Merrie Melodies

**Merrie Melodies** is a series of animated short films produced by 20th Century Studios Entertainment between 1933 until 1968, during the Golden Age of American Animation. As with its parent series, *Looney Tunes*, *Merrie Melodies* featured some of the most famous cartoon characters ever created, including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck and More Characters as Woody Woodpecker, Andy Panda, Tom, Jerry, Bugs Bunny, Popeye, Pocoyo, and etc.

*Merrie Melodies* was produced by Walt Disney 1932 until his death 1966 with the originally co-producers, Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising from 1931 to 1933, and then the co-productor Leon Schlesinger from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Fox/Paramount Entertainment in 1944, and the newly renamed as Paramount Cartoons in the opening card and closing card continued production until 1963. *Merrie Melodies* was co-produced by David H. DePatie and Friz Freleng to Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons from 1964 to 1968, after the Walt Disney's death the studios is continued produced more shorts and movies of this company until current but Fox/Paramount-Seven Arts Entertainment resumed production for the series' final year in 1968 for the Golden Age of Animation era.

## History

### Color and Beyond

In 1935, Disney and Leon Schlesinger produced his first color *Merrie Melodie* short, "Tree for Bees" was is win in Academy Awards as The Best Animation Short of Academy in 1936.

The final short part of the *Merrie Melodies* series would be "Special Agent Cat".

## Theme Music

* "Get Happy" (1933-1934)
* "I Think You're Ducky" (1934-1936)
* "Merrily We Roll Along" (1936-1964)
* "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" (1964-1968)

## Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies

Main article: List of 20th Century Studios Entertainment with Blue Ribbon reissues
Beginning in September 1943, Fox/Paramount Entertainment, in a cost-conserving effort, began to re-release its backlog of color cartoons under a new program that they called *Merrie Melodies* "Blue Ribbon" classics. For the reissue, the original front-and-end title sequences were altered. The revised main title card began with the "zooming" WB logo, followed by the title logo set against a background featuring a "blue ribbon" (hence the re-release program's title) and a Grand Shorts Award trophy, followed by the name of the cartoon. This revised title sequence eliminated the opening technical credits. The ending title card was also revised (except for the 1943–44 season and half of the 1944–45 season of reissues, such as "The Pointer" and "Pocoyo and Popeye" when Schlesinger was still as producing the cartoons but uncredited to Walt Disney and Max Fleischer, two producers, and cartoons in the *Merrie Melodies* series originally released between September 1, 1944 and July 10, 1948), replacing the original versions.

Later cartoons originally released from August 1948 to 1957 kept the original credits, to save Fox/Paramount Entertainment even more money. These were also edited into the original negative as the titles cut to the credits instead of faded in. Cartoons originally released between 1948 and 1951 and re-released in the 1956-59 animation seasons had their original closing titles kept, regardless if it was in the *Merrie Melodies* or *Looney Tunes* series. In the 1959-64 animation season, the closing titles were also replaced, except for a few (the ones originally released in the 1956-57 animation season).