Baby Bottleneck

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Baby Bottleneck
series = Looney Tunes (Daffy Duck/Porky Pig)


caption =
director = Robert Clampett
story_artist = Warren Foster
animator =
layout_artist =
background_artist =
narrator =
voice_actor = Mel Blanc
Sara Berner
musician =
producer =
studio = Warner Bros. Cartoons
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
release_date = 1946
color_process =
runtime = 7 min.
preceded_by =
followed_by =
movie_language = English (U.S.A.)
imdb_id = 0038317

"Baby Bottleneck" is a 1945 Warner Brothers "Looney Tunes" (reissued as a Blue Ribbon) theatrical cartoon short released in 1946 and directed by Robert Clampett and written by Warren Foster.__NOTOC__

Plot

The cartoon opens with an overworked stork (a clear Jimmy Durante reference) getting drunk in the Stork Klub. There is an emergency delivery in which inexperienced pea-size-brained friends take the babies to their parents. As a result, babies are getting sent to the wrong parents (such as a baby Hippopotamus to a Scottish Terrier and a baby alligator to a pig). To clear up the confusion, Porky Pig is brought in to manage the factory, with Daffy Duck as his assistant. The babies are seen going through a conveyor belt (to the tune of Raymond Scott's famous "Powerhouse") and getting sent by various animals, while Daffy mans the phones (making quick references to Bing Crosby, Eddie Cantor and the Dionne Quintuplets).

When a stray egg is found without an address, Porky decides to have Daffy sit on it until it hatches. However, Daffy (nor Porky, for that matter) refuses to sit around on top of an egg. Porky chases Daffy around the factory (complete with an imitation of Porky by Daffy), until they wind up trapped on the conveyor belt. The belt winds up stuffing both of them into one package (with Porky as the legs and Daffy as the top half) and send them off to Africa, where a gorilla is waiting for her arrival. When the gorilla looks at the "baby," Porky peeks through the diaper, causing the gorilla to cry on the telephone to a call-in therapist.

Influence

Animator John Kricfalusi has mentioned this cartoon as a major influence, particularly due to its manic pace and very unusual animation of Daffy and Porky.

Production

* The voice of the ethnic sounding pig was provided by actress Sara Berner. All other character voices, including the narrator, were performed by Mel Blanc. Fact|date=October 2007

Availability

* The DVD version of this cartoon (available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2 box set) has the original title cards instead of the Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies card that has been used on TV for years (in addition, the short is restored, as those prints used for TV were badly-faded ones). Fact|date=October 2007

Censors

*On Cartoon Network, the dubbed version partially removed the baby alligator delivered to the mother pig, so that the cut did not seem as abrupt as it is when the cartoon is unedited here. There is an abrupt fade to black after a newspaper headline says that, "Daffy Duck (is) appointed Assistant Traffic Manager," although nothing was dropped. Also removed was the scene near the beginning of the cartoon, with the drunken stork at the Stork Club.
*In syndicated prints of this short, the aforementioned abrupt cut occurring with the baby gator and the mother pig is exactly the way the film was originally released. It has been said that the original scene ended with Mama Pig saying to the alligator: "Ah, ah, ah, don't touch that dial!"

ee also

*List of Daffy Duck cartoons

References

External links

*imdb title|0038317