Director / Moderator
Posted:
Aug 19, 2005, 8:36 PM
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Naked ladies
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Any eagle-eye may have noticed that in the backgrounds of several classic WB toons nude females* can be seen. Here's a list of some of the cartoons in which they appear:
The Wabbit Who Came to Supper (by Friz Freleng c. 1942)
Daffy the Commando (by Friz Freleng c. 1943)
Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears (by Chuck Jones c. 1944)
Bugs Bunny Rides Again (by Friz Freleng c. 1948)
Hare Do (by Friz Freleng c. 1949)
Curtain Razor (by Friz Freleng c. 1949)
If I've missed any please add them to this list.
*Note: This is in no way any attempt to decry the Looney Tunes or have them banned. Quite the contrary. This list is posted as admiration for the men and women at the original Warner Bros. studio who embodied the spirit of NOT just talking down to kids with their cartoons but instead giving them an adult flavour that has made them the best and most influencial short films of all time. Please keep that in mind. Anyone who does post here with fire and brimstone pouring out of their keyboard going on about how all this is disgusting somehow well................... will be chewed out by me either here or through as many PMs as necessary. :P
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http://exposure.cbc.ca/video/hansel-und-gretel
(This post was edited by damfine on Aug 19, 2005, 8:40 PM)
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Supervising Animator
Posted:
Aug 19, 2005, 11:37 PM
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Shame on you for pointing out naked people on cartoons!!! ***JUST KIDDING***
By the way, there are also nudes in "The Awful Orphan" (1949).
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Animator
Posted:
Aug 20, 2005, 5:23 AM
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It's obvious initially cartoons were not entirely meant for children, if they were even at all the target audience. The conclusion may have been that kids just didn't catch what they were seeing OR hearing.
Or I guess we might say that it is quite obvious that the WB cartoons weren't meant entirely for kids.
Children didn't come away singing "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" from the Three Little Pigs, otherwise we would have seen the Barney song "I Love YOu, You Love Me" become a number one hit about a decade ago, but it didn't happen.
It was those other than small children watching these cartoons.
If the movie, the cartoon, the newsreel and the short were changed out every week, it seems quite obvious that if any animated image were unanimously offensive to those theatre goers, there were endless amounts of other cartoons to choose from and show.
And if anyone who DID think cartoons were for the kids and saw an unclothed nubile female form in one and expressed "well, what maturity," I doubt that they made a point of watching more cartoons to see more lovelies.
Your most devout Bible thumpers back then thought that movies and film were of the devil to begin with, so if the cartoon title was "The Inspirational adventures of Jesus Christ" they still wouldn't darken a theatre.
I do recall one of the old little WB storybook cartoons, where all the small children characters talked like Sniffles, had grown mermaid women and they were topless.
Truthfully, as a child, I was more taken aback by the WB cartoon with Abbott and Costello as the cats and Abbott tells Costello if their next plan doesn't work, . . . . "then I'm a jackass."
The plan didn't work.
Costello, "jackass! Jackass! Yer a jackass!"
---- "Gyah, man, I don't see what the problem is . . . "
Yea, yea, yea, we really hear the term 'Jackass' in Yogi Bear and Smurf cartoons, and Scooby Doo, and I did say AS A CHILD. I was a very pre-judgemental kid.
And I think others have often noted when Costello tells Abbott he would like to give him the boid.
I find it inappropriate for persons who go "I think showing two male figures of Yogi and BooBoo sleeping in the same bed is wrong. That cartoon should be taken off the air completely. It is too suggestive."
But I also find behavior of "if you don't like it, tough, too bad, get a life" to be equally inappropriate. Consideration and explanations should be offered both ways.
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Supervising Animator
Posted:
Aug 20, 2005, 8:06 AM
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Well I don't know any warner bros cartoons but I know for sure that in MGM's "the shooting of dan McGoo" there is a picture of a naked woman, and the middle of her body is blocked by the bartender. Later when the bartender is scared away-the middle is revealed only to show that there is just a note that says"I don't have a body"
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Bugs Bunny cartoons are not supposed to feature a lisping Viking rabbit hunter enthusiastically professing his operatic love for a bunny in drag.
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Animator
Posted:
Aug 20, 2005, 8:35 AM
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Gloworm: Later when the bartender is scared away-the middle is revealed only to show that there is just a note that says"I don't have a body"
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I guess if this was maturity toward kids, it would help them with their reading skills?
Otherwise, I suspect this would completely puzzle kids as to what the sign meant that she didn't have a body. Surely any child would have thought "yes, she does. The sign is covering it up. That doesn't make any sense."
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Director / Moderator
Posted:
Aug 20, 2005, 10:58 AM
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Whoa, I didn't really want anyone getting this philosophical in this thread. All I expected was for people to point out the nudies and leave it at that.
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http://exposure.cbc.ca/video/hansel-und-gretel
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Animator
Posted:
Aug 20, 2005, 11:11 AM
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damfine: "All I expected was for people to point out the nudies and leave it at that."
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Which kind of explains why you don't see more. Perhaps if maturity were extended to such subject matter and it were regarded for its content, humorous or artistic, instead of 'hubba hubba', there would be no need for those prudes to complain to begin with.
The situation really does run full circle doesn't it? It's like one feeds off the other.
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Jpeg Master / Moderator
Posted:
Aug 20, 2005, 11:32 AM
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The situation really does run full circle doesn't it? It's like one feeds off the other.
Almost always Richard, I concur.
However, I do like the topic in this thread, because I notice all the backgrounds in our beloved Toons. Now I have to start posting all the ones I see. Thanks alot Dam.
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Director / Moderator
Posted:
Aug 20, 2005, 1:50 PM
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Perhaps if maturity were extended to such subject matter and it were regarded for its content, humorous or artistic, instead of 'hubba hubba', there would be no need for those prudes to complain to begin with. Hold up, G. This thread is NOT a pornographic tome meant for "a dark room with the shades drawn". Any nudes regarded here I'm sure will be viewed objectively as the product of artists who were good at their job. Many animators back then and today developed their skills through life drawing classes. They saw many many people, women and men of all shaped and sizes, disrobe in front of them in order to be drawn. Along with this skill being used to better construct cartoon characters they learned how to draw the human form with great aplomb. Therefore, it is not surprising that they would have not wasted this skill and drew some nude figures into their backgrounds. (I've read elsewhere that Freddy Moore at Disney's was QUITE skilled at this and drew nudes often. I think Frank and Ollie put some of them in The Illusion of Life book.)
That's all that happeneing here. Just people discussing an aspect of the animation medium. Anyone not mature enough to do so would be best advised to not post at all. They'd be better off taking their comments to that "dark room with the shades drawn". 
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http://exposure.cbc.ca/video/hansel-und-gretel
(This post was edited by damfine on Aug 20, 2005, 1:50 PM)
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Research Guru
Posted:
Aug 20, 2005, 3:08 PM
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They were only semi-naked, but the mermaids were topless in Mr. & Mrs. Is The Name (1935).
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"Oh boy." -- Allan Sherman
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Animator
Posted:
Aug 20, 2005, 3:34 PM
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That's the one I was thinking of. With the topless mermaids.
It seems to me that there was always more controversial, whether questionalbe or objectionable, subject matter with Bugs' behavior when he was in drag, than there ever was with these "nudies".
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Supervising Animator
Posted:
Aug 22, 2005, 11:25 AM
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There are indeed nudes in "one Froggy Evening"
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Bugs Bunny cartoons are not supposed to feature a lisping Viking rabbit hunter enthusiastically professing his operatic love for a bunny in drag.
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Directing Animator / Moderator
Posted:
Aug 22, 2005, 2:20 PM
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Ah yes, the "Naked Ladies" thread... all the nudes that's fit to print! 
Sorry... I just couldn't resist!
Personally I don't see anything wrong with nude images. The human body is a thing of beauty, unless one has been pigging out on ho-ho's.
True, Fred Moore was quite adept at rendering the female figure. I'm pretty certain he animated a number of the "centaurettes" in the "Pastoral Symphony" segment in Disney's Fantasia.
I'll have to press the pause button judiciously the next time I watch some of the cartoons mentioned above, just to see how good the artists are!
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"Sit, Ubu, sit... good dog!" ("Arf"!)
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Directing Animator / Moderator
Posted:
Aug 22, 2005, 2:22 PM
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BTW Bugs Bunny was "nude" in almost every cartoon he appeared in; what else would a rabbit be, anyway?
Porky Pig, shameless exhibitionist that he was, never wore pants! 
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"Sit, Ubu, sit... good dog!" ("Arf"!)
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Supervising Animator
Posted:
Aug 22, 2005, 2:37 PM
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Daffy was always naked as well.
 
(This post was edited by cartoonfan4ever on Aug 22, 2005, 2:39 PM)
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Directing Animator / Moderator
Posted:
Aug 22, 2005, 3:18 PM
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True, but because he was a black duck you couldn't tell if he needed a bath!
Then again, he spent most of his time swimming in a lake, so that's a moot point!
Porky definitely looked naked because he was pink...
This was what caused such a furor when Tweety (nee' "Orson") first appeared; he was originally painted pink and censors claimed he was naked (!) In subsequent cartoons, he was rendered as a yellow canary.
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"Sit, Ubu, sit... good dog!" ("Arf"!)
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Animator
Posted:
Aug 22, 2005, 4:41 PM
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And of course, we know the French disliked Donald and Daisy Duck because they were naked below the waist.
All of this now has reminded me of good ol' non-animated Kermit the Frog.
There was an episode of the Muppet Show when groundhogs or prairie dogs or gophers were stealing everything.
They stole Kermit's pointed green collar and he freaked and hid his unclothed neck.
Later he would interview the celebrity (I want to say it was Jean Stapleton but I'm not sure) and he was wearing a pink feather boa to clothe himself.
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Director / Moderator
Posted:
Aug 24, 2005, 9:36 PM
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There are indeed nudes in "one Froggy Evening"
I haven't seen any.
There's a black & white picture of some actress signed by her hanging in the talent office but she wasn't nude. Of course, it showed her from the shoulders up so who knows. Is this the picture you were referring to, Glowworm? Or is there another?
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http://exposure.cbc.ca/video/hansel-und-gretel
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Supervising Animator
Posted:
Aug 25, 2005, 9:18 AM
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That's one of them- but I'm pretty sure that in the scene where the man is counting up his money to buy the theater there are posters and pictures of women on the wall of his house- and I think that one of them is nude
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Bugs Bunny cartoons are not supposed to feature a lisping Viking rabbit hunter enthusiastically professing his operatic love for a bunny in drag.
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Director / Moderator
Posted:
Oct 11, 2005, 10:47 PM
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I recently watched my copy of Acrobatty Bunny (by Robert McKimson c. 1946) on my Marx Brothers dvds and saw some cheesecake pictures of female rabbits hanging on Bugs' wall. However, they were all fully clothed so this example wouldn't count so much.
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http://exposure.cbc.ca/video/hansel-und-gretel
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Animator
Posted:
Oct 13, 2005, 8:25 AM
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It's obvious initially cartoons were not entirely meant for children, if they were even at all the target audience. The conclusion may have been that kids just didn't catch what they were seeing OR hearing.
Or I guess we might say that it is quite obvious that the WB cartoons weren't meant entirely for kids.
Children didn't come away singing "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" from the Three Little Pigs, otherwise we would have seen the Barney song "I Love YOu, You Love Me" become a number one hit about a decade ago, but it didn't happen. LOL! Don't give them any ideas! BTW Despite the BROAD, not just for any audience one way or the other (and certainly not just a kiddie thing), stuff like WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD WOLF really DID make it with kids bakc in the thirties, but it was the last gasp of the strictly Tin Pan Alley years when DOGGIE IN THE WINDOW (yeah I know, adults bought that too) by the great (NO joke here) Miss Singing Rage, Miss Patti Page and I SAW MOMMY KISSING SANTY CLAUS by Jimmy Boyd and I WANNA HIIPO for XMAS by Gayla Peevy (thaanks large to the great Mitch Miller after which his label Columbia would SZTILL have sutffflike RUBBER DUCKIE and so fory.hMitch HATED rock and rolL!), strict kids tunes like Barney in the 50s, not rock but the "Hit Parade" fare for little kids really did happen on the "princess level".Patti page's Mercury records release of Doggie in the Winow (which Spike Jones pointedly pointed out was still a comedy record!) would be an oft-used examples,eps.in rec.muiic.rock-pop.r+b..1950s..)--despite obviously that HOW MUCH IS THAT DOGGIE (which oughta be CHarlie Dog aka BMode's icon;s theme to get himself a master) DID have a sizabkle adult following..I enjoy it as an adult ..but that's just me!LOL (Rock and roll stuff liek little Richards was more for older kids and wasn't considered "barneylike" as we say now so i dilberately left it off as well as the thirties tunes that had that kind of lyric but as richardjf said, had a borad audience includes the adults and even the COLLEGE and HIGH SCHOOL crowd..kay Kyser's jazzy rollicking THREE LITTLE FIHSES which EVEN kids icon for many YEARS covered, would be an example..in 1939 that was a hit with TEEN and ADULT buyer not just kids (Kyser like thew WB shorts would go form cute to funny and is a MUCH maligned dance bandleader even more than Glenn Miller and is inexplicaby avoided in jazz boks, but that is for a different website message board.) As for naked ladies..back on topic here, I dunno if any appeared but lots of cheese cake and belly dancing in WWII era shorts (almot Betty Grable-Dorothy Lamour quality!! I guess even then they could not entirely do caricatures of everyone..)
GOOFY GROCERIES HARE DO STAGE DOOR CANTEN.. the possiblites are endless.
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Okay, so you're Brad Pitt..--Shania Twain (that's her in my avatar---I can't put a title underneath it! :))
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Apprentice
Posted:
Oct 13, 2005, 9:17 PM
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Yes, but although these cartoons were intended for a general-age audience at large, kids and adults, (or children of all ages) you can also bet that these cartoonists were doing them for their own personal amusement and the amusement of their fellow cartoonists: it's what they themselves wanted to see, and it translated quite successfully to the viewing audience. And no doubt some of them -- the cartoonists -- had a somewhat bawdy streak inside.
They often tossed around hand-drawn quickies (<--- no Freudian intent in the word "quickies") and passed it among themselves. Things that were never intended for the general audience, and not necessarily always "nudie," but of course sometimes it was. It would be gag oriented or lampooning another cartoonist through caricaturization.
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Apprentice
Posted:
Oct 13, 2005, 9:23 PM
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And of course, we know the French disliked Donald and Daisy Duck because they were naked below the waist. Yes. but the French also saw Jerry Lewis as some sort of Cinema God! What's that tell ya? (Myself, I don't know what it tells me.)
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Director / Moderator
Posted:
Nov 1, 2005, 6:26 PM
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I just remembered another one. In A Hare Grows in Manhattan (by Friz Freleng c. 1947) there's a statue of a naked lady ontop of a fountain in one of the opening pans of Bugs' "formal gardians".
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http://exposure.cbc.ca/video/hansel-und-gretel
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Director / Moderator
Posted:
Dec 7, 2005, 12:22 AM
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I found another one today. In She Was an Acrobat's Daughter (by Friz Freleng c. 1937), the movie theatre was have many silohuettes of naked women all over the walls. I wouldn't mind attending a theatre like that. 
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http://exposure.cbc.ca/video/hansel-und-gretel
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