Michigan J. Frog

One Froggy Evening is an approximately seven-minute long Technicolor animated short film written by Michael Maltese and directed by Chuck Jones. The short was released on December 31, 1955 as part of Warner Brothers' Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. In 1994 it was voted #5 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. The film is at IMDb currently ranked as the second best short movie ever. Image File history File links Michigan J. Frog in the Looney Tunes short One Froggy Evening. ... Image File history File links Michigan J. Frog in the Looney Tunes short One Froggy Evening. ... Michigan J Frog in the short One Froggy Evening. ... Logo celebrating Technicolors 90th Anniversary Technicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation (a subsidiary of Technicolor, Inc. ... Animation refers to the process in which each frame of a film or movie is produced individually, whether generated as a computer graphic, or by photographing a drawn image, or by repeatedly making small changes to a model (see claymation and stop motion), and then photographing the result. ... Michael Maltese (February 6, 1908 - February 22, 1981) was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. ... 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. ... December 31 is the 365th day of the year (366th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Warner Bros. ... Merrie Melodies end title Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. ... A cartoon is any of several forms of illustrations with varied meanings that evolved from its original meaning. ... The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals was a 1994 book by animation historian Jerry Beck that compiled a list of the 50 greatest animated cartoons of all-time as voted upon by those in the animation industry. ...

Story

A mid-1950s construction worker involved in the demolition of an 1892 building finds a box inside a cornerstone. He opens it to reveal a singing, dancing frog, complete with top hat and cane. The man tries exploiting the frog's talents for money, but as it turns out, it won't perform in front of anyone else. For the rest of the cartoon, the man frantically tries to demonstrate the frog's abilities to the outside world, all to no avail. After his stay in an asylum, we see the haggard man dejectedly hiding the box in a building that's under construction. In the year 2056, the building is demolished by futuristic ray guns, and the box with the frog is discovered yet again, starting the process all over. In large construction projects, such as skyscrapers, cranes are essential. ... Demolition of the Old Myer Building, Perth, Western Australia. ... Distribution of frogs (in black) Suborders Archaeobatrachia Mesobatrachia Neobatrachia - List of Anuran families The frog is an amphibian in the order Anura (meaning tail-less from Greek an-, without + oura, tail), formerly referred to as Salientia (Latin saltare, to jump). ... Duke Ellington wearing a top hat. ... A psychiatric hospital (also called at various places and times, mental hospital, mental ward, sanitarium or asylum) is a hospital specializing in the treatment of persons with mental illness. ... The concept of a death ray is generally portrayed as some form of directed energy weapon that projects energy at a person or object in order to destroy them. ...

The cartoon has no spoken dialog, in fact no vocals at all, except by the frog, otherwise relying on pantomime and other visuals, sound effects, and music: mostly songs from the ragtime and early Tin Pan Alley era, with a dash of Opera showing the frog's versatility; along with one new song written for the cartoon "The Michigan Rag", a parody of pop-rag songs of the era. Second edition cover of Maple Leaf Rag, perhaps the most famous rag of all Ragtime is an American musical genre enjoying its peak popularity between 1899 and 1918. ... Tin Pan Alley was the name given to the collection of New York City-centered music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. ... The New Opera in Oslo, Norway The Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy. ...

Trivia

• The film is included in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2 DVD box set (Disc 4), along with an Audio commentary, optional music-only audio track (only the instrumental, not the vocal), and a making-of documentary, It Hopped One Night: A Look at "One Froggy Evening".

• Some critics and observers regard this cartoon short as the finest ever made. Steven Spielberg, in the PBS Chuck Jones biography Extremes & Inbetweens: A Life In Animation, called One Froggy Evening "the Citizen Kane of animated film".

• The frog had no name when the cartoon was made, but Chuck Jones later named him Michigan J. Frog after the original song. The character became the mascot of The WB television network in the 1990s. In a clip shown in the DVD specials for Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Jones states that he started calling the character "Michigan Frog" in the 1970s. During an interview by a writer named Jay Cox, Jones decided to adopt "J" as the Frog's middle initial, after the interviewer's name.

• The singer was uncredited and for years his identity was shrouded in some degree of mystery. Various names have been proposed in the past. The Looney Tunes Golden Collection unequivocally credits the vocals to baritone Bill Roberts, a nightclub entertainer in Los Angeles in the 1950s.

• The DVD also points out that the names of the buildings in the picture, as shown on the various cornerstones, are names of Warner production people on the cartoon.

• Various commentors have noted that several of the songs performed by the frog were written after he was presumably sealed into the cornerstone, dated 1892.

• A production short-cut can be observed in the final scene, in which the futuristic demolition worker finds the frog in the box. The wide shot shows a smooth, concrete background, while the close-up shot is identical to the first scene in the cartoon, with the rubble of bricks seen in the background.

• Some sources (including one of the DVD commentators) say that only the one man can actually hear the frog, which raises the question of the man's mental state (to say nothing of the mental state of the audience). However, in one scene, a policeman actually overhears the frog singing, in a public park, but by the time he finds the apparent source, it has stopped and he assumes the man was singing. In another scene, the frog is singing backstage in a theatre but stops just as the curtains open; there is no reason to think the audience cannot hear him.

• The story may have been inspired by the real-life tale of Old Rip, a horned toad who apparently survived 31 years sealed in the cornerstone of the courthouse in Eastland, Texas. The cornerstones in both cases had been laid in the 1890s. There are also connections to African myths.

• The performing style of the frog is at least in part a tribute to ragtime era greats such as Bert Williams, who was known for sporting a top hat and cane, and performing the type of flamboyant, high-kick dance steps demonstrated by the frog in Hello! Ma Baby.

• Chuck Jones would later reprise Michigan J. Frog in a new cartoon entitled Another Froggy Evening (1995), with Jeff McCarthy providing the frog's voice

• In 2003 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

A major selling point of DVD video is that its storage capacity allows for a wide variety of extra features in addition to the feature film itself. ... Documentary film is a broad category of visual expression that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to document reality. ... Steven Allan Spielberg KBE (born December 18, 1946)[1] is an American film director and producer. ... Not to be confused with Public Broadcasting Services in Malta. ... Citizen Kane is a 1941 mystery/drama film released by RKO Pictures and directed by Orson Welles, his first feature film. ... Michigan J Frog in the short One Froggy Evening. ... The WB Television Network is a television network in the United States, founded as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. ... For the band, see 1990s (band). ... The Looney Tunes Golden Collection is a yearly series of four-disc DVD box sets from Warner Brothers Home Video, each containing about 60 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated shorts. ... Baritone (French: baryton; Deutsch: Bariton; Italian: baritono) is most commonly the type of male voice that lies between bass and tenor. ... Ol Rip (died January 19, 1929) was a horned lizard (commonly referred to as horned toads) whose supposed 31-year hibernation is believed by some and doubted by others. ... The Short-horned Lizard is a small lizard that occurs in North America. ... Eastland is a city located in Eastland County, Texas. ... Bert Williams (November 12, 1874 – March 4, 1922) was the pre-eminent African American entertainer of his era. ... 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. ... Michigan J Frog in the short One Froggy Evening. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jeff McCarthy is an American character actor who has appeared in television, theatre and films. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Great Hall interior. ... The National Film Registry is the registry of films selected by the United States National Film Preservation Board for preservation in the Library of Congress. ...

Censorship

• Airings of this cartoon on ABC and the WB cut the part where the man creates a "Free Beer" sign to rope in audience members into seeing the singing frog. The way it's cut on both channels makes it seem that the audience came in because of the "Free Admission" sign the man creates before the "Free Beer" sign.

Songs featured

• "Hello! Ma Baby"

Words and Music by Ida Emerson and Joseph E. Howard

• "The Michigan Rag"

Words and Music by Michael Maltese and Chuck Jones

• "Come Back to Erin"

Words and Music by Claribel (pseudonym of Charlotte Alington Barnard)

• "I'm Just Wild About Harry"

Words and Music by Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle

• "Throw Him Down, McCloskey"

Words and Music by John W. Kelly

• "The Michigan Rag" reprise
• "Won't You Come Over To My House"

Words by Harry Williams

Music by Egbert Van Alstyne

• "Largo al factotum"

from "The Barber of Seville"

Composed by Gioacchino Rossini

• "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone"

Words and Music by Sidney Clare, Sam H. Stept and Bee Palmer

• "Hello! Ma Baby" reprise

Hello! Ma Baby is a song written in 1899 by the team of Joseph E. Howard and Ida Emerson (Howard and Emerson). Its subject is a man who has a girlfriend he knows only through the telephone. ... Michael Maltese (February 6, 1908 - February 22, 1981) was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. ... 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. ... James Hubert Eubie Blake (February 7, 1887 - February 12, 1983) was a composer and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music, as well as a lyricist. ... Noble Sissle (born July 10, 1889 in Indianapolis, Indiana, died December 17, 1975 in Tampa, Florida) was an American jazz composer, lyricist, bandleader, singer and playwright. ... Harry Hiram Williams (August 23, 1879 – May 15, 1922) was an American composer, lyricist, and publisher of popular music from 1903 until his death in 1922. ... Egbert Anson Van Alstyne (born, according to differing sources, March 4 or March 6, 1878; died July 9, 1951) was a United States songwriter and pianist. ... Largo al factotum is Figaros aria from The Barber of Seville by Gioacchino Rossini. ... The Barber of Seville (Il barbiere di Siviglia) is a comic opera in two acts by Gioacchino Rossini with a libretto (based on Beaumarchaiss comedy Le Barbier de Séville) by Cesare Sterbini. ... Portrait Gioacchino Antonio Rossini (February 29, 1792 – November 13, 1868)[1] was an Italian musical composer who wrote more than 30 operas as well as sacred music and chamber music. ... Please Dont Talk About Me When Im Gone is a popular song. ... Sidney Clare is a comedian, dancer and composer born in New York on August 15, 1892. ...

External links

• Details and credits for One Froggy Evening
• IMDB One Froggy Evening Page