Cross Country Detours

Cross Country Detours is a 1940 Merrie Melodies short directed by Tex Avery.
== Plot ==
A narrator talks about the wonders of nature in the USA:
# He starts with Yosemite National Park in California. He talks about how tourists always feeding the wildlife. A man gives a bear a sandwich, then the bear pounds the man on the head and says, "Listen, stupid! Can't you read!?" pointing to a "Do not feed the bears" sign.
# As the narrator says, "Hello, deer," to a "shy little deer", the deer stands up on its hind legs and says in a sultry Mae West impression, "Hello big boy!”
# A scoutmaster takes his troops to a washroom at a gas station, where he asks permission from the gas station owner for permission to use the washroom while showing him his dirty hands, which the owner allows. Immediately after given permission, hoards of boy scouts quickly rush in droves into the same washroom with their scoutmaster.
# The narrator tells of how careless people often forget to put out their cigarettes or cigars, which could lead to forest fires. A ranger spots one and goes all the way to pick it up only to smoke it himself.
# The narrator describes natural rock formations, one of which looks like a mouth with a gold tooth.
# In Alaska, the narrator tells how a polar bear's thick coat and layer of fat keeps him warm during the harsh winter climates. The polar bear says, "I don't care what you say, I'm cold", with his rear turning icy-blue to support his remark.
# The narrator tells about how happy Eskimo dogs are living in Alaska, except for one, who has dark brown fur, who wants to go to California.
# Back into the United States, a bobcat prepares to pounce on and eat a cute baby quail, but he can't bring himself to do it to the point of having an emotional meltdown.
# At a local pond where many frogs reside, the narrator says, "Here, we have a close-up of a frog croaking." The frog then takes out a pistol and commits suicide by shooting itself in the head. A patron's notice appears, stating that the management is not responsible for any lame puns in the cartoon.
# The Eskimo dog from earlier is still running.
# In New Mexico, a lizard is shedding her skin, which plays out like a striptease in which a censor bar appears before her breasts are exposed.
# The narrator says that the next tale is very gruesome and that he will split the screen in two halves, with the grownups' side on the left and the children's side on the right. On the grownups' side, a Gila monster constantly snarls and growls, and on the children's side, a little girl recites "Mary Had a Little Lamb". After being interrupted by the Gila monster, she growls back at it, causing it to run away.
# At the Grand Canyon, a hiker tries to make an echo twice, but nothing happens. So finally, for the third attempt, he shouts at the top of his lungs and a female telephone operator's voice says "I'm sorry, they do not answer."
# The Eskimo dog appears again, and the narrator remarks how determined he must be.
# He tells of the Colorado River, and some beavers create a giant dam that looks man-made.
# Finally, the exhausted Eskimo dog makes his way to California where he runs into the Redwood Forest and declares, "Trees, thousands and thousands of trees, and they're mine, all mine!"
== Caricatures ==
* Mae West
== Availability ==
Golden Age LT Vol 1.jpg|(1991) LaserDisc The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Volume 1, Side 3: Tex Avery
The golden age of looney tunes vhs 3.jpg|(1992) VHS The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Volume 3: Tex Avery
lt virginia city.jpg|(2016) DVD Virginia City (USA 1995 Turner print)
346061 front.jpg|(2023) Blu-ray Looney Tunes Collector's Choice: Volume 2 (restored with original titles)
== Censorship ==
* On Cartoon Network and its sister channel Boomerang in the United States, the entire part in which a frog shoots himself in the head after the narrator says, "Here, we have a close-up of a frog croaking", followed by a theater card reading that the management is not responsible for the lame puns in this cartoon was edited to remove the frog actually shooting himself in the head with a gun, leaving in the "frog croaking" line followed by an immediate and obvious cut to the theater card.http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-c.aspxhttps://web.archive.org/web/20020213194356/http://www.megalink.net/~cooke/looney/update10.html
** The a.a.p. print of this short that aired on Cartoon Network before 1995 removed the entire sequence at the lake rather than just cut to remove the frog shooting himself in the head.https://web.archive.org/web/20020213194356/http://www.megalink.net/~cooke/looney/update10.html This same edit also applies when this cartoon aired on TNT.https://archive.org/details/l0verc0m9backfamtnt93/4.+R9%40lly+B19+700n+5h0w+-+4-4-1993.mp4
** This scene is shown uncut on overseas Cartoon Network and Boomerang channels,https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x66q9s9 as well as on earlier MeTV airings, although later airings of the scene would be censored differently (see below for more information).
* This cartoon initially ran uncut on MeTV. Most later airings, however, censored the scene of the frog shooting himself with a gun, with the edit goes from the narrator saying "Here, we have a close-up of a frog croaking" to an abrupt cut to the dead frog jumping into the water, making the edit seem as if the frog killed itself by jumping in the water rather than shooting itself in the head. On 10 August 2022, the frog shooting itself in the head was reinstated.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE06SIcLLls&ab_channel=MihaiChetreanu17
== Goofs ==
* The Blue Ribbon reissue title card erroneously shows the Vitaphone release number instead of the MPAA number.
== Notes ==
* According to the documentary King Size Comedy: Tex Avery and the Looney Tunes Revolution as part of Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2 Blu-ray bonus feature, a few of the gags in this cartoon were animated with the guide of rotoscoping, which is different from the usual Warner Bros. style. For example, in gag #8, director Tex Avery himself did the live-action reference for the bobcat's breakdown, while for gag #11 Avery hired Marcia Eloise (also known at the time as Teala Loring), a local Los Angeles nightclub stripper, to do the live-action reference for the lizard's striptease sequence, and in gag #13 Tex did the live-action reference for the hiker that tries to make an echo.https://youtu.be/III4mVWV_2I?t=1292
* The Blue Ribbon reissue cuts part of the opening narration, starting near the end at "...animal life, and scenic wonders of our country." Now, with the restored titles, the full narration plays: "We now take you on a nature tour, and we'll attempt to show you interesting animal life, and scenic wonders of our country."
* MeTV aired a previously unreleased restored print of this cartoon on Saturday Morning Cartoons with the original titles. This is the first short to be restored with the original titles for the network, as the other shorts were restored with the Blue Ribbon reissue titles.
* At 9 minutes and 53 seconds, this is one of the longest Warner Bros. animated shorts. As a result, on Toon In with Me, the short is split into two parts, much like how the Popeye Color Features are presented on the network.
== Gallery ==
4068332a5c945626b00096833515b5d4.jpg|Lobby card
== References ==
es:Cross Country Detours
Category:Shorts
Category:1940
Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts
Category:Cartoons directed by Tex Avery
Category:Blue Ribbon reissues
Category:Spot Gag Cartoons
Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons produced by Leon Schlesinger
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by John Didrik Johnsen
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Cartoons in a.a.p. package
Category:One-Shot Cartoons
Category:Re-released cartoons whose original titles are known to exist