Fright Before Christmas

Fright Before Christmas
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Airdate:	27 November 1979
Series:	Merrie Melodies
Starring:	Bugs Bunny Clyde Bunny Tasmanian Devil Speedy Gonzales (cameo)
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc June Foray (uncredited)
Director:	Friz Freleng
Written By:	Tony Benedict (uncredited) John W. Dunn (uncredited) Friz Freleng (uncredited)
Producer:	Friz Freleng David H. DePatie (uncredited) Hal Geer (executive producer) (uncredited)
Animated By:	Warren Batchelder (uncredited) Bob Bransford (uncredited) Malcolm Draper (uncredited) Don Williams (uncredited)
Background Artist:	Richard H. Thomas (uncredited)
Film Editor:	Robert T. Gillis Rich Harrison Richard S. Gannon
Musician:	Doug Goodwin

Fright Before Christmas is a 1979 Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng.

Title

The title is a play on the classic poem "The Night Before Christmas", properly titled "A Visit from St. Nicholas".

Plot

At the North Pole, as Santa Claus is preparing for his Christmas Eve flight, a cargo plane is flying the Tasmanian Devil overhead. Taz escapes from his confinement and ends up parachuting out and landing near Santa's workshop, where he accidentally gets himself into Santa's suit, which was hanging out to dry, and inadvertently takes control of Santa's flying sleigh when he spooks the reindeer.

At Bugs's house, Bugs is reading A Visit from St. Nicholas to his nephew Clyde. Speedy Gonzales begs to differ when Bugs reads that there wasn't a mouse stirring. They suddenly hear a noise on the roof, and Clyde thinks that it is Santa, so Bugs sends him to bed. Taz, who landed the sleigh on the roof, then drops down Bugs' chimney, and Bugs, despite noticing that this Santa is in fact "an unreasonable facsimile", gives him a warm welcome. He goes to the kitchen to make a snack for Taz and brings him a plate of milk and cookies; Taz responds by eating the whole table.

Bugs reads his nephew's "brief" Christmas list to Taz, during which Taz starts eating some of the ornaments and lights on Bugs' tree, uncharacteristically giving himself indigestion upon eating a green bauble and then electrocuting himself after eating the lights, before eating Clyde's wish list. Bugs then says he'll make some popcorn and hands a can of it to Taz, who promptly swallows it before Bugs can get the popper, and since he is standing next to the fireplace, the popcorn starts popping inside his body. After then spinning through a piano, Taz then takes a look at one of the presents under the tree, at which point Bugs sets up a fake gift exchange desk and asks Taz if he'd like to exchange it for a bigger one. Taz takes the bigger present and tries to open it, but Bugs advises him to wait until he's outside to do so, so as not to ruin the surprise. Taz spins outside with the present and opens it up; it is a self-inflating rubber raft. He eats the whole raft, which then expands inside his body and sends him floating into the sky ("I'm glad he liked the self-inflating rubber life raft. Tasmanian devils are awfully hard to buy for.").

Clyde returns and tells his uncle Bugs that Santa didn't put anything in his stocking and also left his sleigh and reindeer behind. Bugs, however, tells him that they just need to return the sleigh to the real Santa. With that, they take control of Santa's sleigh and take off for the North Pole. Bugs wishes everyone happy holidays.

Availability

(1990) VHS
Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales

(1992) VHS
Christmas Looney Tunes

(1996) VHS
Stars of Space Jam: Tasmanian Devil

(1996) VHS
Special Bumper Collection (Vol. 6)

(1997) VHS
Space Jam Double Feature

(1997) LaserDisc
Japanese Looney Tunes LaserDiscs Tasmanian Devil

(1998) VHS
Looney Tunes Presents: Taz's Jungle Jams

(2003) VHS
Christmas Collection Looney Tunes

(2007) DVD
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5, Disc Four (part of Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales)

(2010) DVD
Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales

(2011) Blu-ray
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1, Disc Three

(2018) DVD
Stars of Space Jam: Tasmanian Devil (not the stand-alone short with the 1992 TV title but actually the last ten minutes of the Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales special, including the surrounding bridging sequences and the special's entire end credits)

(2018) DVD
Stars of Space Jam Collection Volume 1 (not the stand-alone short with the 1992 TV title but actually the last ten minutes of the Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales special, including the surrounding bridging sequences and the special's entire end credits)

Streaming

HBO Max (2020 - 2022) (restored)

Censorship

• When this short aired as an individual cartoon on ABC's The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show, the scene of the Tasmanian Devil eating Christmas tree string lights and electrifying himself as Bugs reads Clyde's "brief" Christmas list was cut.

Notes

• The title card theme is from "Gift Wrapped".
• This marks the first appearance of Speedy Gonzales since 1968.
• This marks the first appearance of the Tasmanian Devil since 1964.
• This marks the first appearance of Clyde Bunny since 1954.
• While Clyde was originally voiced by a sped-up Mel Blanc with a voice similar to that of Tweety (minus the speech impediment) in the classic shorts, here he is voiced by June Foray.
  • Also in this cartoon, Clyde resembles a smaller version of his uncle.
• This cartoon would be the final time Friz Freleng directed a Looney Tunes or a Merrie Melodies short; he would eventually handle three compilation films and eventually work on a couple of shows or special announcements on the Looney Tunes series, up until his death in 1995.
• This is the only short featuring the Tasmanian Devil to be directed by Friz Freleng, and the first Tasmanian Devil cartoon to be produced after the death of his creator Robert McKimson.
• MeTV aired this short 13 December 2021 on Toon In With Me; however, this airing appears unrestored, despite HBO Max in America airing a restored version.
• When this cartoon was released on the Stars of Space Jam: Tasmanian Devil DVD release in 2018, instead of using the stand-alone short version with the 1992 recreated TV title sequences as in its previous 1996 VHS release, the DVD version uses the last ten minutes of the Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales TV special, including the surrounding bridging sequences and the special's entire end credits. This particular version is also used when the short is shown on MeTV.
• This is the first cartoon where Taz has dark brown fur and a tan chest and muzzle, similar to Wile E. Coyote's fur colors. In previous appearances, his chest and muzzle were light grey, which would become his standard look.

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