Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons [Paperback]

Jerry Beck (Author), Will Friedwald (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 1989

Everything you always wanted to know about Warner Bros. cartoons but were afraid to ask, this complete and indispensable reference will delight adults, children, and audiences all over the world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Seldom have so many of us Johnsons owed so much to so few Boswells; Jerry Beck and Will Friedwald have produced the best-indeed the only-dependable and honest history of the Warner Bros. cartoons."-Chuck Jones

About the Author

Jerry Beck is an animation historian and cartoon producer. His over fifteen books on the subject include The Animated Movie Guide, Looney Tunes: The Ultimate Visual Guide and The 50 Greatest Cartoons. He is also co-founder/co-writer of the popular animation blog, Cartoon Brew.

Beck is a former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney, and is currently a consulting producer to Warner Bros., Universal and Disney for their classic animation dvd compilations. Beck has programmed retrospectives for the Annecy and Ottawa Animation Festivals, The Museum of Modern Art and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. He has taught animation history at NYU, SVA, the AFI and UCLA. He is the host/producer of the annual “Worst Cartoons Ever” screening at the Comic-Con International: San Diego.

Beck started his career in film distribution, working at MGM/UA, Orion Classics, Cannon Films and Expanded Entertainment (Tournee of Animation), before starting his own company, Streamline Pictures in 1989, the first U.S. distributor to import anime features such as Otomo’s Akira and Miyazaki’s Laputa: Castle In The Sky. Beck was instrumental in launching Animation Magazine, and has written for The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. Beck was also the West Coast Bureau Chief for Kidscreen magazine in 2000. He has also created, written and produced animated films for various clients. His latest animation project, Hornswiggle, recently aired on the Nicktoons Network.

Product Details

• Paperback: 396 pages
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks; 1st edition (June 15, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805008942
• ISBN-13: 978-0805008944
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #634,905 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jerry Beck is an animation historian and cartoon producer. His over fifteen books on the subject include The Animated Movie Guide, Looney Tunes: The Ultimate Visual Guide and The 50 Greatest Cartoons. He is also co-founder/co-writer of the popular animation blog, Cartoon Brew.

Beck is a former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney, and is currently a consulting producer to Warner Bros., Universal and Disney for their classic animation dvd compilations. Beck has programmed retrospectives for the Annecy and Ottawa Animation Festivals, The Museum of Modern Art and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. He has taught animation history at NYU, SVA, the AFI and UCLA. He is the host/producer of the annual "Worst Cartoons Ever" screening at the Comic-Con International: San Diego.

Beck started his career in film distribution, working at MGM/UA, Orion Classics, Cannon Films and Expanded Entertainment (Tournee of Animation), before starting his own company, Streamline Pictures in 1989, the first U.S. distributor to import anime features such as Otomo's Akira and Miyazaki's Laputa: Castle In The Sky. Beck was instrumental in launching Animation Magazine, and has written for The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. Beck was also the West Coast Bureau Chief for Kidscreen magazine in 2000. He has also created, written and produced animated films for various clients. His latest animation project, Hornswiggle, recently aired on the Nicktoons Network.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Lists 'Em All!, September 4, 2000

By 

W. Langan "take403" (the end of the world to your town!) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons (Paperback)

I liked what most of the reviewers had to say about this book. For anybody who is a fan of the animated Warner Bros. cartoons, this book is a must for you. It's hard to keep up with the titles of certain cartoons (I mean how many people know the singing frog cartoon as "One Froggy Evening" or the cartoon featuring "Tea For Two" with the tapdance duet with Bugs and Daffy as "Show Biz Bugs"?).

This guide deals with them all (one reviewer says this is 1,000)- from the beginning with the black and white Bosco cartoons (1930)to the early days of Porky Pig (no, Mel Blanc was not the original voice; he didn't supply Porky's voice until about 1938), to the evolution of Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd (Mel Blanc was not the original voice of this character either; Arthur Q Bryan was), Daffy Duck, Tweety, Speedy Gonzales, the 1st color Looney Tune (circa 1942), to the introduction of Yosemite Sam, Sylvester, the Roadrunner and Coyote, Sylvester, jr, the Tasmanian Devil (who became very famous despite the fact that he was only in about 4 cartoons during this period of 4 decades), to the closing of the Warner Bros studio in 1969 (whose final days brought us many forgettable catoon characters like Cool Cat and Merlin the Magical Mouse).

It mentions who directed each cartoon (Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Tex Avery, and others) who composed the music (often Carl Stalling or Milt Franklyn), and includes a synopsis of each and every cartoon.

A lot of hard work went into putting this together, obviously. If you loved these cartoons as a kid and still do, this book is for you! Th-th-th-th-that's all, folks!

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's too bad more people don't know about this book., December 18, 1999

By 

grundle2600 "grundle2600" (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons (Paperback)

This book contains plot summaries and credits for every classic Warner Bros cartoon ever made. Do you understand what that means? Do you understand the magnitude of that statement?

Warner Bros made approximately 1,000 animated shorts between 1930 and 1970. I watched many of them numerous times while growing up. There are lots of others that I have never seen. But at least with this book, I now know what is out there.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly a Fantastic Resource!, October 12, 2000

By 

Todd Hawley (San Francisco CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons (Paperback)

If you like me grew up watching those great old Warner brothers cartoons and still love them, this book is for you. Listing virtually every cartoon the Warner brothers studio put out from the 1930s through the late 1980s was quite a task. And I'm sure Beck & Friedwald must have thought it would never end ("sayyyy, there's something awfully screwwy goin on around here!" to quote Elmer Fudd).

Yeah by year each cartoon that was ever made is listed, complete with the people who produced it, date of original release, list of characters, and the plot and story of the cartoon. There's even a list at the back of the book of all the network TV cartoon specials.

If you've ever read anything about the cartoonists that did these cartoons, you know they were probably a bit loony themselves. But Thank God, they had such a creative outlet for their looneyness!

The book is 11 years old, and I would love to see an updated version. Even so, if you're a Warner brothers cartoon fan like me and want a book that is an excellent resource for all these great old cartoons, this book is a must!