Good Night Elmer (1940)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Chuck Jones

Writer:

Rich Hogan (story)

Release Date:

26 October 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Animation | Short | Comedy

Plot:

Elmer Fudd spends an endless night trying to fall asleep amid myriad frustrations, in particular, a candle that won't go out.

Plot Keywords:

Candle | Elmer Fudd | Surrealism | Merrie Melodies

Cast

Mel Blanc

...

Elmer Fudd's Crying and Screaming (voice) (uncredited)

Runtime:

7 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:TV-G

Company:

Leon Schlesinger Studios

Soundtrack:

Good Night, Ladies

Enjoyable cartoon with a support character in the lead role!

Elmer Fudd is at home reading a book when he gets tired and decides to head for bed. After some initial problems working out how to get undressed while still keeping hold of his candle, he eventually gets changed for bed, but his candle problems don't end there.

Although he is a minor character, it is good to see Elmer Fudd used in the lead of his own cartoon; I'm not sure how many he has done but this is certainly the first lead role I've seen him in. However, this cartoon could have had any character in the lead role as it is more about the candle than the character - Fudd more or less plays a frustrated straightman here.

The cartoon starts out with a good physical routine with Fudd trying to work out how to hold the candle while getting undressed: this section is very clever and could easily have been taken from a real film from the period. The rest of the short makes the flame a character and, while not up to the standard of the start, it is still very funny and is worth watching for the fact that the flame is used very well and is easily given character to bounce off Fudd (who also reacts well.

Overall, a cartoon with Elmer in the sole lead role may not sound like a big draw but it is well worth seeing. The material is consistently funny even if Fudd could have easily been any other character from WB, but it is the writing (or design) of each sequence that brings the comedy - very little of it is out and out physical slapstick and, without dialogue, the cartoon shows itself to be mostly a comedic routine that many of the real physical actors of the birth of cinema could have worked with just as well.