Who'dathunk this was possible?
In "Yankee Dood It", a 1956 Merrie Melodies piece loosely based on The Elves & The Shoemaker, Elmer Fudd is the King of a group of industrial elves. I wish I could post the complete short here, but the only available version was recorded via either a video camera or camera phone while the film aired on TV. However, let us present something rare. Elmer offering business advice.
Uploaded by Evan Knight.
Rating: A.
4 comments:
One thing I'd always appreciated about this short was that in addition to explaining the marvels of capitalism (how business works) is the concept of life beyond "happily ever after". The shoemaker who was rescued by the kindly elves didn't want to lose his free workforce and was essentially taking advantage of them!
I do remember another WB short which also explained the capitalist system in which mice were the protagonists. Not to mention the classic "Make Mine Freedom", which has become remakably prophetic.
I personally felt that this was Elmer's best role, away from being a foil for Bugs & Daffy. Again, I wish I could find a perfect, complete video of Yankee Dood It, but that's for another day, it seems.
Friz Freleng directed it, and you will recall that DFE took over the Dr. Seuss franchise from Chuck Jones/MGM in the 70's. One of the first Seuss adaptations? The Lorax.
"Yankee Dood It", along with the other 2 WB educational shorts, "By Word Of Mouse" and "Heir-Conditioned", are all available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 6, disc 2. I think "By Word of Mouse" is probably the one magicdog is thinking of. These 3 shorts were apparently funded by the Sloan Foundation in an attempt to educate the American public about capitalism and how & why it works, as magicdog stated. Unfortunately, it looks like they failed.
Until Magicdog mentioned it, and I read of it on Wikipedia, I hadn't been aware of the other reason why these toons were made.
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