Swooner Crooner
| Swooner Crooner | |
|---|---|
| Looney Tunes (Porky Pig) series | |
 Blue Ribbon title card | |
| Directed by | Frank Tashlin |
| Produced by | Leon Schlesinger |
| Story by | Warren Foster |
| Voices by |
Mel Blanc Richard Bickenbach |
| Music by | Carl W. Stalling |
| Animation by |
Izzy Ellis George Cannata |
| Studio | Leon Schlesinger Productions |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Release date(s) | May 6, 1944 |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 7 minutes (one reel) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Swooner Crooner is a 1944 Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin, produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions and released to theaters by Warner Bros. Pictures. The cartoon was nominated for the 1944 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) (the only Porky Pig cartoon to do so), which it lost to the MGM Tom and Jerry cartoon Mouse Trouble, which shared one of 7 Oscars for the Tom and Jerry series.
Synopsis
Porky Pig is the supervisor of the "Flockheed Eggcraft Factory", where dozens of hens lay eggs for the war effort (in this case, World War II to the tune of Powerhouse). The hens suddenly get distracted from their egg laying when a handsome rooster named Frankie (who sings like and is a caricature of Frank Sinatra) is heard singing outside. Frankie's renditions of "It Can't Be Wrong" by Dick Haymes and "As Time Goes By" (from Casablanca, 1942) causes all the hens to swoon.
Porky rushes to investigate. Soon, he's auditioning for a new crooner; those showing up are caricatures of Nelson Eddy ("Shortnin' Bread"), Al Jolson ("September in the Rain"), Jimmy Durante ("Lullaby of Broadway"), Cab Calloway ("Minnie the Moocher", "Blues in the Night"), and Bing Crosby ("When My Dream Boat Comes Home")
Porky asks the Bing Crosby rooster (who introduced himself as "The Old Groaner") to be the crooner, provoking a competition with Frankie. Between the two of them, the overexcited hens' egg production is increased to a level beyond what Porky can handle, including a just-hatched hen chick laying an egg many times her own size.
Surveying literal hills and mountains of eggs all over his farm, an impressed Porky asks the two roosters, "How did you ever m-m-make 'em lay all those eggs." The roosters demonstrate their technique by crooning at Porky, who lays a mountainful of eggs himself as a result.
Theatrical, television, and home video reissues
Swooner Crooner was the first cartoon in the Looney Tunes series to be re-released as part of Warner Bros. Cartoons' "Blue Ribbon" reissue series, on February 12, 1949. It is available on the Bugs & Daffy: The Wartime Cartoons VHS, the Porky Pig Cartoon Festival Featuring "Nothing But The Tooth", the "Golden Age Of Looney Tunes Vol. 9: Hooray For Hollywood" VHS, the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3 DVD (with the part mentioned in the section below shown unedited), and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection DVD.
Edited versions
Versions of this cartoon shown on Cartoon Network, TNT, and TBS cut out the part where the Al Jolson rooster auditions with the song titled "September in the Rain"; although, as of 2015, the version shown on the Canadian cable channel Teletoon Retro remains unedited.
Certain prints of Swooner Crooner have the original drum ending music playing over the Merrie Melodies rings intact.
Semi-remake
Part of the cartoon's basic premise was reused in the 2004 short Cock-a-Doodle Duel with Foghorn Leghorn. In it, Foghorn competes with a genetically-engineered rooster to make hens lay eggs.