Dog Tales

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Airdate:
26 July 1958

Series:

Looney Tunes

MPAA Number:	Production Number:
18696	1484

Copyright Renewed:

18 February 1986

Crew

Voice Characterizations:

Mel Blanc
Robert C. Bruce (uncredited)
Mary Jane Croft (uncredited)^[1]

Charlie Dog
Reused animation from "Foxy by Proxy"
Reused animation from "Piker's Peak"

Dog Tales is a 1958 Looney Tunes short directed by Robert McKimson.

Plot[]

Dogs have been domesticated for years and come in various different breeds. Many are showcased:

A young Newfoundland dog is along with an older breed called an "Oldfoundland", with the latter referred to as the former's grandfather.
A dog that is sitting down and pointing is debated to be a pointer or a setter until finally declared a "pointer-setter" over a picture of a "poinsettia" flower.
A small Mexican hairless Chihuahua is shivering inside a large living room in a city house. The Chihuahua doesn't appear scared but nervous. The dog replies otherwise, saying, "I don't care what you say, señor, but I'm freezing."
A male French poodle flirts with a female French poodle, much like Pepé Le Pew.
At a military base, a Doberman pinscher viciously pinches overweight U.S. Army private "Doberman," to which the latter responds by yelling "Ouch!!".
An ever-popular "Elvis" states that he is a hound dog and dances.
At a dog show, many dogs are awarded blue ribbons, while Victor Barky plays the piano.
Charlie Dog is told he doesn't belong in the dog show. He says that he is fifty percent a variety of dog breeds but is mostly a Labrador retriever. He is pulled out of the dog show with a cane.
A malicious kid drops a cat into the dog show, causing all of the dogs to chase after it.
Some dogs are bred and trained for different tasks. The St. Bernard dog searches for someone frozen in the mountain and digs out Yosemite Sam. However, the dog mixes himself a drink from his keg and hiccups back down the alpines.
There are also dogs that are trained for sports as well. A Dalmatian dog coach in a red turtleneck sweater trains a group of husky dogs and tells them to fight. The husky dogs then proceed to violently fight each other.
Loyalty and devotion are traits all dogs share. One dog named Laddie runs through the entirety of the United States to meet up with his dog owner in California, but the dog cares more about a bone buried in the yard. Laddie digs the bone out and smooches it repeatedly.

Caricatures[]

Maurice Gosfield's character Private Doberman
Elvis Presley
Victor Borge - as Victor Barky

Notes[]

This short reuses animation from Chuck Jones' "Often an Orphan" (1949) and Friz Freleng's "Foxy by Proxy" (1952) and "Piker's Peak" (1957).
The scene involving the chihuahua reuses the same interior background as Sylvester's mansion living room seen at the beginning of the short "The Slap-Hoppy Mouse".
The "(literal) Doberman pincher" gag involving the Doberman pinscher dog in this short was reused from the black-and-white Porky Pig cartoon "Porky's Snooze Reel" directed by Bob Clampett and Norman McCabe 17 years earlier, except here the Doberman pinscher pinches its victim only once instead of several times as in that short. Coincidentally, Robert McKimson previously worked as an animator for Clampett when the latter took over Tex Avery's unit between 1941 and 1945, while McKimson took over as the director for Clampett's old unit in 1945 following Frank Tashlin's departure from the studio.
Laddie resembles Robert/Roberta from the short "Mixed Master".
Charlie Dog appears via reused animation from "Often an Orphan". This cartoon also marks the last appearance of Charlie Dog in the Golden Age of American Animation and his only appearance in a Robert McKimson-directed cartoon.
- In addition to Charlie Dog, the cartoon also features brief cameos of other characters via reused animation from previous cartoons, such as Yosemite Sam and the St. Bernard dog from "Piker's Peak" and the unnamed foxhounds from "Foxy by Proxy". This cartoon also marks Yosemite Sam's only appearance in a Robert McKimson-directed cartoon.
Three of the dogs sound like other Looney Tunes characters, all of which are courtesy of Mel Blanc providing their respective voices: the chihuahua sounds like Speedy Gonzales, the French poodle sounds like Pepé Le Pew, and the Elvis-looking hound dog sounds like Foghorn Leghorn.
MeTV aired a previously unreleased restored print of this cartoon on Saturday Morning Cartoons.