Summary of The Story of Bosko, the First Looney Tune | THE MERRIE HISTORY OF LOONEY TUNES

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This YouTube video tells the story of Bosko, the first Looney Tune, and the difficulties the creators faced in the early days of Hollywood. Bosko was originally created for a Warner Bros. contract, but he was eventually given to Leon Schlesinger's new studio. In 1933, Schlesinger resigned his contract, and his studio closed down shortly thereafter.

• 00:00:00 In 1914, cartoonist Winsor McCay put on a show in Chicago, introducing the only dinosaur in captivity. The first thing the audience saw was Gertie, a long-necked dinosaur, poking her head out from a cave. McCay called for her to do a series of tricks, and Gertie always obeyed. However, at times she ignored her master's orders and did things such as hurling mammoths into a nearby lake. McCay was able to placate Gertie with treats, and the cartoon ended with Gertie lifting McCay up and walking away. In 1920, two young artists, Walt Disney and Iwerks, left their jobs at a commercial arts studio and started their own studio, Peddle Laughs, in Kansas City, Missouri. They changed the name to Ram Studios the following year, when Fred Harmon, another young artist, left to pursue a career in newspaper comics. Disney and Iwerks continued to work together until Harmon's death in 1953.
• 00:05:00 In the early days of animation, six men spent their free time learning how to animate better by studying books and short films, including "Lutz's American cartoons" and "Paul Terry's short films." Eventually, Disney left Kansas City for Los Angeles, where he found a new animation studio. However, he was constantly frustrated by the minces quality of the Alice comedies, and he eventually decided to end the series. Friz Freleng, a 21-year-old animator who had been working for the United Film Ad Service in Kansas City, was offered a chance to come out to LA and join the Disney studio. He accepted, and soon became one of the most skilled animation artists on the team.
• 00:10:00 In 1927, Disney created the character Oswald, a happy-go-lucky rabbit who was intended to explore personality animation. Universal rejected Oswald's poor papa, which proved to be a learning experience for the Disney Studios. In 1928, Disney traveled to New York City to renegotiate his contract with Charles Mintz, but was denied the raise he wanted. The animators who had defected from Disney Studios in 1925 saw this as an opportunity to start their own studio. They moved into a small studio space in the auto-pay Olsen building in Hollywood and began working on their first project, an animated short involving a plane and a mouse. Hugh Harman, who had always wanted to make a sound cartoon, joined the team shortly after. However, the sour atmosphere created by Disney's frequent outbursts led to the team's termination less than a year later.
• 00:15:00 Bosko, a talking kid animated by Disney defectors, was one of the first Looney Tunes shorts. It features Rudy izing playing himself, drawing Bosco a piano which Bosco begins to play, and singing. Bosco's dialogue is mixed better than Isaac's and it marked one of the first times a character breaks the fourth wall. Bosco's short was produced as a demo reel to show potential distributors what Harman and Ising x' crew could do with their own character. It was set apart from the sound cartoons Disney was putting out at the time because while Disney shorts was focused primarily on sound effects and music Harman and Ising short had no musical soundtrack aside from Bosco playing the piano. The short emphasized the exchange of dialogue between Isaac and Bosco as well delivered his lines in front of a second camera while Isaac was being filmed so that his mouth movements could serve as reference for Bosco's dialogue. The audio synchronization was crude, but Bosco's dialogue is obviously mixed better than Isaac's. Leon Schlesinger, a shrewd businessman, had faith in showbiz ventures that others would consider risky, and had gotten into the good graces with the big of certain movie studio Warner Brothers by helping them fund a risky
• 00:20:00 The story of Bosko, the first Looney Tune, tells of the animator's efforts to create a new series of shorts based around catchy songs and elastic characters. Bosko, a black character with a southern African American dialect, became a hit with audiences and continues to be popular over seventy years after his debut.
• 00:25:00 These animated shorts, which debuted in 1931, were the first series of Looney Tunes and were very successful. Bosko, the first Looney Tune, was a little black boy with a lot of character and charm. His joyfulness was infectious and he loved everything - even honey - with the same unrestrained enthusiasm. The shorts also featured the first gag featuring billboards and advertisements coming to life and interacting with one another. After Bosko's character was killed off, the shorts became more focused on music and the introduction of new characters Foxy and Roxy. However, after one more short featuring Bosko and Rossi, Foxy was replaced and the shorts went on to feature many other memorable characters.
• 00:30:00 The story of Bosko, the first Looney Tune, follows the titular character as he becomes a success in the world of animation. Bosko's Looney Tune series continued to be a success, and in 1932, Harmonizing Studios produced their first full-length animated film, Bosko the Dough Boy. Improvements were made to both the Bosko cartoons and Merrie Melodies series, with the switch to being completely one shots. This allowed for greater experimentation with ideas, and the one-shot nature of Merrie Melodies allowed the animators to focus on creating memorable stories rather than sticking to a set formula.
• 00:35:00 In 1933, the Warner Brothers animated short "Bosko the Horse" was nominated for an Academy Award, becoming the first Warner Brothers short to do so. This short paved the way for future Looney Tunes shorts, which became sharper in their delivery of gags, and demonstrated the characters' growing physical humor. One of the most significant changes seen in Bosco shorts over the years is the character's development from a folksy, goofier character to a more eyeballed, edgier character.
• 00:40:00 This video tells the story of Bosko, the first Looney Tune, and the difficulties Harmon and izing faced in the early days of Hollywood. Bosko was originally created for a Schlessinger-era Warner Bros. contract, but he was eventually given to Leon Schlesinger's new studio, Leon Schlesinger Productions. In 1933, Schlesinger resigned his contract, and his studio closed down shortly thereafter.