Rocky Memories Update

Now with 34 interviews, Rocky Memories been progressively get better. Remember that this is a book of memories with June. For more interviews I am planning to interview Eric Goldberg. I am trying to get in contact with Nancy Cartwright and Bill  Farmer. I also plan to interview Mark Evanier again as he tells great stories.

Top 10 in My Opinion#2---People to Take Over Mel Blanc's Roles

When Mel Blanc died, it seemed that everyone took over his roles. He wanted his son to take it over but that didn't work out. Warner Bros wanted to make sure that there wouldn't be another Mel Blanc. That's why it has taken 19 people to take over his roles. Here is in my opinion the top 10 people to take over Mel's roles. Mel Blanc was so versatile that to make up for what he did, Warner Bros has to pay like 20 people. Here is my top 10 to take over Mel's characters. This is a list of who I think do the best at reinventing the characters Mel created. This list is about who best voiced Bugs, Daffy, Tweety, Porky, and the rest after Mel died.

First a few honorable mentions
A. Bill Farmer—has voiced Secret Squirrel, Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, and Foghorn Leghorn

B. Noel Blanc--Mel's son who took over many of Mel's characters.

C. Dee Bradley Baker— He voiced Daffy in Space Jam.

D. Keith Scott--He is the Australian voice of Mel Blanc's characters. He has voiced many of Mel's characters for Australian projects such as commercials and theme park attractions. He has voied Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Foghorn Leghorn, Henery Hawk, Barney Rubble, Sylvester, Tweety, Speedy Gonzales, and Marvin the Martian

E. Kevin Michael Richardson—He voiced Barney Rubble in Flintstones On The Rocks in the early nasally tone.

Now on with the list...

10. Eric Bauza--
While he is fairly new in the field compared to the rest of these gentlemen, Eric Bauza is no stranger to the Looney Tunes characters. Eric is one of the many voice contributors to Rocky Memories and has shared many stories behind the scenes that will be in my book. Eric grew up with the Looney Tunes and has shared that he a huge Looney Tunes fan. He is the voice of Marvin The Martian in The Looney Tunes Show. He has done numerous projects as Pepe Le Pew as well. Warner Bros has announced a number of projects that he will be playing Bugs, Daffy, and Tweety.

9.  Jeff Bennett ---
While Jeff Bennett is much more known as the voice of other characters such as Johnny Bravo, he has also played many Warner Bros characters. Jeff Bennett had been doing voices for Warner Bros long before voicing any Looney Tunes characters. He had already done voices on Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs. His first Looney Tunes characters were minor established character cameos in Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries. He first voiced a major character in Tweety's High Flying Adventure and played Foghorn Leghorn.  In Looney Tunes Back in Action, he voiced Foghorn Leghorn and Yosemite Sam. He has voiced both Foghorn Leghorn and Yosemite Sam in many other projects since. He has also voiced Sylvester and Daffy Duck in a couple of theatrical shorts.

8. Frank Welker 
This man is literally the next generation Mel Blanc. Some even consider him the greatest voice actor of all time instead of Mel. While I disagree with this, I can't deny this man's talent. This man can voice nearly anything. He hasn't voiced many major Looney Tunes characters but has voiced a ton of minor characters. He voiced Hector in Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, the Abominable Snowman, Mugsy, and so many others. The best reincarnations of Mel's voices he did though is Mels' Hanna Barbera characters (which is why he made the 8th spot on this list). After Mel died, he took the Role of Barney Rubble and Dino. He continues to voice both characters to this day. He also would voice the later incarnations of Speed Buggy.

7. Jim Cummings—Jim Cummings makes #7 despite not playing as many major WB characters as the people below. Jim is most known for his Disney work on Winnie the Pooh and Darkwing Duck. His most well-known Non-Disney character however is one of Mel's. Jim has been the voice of the Tasmanian Devil more times than Mel did. He voiced Taz in Taz-Mania, Duck Dodgers, and The Looney Tunes Show. He has also voiced Yosemite Sam a number of times.

6. Maurice LaMarche--

Maurice LaMarche is a very well-known voice actor. He is extremely talented and is most well-known for his roles on Futurama and Pinky and the Brain. He also played many of the Looney Tunes. He has been in dozens of Looney Tunes projects. He is usually the voice of Yosemite Sam in Looney Tunes projects which he is involved. He has also played Foghorn Leghorn, Pepe Le Pew, and Taz.

5. Billy West---

Billy West has voiced many of Mel's characters. His first Looney Tunes voice was of Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in Space Jam. He has voiced many of Mels characters and has also voiced Elmer Fudd. He also played Woody Woodpecker in The New Woody Woodpecker Show. Besides Woody, Bugs, and Elmer, he has also played Porky, Tweety, Foghorn Leghorn, and Pepe Le Pew.

4. Greg Burson--
This man spent his entire life respectively voicing Mel's characters after his death. He also voiced all of Daws Butler's characters. In fact, Greg Burson was one of Daws Butlers' students! Greg voiced the Looney Tunes in Animaniacs, Tiny Toon Adventures. He also was in dozens of other video games, TV shows, and commercials. He voiced many Looney Tunes Characters including Bugs, Daffy, Foghorn Leghorn, Tweety, Porky, and Pepe Le Pew.

3. Joe Alaskey--

This man voiced nearly every Looney Tunes character until his death in 2016. He had voiced them all at least once. He voiced Bugs, Daffy, Porky, Sylvester, Tweety, and every other character. He voiced Daffy Duck in many Looney Tunes projects including Duck Dodgers and Looney Tunes Back In Action. He voiced Bugs Bunny in Back In Action and voiced Marvin the Martian in Duck Dodgers. He also voiced both Sylvester and Tweety in Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries

2. Bob Bergen---
The #1 and #2 voice actors go to two men so devoted to Mel Blanc's work that they have stalking stories about meeting him. #2 on our list hasn't played as many characters as Greg Burson or Joe Alaskey had. This man is the voice of Porky Pig. Eric Bauza told me that Bob Bergen's Porky Pig voice is dead on and nobody has ever been better at Porky since Mel. Bob Bergen is another contributor to my Rocky Memories book. There is no other person who has defined one of Mel's characters as he has with Porky. Mel Blanc will always be the person whose voice we think of when we think of the Looney Tunes. Bob brought charm to Porky that is the best imitation of any character Mel voiced. He also voices Tweety, and Marvin the Martian.

1. Jeff Bergman---

This man has spent much of his life voicing all of the Looney Tunes characters. He also voiced many of Mel's Hanna-Barbera characters. While Bob Bergen does the best Porky Pig, Jeff Bergman does the best Bugs Bunny. He also voices nearly all of the other Looney Tunes and Barney Rubble. He makes us think that Mel is still alive and he brings life into all of the Looney Tunes that make us forget that someone else is behind the scenes and not Mel. Mel Blanc can't be replaced. There will never be another Mel Blanc but these people are my favorite that brought life back to the characters we remember most from the Man of a Thousand Voices.

Credits:

Eric Bauza
Mark Evanier

The Afterlife of The Dover Boys Part 17--The Unproduced Sequel

In 1945, Chuck was going to make a sequel to The Dover Boys. He didn't though. There is art from this unmade short below. They remodeled the characters. They kind of look like Jay Ward Characters. Dora's rich father would have been introduced and shown. Ben Backslide looks like Hitler. This is the final part in my monthly series.

The Afterlife of The Dover Boys Part 16---Animaniacs

The Dover Boys made two cameos in Animaniacs here is a clip of both.

Afterlife of the Dover Boys Part 15--The Dover Boys Chucktalk

Here is the CTN TV's Chuck Talk on the Dover Boys and with the Dover Boys. The panel consists of Craig Kausen (Chuck Jones' grandson), Chuck's daughter linda, and 3 of the Dover Boys (Jeff DeGrandis, Chris Bailey, and Kelly Asbury)


https://tv.creativetalentnetwork.com/chuck-talk-a-discussion-on-inspiration-with-the-dover-boys#

Afterlife of The Dover Boys Part 14--Chuck Jones's Dover Boys

Chuck Jones was a true legend. Chuck trained and mentored a group of young animators which he called The Dover Boys. The group Consisted of Chris Bailey, Rob Minkoff,  Kelly Asbury, and Jeff DeGrandis. 


Chuck's Daughter Linda and The Dover Boys

Afterlife of The Dover Boys Part 13--Other Anecdotes

Here are a few more Dover Boys anecdotes and fun facts.

• It had one of the largest voice casts in the Warner Bros Cartoons including Mel Blanc, Bea Benaderet, Marjorie Tarlton, John McLeish, Tedd Pierce, and The Sportsmen Quartet.
• A piece of the cartoon was shown on Agent Carter as part of a subliminal messaging tool of The Black Widow Program.
• It was #49 in Jerry Beck's Book: The 50 Greatest Cartoons

• The volleyball team was, according to Chuck's autobiography, called The Indomitable Team from Pimento University.
• I believe that this is really just Chuck's animation unit.
• The team consisted of Phil Monroe, Ben Washam, Abe Levitow, Richard Thompson, and Ken Harris.

Afterlife of The Dover Boys Part 12--Space Jam

The Dover Boys made a cameo as an audience member in Space Jam.

Cameo

Model Art for Dan Backslide and Tom, Dick, And Larry. Dan Backslide had a model sheet but didn't appear in Space Jam.

Afterlife of the Dover Boys Part 11---Lobby Cards

Lobby Cards.

Afterlife of The Dover Boys Part 10--Limited Edition Art

Here is some limited edition art of the Dover Boys.

Credits:

The Chuck Jones Gallery

Carol Erickson

Afterlife of the Dover Boys part 9--Futurama

In the Futurama episode Less of a Hero, The Dover Boys were shown in the opening title scene.

Afterlife of the The Dover Boys part 8---Fans, Fanart, and Merchandise

Here are a few things that fans have done to either impress other fans or just to pay tribute. There is also the only collectible I could find. Also at the top is a group cosplaying as The Dover Boys and Dan Backslide.

A nice peace of art.

Because the short is in the public domain, it was bootlegged on this VHS tape.

Afterlife of the The Dover Boys part 7---All About the Animation (thanks to Mark Kausler)

I would have described the animation in this short but Mark Kausler tells it better. Here is some moments of the smear and important iconic peaces of The Dover Boys.


Mark Says:


"The Dover Boys is fundamentally a parody of 1890s melodrama. Nearly every cartoon studio, and even some live action, found this a rich source of material ripe for mockery. Chuck Jones took this kind of story to the next level by employing John MacLeish (sp?) to do the narration in his very dry fashion, and to use Horatio Alger type broad characters such as Tom, Dick and Larry, to be the heroes. Dan Backslide and Dora Standpipe fill out the cast as the villain and the heroine. Bobe Cannon experimented notably in this cartoon by using "stretch" inbetweens to fill in the gaps between extremes of an action, such as when Dan Backslide works on his jalopy with tire irons by stretching across a wide expanse of scenery to get his tools and quickly change a tire on his car. The fight sequence with Dora Standpipe walloping Backslide and tossing him out of the shot is handled with stretch inbetweens as well. A weakness in animation is that extremely fast motion of a character running, for instance can have a great deal of strobe, resulting in double images on the screen.Bobe Cannon and later, Manny Gould and Don Williams under Art Davis at Warners, developed stretch inbetweens or good drybrush blur effects into a new visual language. They looked great on a movie screen, and nearly eliminated the strobe layering that was a problem in older animation. The way the stretches looked on screen had a bold, graphic design which eventually led to UPA and more stylized characters and backgrounds. That's what makes The Dover Boys a curiosity, the extremely old-fashioned story, pared with the modern, super stylized look of the characters in action that Bobe Cannon drew. That makes The Dover Boys a real breakthrough in design and the approach toward animated motion on screen. "

Here are a few scences of smear art.

Photo of Bobo Cannon

Afterlife of the The Dover Boys part 6---I'll Steal it, No One Will Ever Know!

One year after The Dover Boys, Columbia made a short entitled The Rocky Road to Ruin. This short is extremely similar to The Dover Boys. The damsel in distress looks sort of like Dora. Handsome Harry looks remarkably similar to Tom. The villian's name is Snievley Whiplash. The name is sounds remarkably similar to Snidley Whiplash but he looks exactually like Dan Backslide. John McLeish wrote the story. McLeish was also the narrator in The Dover Boys a yearlier so he clearly was aware of it.



He looks remarkably similar to Dan Backslide.

Here is Tom- I mean Handsome Harry and the heroine. 

Afterlife of the Dover Boys Part 5---Other Dover Boys (No Relation)

The Dover Boys isn't a common name. There are many other names of things called The Dover Boys. Note: This has  absolutely no connection to The Dover Boys. I don't think anyways.


Here is a comic book featuring the adventures of The Dover Boys!

Afterlife of The Dover Boys part 4--The History of This Short

         The Dover Boys is a classic short. The Dover Boys was an experimental film, which pioneered the use of limited animation. It used smear drawings from each position. Chuck Jones directed the short. The story was by Ted Pierce who also voiced Tom. This was a parody of the books Jones read as a kid. Chuck Jones was an avid reader and his father made sure he read a lot. This was a parody of The Rover Boys as well as homage to other books such as Tom Sawyer. The animators included Phil DeLara, Rudy Larriva, Ken Harris, Robert Cannon, and Ben Washam.


           According to Tom Sito, this short was Chuck Jones and Ted Pierce's joking about two popular trends in the 1940s. Young men's adventure fiction and the nostalgia wave for the Gay Nineties. In World War II, people yearned for when life was simpler and more polite which was the case in The Dover Boys. 

      This cartoon was the first modern cartoon, which pioneered limited animation. It is a clear that this short probably influenced the UPA-style. In fact, Chuck Jones directed the first UPA short. That isn't even the major UPA connection though. Another animator on this cartoon is Robert Cannon. Cannon would later become most known for his work at UPA. He is one of the major studios of UPA. He directed all the Gerald Mcboing-Boing shorts, as well as the TV show. He also directed Madeline and several Magoo cartoons. 

       John McGrew did the backgrounds on this cartoon. You can read an interview with him here. Mcgrew did the backgrounds for many of Chuck's early cartoons. This short had a much larger cast then most Warner Bros Cartoons. Ted Pierce voices Tom. John McLeish voices the narrator. Mel Blanc voices Dan Backslide. According to Tom Sito, Dan Backslide was a caricature of Ted Pierce. Marjorie Tarlton voices various characters and Bea Benadaret was the voice of Dora.

       Leon Schlesinger wasn't a fan. Neither were Warner executives. They weren't a fan of the extensive use of limited animation. The executives were going to fire Jones and were in the process of doing so because of his previous shorts, which extensively used Disney-like characters and stories. They couldn't find a better replacement so they kept him around.

Special Thanks to: 


Jerry Beck

Tom Sito

Mark Kausler

The Afterlife of The Dover Boys Part 3--DVD Commentary

Commentary with Michael Barrier

The Afterlife of the Dover Boys----The Dover Boys (The Original Short)

The Dover Boys in Pop Culture part 1

The Dover Boys is one of the most recognizable Chuck Jones cartoons. It helped define limited animation. 90+ animators came together to animate this short. Here it is. I think it looks really good. Not as good as the original but is still a great tribute. This is my next series for this september. I will also be doing monthly top 15s.