Messing with the iris out

[Jave]

I'm trying to make a list of WB shorts that feature characters "doing something" with the iris out, here are the ones I remember:

"All This and Rabbit Stew": We see the black hunter naked, except for a leaf covering... "that", the iris out appears, but Bugs comes from the other side takes the leaf out (see my avatar).

"Hare Ribbin'": The iris out appears but the dog stops it and says "This shouldn't happen to a dog", then he releases it and the iris out gets his nose.

"Crowing Pains": Foghorn gives us some tips during the iris out.

"A Fractured Leghorn": Foghorn tries to say a long speech while the iris out tries to shut him up.

I'm pretty sure there are some more, can you help me with the remaining cartoons?

[Jack]

It's not exactly messing with the iris out, but in Daffy Doodles, Daffy paints the screen black, there is no iris out.

"We the Animals Squeak!" ends with an iris out shaped like a four-leaf (or is it three leaf?) clover. Though, again, this one might not really count since it doesn't involve a character doing something to the iris out.


Jack :D

[J Lee]

"We the Animals Squeak!" ends with an iris out shaped like a four-leaf (or is it three leaf?) clover.

Ditto Jones' "Wearin of the Grin."

Avery fooled with the iris out four times in his early cartoons -- "Porky the Rain Maker" traps the goose (who gets yanked back through after some banging and squawking); Owl Jolson yanks the loving cup back through the iris after it closes with it still in front at the end of "I Love to Singa," Cinderella and Prince Charming (Egghead) go back through the iris to watch the newsreel at the end of "Cinderella Meets Fella," and one of the "new Mohicans" at the end of "Johnny Smith and Pocahantis" notices the iris just in time to crawl back through before it closes.

Also an honoable mention for the iris out variant, the curtain "pull down" which Avery uses to trap Mr. Miser from "Milk and Money" to get stuck behind the "That's all, Folks!" end titles after being bitten by the horse fly.

[Jon Cooke]

At the end of "Injun Trouble", the iris begins to close as Sloppy Moe and Porky shake hands (after Moe had finished tickling Injun Joe). Injun Joe yells "WAIT!!" and the iris opens again. Joe says "Do 'um some more!" and Sloppy Moe starts tickling him again. Then the cartoon ends.

After the iris out of "Weasel Stop", the weasel runs across the black screen.


-Jon

[Larry T]

In "Porky's Garden", after the iris closes on the Italian man's hens, Porky opens it back up and grabs the money out of his hand and the iris closes again.

I'm not sure if you're thinking of other studios, but in "Wicket Wacky", the iris out closes on Woody's neck to make the gopher think he's been beheaded (his head does fall lifelessly to the ground....)

In "Andy Panda's Victory Garden", the iris closes on the rooster's neck and chokes him.

Now, this one I can't think of for the life of me, but there's a cartoon featuring a whole bunch of babies at the end and one of them wanders out of the iris and crawls back in just before it closes- seems to me it's a colour WB Avery cartoon.... anyone know this one?

[absolutpaul]

Although it's not a Warner cartoon, in "Me Musical Nephews" Popeye takes his bed 'out' of the iris, and then closes it by hand, in order to escape his noisy nephews.

In 'I Wanna be a Sailor' Mom stops the iris to ask us "What would you do with a boy like that?"

In "The Turn Tail Wolf" Poppa wolf stops the iris out to hint to us that his whole story was a fake!

[Jason Furness]

Originally posted by Larry T
Now, this one I can't think of for the life of me, but there's a cartoon featuring a whole bunch of babies at the end and one of them wanders out of the iris and crawls back in just before it closes- seems to me it's a colour WB Avery cartoon.... anyone know this one?

T'was Johnny Smith and Poker-Hontas (or however that's spelled). See here (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?postid=446471#post446471).

[Steve Carras]

"Weasel Stop"- Foghorn Leghorn and the weasel run past the blank screen where the iris out had just, er, irissed out.

"Little Tinker"-the little Skunk and formerly "fox color" painted skunk are enclosed by a valentine heart iris out (besides which the skunks put the Valentine's Day helpful hint)

"A Hick, A Slick, and a Chick"-Another valentine's cartoon (love triangle), the Hick mouse finally gets his ermine, goes out with the Chick mouse (Bea Benaderet), and the Jimmy Durante-cat (Herman-tail crossed out "H", becopmes Ermine, get it) punches the Slick mouse for being so "nosy, Junyer!" and a fur coat shaped iris around the cat's butt closes in very slowly.(the music here is the music from THE WISE QUACKIN DUCK and TWEETY PIE rather than RURAL RHYTHM, the Hick mouse's theme which appeared over the open).

"Hare Splitter"-yet anotherlove cartoon and also with a Daisy lou (like the above), this has Bugs Bunny and Daisy (Benaderet again) dancing fast in a nwo censored sexy scene, and a RAPID regular circular iris.

"Injun Trouble (the 1969 one)".According to what I read, Cool Cat just "cuts out"(Matthew Hunter used that as an avatar, "Just cuttin' out")

"Norman Normal" ,1968,the Bizarra Peter, Paul and Mary inspirired toon ends just as a black out.

AND OF COURSE..
this just reminds me, the often mention 1947 "Mouse Wrekcers" has the mice warming themselves up and it blacks out..also look at "Elmer's Pet Rabbit" and "Hare Tonic"'s endings and "Hare-um Scareum". The first also blacks out, the others just fade out. compare also "Stupid cupid" and "Catch as cats can".

[absolutpaul]

All I know is...I love every ending that has Bob Clampett "Beeeoooop" sound effect.

[Howard Fein]

You'd never know it if you only saw it on CN, but BALLOT BOX BUNNY irises out just as Bugs pulls the trigger. The gunshot is heard under blackness, and the screen irises in to reveal that Sam suffered yet another indignity!

At the end of TOUCHE PUSSY CAT, the screen starts to iris out over Jerry spanking the little boy mouse, but stops for a second so he can say "C'est la guerre ." There's a similar 'stalling' iris-out at the end of HEAVENLY PUSS where Jerry shrugs in confusion at Tom's display of affection.

[candy17]

Originally posted by Steve Carras
"Hare Splitter"-yet anotherlove cartoon and also with a Daisy lou (like the above), this has Bugs Bunny and Daisy (Benaderet again) dancing fast in a now censored sexy scene, and a RAPID regular circular iris.



From what I've seen on CN, that scene at the end was only censored on the June Bugs that showed the 50 never-before-seen on CN cartoons (minus the 12 un-PC ones). It now appears uncut on Bugs and Daffy and The Looney Tunes Show .

BTW: The entire ending wasn't cut; just Daisy saying "What a man!" and Bugs saying "What a woman!". CN left in the two jumping around and kissing followed by the rapid iris-out.

[candy17]

Originally posted by Howard Fein
You'd never know it if you only saw it on CN, but BALLOT BOX BUNNY irises out just as Bugs pulls the trigger. The gunshot is heard under blackness, and the screen irises in to reveal that Sam suffered yet another indignity!


What about ABC, WB, and the syndicated Merrie Melodies show? They also censored out the Russian Roulette ending.

Besides, I could care less that CN edited that ending out because I have an uncut version of that cartoon from a Golden Jubilee tape I got when I was a kid.

[Pietro]

This ain't exactly a WB short, but it's worth a worthy mention:

In the Famous Studios Blackie the Lamb cartoon, "Nuttin' Fer Muttin'" Wolfie gets his hand (holding a knife) caught in the iris. Then Black the Lamb comes by, and wacks Wolfie's hand, causing Wolfie to drop the knife in a wagon of "Scrap Iron" carried by Blackie.

-Pietro:D

[Andrew Gilmore]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this one yet:

In "Shamrock and Roll", Merlin holds back the iris to say "Ohhh, DRAT!"

[absolutpaul]

I forgot all about ballot Box Bunny. It's one of my favorite cartoon gags of all time.

"Ha! I missed!"

Apparently according to cartoon physics, you can only be killed with a gun (sometimes) if the gun is aimed point-blank at your temple. Otherwise, you only get your face blasted into various contortions.

[J Lee]

...except for cats. Cats can be killed at a distance by shotguns in order to specifically create nine ghost cats to end the cartoon with ("Notes To You," "Angel Puss").

[absolutpaul]

Ha! Ha!

and "Back Alley Uproar"

And of course Daffy's horrendous struggle with the iris out in Duck Amuck - he literally teared it apart!

[Jave]

There was an early Merrie Melodie that featured a little black cat that runned away from home to join a gang of thieves. At the end everything was a dream, and during the iris out the kitty stuck his head out of the iris out with an angel ring on his head. I've seen this cartoon many times, but I don't remember the name, what was it?

[Larry T]

Originally posted by Javeman
There was an early Merrie Melodie that featured a little black cat that runned away from home to join a gang of thieves. At the end everything was a dream, and during the iris out the kitty stuck his head out of the iris out with an angel ring on his head. I've seen this cartoon many times, but I don't remember the name, what was it?


"FAGIN'S FRESHMEN"

[Thad Komorowski]

Leave us not forget the classic ending to the Terrytoons picture, "Pill Peddlers"...
(after jumping out of the iris out, and standing in front of the end title for Terrytoons)
Jeckle: I say, we're safe! It's the end of the picture!
(Percy than immediately rips a hole in the end card, revealing part of the last shot of the cartoon)
Percy: THAT'S WHAT YOU THINK!!!
(Percy grabs the magpies and beats them up)

Thad

[Daffyfan2002]

Don't forget "I Love to Singa," which aired yesterday. The owl grabbed his trophy which showed up on the blank screen. There's also the part in "A Fractured Leghorn" when Foghorn Leghorn, pulled the iris back open to keep on with his speech, "Wouldn't tell him I was hungry!"

[Eric B]

Has everyone forgotten "The Old Grey Hare", when the iris closes on the dynamite, and the explosion rocks the closing logo screen. This is one that was "messed with" when Turner put his new copyright on it. Since it's all the same company now, they should remove it and restore the original.

[The_Bookworm]

In one Jones short, Wile E. Coyote is plummeting off a cliff and requests specifically for the picture to end before he hits the ground. As an iris darkens in, he flips the sign to say "Thank you".

[Matthew Hunter]

"Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers" has a part in which the cartoon starts to end and Bugs says "Hold it! You didn't think I'd let it end dat way, did ya"?

-Matthew

[Looneymarty]

Let's not forget Crazy Cruise, where Bugs Bunny appears at the cameo at the end. His ears get caught in the iris out, forming a V for "Victory" in World War II.

[Pietro]

Another non-Wb iris gag, but....

"Comicalamities" (Felix the Cat): Felix is beaten up by a bear. The iris starts closing when he holds it back and opens it back up to beat up the bear. Later, he whistles for the iris to close and it does so.

-Pietro:D

[Thad Komorowski]

Another non-WB iris out gag I just remembered:

Wacky-Bye Baby - Woody holds the iris out and jumps through it, to escape Wally's firing machine gun.

Thad

[absolutpaul]

This doesn't exactly count, but I love at the end of The Cracked Nut , we suddenly find Woody Woodpecker in the audience , talking to the people in the seats next to him -

"That doctor sure is a card, but I don't think he's nearly as funny as the woodpecker. I like cartoons, don't you like cartoons?"

The patron next to him slams Woody's seat up and crunches him!
:D

[Howard Fein]

To further stray into other studios: Last night I was watching my tape of UPA's made-for-TV DICK TRACY cartoons, every one of which ever made ends with an iris-out. TACOS TANGLE, a Joe Jitsu episode that introduces fellow detective Go-Go Gomez (a Speedy rip-off if ever there was one!), starts to iris out over Joe spouting one a typical closing 'Oriental proverb' quip. But Go-go pulls it back to remind us of his presence.

I digress, but- checking out the credits, it's interesting to note how all the past and future personnel from WB, Disney and MGM sojourned at UPA during its brief stint making TV cartoons. In 1960-61, MGM's animation department was closed down, Disney was hardly making shorts, and H-B had but a handful of animators.

Various TRACY shorts are directed by the likes of Clyde Geronomi, Grant Simmons and Ray Patterson. Animators included workhorse Irv Spence, Izzy Ellis (animated for Clampett and McKimson through the forties, in H-B in the seventies) and Jerry Hatchcock (Disney in the forties and fifties; H-B in the sixties and seventies). Writers included Homer Brightman of Disney, Lantz and late MGM (who some say contributed to the decline of Lantz product along with Paul J. Smith); future WB and DFE scribe Dave Detiege; future DFE, MGM and H-B scribe Bob Ogle; Disney vets Al Bertino, Dick Kinney, Ed Nofziger, Nick George and Ralph Wright, many of whom worked for Format Films concurrently and would later hook up with Lantz.

Of course, Abe Levitow produced all made-for-TV UPA product, both TRACY and MAGOO. Not having seen the TV MAGOOs in many years, I can only assume many of the above people worked on them as well.

In several early episodes, Mel Blanc voices Flattop and B.B. Eyes, in imitation of Edward G. Robinson and Peter Lorre respectively. Paul Frees would take over their voices, probably due to Blanc's increasing involvement with H-B. Other regular characters are voiced to sound like Cary Grant, Andy Devine, James Cagney, Charles Boyer et al. Maybe a lazy writers' device, but still funny. Veteran comic actor Benny Rubin is also credited under voices, but there's no deliniation as to who did whom.

[Bobby B]

Originally posted by Larry T
In "Andy Panda's Victory Garden", the iris closes on the rooster's neck and chokes him.



The same thing happens to Donald Duck in "Mickey's Amateurs".