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Rabbits Kin 2.0
 September 20, 2008 9:00 am
Matthew Hunter and Jon Cooke have a terrific blog which I’ve linked to before, Miscel-Looney-ous, which regularly examines the odds and ends of Warner Bros. cartoons. Today they found a video on YouTube worthy of much wider exposure – someone took the 1952 Bugs Bunny cartoon Rabbit’s Kin (the one with Pete Puma, voiced by Stan Freberg), slowed down the dialogue of super-sped-up little Bunny so we can actually hear what Mel Blanc is saying. It’s well worth a listen and a real joy to hear some new Looney Tunes dialogue from Blanc. |
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Thanks so much for posting that Jerry, what a blast to hear Mel’s other role on that short so clearly, I certainly never would’ve thought of slowing down the dialogue like that!
“and all of a sudden, just as I was passing the big old oak tree, you know the one down by the swamp”
That had me rolling!
Patton Oswalt does a bit about slowing down a Chipmunks album so that the chipmunk voices sound normal, which makes Dave Seville’s voice sound like a demon from hell! :0) I’d love to see this cartoon done like that – Bugs would make a great demon :0)
I can’t remember the last time I saw this one. I’m pretty sure Blanc is acting close to his normal voice, but its still pretty funny to hear him say those lines, and just as funny having the adult voice coming out of Little Bunny.
Gee… it pulls back the curtain to reveal that, as in other instances, Blanc wasn’t actually “doing a voice” at all.
Yeah, but what does it sound like when you play it backwards?
Kinda fun hearing Bugs summarize what Mel’s saying.
I saw this on Youtube two weeks ago. Kudos to the poster. This should be included in a future Looney Tunes set.
With out a doubt, It’s sure genius. It’s fascinating, yet wonderful that you can create a new voice by simply by slowing or speeding up the dialogue track.
And it’s always a joy to hear Stan Freberg perform as well, either in a theatrical short or on the radio.
Thanks for showing this, Mr. Beck.
From an aspiring animator/ artist
This is an epiphany! I never knew Pete Puma (one of my favorite Warners characters) was voiced by Stan Freberg.
“One lump or two?”
…Oh man, that’s almost as much fun as slowing down the Chipmunks and realizing that they can’t carry a tune in a bucket! Bravo!!
This is awesome! Great find, Matt and Jon. Thanks for posting this, Jerry. It’s even funnier slowed down.
After reviewing along with the slowed down version, Mel’s dialog is great! I love the part “He’s not my mother, he’s not even my aunt!”
Funny stuff…
I can’t take any credit for it…one of our forum members over at Golden Age Cartoons alerted me to it, and I thought it was something our blog readers would enjoy. It DOES reinforce that Mel Blanc was a great actor though. Even at normal pitch, knowing it’d be sped up beyond recognition anyway, he conveyed personality. I’m just hoping the Youtuber responsible plays around with some other cartoons…for example, what would Tweety sound like normally?
I think it is no coincidence that this is a McKimson cartoon. His sometimes literal approach to acting (making the characters perform exactly what they say, like “big teeth” etc.) redundantizes explaining dialogue. So we don’t miss anything, if a character’s voice is unintelligible. But even so Mel Blanc did a terrific job.
Btw, I like that we now see the animation frames more clearly.
Truly one of my favorite films….thank YOO!
But I never understood 2 things: the (very funny) line, “the big ‘Mo’ !” ….what is that referring to!?
And which came first….Frank Fontaine’s Crazy Guggenheim….or Stan’s interpretation of this entity….Readers???
Thank you for posting this. I love Rabbit’s Kin and it’s wonderful to hear Mel’s dialogue clearly.
Oswald said, “I think it is no coincidence that this is a McKimson cartoon. His sometimes literal approach to acting (making the characters perform exactly what they say, like “big teeth” etc.) redundantizes explaining dialogue. So we don’t miss anything, if a character’s voice is unintelligible.”
I guess that explains my expectation failure of not hearing anything more…racy/provocative/naughty when they knew that they would speed up Mel’s voice beyond recognition!
Ah well, this has always been one of my favorite cartoons. Pete Puma was genius between Freberg’s voice and the great animation given to the big lug. LOVE it.
Uncle Wayne,
Frank Fontaine predates Pete Puma. He appeared in Frank Capra’s “Here Comes the Groom” in 1951, the year before “Rabbit’s Kin” was released, but was on the Jack Benny radio program a few times prior to that.
But I never understood 2 things: the (very funny) line, “the big ‘Mo’ !” ….what is that referring to!?
And which came first….Frank Fontaine’s Crazy Guggenheim….or Stan’s interpretation of this entity….Readers???
The Big Mo is a World War II reference to the battleship USS Missouri christened in 1944, and was where the Japanese surrendered to end the war (It actually remained in service all the way through Gulf War I in the early 90s).
Fontaine’s character debuted I believe in 1950 on Gleason’s Dumont TV network show, which even with the lag time on the release of the WB cartoons would have given McKimson and Pierce a chance to see the show and adapt the personality with Freeberg for the cartoon.
This was posted on Jamie Weinman’s blog some time ago.
It’s still a hoot listening to Mel Blanc in panic mode.
Rabbit’s Kin is one of my all-time favorites – it’s a shame that they only used Pete Puma once! What a name and what a voice by Stan Freberg! “I don’t want no tea – it give me a headache!”
Hearing the little bunny’s voice at normal speed was a trip – it did clear up some dialog and showed that Mel enunciated even though it would be lost in the process.
Didn’t Pete Puma show up on TINY TOONS, voiced by Stan Freberg again?
Here’s the link to Jaime Weinman’s original post with this video, back in January. He writes fairly often about cartoons(mostly WB), but always about movies, television and theatre and always perceptively and entertainingly.
“And all of a sudden, just as I was passing the big old oak tree, you know, the one by the swamp-”
That line didn’t fit in with the rest of his dialogue in that bit of speech.
What is it, something that was put in just to fill time?
I think the “oak tree” line was supposed to be earlier when Shorty is telling the story of when Pete jumped out at him. McKimson probably just put it later because they needed some extra dialogue to (as you say) fill time, and since they knew nobody would understand what he was saying anyway, it didn’t matter what order the lines came in.
“And all of a sudden, just as I was passing the big old oak tree, you know, the one by the swamp-” That line didn’t fit in with the rest of his dialogue in that bit of speech.
What is it, something that was put in just to fill time?
If you go to the original post by the guy who made the video slowdown, Jaime Weinman(I link to his blog above in my comment), your question is answered there by him.
Thanks for posting this!!! It’s great to see Shorty’s voice slowed down!!!! All the best!!!