Sport Chumpions is a 1941 Merrie Melodies short directed by I. Freleng.
Title[]
The title is a play on "sport champions."
Plot[]
An outlet highlights on sports champions and sporting events, "bringing you lowlights in the world of sports":
- Archery: A marksmen shoots six bullseyes by being directly up close to the target.
- Billards: A pool shark breaks a starting match, but when the cue ball hits the fifteen balls, the triangle ricochets through the pool table and onto a hole in the top left.
- Ping Pong: A monotonous match is shown where people's eyes follow the action until a point is scored.
- Skiing: The highest ramp is about to jumped by Pavo Nervy, although the skier slows down near the end and jumps directly from the end of the ramp to a low ground.
- Track: The 120 high hurdle race shows that the runners must climb over large hurdles instead of jumping.
- Swimming: The women's national championship winner happens to be a mermaid, while several swimming strokes and dives are demonstrated. One of the "dives" the narrator recommends happens to be the restaurant Sloppy Joe's.
- Crew Racing: A group of canoeists rows a canoe in varying rates, including one member having just a single rowboat paddle.
- Bicycle Racing: A monotonous race around a bike track for eight laps; the group stops at one point to point out it being "monotonous, isn't it?"
- Baseball: Gabby Hairnet is the catcher for a baseball game, where he is pounded back twice when he catches.
- Football: The Avery Memorial Stadium hosts a football match. The umpire is caught in the middle of the feud. The narrator also tries to show a diagram of the current match, leaving a complex mess.
- Auto Racing: Several racecars passes a finish line, including a midget car. The winner stops at a motion blur position and when is told to have a word with the narrator, the winner imitates a car engine sound.
Caricatures[]
- Jerry Colonna - "Monotonous, isn't it?"
- Artie Auerbach - "Mm, could be."
- Gabby Hartnett
Availability[]
(1992) LaserDisc
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Volume 3, Side 7
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Volume 3, Side 7
Streaming[]
Warner Bros. Discovery RIDE (2021 - 2023) (restored)
Notes[]
- The "Avery Memorial Stadium" is a reference to Tex Avery. Since Avery was still alive at the time of this cartoon's release, the "memorial" part could be a reference to how Tex Avery was fired from Warner Bros. following the controversy behind the original ending to "The Heckling Hare".
- This is the final cartoon to use the yellow-orange rings.
- The scene of the football players piling on top of each other is recycled from "Screwball Football".
- The scenes involving Gabby Hairnet catching a baseball is recycled from "Porky's Baseball Broadcast", and in return would later be recycled in "Baseball Bugs".
- Co-incidentally, all three sports-themed cartoons are directed by Friz Freleng.
- Gabby Hairnet voice is similar to that of Daffy Duck, albeit minus the lisp. Co-incidentally, they're both voiced by Mel Blanc.
- This cartoon entered the public domain in 1969 after United Artists (successor of Associated Artists Productions) failed to renew its copyright in time.
- MeTV aired a previously unreleased restored print of this short on Toon In with Me. However, the restoration has a fake cutaway at the very start of the cartoon.
- This cartoon was originally intended to be included on the Mr. and Mrs. Smith Warner Archive Collection Blu-ray release as a bonus feature, but was swapped out with "Holiday Highlights" at the last minute.[2]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ (3 October 2022) Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2 (in en). BearManor Media, page 93.
- ↑ https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=34412