MGM's looped opening

[Vdubdavid]

I was wondering, just how many MGM cartoons used the looped "Hold the Lion" opening? What was the first cartoon to use it? Was it only used for one season?

[Daniel P]

Reissue's took this opening away, I think.

"Chips off the Old Block" has it, and a "Buy War Bonds" ending.

[absolutpaul]

That totally sounds like a Tex Avery idea!

[J Lee]

Yea, odds are about 99.9 percent it was Avery's idea. The opening debuted with Tex's first MGM release, "The Blitz Wolf" and was also used in the following cartoons:

The Early Bird Dood It! (redubbed opening music with Scott Bradley's 1949-55 Avery 'toon opening music when re-released)
Chips Off the Old Block (still has it)
Fine Feathered Friend (redubbed opening music with Bradley's 1948-49 Tom & Jerry opening theme when re-released)
Sufferin' Cats (same as above)
Dumb Hounded (redubbed on re-release with music similar to Bradley's opening for Avery's "Outfoxed")
The Lonesome Mouse (same as the other two Tom & Jerrys)

Rudy Ising never let Avery's opening get anywhere near his unit's cartoons (gee, wouldn't it have fit perfectly as the opening for "The Boy and the Wolf"?), and Avery and Hanna-Barbera stopped using it beginning with Tex's "Red Hot Riding Hood" and H-B's "Yankee Doodle Mouse."

[Daniel P]

The re-releases took away the original Tom & Jerry title art, too.

[candy17]

Originally posted by Vdubdavid
I was wondering, just how many MGM cartoons used the looped "Hold the Lion" opening? What was the first cartoon to use it? Was it only used for one season?

Oh, you mean that one where the lion roars three times while there's a jazzy underscore playing? Everytime that comes on on CN, I think "Blitz Wolf" was going to air (I mean, I think it should outside of Toonheads because it already has the Jap gags edited, so now it's tame enough for their standards), but usually I'm disappointed.

[Jack]

Originally posted by candy17
Everytime that comes on on CN, I think "Blitz Wolf" was going to air (I mean, I think it should outside of Toonheads because it already has the Jap gags edited, so now it's tame enough for their standards), but usually I'm disappointed. They avoid cartoons with Hitler and swastikas in them, so getting rid of the Jap references doesn't make it safe to air, unfortunately.

I also think WWII cartoons with Germans in them should air in CN's regular rotation. They're no more offensive than an Indiana Jones movie.


Jack :D

[Davesnothere]

That song that plays when the looped lion roars is, ironically, "Tiger Rag"! You know-hold that tiger, hold that tiger, STOP THE PIGEON, hold that tiger.....

Dave.