What'd I do? What'd I do?!

Hubie and Bertie are animated cartoon mouse characters in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Though largely forgotten today, Hubie and Bertie represent some of animator Chuck Jones' earliest work that was intended to be funny rather than cute. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The bouncing ball animation (below) consists of these 6 frames. ... Feral mouse A mouse (plural mice) is a rodent that belongs to one of numerous species of small mammals. ... Warner Bros. ... Looney Tunes opening title Looney Tunes is a Warner Brothers animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theatres from 1930 to 1969. ... Merrie Melodies end title Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Chuck Jones in 1976 Charles Martin Chuck Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. ...

First film

Jones introduced Hubie and Bertie in the short The Aristo-cat, first released on 19 June 1943. The plot of the cartoon would serve as the template for most future Hubie/Bertie outings: A character with some mental illness or degree of naïveté, here, a cat who doesn't know what a mouse looks like, is psychologically tormented by the pair. In this cartoon, they tell the mouse-hungry cat that a bulldog is a mouse, leading to several painful encounters for the cat. Hubie is voiced by Michael Maltese and Bertie by Tedd Pierce; both men were screenwriters for Jones at the time. Short subject is an American film industry term that historically has referred to any film in the format of two reels, or approximately 20 minutes running time, or less. ... is the 170th day of the year (171st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... A mental illness or mental disorder refers to one of many mental health conditions characterized by distress, impaired cognitive functioning, atypical behavior, emotional dysregulation, and/or maladaptive behavior. ... Binomial name Felis catus Linnaeus, 1758 Synonyms Felis lybica invalid junior synonym The cat (or domestic cat, house cat) is a small carnivorous mammal. ... Michael Maltese (February 6, 1908 - February 22, 1981) was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. ... Edward Stacey Tedd Pierce III (August 12, 1906, – February 19, 1972), was an American animated cartoon writer, animator and artist. ... Screenwriters, scenarists or script writers, are authors who write the screenplays from which movies and television programs are made. ...

Hubie and Bertie as designed by Jones are nearly identical mice with long snouts, large ears, and big, black noses. The two are somewhat anthropomorphic, walking on their stubby hind legs and using their forelimbs as arms. The characters are distinguished by their color; one is brown with a lighter-colored belly and face, while the other is gray (which mouse is which color changes from film to film). Hubie has a pronounced Brooklyn street-accent. Bertie has large buck teeth, and a habit of responding to Hubie with: "Yeah-yeah, sure-sure!" or sniggering "Riot!" if Hubie has just proposed some scheme with great comedic potential. Feral mouse A mouse (plural mice) is a rodent that belongs to one of numerous species of small mammals. ... Anthropomorphism, also referred to as personification or prosopopeia, is the attribution of human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, forces of nature, and others. ... This article is about the borough of New York City. ...

Beginning with The Aristo-cat, Jones quickly established differing personalities for his mice. Hubie, here in gray, is the thinker. He comes up with the plans, and he is the mouse with the chutzpah to fast-talk anyone into doing almost anything. Bertie, on the other hand, brown in this cartoon, is the doer. He performs the gruntwork to accomplish Hubie's schemes. Hubie makes it clear who is subservient to whom, slapping the simpler Bertie around whenever his natural goofiness interferes with the task at hand.

Later films

Jones would repeat the theme of mind-games several more times in his Hubie and Bertie shorts, as in their second cartoon, Roughly Squeaking on 23 November 1946. This time, Jones has the mice exploit a cat's stupidity by convincing him that he's a lion and that a dog is a moose he wants to eat. By the short's end, the cat thinks he's a lion, the dog believes he's a pelican, and a bystanding bird imagines himself a Thanksgiving turkey. The mice are here voiced by Stan Freberg and Dick Nelson. The short was followed by House Hunting Mice on 6 September 1947, where Hubie and Bertie run afoul of a housekeeping robot. In this cartoon and all subsequent Hubie/Bertie films, Stan Freberg voices Hubie and Mel Blanc plays Bertie. is the 327th day of the year (328th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Lion (disambiguation). ... Trinomial name Canis lupus familiaris The dog (Canis lupus familiaris) is a domestic subspecies of the wolf, a mammal of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. ... Binomial name (Linnaeus, 1758) Moose range map The moose (so named in North America, derived from Eastern Abenaki moz)[1] or elk (in Anglophone Europe), Alces alces, is the largest extant member of the deer family Cervidae, distinguished from the others by the palmate antlers of its males. ... Species Pelecanus occidentalis Pelecanus thagus Pelecanus erythrorhynchos Pelecanus onocrotalus Pelecanus crispus Pelecanus rufescens Pelecanus philippensis Pelecanus conspicillatus A pelican is any of several very large water birds with a distinctive pouch under the beak belonging to the bird family Pelecanidae. ... The First Thanksgiving, painted by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863-1930). ... Stanley Victor Freberg (born August 7, 1926 in Los Angeles) is an American author, recording artist, animation voice actor, comedian, puppeteer and advertising creative director. ... House hunting Mice is a 1948 animated short film from Warner Bros studios running for 7 minutes and starring mice Hubie and Bertie. ... is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1947 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see robot (disambiguation). ... Melvin Jerome Blanc (May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was a prolific American voice actor, performing on radio, in television commercials, and most famously, in hundreds of cartoon shorts for Warner Bros. ...

Cat and mouse

Jones introduced a permanent "antagonist" of sorts for the mice in Mouse Wreckers. The short was released on 23 April 1949 and was the first in which they are officially called "Hubie" and "Bertie". In the cartoon, the duo moves into a new home, only to discover that it is protected by champion mouser Claude Cat (the character's debut). The mice, of course, torment the poor puss both physically and mentally. The short was nominated for an Academy Award. April 23 is the 113th day of the year (114th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... Claude Cat (left) with Pussyfoot and Marc Antony (left to right) Claude Cat is an animated cartoon character in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Brothers. ... This class was known as Short Subjects, cartoons from 1932 until 1970, and as Short Subjects, animated films from 1971 to 1973. ...

The mice would go on to agonize Claude in two more films. The Hypo-chondri-cat on 15 April 1950, featured Hubie and Bertie making Claude think he's sick with various ailments and, ultimately, make him think he's dead. In Cheese Chasers, on 25 August 1951, Hubie and Bertie inadvertently torment Claude when, after going overboard on a cheese raid and getting sick of their favorite food, they decide to commit suicide by trying to get Claude to eat them. is the 105th day of the year (106th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Cheese Chasers is a 1951 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Chuck Jones, and starring Hubie and Bertie in their final appearances of the Classic era. ... is the 237th day of the year (238th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see Suicide (disambiguation). ...

After these six cartoons, Jones retired Hubie and Bertie. He was moving on to other characters, such as Pepe Le Pew, Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner, as well as his Marc Antony and Pussyfoot shorts. Jones would, however, continue to use the characters (or mice designed just like them) in cameo roles in other shorts whenever he needed a generic mouse for a gag (for instance, the unnamed mouse in Chow Hound or the "killer" mice in Scaredy Cat). Pepe Le Pew in the short Little Beau Pepe. ... Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote The Road Runner cartoons are a series of Looney Tunes cartoons created by Chuck Jones for Warner Brothers. ... Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote The Road Runner cartoons are a series of Looney Tunes cartoons created by Chuck Jones for Warner Brothers. ... Marc Antony and Pussyfoot (sometimes called Kitty) are animated fictional characters in the Warner Bros. ... Peter Jackson in The Fellowship of the Ring (top), The Two Towers (middle) and The Return of the King (bottom). ... Scaredy Cat is a 1948 Merrie Melodies cartoon, directed by Chuck Jones and produced and released by Warner Bros. ...

Later appearances

In recent years, Hubie and Bertie have made several cameos in Warner Bros. productions. For example, they play the sports announcers in the 1996 movie Space Jam. They have also appeared in The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, Tweety's High-Flying Adventure (2000) and Duck Dodgers. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Continuity announcer. ... Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries is an animated television series which aired between 1995 and 2000 on Kids WB, and was later re-run on Cartoon Network. ... This page meets Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... Year 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full 2000 Gregorian calendar). ... Duck Dodgers was an American animated television series based on the classic cartoon short Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century produced by Warner Bros. ...

Impact on Jones

Despite their short run of films, Hubie and Bertie are significant in that they symbolize Chuck Jones as he had reinvented himself in the late 1940s. Before then, his films were mostly sweet, Disney-esque fluff starring ultra-cute characters such as Sniffles. The Hubie and Bertie shorts, in contrast, are intensely humor-driven and full of over-the-top gags and jokes. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) is one of the largest media and entertainment corporations in the world. ... Sniffles is an animated cartoon and comic book character in the Warner Bros. ...

In addition, Hubie and Bertie's penchant for playing to their foes' neuroses hints at Jones' later work with Looney Tunes characters such as Daffy Duck. Jones is the one largely responsible for turning Daffy from a bouncing screwball to a neurotic narcissist, and it is Jones who introduced several characters who are driven by believable impulses rather than just revenge, such as Wile E. Coyote with his obsessive pursuit of the Roadrunner and Pepe Le Pew with his outsize libido. Jones' Hubie and Bertie shorts show that the director was already thinking about characters in terms of their personalities. Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. ... For the hip-hop group from Queensbridge, see Screwball (group). ... A neurosis, in psychoanalytic theory, is an ineffectual coping strategy that Sigmund Freud suggested was caused by emotions from past experience overwhelming or interfering with present experience. ... Narcissism is the pattern of traits and behaviors which involve infatuation and obsession with ones self to the exclusion of others and the egotistic and ruthless pursuit of ones gratification, dominance and ambition. ... Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote The Road Runner cartoons are a series of Looney Tunes cartoons created by Chuck Jones for Warner Brothers. ... For other things named OCD, see OCD (disambiguation). ... A roadrunner is: in zoology, A roadrunner is one of two species of bird in the genus Geococcyx of the cuckoo family Cuculidae, order Cuculiformes, native to North and Central America. ... Pepe Le Pew in the short Little Beau Pepe. ... For other uses, see Libido (disambiguation). ...