Little Guys Mean A Lot.

Since today's St. Patrick's Day, I thought I'd share my thoughts about two Noveltoon shorts: "The Wee Men," and "Leprechauns' Gold, as well as the Casper Short, "Spooking With A Brogue."

I can't recall if I saw one or the other of the first two cartoons. All I really remember is that Paddy was frightened by a tree branch that grabbed him and then said, "I knew it was a tree limb all the time," or something like that. And when his fellow leprechauns banished him for revealing the location of their gold to a human, I felt bad for him. At least he was able to get it back, and regain his place in the leprechaun community.

As for the Casper short, the Irish boy was one of the very few who didn't end up in danger, and I liked it for that reason. But I find it ridiculous that both he and the villain Mr. McMiser mistook Casper for a leprechaun when he didn't even look like one! And McMiser was truly greedy when it came to gold. I believe he was also seen in "The Wee Men" and "Leprechauns' Gold" if my memory serves me well. Of course, I haven't seen any of these in years, so I'd have check them out again just to refresh my memories.

So all things considered, these three shorts were worth their weight in gold.

There was also the MGM cartoon directed by the legendary Fred "Tex" Avery starring Droopy Dog and his rival Butch the Bulldog. In this one (the title at the moment escapes me), Butch is in good ol' Ireland, and encounters the diminutive Droopy, and mistakes him for a leprechaun. Droopy, being a sensible type, does his best to stay out of Butch's reach, and often tends to lead the deluded fellow on wild goose chases. All Butch's shenanigans accomplish is getting himself thrown into the loony wagon. And wouldn't you know it, there in the same wagon is an actual leprechaun. Of course, at this point, nobody is going to believe raving lunatic Butch. If this sounds as madcap as a Tex Avery cartoon, let me testify that, yes it is.

Not to mention two from Rankin-Bass, "The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold," and an episode of "The Osmonds" called "Luck Of the Osmonds." Here, Jimmy's mistaken for a leprechaun, and successfully cheers up Sad Meg by singing "Long-haired Lover From Liverpool." I never saw the former, but the latter impressed me favorably as it showed that for all the mischief he caused, little Jimmy had real talent. Too bad that was his only hit.

A little late to the game, but there is also The Wearing of the Grin. Porky gets hit in the head and dreams that the leprechauns accuses him of trying to steal the pot of gold and sentence him to the wearing of the Green Shoes.

Sorry to have to correct you, Oneuglybunny, but the short "Droopy Leprechaun" was actually directed by one of Avery's former animators, Michael Lah.

I am a bit late to this (green) party, but I realize I know--or at least am familiar with more leprechaun themed cartoons than you could shake a shillelagh at. Rather than name every single one I thought of, I'll rattle off a few that stand out.

"His Greater Elf"--This is a Woody Woodpecker short that I've never seen but have heard mentioned several times on the forums. Woody is down on his luck when a leprechaun woodpecker offers him three wishes to help him out. Of course, the first wish backfires, and the second wish must be used to get him out of that mess and no better off than before. For his third wish, after being chastised by the leprechaun that hard work pays off better than mere wishes, Woody wishes the little guy to go to blazes(Hell)--and he does!

Rankin Bass' Festival of Family Classics--Jack O Lantern--Despite being a Halloween tale, this one features a pretty awesome Leprechaun by the name of Jack O Lantern. Jack transformed himself into a pumpkin seed to hibernate for the winter, but he helps out two children in need because Zelda the Witch and her wimpy husband Sir Archibald have been attacking their farm by sending their demons after the crops--of course in the form of a proper scarecrow mind you.

Johnny Bravo "Blarney Buddies" In this episode, Johnny is in Ireland and mixes up the well known Blarney Stone with a leprechaun by the name of Barney Stone. Since the Blarney Stone is kissed for good luck, Johnny attempts to catch the leprechaun in order to kiss him. In the end, the leprechaun offers Johnny a wish instead--he wishes to be attractive to chicks. A bunch of chickens chase after him.

"Huck of the Irish" Huckleberry Hound is off to take a picture of a leprechaun for Strife magazine. Of course, he has to catch the little guy first--which after a while, he manages to do so. However, his pictures for his editor turn up blank, not because leprechauns don't register on camera, but because Ol' Huck forgot to take the cap off the lens first.

"Shamrock and Roll"--this one is a Merlin the Magic Mouse short--one I never really enjoyed due to Merlin being outwitted by a rather nasty leprechaun who proves Merlin to be a fraud(which in his other shorts, he's a genuine magician.) and makes off with his watch. He does give Merlin a whole sack of watches in the end--but of course makes the entire treasure disappear in the end.

"Pluck of the Irish"--my favorite Tiny Toons episode finds Plucky and Hampton as Acme gag salesmen in a haunted castle in Ireland. The caretaker of the castle, Bridey 'O Connor warns them of the banshee who resides there and turns her victims into stone with one look at her eyes. (No, banshees don't actually do that, but this one has the powers of Medusa, apparently.) Plucky successfully reverses the stone curse on Hampton by getting the banshee to laugh. Oh, you're probably wondering when the leprechauns show up. Well, the leprechauns are the rightful owners of the castle. Now that the banshee has been defeated, they can reclaim it--"Bridey" happens to be several leprechauns standing on top of one another. Plucky and Hampton run off.

"The Last Leprechaun "Chip 'N Dale Rescue Rangers." I only watched a tiny bit of this one the other day--basically a leprechaun requires the help of the Rescue Rangers because a gold hungry banshee is after his pot of gold--causing his magic to fade. Also, all of his buddies have been enslaved by the Banshee to work in her mines.

Also Ruff and Reddy had a story line involving a leprechaun who's princess has been taken for ransom by the Goon of Glocca Morra--who apparently doesn't keep a bargain.

And even the Smurfs and Felix the cat met leprechauns in their travels.

Yes, "pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, green clovers." Then they started getting creative / weird with it, and ... it's different now.

Anyhow, thanks for adjusting my head on Droopy Leprechaun, Glowworm. Although, I always thought Michael Lah was a stalwart on the Hanna-Barbera unit, to the point where he directed some of the CinemaScope Tom and Jerry cartoons. Of course, I presume if the need arose, manpower could be shunted to the Avery unit at MGM to meet deadlines. No matter what, Lah obviously shows an intuitive grasp of Avery humor.

There is a Blue Racer short called "Killarney Blarney." Two leprechauns charge the Blue Racer with protection from the Big Shillelagh--who doesn't like snakes--but the snake is getting the coins from the leprechauns own pot of gold--and the leprechauns are scamming him. In the end, the Blue Racer bribes the Big Shillelagh with all of their own gold to chase the leprechauns off the island.

Oh yeah, and one of the leprechauns is named Jamie--which is my actual name.