Friz Freleng
Friz Freleng | |
---|---|
DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (1963-1981) (1981–1986)Warner Bros. Animation | |
Spouse |
Lily Schoenfeld Freleng
(m. 1932) |
Children | 2 |
Signature | |
Isadore "Friz" Freleng (/ˈfriːləŋ/;[6] August 21, 1905[a] – May 26, 1995),[5] credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, director, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from the 1930s to the early 1960s. In total he created more than 300 cartoons.
He introduced and/or developed several of the studio's biggest stars, including
The nickname "Friz" came from his friend, Hugh Harman, who initially nicknamed him "Congressman Frizby" after a fictional senator who appeared in satirical pieces in the Los Angeles Examiner, due to the character's strong resemblance to him. Over time, this shortened to "Friz".[2][10]
Early career
Freleng was born to Louis Mendel Freleng, a
Freleng soon teamed up with Harman and Ising (who had also left Disney's employ) to create their own studio. The trio produced a pilot film starring a new
Freleng as director
Early Schlesinger cartoons
Harman and Ising (alongside their crew of animators) left Schlesinger's employ over disputes about budgets in 1933. Schlesinger was left with no experienced directors and therefore lured Freleng away from Harman-Ising to successfully fix cartoons directed by Tom Palmer which Warner had rejected. The young animator rapidly became Schlesinger's top director, helming the majority of the higher-budgeted Merrie Melodies shorts during the mid-1930s, and he introduced the studio's first true post-Bosko star, Porky Pig, in the film, I Haven't Got a Hat (1935). Porky was a distinctive character, unlike Bosko or his replacement, Buddy.[12]
As a director, Freleng gained the reputation of a tough taskmaster. His unit, however, consistently produced high-quality animated shorts under his direction.[16]
Friz Freleng directed the largest number of cartoons on the Censored Eleven, a group of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons originally produced and released by Warner Bros. that were withheld from syndication in the United States by United Artists (UA) in 1968 because the use of ethnic stereotypes in the cartoons, specifically African stereotypes, was deemed too offensive for contemporary audiences.
David DePatie, when asked about the Japanese beetle in Blue Racer in 1996, said this about Friz's view on race, "It seems like poking fun at certain ethnic groups had always spelled success. Friz had always felt that way in his cartoons, especially with Speedy."[17]
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
In September 1937, Freleng left Schlesinger after accepting an increase in salary to direct for the new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio headed by Fred Quimby. Freleng served as a director on The Captain and the Kids, an animated series adapted from the comic strip of the same name (an alternate version of The Katzenjammer Kids). In November 1938, Freleng became a "junior director" under Hugh Harman but quit after 6 months in April 1939.[18]
Back with Schlesinger and Warner Bros.
Freleng happily returned to Warner Bros. in mid-April 1939[19] when his MGM contract ended. One of the first Looney Tunes cartoon shorts directed by Freleng during his second tenure at the studio was You Ought to Be in Pictures, a cartoon short which blended animation with live-action footage of the Warner Bros. studio (and included staff such as story man Michael Maltese and Schlesinger himself). The plot, which centers around Porky Pig being tricked by Daffy Duck into terminating his contract with Schlesinger to attempt a career in features, echoes Freleng's experience in moving to MGM.
Directorial achievements
Schlesinger's hands-off attitude toward his animators allowed Freleng and his fellow directors almost complete creative control and room to experiment with cartoon comedy styles, which allowed the studio to keep pace with the Disney studio's technical superiority. Freleng's style quickly matured, and he became a master of comic timing. Often working alongside layout artist Hawley Pratt, he also introduced or redesigned a number of Warner characters, including Yosemite Sam in 1945, the cat-and-bird duo Sylvester and Tweety in 1947, and Speedy Gonzales in 1955.
Freleng and
(1961) were Oscar nominees.Freleng's cartoon, Show Biz Bugs (1957), with Daffy Duck vying with Bugs Bunny for theatre audience appreciation, was arguably a template for the successful format of The Bugs Bunny Show that premiered on television in the autumn of 1960. Further, Freleng directed the cartoons with the erudite and ever-so-polite Goofy Gophers encountering the relentless wheels of human industry, them being I Gopher You (1954) and Lumber Jerks (1955), and he also directed three cartoons (sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation) extolling the virtues of free-market capitalism: By Word of Mouse (1954), Heir-Conditioned (1955) and Yankee Dood It (1956), all three of which involved Sylvester. Freleng directed all three of the vintage Warner Brothers cartoons in which a drinking of Dr. Jekyll's potion (of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) induces a series of monstrous transformations: Dr. Jerkyl's Hide (1954), Hyde and Hare (1955) and Hyde and Go Tweet (1960). Other Freleng fancies were man at war with the insect world (as in Of Thee I Sting (1946) and Ant Pasted (1953)), an inebriated stork delivering the wrong baby (in A Mouse Divided (1952), Stork Naked (1955) and Apes of Wrath (1959)), and characters marrying for money and finding themselves with a shrewish wife and a troublesome step-son (His Bitter Half (1949) and Honey's Money (1962)).
Freleng was occasionally the subject of in-jokes in Warner cartoons. In Canary Row (1950), there were billboards in the background of scenes advertising various products called "Friz". The "Hotel Friz" was featured in Racketeer Rabbit (1946) and "Frizby the Magician" was one of the acts Bugs Bunny pitched in High Diving Hare (1949).
Musical knowledge and technique
Freleng was somewhat of a musical
DePatie–Freleng Enterprises
Warner Bros. Cartoons was closed in 1963, leading Freleng to take a job at Hanna-Barbera Productions as story supervisor on their first feature, Hey There, It's Yogi Bear![20][12] Freleng rented the same space from Warners to create cartoons with his now-former boss, producer David H. DePatie (the final producer hired by Warner Bros. to oversee the cartoon division), forming DePatie–Freleng Enterprises. When Warner decided to reopen their cartoon studio in 1964, due to Freleng asking them if he can rent the studio, eventually settling for $500, they did so in name only; DePatie–Freleng produced the cartoons into 1966.[12]
The DePatie–Freleng studio's signature achievement was
After The Pink Phink won the 1965
Layout artist Hawley Pratt, who worked at DePatie–Freleng during the time, is credited with the creation of Frito-Lay's Chester Cheetah, on the Food Network show "Deep Fried Treats Unwrapped", though some sources say it was DDB Worldwide, while others credit Brad Morgan. The studio is also known for creating the color opening title sequence for the I Dream of Jeannie television series. DePatie–Freleng also contributed special effects to the original version of Star Wars (1977), particularly the animation of the lightsaber blades, which was done by Korean animator Nelson Shin.[21][22]
By 1967, DePatie and Freleng had moved their operations to the
Later career and death
Freleng later served as an executive producer on three 1980s Looney Tunes compilation features, The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (1981), Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales (1982), and Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island (1983), which linked classic shorts with new animated sequences. In 1986, Freleng stepped down and gave his position at Warner Bros. to his secretary at the time, Kathleen Helppie-Shipley, who ended up being the second-longest producer of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies franchise, behind only Leon Schlesinger.[2]
In 1994, the International Family Film Festival presented its first Lifetime Achievement of Excellence in Animation award to Freleng, and the award has since been referred to as the "Friz Award" in his honor.[23]
On May 26, 1995, Friz Freleng died of
Freleng is portrayed by Taylor Gray in the film Walt Before Mickey (2015).
Partial filmography
- Alice's Picnic (Short) (animator, 1927)
- Trolley Troubles (Short) (animator, 1927)
- The Banker's Daughter (Short) (animator, 1927)
- Fiery Fireman(Short) (director and animator, 1928)
- Homelles Homer (Short) (director and animator, 1929)
- Hen Fruit (Short) (director and animator, 1929)
- The Wicked West (Short) (director, 1929)
- Weary Willies (Short) (director, 1929)
- Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid(Short) (animator – uncredited, 1929)
- Hold Anything (Short) (animator, 1930)
- Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land (Short) (animator, 1931)
- Big Man from the North (Short) (animator, 1931)
- The Tree's Knees (Short) (animator, 1931)
- Battling Bosko (Short) (animator, 1932)
- Moonlight for Two (Short) (animator, 1932)
- It's Got Me Again! (Short) (animator, 1932)
- Bosko in Person (Short) (animator, 1933)
- Buddy's Day Out (Short) (story editor – uncredited; 1933)
- We're in the Money (Short) (animator, 1933)
- I Like Mountain Music (Short) (animator, 1933)
- I Haven't Got a Hat (1935) (Short) (director, 1935)
- Poultry Pirates (Short) (story – uncredited, 1938)
- The Honduras Hurricane (Short) (story – uncredited, 1938)
- Knighty Knight Bugs (1958) (Short) (director, 1958, earned John W. Burton's Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film after his death)
- Shishkabugs (Short) (director, 1962)
- The Jet Cage (Short) (writer, 1962)
- Philbert (Three's a Crowd) (Short) (animation director, 1963)
- Nuts and Volts (Short) (director, 1964)
- It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House (Short) (producer, 1965)
- The Wild Chase (Short) (producer, 1965)
- Tease for Two (Short) (producer, 1965)
- Cats and Bruises (Short) (director, 1965)
- The Solid Tin Coyote (Short) (producer, 1966)
- Pink Is a Many Splintered Thing (Short) (producer, 1968)
- Slink Pink (Short) (producer, 1969)
- Shot and Bothered (Short) (producer, 1969)
- The Ant and the Aardvark (Short) (producer, 1969)
- Therapeutic Pink (Short) (producer, 1977)
- Pink Press (Short) (producer, 1978)
- Pinktails for Two (Short) (producer, 1978)
- Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales (TV Short) (director of "Bugs Bunny" sequences, 1979)
Notes
References
- ^ a b "Irreverent Imagination: The Golden Age of Looney Tunes – video dailymotion". Dailymotion. Archived from the original on March 1, 2017. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g Arnold, Mark (2015). Think Pink: The Story of DePatie-Freleng. BearManor Media. pp. unnumbered pages.
- ^ The Friz and the Diz Sampson, Wade (2006)
- ^ Cliping from the Los Angeles Times
- ^ UPI. May 26, 1995.
- ^ "Friz Freleng - DOCUMENTARY Friz on Film"
- ^ 1940 census
- ^ a b "BIOGRAPHY OF FRIZ FRELENG (1905-1995), CARTOONIST AND FILM ANIMATOR". 1999. Retrieved August 6, 2022.
- ^ "Friz Freleng". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved January 6, 2014.
- ^ Sigall 2005, p. 62.
- ISBN 9781589794900.
- ^ a b c d e f g Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Friz Freleng at Reg Hartt's Cineforum, Toronto, Canada, 1980". YouTube.
- ^ a b "Complimentary Mintz: Krazy Kat and Toby the Pup: 1929–31". Cartoon Research. April 12, 2017. Retrieved May 29, 2020.
- ^ Barrier, Michael (1999). Hollywood cartoons : American animation in its golden age. Oxford University Press. p. 46.
- ^ The Friz and the Diz
- ^ Sigall 2005, p. 64.
- ^ "Remembering My Chat With David DePatie". Cartoon Research. October 25, 2021. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
- ^ Barrier, Michael (1999). Hollywood cartoons : American animation in its golden age. Oxford University Press. pp. 288, 291–292.
- ^ The Exposure Sheet studio newsletter, Vol. 1, No. 5 https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/the-exposure-sheet-volumes-5-and-6/#prettyphoto[43649]/0/
- ISBN 978-0-19-516729-0.
- ^ Evans, Greg (October 14, 2021). "David H. DePatie Dies: 'The Pink Panther' Cartoon Co-Creator & Producer Was 91". Variety. Retrieved January 20, 2023.
- ^ Nelson Shin
- ^ "History". August 8, 2016. Archived from the original on February 9, 2019. Retrieved August 2, 2019.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 30, 2022.
Sources
- Sigall, Martha (2005). "The Boys of Termite Terrace". Living Life Inside the Lines Tales from the Golden Age of Animation. ISBN 9781578067497.
External links
- Media related to Friz Freleng at Wikimedia Commons
- Works by or about Friz Freleng at Wikisource
- Friz Freleng at IMDb
- 1940 census record