I Wanna Be a Sailor
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Directed byFred Avery
Story byBen Hardaway (uncredited)
Produced byLeon Schlesinger
StarringMel Blanc
Elvia Allman
Billy Bletcher
Bernice Hansen
Robert Wrinkler (all uncredited)[1]
Music byCarl W. Stalling
Animation byPaul Smith
Virgil Ross
Sid Sutherland (uncredited)
Elmer Wait (uncredited)
Irven Spence (uncredited)
Layouts byGriff Jay (uncredited)
Backgrounds byArt Loomer (uncredited)
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release dates
September 25, 1937 (Original release)
April 30, 1949 (Blue Ribbon re-release)
Running time
7:10
7:00 (Blue Ribbon reissue edition)
LanguageEnglish

I Wanna Be a Sailor is a 1937 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon film directed by Tex Avery.[2] The short was released on September 25, 1937.[3]

Plot

A mother parrot in a cage is teaching her three children to say, "Polly want a cracker." The first two kids, Patrick and Patricia, do so after some effort, but Peter boldly refuses, pointing at a framed photo of his dad he states, "I don't want a cracker! I wanna be a sailor, like me pop." His mother immediately begins deriding her husband, telling Peter that right after he and his siblings were born, their dad had set sail for Hawaii ("No, Maw, it was Catalina," Dad, as she remembers him, reminds her). She tells her son, "I used to burn a little light in the window" (it was actually a searchlight), hoping for his dad's return, but he never did come back.

Nonetheless, Peter stubbornly stomps off to become a sailor. He bumps into a barrel, from which he builds a ship with a red pajama for a sail and a skull-and-crossbones label from a poison bottle for a Jolly Roger flag. He joins forces with an annoyingly loquacious duck (whom he silences by clamping his beak shut with a clothespin), and the two set sail on the lake - Peter as captain, the duck as deck-swab. They eventually run into trouble in a thunderstorm (which the duck revels in, being more accustomed to water) and end up overboard. Peter calls out for his "Momma". She comes running, but the duck has already saved him. Despite it all, Peter still wants to be a sailor, which causes his mother to faint.[4]

Voice cast

Notes

Home media

I Wanna Be A Sailor

References

  1. ^ a b c Scott, Keith (3 October 2022). Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2. BearManor Media. p. 26. ISBN 979-8-88771-010-5.
  2. ^ Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 62. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
  3. ^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 104–106. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  4. ^ After she faints, she revives long enough to ask the audience, "Now what would you do with a child like that?" Reeves, John, " I Wanna Be a Sailor (1937) Plot Summary," imdb.com
  5. ^ Robert Winkler (I), imdb.com
  6. ^ It's an Ill Wind Clip 1, YouTube
  7. ^ It's an Ill Wind Clip 2, YouTube
  8. ^ It's an Ill Wind Clip 3, YouTube
  9. ^ ROSSINI: William Tell Overture (full version), YouTube
  10. ^ Paul Robeson - Poor Old Joe - YouTube
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