Foney Fables is a 1942 Merrie Melodies short directed by I. Freleng.
Plot[]
A collection of brief vignettes within the Book of Fairy Tales includes much-loved stories like Sleeping Beauty (chewed out by Prince Charming for sleeping in), Tom Thumb (who has grown to enormous size thanks to “Vitamin B-1”), The Grasshopper and the Ant (the grasshopper can afford to be lazy because he has war bonds), The Boy Who Cried Wolf (the boy literally cries wolf, fooling a nearby woodcutter in the process), Jack and the Beanstalk (the two-headed giant gives up chasing Jack because one of the heads is sick), The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing ("the fifth columnist of his day"), Aladdin and His Lamp (the genie goes on strike), The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs (only they're aluminum for the war effort), Old Mother Hubbard (but her cupboard isn't bare; she's a "food hoarder"!), and This Little Piggy (when the baby’s mom gets to the “wee wee wee” part, he chews her out for pinching his “corn”). The Boy Who Cried Wolf gets his comeuppance via getting eaten by the wolf, canceling the story of Cinderella.
Caricatures[]
- Bill Thompson's character Nick Depopoulous - "For crying out Pete's sake!"
Availability[]
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Volume 4, Side 7
Gentleman Jim (1995 Turner dubbed version)
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5, Disc Two
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 5, Disc 2
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volumes 4-5 Repack
Gentleman Jim
Streaming[]
Goofs[]
- During "This Little Piggy", one of the baby's legs disappears momentarily.
Notes[]
- The voice of the Boy Who Cried Wolf is similar to that of Bugs Bunny, while the voice of Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs is similar to that of Daffy Duck (the goose even calls the narrator "brother", a term Daffy often uses). The voice of the ant from The Grasshopper and the Ant is similar to that of Tweety Bird, but minus the speech impediment. Coincidentally, all these aforementioned voices were all provided by Mel Blanc.
- This short is similar in concept to Tex Avery's "A Gander at Mother Goose" produced two years prior, although it focuses more on fairy tales than nursery rhymes.
- One giant head says, "Aw, he's been sick." The variant "Well, I've been sick," was used previously in 1940's "Wacky Wild Life" and 1941's "Aviation Vacation", and later in the record "Porky Pig in Africa".
- This short entered the public domain in 1971, when United Artists (the successor to Associated Artists Productions for pre-1948 titles) did not renew the copyright in time.
Gallery[]
References[]