ''Merrie Melodies'' switched to only including color films. The sibling series ''
Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside its spin-off series ''Merrie Melodies'', during t ...
'' continued to be produced in black and white. Animation historian
Michael Barrier Michael J. Barrier (born June 15, 1940) is an American animation historian, author, and critic, best known for his extensive research on the history of American animation and comic art. He is the author of ''Hollywood Cartoons: American Animat ...
reports that other than the use of color, there is little to set ''Beauty and the Beast'' apart from a typical ''Merrie Melodies'' film, as directed by Rudy Ising. Freleng as a director was extending and revising formulas established by Ising. Part of the strong resemblance was unsurprising. Freleng himself had drawn the character layouts for most of Ising's ''Merrie Melodies''. But there were also other similarities; down to the details. For example, the little girl of the film exclaims "Ain't he cute?". A very similar phrase, "Ain't that cute?", was used as
Bosko Bosko is an animated cartoon character created by animators Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising. Bosko was the first recurring character in Leon Schlesinger's cartoon series and was the star of thirty-nine ''Looney Tunes'' shorts released by Warn ...
's
catchphrase A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...
in multiple Harman and Ising ''Looney Tunes'' films. The plot of the film follows a formula that had been previously used in Ising's ''Merrie Melodies'' and in early ''
Silly Symphonies ''Silly Symphony'' (also known as ''Silly Symphonies'') is an American animation, animated series of 75 musical short films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939. As the series name implies, the ''Si ...
''. The films of this type opened with characters dancing and singing, then these activities were interrupted by the actions of a
villain A villain (also known as a " black hat", "bad guy" or "baddy"; The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.126 "baddy (also baddie) noun (pl. -ies) ''informal'' a villain or criminal in a book, film, etc.". the feminine form is villai ...
. The defeat of the villain required the combined efforts of the dancers and singers. Freleng would follow this formula in several of his subsequent ''Merrie Melodies''.


References


Sources

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External links

* * {{Friz Freleng 1934 films 1934 comedy films Cinecolor films 1930s Warner Bros. animated short films American animated black-and-white films Films scored by Norman Spencer (composer) Films about dreams Films about sentient toys Films set in fictional countries Sandman in film Short films directed by Friz Freleng Merrie Melodies short films Warner Bros. Cartoons animated short films 1934 animated short films