Movies: Merrie melodies

It's Christmas Day in the home of Granny, and her pet cat Sylvester delights at chasing her new Tweety Bird and takes fright at the bulldog unwrapped from under the tree....

This was the debut for Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. It was also their only cartoon made in the 1940s. It set the template for the series, in which Wile E. Coyote (here given the ersatz Latin name Carnivorous Vulgaris) tries to catch Roadrunner...

A tuxedo-clad wolf Master of Ceremonies announces the evening's program: the tale of the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs, set to the music of Johannes Brahms's Hungarian Dances. Queue the fairy tale....

In this spoof of Alcoholics Anonymous, pussycats are cast as bird-eating addicts and go through the 12-step process to deal with their addiction. Sylvester, who could never quite get the best of the object of his desire, Tweety Bird, joins and resolv...

Two alley cats, Babbitt and Catsello, decide to make a meal out of Orson as he sleeps in his nest atop a telephone pole. The gullible (and loud) Catsello is repeatedly gulled into trying to "get the bird," earning a variety of thrashings from the cas...

I Love to Singa depicts the story of a young owl who wants to sing jazz, instead of the classical music that his German parents wish him to perform. The plot is a lighthearted tribute to Al Jolson's film The Jazz Singer....

Louie the Parrot finds a written will stating that his master bequeathes the family fortune not to him, but to his fellow household pet, a lunkheaded cat named Heathcliff, with the proviso that Louie is next in line to inherit the wealth if Heathclif...

The bears tempt Goldilocks with carrot soup, the scent of which brings Bugs on the scene. Bugs romances Mama bear and she becomes infatuated with him....

Elmer is hunting both Daffy and Bugs again. Bugs talks Elmer into going after Daffy, who ends up getting the worst of all the pranks....

Elmer Fudd expects to find "west and wewaxation" during his visit to Jellostone National Park, but he sets up camp in Bugs' backyard, and the rabbit (and a neighboring bear) definitely don't have leisure in mind....

Speedy comes to the aid of a group of mice trying to get the cheese from a factory guarded by Sylvester....

Sylvester Cat spots Tweety Bird in a San Francisco apartment and tries to gain access but cannot make it past Granny or the cat-hating desk clerk....

In a spoof of TV's "Untouchables" Rocky and Mugsy chase "Elegant Ness" (Bugs) through the ACME cereal company....

Elmer Fudd introduces two pieces of classical music: "Tales of the Vienna Woods" and "The Blue Danube", and acted out by Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Laramore the Hound Dog, a family of swans, and a juvenile Daffy Duck....

A lion wants to prove he's still "King of the Jungle" and, to prove it, he hunts rabbit....

Bugs Bunny is hunted by Hiawatha, a stereotyped Native American who fills roughly the same role as Elmer Fudd in other Bugs Bunny cartoons of this era....

Little Henery the Chicken Hawk wants to prove he's big enough to hunt chickens, but he doesn't know what a chicken is. He labels Foghorn Leghorn a loud-mouthed shnook and dismisses him, prompting Foggy to indignantly try to prove he's a chicken and t...

While trespassing in the royal gardens in search of carrots, Bugs runs afoul of the Sheriff of Nottingham, who tries to apprehend him for poaching. Of course Bugs sets out to endlessly turn the tables on the hapless sheriff....

A muscular dog exploits a cat and a mouse for food, but they keep forgetting to bring him gravy!...

A streetcar conductor has adventures with a would-be passenger hippo, a cow blocking the tracks, and a runaway train while he, his passengers, and some hobos sing the title song....