Golden Yeggs
Encyclopedia
Golden Yeggs is a 1950
Merrie Melodies
short
animated film, released on August 5, 1950 by Warner Bros. Cartoons
, Inc. and directed by Friz Freleng
. It features Daffy Duck
and Porky Pig
in a forerunner of the Rocky and Mugsy
cartoons, with Rocky already in his present-day form.
The story was written by Tedd Pierce
and animated by Arthur Davis, Gerry Chiniquy
, Ken Champin, Virgil Ross and Emery Hawkins
. Paul Julian
painted the backgrounds and Hawley Pratt
designed the layouts. Mel Blanc
provided all the voices and Carl Stalling
the music.
"Yegg" is a slang term for a burglar or safecracker. The same play-on-words was used in the title of the 1947 Bugs Bunny
cartoon, Easter Yeggs
.
), he claims that Daffy laid it. After finding out about the fame Daffy got for laying the egg, Rocky and his gang hustle him back to their den and demand more output. Daffy tries to stall for time, at one point asking for surroundings that would make him more comfortable. Rocky and his henchmen oblige, but then demand the egg.
Daffy tries to stall for time, but is given five minutes to lay his egg or else. The duck tries various ways to escape his predicament, but is stopped at every turn. When time runs out, the gangsters stalk Daffy ... only to find he really has laid a golden egg!
Daffy is relieved that he met Rocky's demand and will be allowed to go free ... until Rocky escorts the duck into a room containing dozens of egg crates and orders him to "Fill 'em up!" Daffy moans, "Aw, my achin' back!" and faints.
magazine. Years later, both Warner Bros. and Life would be subsidiaries of Time Warner
.
1950 in film
The year 1950 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 15 - Walt Disney Studios' animated film Cinderella debuts.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:*Ambush...
Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...
short
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
animated film, released on August 5, 1950 by Warner Bros. Cartoons
Warner Bros. Cartoons
Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was the in-house division of Warner Bros. Pictures during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, Warner Bros. Cartoons was primarily responsible for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical...
, Inc. and directed by Friz Freleng
Friz Freleng
Isadore "Friz" Freleng was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros....
. It features Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
and Porky Pig
Porky Pig
Porky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
in a forerunner of the Rocky and Mugsy
Rocky and Mugsy
Rocky and Mugsy are animated cartoon characters in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. They were created by Friz Freleng.-Character Biography:...
cartoons, with Rocky already in his present-day form.
The story was written by Tedd Pierce
Tedd Pierce
Tedd Pierce , was an American animated cartoon writer, animator and artist. Pierce spent the majority of his career as a writer for the Warner Bros. "Termite Terrace" animation studio, working alongside fellow luminaries such as Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese. Pierce also worked as a writer at...
and animated by Arthur Davis, Gerry Chiniquy
Gerry Chiniquy
Germain Adolph "Gerry" Chiniquy was an American animator. He is best known for his work with Friz Freleng, at both Warner Bros. and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises....
, Ken Champin, Virgil Ross and Emery Hawkins
Emery Hawkins
Emery Hawkins was an American animator who worked at many studios during the golden age of animation, including Disney, Screen Gems, Walter Lantz, Warner Bros., and UPA. His most famous work is undoubtedly the Woody Woodpecker cartoons that he worked on during the 1940s...
. Paul Julian
Paul Julian
Paul Julian was an American artist and designer most noted for his work as a background artist for Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes cartoon shorts. He worked primarily for director Friz Freleng's Sylvester and Tweety Bird shorts...
painted the backgrounds and Hawley Pratt
Hawley Pratt
Hawley Pratt was an American film director, animator, and illustrator. He is best known for his work during the heyday of Warner Bros. Cartoons and as the right-hand man of director Friz Freleng as a layout artist and later as a director...
designed the layouts. Mel Blanc
Mel Blanc
Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros...
provided all the voices and Carl Stalling
Carl Stalling
Carl W. Stalling was an American composer and arranger for music in animated films. He is most closely associated with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts produced by Warner Bros., where he averaged one complete score each week, for 22 years.-Biography:Stalling was born to Ernest and...
the music.
"Yegg" is a slang term for a burglar or safecracker. The same play-on-words was used in the title of the 1947 Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
cartoon, Easter Yeggs
Easter Yeggs
Easter Yeggs is a 1947 Looney Tunes animated short originally released theatrically on June 28, 1947. The title is a play on "Easter eggs" and on "yegg", a slang term for a burglar or safecracker....
.
Summary
When Porky finds a golden egg in his henhouse, it was revealed that one of the geese laid it. But, knowing well about what happened to the goose that laid the golden egg (a reference to Aesop's FablesAesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables or the Aesopica are a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today...
), he claims that Daffy laid it. After finding out about the fame Daffy got for laying the egg, Rocky and his gang hustle him back to their den and demand more output. Daffy tries to stall for time, at one point asking for surroundings that would make him more comfortable. Rocky and his henchmen oblige, but then demand the egg.
Daffy tries to stall for time, but is given five minutes to lay his egg or else. The duck tries various ways to escape his predicament, but is stopped at every turn. When time runs out, the gangsters stalk Daffy ... only to find he really has laid a golden egg!
Daffy is relieved that he met Rocky's demand and will be allowed to go free ... until Rocky escorts the duck into a room containing dozens of egg crates and orders him to "Fill 'em up!" Daffy moans, "Aw, my achin' back!" and faints.
Trivia
One scene features Rocky reading about Daffy in LifeLife (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
magazine. Years later, both Warner Bros. and Life would be subsidiaries of Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
.
Censorship
- On the ABC airing of this cartoon, the part where Daffy is shot in the head by Rocky after confessing that he hasn't laid any eggs is replaced with a repeat shot of the mob members playing cards and reading magazines (from earlier in the cartoon). This is also how the scene was shown in the compilation film The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie in which Bugs and the police suddenly bust in and arrest Rocky's troop, but only after Daffy, exhausted, has filled all the egg cartonEgg cartonAn egg carton is a carton designed for carrying and transporting whole eggs. These cartons have a dimpled form in which each dimple accommodates an individual egg and isolates that egg from eggs in adjacent dimples...
s. - The Nickelodeon version also edited the scene that was cut on ABC, but the scene was edited with a fake iris-out just as Rocky says, "So long, pal" and a fake iris-in after Daffy is shot.
- The CBS airing of this cartoon leaves in the gun gag at the end, but cuts an early scene where after Porky tells the mobsters he doesn't want to sell Daffy, Daffy is then shown being carried out and the scene cuts to Daffy in the mobsters' apartment. What was cut was a short scene of Porky in a trough with a shovel broken over his head, burnt matches in his hooves, and money shoved in his hands, looking beaten up, and uttering, "T-t-they talked me into it."