A Hick a Slick and a Chick

This is one of the Merrie Melodies I didn't see when I was little/younger. While looking at the title cards that aren't unavailable due to the Blue Ribbon Merrie Melodies title cards used in some of those shorts' places instead in the WB cartoon filmography listing on the archived version of Dave Mackey's site, this one caught my attention and I decided to view it a few nights ago. I'm so glad I did and that I made the right choice of what to check out next. I've since added this to my favorite LT/MM one-shots list.

I don't believe I'm as familiar with Art Davis's directorial works, as I know in the 1940s, he had the directorial position and animation unit in operation for three years and I think once more for one year in the '60s. But this is one directed by him that I enjoyed. One good way that I can describe this, it's like if the country mouse (Elmo) and the city mouse (Blackie) were in a rivalry competing for the affections of a female country mouse (Daisy Lou). Because that's basically what it is. To impress and win over Daisy Lou, Elmo sets out to search for and fetch an ermine coat. But while he does this, he has the misadventure of accidentally ending up drunk and the confusing irony of just so happening to have a run-in with a cat named Herman. I'll leave how Elmo manages to achieve success for anybody reading this to discover for himself/herself.

I like the characters so much that I wish more could've been done with them. As I think that this is one of those one-off shorts that are worthy of more with enough potential and would rather see more of them than some of the more common WB cartoon featurette characters. The animation quality is as much of high quality as are several, other WB cartoons from this decade, as well as the layouts and backgrounds. The music is fine as usual. The voice work is well done. One of my favorites from the '40s. I'd like to see this brought to DVD and I can't wait for the day that it does. Recommended.

This short, which according to more recent info (I tried to correct the date) is from early 1948, is a Cinecolor short and makes unique use of the Popeye storyline with a country bumpkin mouse instead of the Popeye type (Warners themselves would use this for their live monkey short "Orange Blossoms For Violet" and their Daffy Duck cartoon, "Mussle Tussle"), with a mouse Elmo (Stan Freberg and Mel Blanc) planning on an ermine quest--but gets on the ermine in an unusual way...

Great three iris shot opening of the three mice, and use of "Rural Rhymthm", the old Hoosier Hot Shots novelty number. One of Warner Brothers last cartoons about sweetheart mice till Chuck Jones's "Mouse Warming". I noticed something these two have in common--more "sexy" girl mouse leads, a recurring musical theme ("Rural Rhythm" for "A Hick, A SLick, and a Chick", and "L'Amours, ToJours," for "Mouse Warming" (neither mentioned din their respective entries), the supporting appearance of famous WB cats in otherways nearly oneshot cartoons (Sylvetser, here, and Claude in the latter--Art Davis loved depicted Sylvester differently in terms of voice in this and "Cats as Cats Can", but, then this was an early effort of Sylvester) also this and "Mouse Warming" seem to to be the only use (not counting that one Speedy Gonzales shorts with him as a mouse Lothario whose stealing "senereeta mice" is discarded, to use teen or young adult mouse protagonists (though Blackie, the villain, is clearly adult!). BTW the names..the Hick-Elmo and Chick-Daisy Lou. Other sweetheart mouse characters in WB cartoons were either totally adult-type (Friz Freleng's Frankie and Johnny tribute from 1937 "He was her man" and Robert McKimson's Honeymousers) or totally cute kid like (Ironically Tex Avery's "squeaky" (Bernice Hansen voiced) mouse toons!).

And look for a special iris out, too.

Director and animator Arthur Davis had a pretty good break making his own cartoons at the original Warner Bros animation department from the mid to late 1940s. While he had a pretty brief run as a director, he did make a lot of uniquely timed and bizarrely comical shorts that many Looney Tunes fans tend to to enjoy as cult favorites, such as What Makes Daffy Duck?, Two Gophers from Texas, Dough Ray-Meow and more. These shorts not only featured great rubbery animation from the likes of veterans such as Bill Melendez, Emery Hawkins, Don Williams and more, but also had some story content courtesy of writers Lloyd Turner and Bullwinkle co-creator Bill Scott, so even if not all of the shorts landed in the execution, there was still enough distinctive entertainment value to gain from them.

Now with all of that said, the following short A Hick, a Slick and a Chick was actually deemed by Davis as his personal favorite cartoon that he directed. The basic premise is that a country bumpkin mouse named Elmo fights for the affection of his love interest Daisy Lou over a more slick city mouse named Blackie. This type of formula has been done before in cartoons before, especially with most of the Popeye shorts around this time, and admittedly I'm not a fan of these stories all that much. It's never made clear if Daisy Lou is Elmo's actual romantic partner or just someone he knows that he wants to win over, but either way, she's made far too shallow of a character to really feel like she's worth Elmo risking his hind over her. Also, Blackie is an even lamer character with a flat personality beyond his basic superior tropes, and as talented as Mel Blanc always is, the voice he gives the slick does not match his design at all. If anything, this short can be a hard time to stomach at times when it makes me feel more sorry for Elmo getting humiliated by Blackie's more sophisticated yet condescending presence.

However, the one saving grace of this cartoon that does keep it from becoming stale is when Elmo tries to get a genuine Ermine coat for Daisy Lou. One drunken mishap later and the goofy hick mouse unintentionally ends up getting chased by a house cat coincidentally named Herman. In addition to Stan Freberg's hysterical vocal delivery as Elmo, both sober and plastered, the sequence is elevated by the loose flowing staging and character animation, along with Carl Stalling's recurring rendition of Rural Rhythm that adds into the playful energy of the short. Also, if Blackie was a thoroughly boring character, at least Elmo winning Daisy Lou over with his alternative coat does make for a charming conclusion. Lastly, without giving it away, the final shot of the cartoon is simply hilarious as both a means to take out Blackie and show what actually happened to Herman, along with one of the most creative iris out shots in the OG Looney Tunes / Merrie Melodies filmography.

So yeah, I wouldn't call this one a favorite of mine by any means, Looney Tunes or Art Davis related, but A Hick, a Slick and a Chick still has just enough amusing moments in it to warrant some enjoyment from it overall. Davis definitely made better shorts than this, but it's always good to see him and his team take their own spin on a cliched cartoon formula that would soon overstay its welcome. Now that a lot of the Looney Tunes cartoons that were taken off Max are back up again, this once included, give 'er a go and have some fun.

One of Arthur Davis's few cartoons as a director (Warner Bros. couldn't afford to keep four animation units opened, so they closed his) features a yokel mouse going to see his sweetheart, only to find her with a suaver mouse. The suaver mouse seems to be prepared for anything. But what about ermine? Obviously the male-female relationships are a little dated, but I think that if a cartoon makes you laugh, then it's a good one. As it was, "A Hick a Slick and a Chick" appeared in Cheech and Chong's "Up in Smoke". Interesting how these things turn out.

Anyway, worth seeing, if only once. Just don't get any ideas.

Of all the Warner cartoons, this is the one that reminds me most of a Jay Ward TV cartoon—no real mystery, as Bill Scott wrote the script.

Of all the Davis cartoons (and he directed many fine ones in the three years he was director), this one and "Riff Raffy Daffy" are probably the cream of the crop. The interaction of the three characters is simply hysterical, particularly when the hero Elmo searches drunkenly for a coat made of ermine; he then sees a cat's food dish with the name Herman, and he vanquishes the cat through sheer stupidity. I can just picture George Of The Jungle or Bullwinkle speaking this dialogue.

All three voice artists shine here, but I award special kudos to Stan Freberg in the Elmo role. Unlike Mel Blanc, all of whose voices I can link to the same voice timbre, there's no common thread uniting all of Freberg's voices…..a dumb character, a clever rodent, or a feminine voice. I can't trace any of them to the same guy.

No real matter. Director Art Davis reportedly called this his own favorite among all the cartoons he directed.