Cartoon Characters » Warner Brothers Characters

Pepe Le Pew

Aldric Chang — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 04:06:29 +0000

Pepé Le Pew is an Academy Award-winning fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. A French anthropomorphic skunk that always strolls around in Paris in the springtime, when everyone’s thoughts are of love, Pepé is constantly seeking “l’amour” of his own. However, he has three huge turnoffs to any prospective mates: his malodorous scent, the fact that he comes on too aggressively or with too much passion, to both of which he is cheerfully oblivious, and the fact that he can’t take ‘no’ for an answer thinking that the girl is flirting with him.

Porky Pig

Aldric Chang — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 06:35:31 +0000

Porky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators (particularly Bob Clampett) created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig. Even after he was supplanted by later characters, Porky continued to be popular with moviegoers and, more importantly, the Warners directors, who recast him in numerous everyman and sidekick roles.

He is known for his signature line at the end of each short, “Th-th-th-that’s all folks!” The slogan had also been used by both Bosko and Buddy and even Beans at the end of every Looney Tunes cartoon. In contrast, the Merrie Melodies series used the slogan: So Long, Folks! until the late 1930s when it was replaced with the same one used on the Looney Tunes series. (When Bugs Bunny was the closing character, he would break the pattern by simply saying, “And Dat’s De End!”) He is also known for his severe stutter. He often changes his words mid-sentence as a result, making something like “What’s guh-guh-guh…” as if to say “Going on…” into “What’s happening…”

Road Runner

Aldric Chang — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 04:18:11 +0000

Wile E. Coyote (also known simply as “The Coyote”) and the Road Runner are cartoon characters from a series of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. The characters were created by animation director Chuck Jones in 1948 for Warner Brothers, while the template for their adventures was the work of writer Michael Maltese. The characters went on to star in a long-running series of theatrical cartoon shorts (the first 16 of which were written by Maltese) and the occasional made-for-television cartoon.

What the E stands for is never indicated in the cartoons, but a 1975 comic book story has it standing for ‘Ethelbert’. Although the coyote’s last name is routinely pronounced with a long “e” as in the real-life animal (e.g. “ky-O’-tee”), in at least one case (To Hare is Human), the character himself is heard pronouncing it with a long “a” (e.g. “ky-O’-tay”) in an attempt to sound refined or intellectual.

The Coyote has separately appeared as an occasional antagonist in Bugs Bunny shorts. While he is generally silent in the Coyote-Road Runner shorts, he speaks with a refined accent in these solo outings, initially voiced by Mel Blanc. The Road Runner vocalizes only with a signature sound, “beep, beep”, and an occasional tongue noise. The “beep, beep” was recorded by Paul Julian.

Sylvester

Aldric Chang — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 06:39:06 +0000

Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr., or simply, Sylvester the Cat, or Sylvester is a fictional character, a three-time Academy Award-winning anthropomorphic cat who appears in more than 90 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons made from 1945 to 1966, often chasing Tweety Bird, Speedy Gonzales, or Hippety Hopper. The name “Sylvester” is a play on silvestris, the scientific name for the domestic cat species. The character debuted in Friz Freleng’s Life With Feathers (1945). Freleng’s 1947 cartoon Tweetie Pie was the first pairing of Tweety with Sylvester, and the Bob Clampett-directed Kitty Kornered (1946) was Sylvester’s first pairing with Porky Pig.

Tom and Jerry

Aldric Chang — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 06:18:58 +0000

Tom and Jerry is a series of theatrical short subjects created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that centered on a never-ending rivalry between a housecat (Tom) and a brown mouse (Jerry) whose chases and battles often involved comic violence. Hanna and Barbera ultimately wrote and directed one hundred and fourteen Tom and Jerry cartoons at the MGM cartoon studio in Hollywood, California between 1940 and 1957, when the animation unit was closed down. The original series is notable for having won the Academy Awards for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) seven times, tying it with Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies as the most-awarded theatrical animated series.

Beginning in 1960, in addition to the originals MGM had new shorts produced by Rembrandt Films, led by Gene Deitch in Eastern Europe. Production of Tom and Jerry shorts returned to Hollywood under Chuck Jones’ Sib-Tower 12 Productions in 1963; this series lasted until 1967, making it a total of 161 shorts. The cat and mouse stars later resurfaced in television cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera and Filmation Studios during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, and a feature film, Tom and Jerry: The Movie, in 1993. Today, Warner Bros. (via its Turner Entertainment division) owns the rights to Tom and Jerry, and produces the series Tom and Jerry Tales for The CW’s Saturday morning “Kids WB” lineup, as well as the 2005 Tom and Jerry short, The KarateGuard and a string of Tom and Jerry direct-to-video films.

Wile E. Coyote

Aldric Chang — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 04:59:56 +0000

The E never refers to a name within the context of the cartoon, but a 1975 comic has it standing for ‘Ethelbert’. Although his last name is routinely pronounced with a long “e” as in the real-life animal (e.g. “ky-O’-tee”), in at least one case, he has been heard pronouncing it with a long “a” (e.g. “ky-O’-tay”, To Hare is Human) in an attempt to sound refined or intelligent.

Woody Woodpecker

Aldric Chang — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:01:08 +0000

Woody Woodpecker is an animated cartoon character, an anthropomorphic woodpecker who appeared in theatrical short films produced by the Walter Lantz animation studio and distributed by Universal Pictures. Though not the first of the screwball characters that became popular in the 1940s, Woody is perhaps the most indicative of the type.

Woody was created in 1940 by storyboard artist Ben “Bugs” Hardaway, who had previously laid the groundwork for two other screwball characters, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, at the Schlesinger/Warner Bros. studio in the late 1930s. Woody’s character and design would evolve over the years, from an insane bird with an unusually garish design to a more refined looking and acting character in the vein of the later Chuck Jones version of Bugs Bunny. Woody was originally voiced by prolific voice actor Mel Blanc, who was succeeded by Ben Hardaway and later by Grace Stafford, wife of Walter Lantz.

Lantz produced theatrical cartoons longer than most of his contemporaries, and Woody Woodpecker remained a staple of Universal’s release schedule until 1972, when Lantz finally closed down his studio. The character has only been revived since then for special productions and occasions, save for one new Saturday morning cartoon, The New Woody Woodpecker Show, for the Fox Network in the late 1990s/early 2000s.

Woody Woodpecker cartoons were first broadcast on television in 1957 under the title The Woody Woodpecker Show, which featured Lantz cartoons bookended by new footage of Woody and live-action footage of Lantz. Though less popular today, a repackaged version of The Woody Woodpecker Show is still frequently seen in television syndication. Woody has a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 7000 Hollywood Blvd. He also made a cameo alongside many other famous cartoon characters in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.