Droopy Dog
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Droopy Dog was a low-key animated movie character created by Tex Avery at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1943—essentially the polar opposite of his other famous character, loud, whacky Screwy Squirrel. Originally known as Happy Hound until 1949, this mournful Basset hound spoke in a jowly monotone and, though he didn't look like much, was shrewd enough to outwit his enemies—the conniving Butch the Irish bulldog and the thieving, nasty wolf (not the Jubalio wolf, although Droopy and several of his lookalike relatives faced him too, in Three Little Pups and Blackboard Jumble). Avery had used this same gag in 1941 on his Tortoise Beats Hare short for Warner Bros. In fact, this film shows that early ideas about Droopy's personality were already germinating, as that film's Cecil Turtle is very similar in character to Droopy.
Droopy first appeared in the MGM cartoon Dumb-Hounded, released by MGM on March 20, 1943 which is considered one of Avery's best works by animation scholars. Droopy's first scene is when he saunters into view, looks at the audience, and declares "hello all you happy people...you know what? I'm the hero." In the cartoon, Droopy is tracking an escaped convict and is always waiting for the crook wherever he turns up. Droopy's meek, deadpan voice and personality were modeled after the character Wallace Wimple on the radio comedy Fibber McGee and Molly; actor Bill Thompson, who played Wimple, was the original voice of Droopy. During his time in the service, the role was played by other voice actors, including Don Messick, who reprised the role in the 1990s.
Probably his most famous short is Northwest Hounded Police, in which Droopy quite literally appears everywhere that an increasingly more frustrated crook attempts to run, until, exhausted, the bad guy turns himself in (this is very reminiscent of Dumb-Hounded). Droopy was a versatile actor: he could play a Mountie, a cowboy, a deputy, an heir, or a Dixieland-loving everyday Joe with equal ease.
What made the character even more hilarious is his incredible strength, given his dimunitive stature and unassuming looks and personality, but only when he was upset, and then he would monotone, "You know what? That makes me mad." prior to tossing the hapless villain of the piece over his head many times.
As Avery looked towards retirement, Michael Lah, his animator, co-directed several pictures with him in the mid-fifties, several featuring Droopy. Lah would be directing Droopy solo by 1956 in pictures costarring Spike and Jubalio Wolf. The last golden-age Droopy cartoon—made after Avery had left MGM—was a Cinemascope remake of 1949's Wags to Riches called Millionaire Droopy, which essentially used all of the original cels and vocal tracks but different backgrounds.
In the 1970s, Filmation produced a series of crude, low-budget Droopy shorts for television, with Frank Welker and producer Lou Scheimer alternating as the voice of the hound.
In the 1990s Hanna-Barbera offering Tom & Jerry Kids, Droopy had a young son named Dripple—possibly an older version of the infant we see in Homesteader Droopy. The mild success of the show provided perhaps the most Droopy merchandise: plush toys, gummy snacks, figurines, etc. Tom & Jerry Kids had a spin-off series, Droopy, Master Detective. He also had cameos in two theatrical features: as an elevator operator in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (where he was voiced by the film's animation director Richard Williams), and in Tom and Jerry: The Movie (voiced by Messick). Droopy also had cameos in all three subsequently-produced Roger Rabbit shorts, Tummy Trouble, Rollercoaster Rabbit, and Trail Mix-Up (played by Williams in the first short and by Corey Burton in the latter two). A short-lived Droopy comic book series was released in the mid-90's by Dark Horse Comics. In 2004, Droopy was a client on ( EP19 - Droopy Botox - July 18, 2004) after receiving a bad face-lift, which he learned to like. Also in 2004, Droopy appeared in Comedy Central's Drawn Together in voice form as the narrator of a book-on-tape (Clara's Story: How I Kissed a Black Girl by Princess Clara) that the character Foxxy Love listens to in the episode "Clara's Dirty Little Secret".
Matt Groening has stated that he based The Simpsons character Hans Moleman on Droopy.
Droopy also has a cameo in the manga and anime Dragon Ball, by Akira Toriyama, as the Abbot of the Buddhist Monastery that hosts the Strongest-under-Heaven Tournament. Before the fights begin, Abbot Droopy delivers, in his trademark deadpan, a bit of Zen Wisdom: "Woof."
Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central's news parody The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, has taken to imitating Connecticut senator and 2000 Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman with Droopy Dog's voice and mannerisms.
Filmography (
- Dumb-Hounded (1943)
- The Shooting Of Dan McGoo (1945)
- Wild And Woolfy (1945)
- Northwest Hounded Police (1946)
- Señor Droopy (1949)
- Wags To Riches (1949)
- Out-Foxed (1949)
- The Chump Champ (1950)
- Daredevil Droopy (1951)
- Droopy's Good Deed (1951)
- Droopy's "Double Trouble" (1951)
- Caballero Droopy (1952)
- The Three Little Pups (1953)
- Drag-A-Long Droopy (1954)
- Homesteader Droopy (1954)
- Dixieland Droopy (1954)
- Deputy Droopy (1955)
- Millionaire Droopy (1956)
- Grin And Share It (1957)
- Blackboard Jumble (1957)
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All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.