Wagon Heels

Wagon Heels is a 1945 Merrie Melodies short directed by Robert Clampett.
== Title ==
The title is a play on "wagon wheels," "heels" referring to someone untrustworthy and inconsiderate.
== Plot ==
In 1849, a spurious map shows a sliver of land on the Eastern Seaboard labeled "USA", with all land to its west labeled "INJUN JOE'S TERRITORY". Porky Pig is leading a wagon train to California, and he must keep an eye out for the Herculean Native American "Super Chief", Injun Joe.
Porky and Injun Joe are repeatedly interrupted by a goofy bearded hillbilly named Sloppy Moe, who keeps repeating, "I know something I won't tell, I won't tell, I won't tell!" to the tune of London Bridge is Falling Down. This goes on until Injun Joe corners Porky with tomahawk in hand, and Sloppy Moe sings his refrain once more. Injun Joe demands, "What you know, huh???", and Sloppy reveals his secret at last, "Injun... Joe... is... ticklish!", and proceeds to prove that by tickling the chief with his hands and beard lacking a moustache. The Native American goes into a raucous laughing fit. Distracted, he backs off a cliff and falls deep into the ground, pulling the surface down with him, and causing the map seen previously to stretch the "USA" sliver across to the west coast, so that it now reads "UNITED STATES of AMERICA" from west to east. Moe tickles the giggling Porky.
== Caricatures ==
* Eddie Selzer
* Ray Katz
* John W. Burton
* Billy Gray - "I'm only three-and-a-half years old."
== Availability ==
Viddy-Oh! For Kids VHS 9.jpg|(1986) VHS Viddy-Oh! For Kids Cartoon Festivals: Porky Pig and Daffy Duck Cartoon Festival Featuring "Tick Tock Tuckered"
Lt viddy pp ttad.png|(1986) VHS Viddy-Oh! For Kids Cartoon Festivals: Porky Pig Cartoon Festival Featuring "Tom Turk and Daffy"
Cartoon Moviestars 11.jpg|(1990) VHS Cartoon Moviestars: Porky Pig and Company
Golden-Age-of-Looney-Tunes-3-F.jpg|(1992) LaserDisc The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 3, Side 9: Porky and Daffy
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 5.jpg|(2007) DVD Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5, Disc 3 (restored)
lt san antonio.jpg|(2008) DVD San Antonio (USA 1995 Turner print)
SuperStars Porky.jpg|(2012) DVD Looney Tunes Super Stars' Porky & Friends: Hilarious Ham (restored)
lt ssfm2.jpg|(2017) DVD Looney Tunes Super Stars Family Multi-Feature Vol. 2, Disc 3
== Differences from Injun Trouble ==
* The opening and end of the short features narration whereas the original short did not.
* Injun Joe's design is vastly different.
* The wagon train has human passengers instead of animals and has labels on different parts of the train.
* Porky's outfit is different from the original short with him wearing gloves and not wearing pants and shoes.
* The conductor now speaks in a voice akin to Yosemite Sam instead of a Southern accent.
* The train conductor no longer spits during mid-sentence and talks normally.
* The conductor refers to Injun Joe as "the super chief" instead of "that varmint".
* The boundary sign adds the words "super chief".
* Sloppy Moe and Injun Joe have different voice actors with Moe voiced by Bob Clampett instead of Mel Blanc and Joe voiced by Blanc instead of Billy Bletcher.
* Porky encounters Sloppy Moe twice in the short instead of three times in the original short. Moe's second encounter is with Injun Joe instead of Porky.
* The scene where Injun Joe passes through the trees, he passes through two of them instead of three and the scene where he passes through two trees making the shape of his body is missing.
* The gag with Injun Joe scaring the bear and turning him into a cub now has it crying saying, "I'm only three-and-a-half years old!". In the original short, Injun Joe feeds it a piece of a mountain and eats the whole thing.
* The bear trap that Injun Joe bites yelps like a dog instead of making human-like pain sounds.
* Porky now speaks after he sees the river stream.
* The scene where Injun Joe jumps off of the cliff has him standing as he falls instead of turning into a plane and parachuting.
* During the scene when Injun Joe raids the wagon train, he carries a hobby horse instead of a stick.
* The blunderbuss that the conductor fires at Injun Joe now says "gulp!" after every shot and the gag with the bulls shooting at Injun Joe is absent.
* Injun Joe uses a tree as a bow instead of the stick he rides when he raids the wagon train and he shoots three arrows instead of two.
* The racoon that serves as coonskin cap now uses a slingshot instead of a Tommy gun.
* The shot with the missile that Injun Joe fires is different.
* A new scene was added before Porky and his horse come to stop Injun Joe. This scene features him with scaring the train conductor.
* Porky's horse makes a whinny before he rides it to stop Injun Joe.
* Porky hits Injun Joe's foot with an axe before he attacks him which did not happen in the original short.
* Porky now has underwear when jumps out of his bottom during the scene when Injun Joe attacks him with his axe.
* Injun Joe only carves The Statue of Library instead of carving a city alongside it.
* The ending of the short is different. The ending features Injun Joe falling down the cliff and landing into the ground causing his territory to be demolished. The ending of the original short had Sloppy Moe tickling Injun Joe as he fell down the cliff and continued to do so after he lands into a tree stump.
== Notes ==
* This short is a color remake of the 1938 Looney Tunes black-and-white short "Injun Trouble", with several scenes altered or shortened for pacing.
* The working title of the short was "A Guy Named Injun Joe" when it started production while Leon Schlesinger was producer for the studio.
* Izzy Ellis receives credit for animation in this cartoon, but does not animate any footage in the film. It is likely a clerical error as Ellis bounced between Bob Clampett and Robert McKimson's units at the time. Ellis did, however, animate the original version of the cartoon.
* The name "Super Chief" is a play on the famous Santa Fe train run of the same name (a frequent reference in WB cartoons) and reinforced by each character spouting smoke and crying "woo-woo!" like a steam locomotive each time they say Injun Joe's name.
* Besides the usual Native American stereotype music, Carl Stalling's underscore frequently plays segments of "Oh! Susanna" and the American Civil War tune "Kingdom Coming," even converting it to a minor key in one segment.
* Because of its wildly stereotypical depiction of the Native American, it is seldom shown on television nowadays, with the most recent television sighting being in 2001 in season 2, episode 19 of The Bob Clampett Show.
** Similar to other pre-1948 Looney Tunes shorts controversial due to racial stereotypes, this short has a 1995 dubbed version print, which rarely airs in the United States for this reason.
* The Cartoon Festivals print is a damaged a.a.p. print where the a.a.p. logo plays first, then the 1947-49 Blue Ribbon Color Rings from "Inki and the Lion" open, also notice the light blue borders. The 1939-40 version of Merrily We Roll Along plays instead of the 1941-45 version. The print then changes to another print that says "Wagon Heels". This is a MGM/UA print and probably was hacked off by United Artists in the 1980s.
* The scene of Injun Joe biting on a bear trap, causing it to yelp in pain and run off reuses animation from the original 1938 "Injun Trouble" cartoon and the 1940 short "The Chewin' Bruin".
* Caricatures of Warner Bros. staff members Eddie Selzer, Ray Katz, and John W. Burton appear in the wagon train.
== Gallery ==
WagonHeelsCredits1.png
WagonHeelsCredits2.png
71qalkbOBtL. SL1148 .jpg|Lobby card
WagonHeelsLobbyCard.jpg|Lobby card
Wagon Heels.png|Model sheet by Tom McKimson
Wagon-Heels-draft.jpg|Animator draft
== References ==
Category:1945
Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts
Category:Shorts
Category:Cartoons directed by Bob Clampett
Category:Porky Pig Cartoons
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Robert C. Bruce
Category:Cartoons written by Warren Foster
Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer
Category:Cartoons animated by Bill Melendez
Category:Cartoons with layouts by Thomas McKimson
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Thomas McKimson
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons in a.a.p. package