Film seriesLooney Tunes ProducerLeon Schlesinger CountryUnited States
DirectorFrank Tashlin Music directorCarl Stalling Duration LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 6, 1944 (1944-05-06) CastMel Blanc, Richard Bickenbach, Sara Berner Similar moviesLooney Tunes movies
Swooner Crooner is a 1944 Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin, produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions and released to theaters by Warner Bros. Pictures. The cartoon was nominated for the 1945 Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) (the only Porky Pig cartoon to do so), which it lost to the Tom and Jerry cartoon Mouse Trouble, the 2nd of 7 Oscars shared by the Cat and Mouse team
Porky Pig is the supervisor of the "Flockheed Eggcraft Factory", where dozens of hens lay eggs for the war effort (in this case, World War II). The hens suddenly get distracted from their egg laying when a handsome rooster named Frankie (who sings like Frank Sinatra) is heard singing outside. Frankie's renditions of "It Can't Be Wrong" by Dick Haymes and "As Time Goes By" (from Casablanca, 1942) causes all the hens to swoon.
Porky rushes to investigate. Soon, he is auditioning for a new crooner; those showing up are rooster caricatures of Nelson Eddy ("Shortnin' Bread"), Al Jolson ("September in the Rain"), Jimmy Durante ("Lullaby of Broadway"), Cab Calloway ("Minnie the Moocher", "Blues in the Night"), and Bing Crosby ("When My Dream Boat Comes Home").
Porky asks the Bing Crosby rooster (who introduced himself as "The Old Groaner") to be the crooner, provoking a competition with Frankie. Between the two of them, the overexcited hens' egg production is increased to a level beyond what Porky can handle, including a just-hatched hen chick laying an egg many times her own size.
Surveying literal hills and mountains of eggs all over his farm, Porky is impressed and asks the two roosters, "How did you ever m-m-make 'em lay all those eggs." The roosters demonstrate their technique by crooning at Porky, who lays a mountainful of eggs himself as a result.
Availability
Swooner Crooner was the first cartoon in the Looney Tunes series to be re-released as part of Warner Bros. Cartoons' "Blue Ribbon" reissue series, on February 12, 1949. It is available on:
Bugs & Daffy: The Wartime Cartoons VHS
Cartoon Festival Featuring "Nothing But The Tooth",
The "Golden Age Of Looney Tunes Vol. 9: Hooray For Hollywood" VHS
The Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3 DVD
The Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection DVD
The Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3 Blu-Ray/DVD