Goofy Groceries is a 1941 Merrie Melodies short directed by Robert Clampett.
Plot[]
One winter night as a grocery store owner closes his shop, the advertising mascots start to come to life. A cow for contended milk sings to a "Fulla Bull tobacco" bull, "If I could be with you," two other cows ogle and whistle at the bull while a cranky crab imitating Ned Sparks grumbles, "This love stuff makes me sick!"
Jack Bunny tells the band to start, and an ad for "Big Top Popcorn" comes to life while a dog barker for "Barker's dog food" addresses the crowd and tells them of the circus' attractions, including "Little Egypt Wiggly Gum", "Billy Posies Aquackade" swimmers, and the "Tomatoe Can Can Dancers".
Meanwhile, an "Animal Crackers" gorilla hears the noise and starts growling at one point stating, "Gosh, ain't I repulsive", the gorilla stares at the female performs and smiles, he then begins his attack attempting to abduct one of the "Tomatoe Can Can Dancers", Jack Bunny sees this and rides a bottle of "Horse Radish" while an army of "Navy Beans" and "Turtle Soup Turtles" shoot at the gorilla, the gorilla defends himself with a Roman candle at one point destroying the bottle of horse radish Jack Bunny is riding, Bunny sees a box of "Washington Cherries" and snatches the axe on the cover while an army of chicks cheer him on, the gorilla shoot the axe with the candle, making it shrink Bunny dons a sheepish grin and backs into a corner.
Meanwhile, Superman comes to life in a box of "Superguy soap chips" while the gorilla lights a stick of dynamite with Bunny's cigar, Superman says to the gorilla, "Hey you big ape," and the gorilla replies, "Yeah?" Superman is so scared he turns into a baby. A voice calls out, "Henry!" and the gorilla passes and says in a frightened voice, "Coming mother!' while his mother drags him away by his ear, Jack Bunny breathes a sigh of relief, only to realize he is still holding the dynamite, which explodes, leaving him in blackface; he then does a Rochester impression "My oh my, tattletale gray!"
Caricatures[]
- Ned Sparks - crab
- Jack Benny - as Jack Bunny
- Leopold Stokowski
- Eddie "Rochester" Anderson - Jack Bunny, in blackface, does an imitation of him and says, "My, oh my! Tattletale gray!"
Availability[]
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Vol 2, Side 5
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3, Disc Two
Censorship[]
- When this short aired on Cartoon Network, barring its appearance in The Bob Clampett Show, and Boomerang in the United States, three scenes featuring black stereotyping were cut:[2]
- A scene of black children diving and swimming in a sink during the "All This and Heaven Too" musical number
- A short scene of a black boy saying "Uh-oh! Here I go!" and then rushing into a house and hanging a "Quarantine: Measles" sign during the gorilla attack
- The end where the stick of dynamite in Jack Bunny's hands explodes and turns him blackfaced, where he comments, "My, oh my! Tattletale gray!" a la Rochester from The Jack Benny Show, although a similar Rochester blackface ending from "Bacall to Arms" was left uncensored on both Cartoon Network and Boomerang.
- A local station in San Francisco, California, KOFY, cut the ending similar to Cartoon Network, but only the shot of Jack Bunny in blackface was cut. The audio, however, played as normal over a slowed-down "That's All Folks" ending card.
Notes[]
- In a twist on the classic "things come to life" scenarios, the foodstuffs and groceries that come to life. Bob Clampett would revisit this formula in "A Coy Decoy" later that year as well as "Book Revue" five years later; coincidentally, both of these also co-star Daffy Duck.
- Brenda and Cobina were characters in The Pepsodent Show starring Bob Hope.
- Little Egypt was the stage name of at least three popular belly dancers. They had so many imitators, the name became synonymous with belly dancers generally.
- Billy Posies Aquackade spoofs Billy Rose's Aquacade.
- This is the first color cartoon Bob Clampett directed, as well as the first Merrie Melodie he directed, after being reserved to making exclusively black-and-white Looney Tunes cartoons featuring Porky Pig in previous years from 1937 to 1940. Hence, this releases Clampett from the severe three-thousand-dollar budget and four-week deadline restrictions he previously had during production of his previous cartoons.[3]
- This is also one of the only two color cartoons that Clampett made with his original unit, the other one being "Farm Frolics" later that year.
- This is also the first one-shot cartoon that Clampett made, as well as the first Clampett cartoon where Porky Pig is absent.
- A scene of Jack Bunny running with an axe is reused from a scene in "Chicken Jitters" where Porky does the same.
- When Jack Bunny rides on a horseradish bottle, he hollers out "Buck Bunny rides again," a reference to the Paramount Pictures western comedy film "Buck Benny Rides Again" (1940) with Jack Benny in the lead role. Playing on the same name, Friz Freleng would direct the western-themed Bugs Bunny cartoon "Bugs Bunny Rides Again" seven years later.
- According to Cartoon Research, the original titles had the song "You, You Darling" playing over them.[4]
- With the exception of some dubbed versions of shorts from 1941-44, this is the last short to bear Carl W. Stalling's 1938-41 closing arrangement of the Merrie Melodies theme, as well as the last to contain the 1940-41 arranged opening theme. However, the original opening and closing titles are lost due to the short being reissued as a Blue Ribbon release, which replaced the 1940-41 opening rendition of the theme with the more brassy 1941-45 opening theme, but kept the original 1938-41 closing theme intact over the 1946-47 end title.
- This short introduces the "Heeeeeenry!" gag associated with The Aldrich Family, which will be used more notably in gags in shorts like "Hollywood Steps Out", "Farm Frolics" and "Book Revue".
- This short is the first WB short to reference/parody the DC Comics superhero Superman; DC and Warner Brothers would eventually become the same company after Seven Arts, which had already purchased DC, purchases Warner Brothers by the late 1960s.
- The European 1995 print replaces original ending music cue with 1941-55 Merrie Melodies ending music cue.
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