Happy Harmonies

Happy Harmonies is the name of a series of thirty-seven animated cartoons distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and produced by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising between 1934 and 1938.

Produced in Technicolor, these cartoons were very similar to Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies. They would occasionally feature Bosko, a character who starred in the first Looney Tunes shorts that the duo produced for Leon Schlesinger. After the first two releases, the design of Bosko changed from an ink blot to a realistic African American boy.

The two final titles in the series were originally produced by Harman and Ising as Silly Symphonies cartoons. Disney originally had Harman and Ising create three shorts for Disney, but when they only kept one of their three shorts, "Merbabies", the copyrights to the other two ("Pipe Dreams" and "The Little Bantamweight") were sold to MGM who released them as Happy Harmonies.

List of cartoons

1934

Title	Directed By	Notes	Release Date
The Discontented Canary	Rudolf Ising	The very first MGM cartoon, produced for the studio.	1934-09-01
The Old Pioneer	Rudolf Ising	Includes reused animation from Warner Bros' Moonlight for Two (1932). First cartoon to label the name Happy Harmonies on the title card.	1934-09-29
Tale of the Vienna Woods	Hugh Harman		1934-10-27
Bosko's Parlor Pranks	Hugh Harman	First appearance of Bosko in a color cartoon.	1934-11-24
Toyland Broadcast	Rudolf Ising	Bing Crosby, The Mills Brothers, Kate Smith, The Boswell Sisters, Paul Whiteman, Rudy Vallee, Rubinoff and other early radio stars are caricatured.	1934-12-22

1935

Title	Directed By	Notes	Release Date
Hey-Hey Fever	Hugh Harman	Final appearance of the original Bosko.	1935-01-09
When the Cat's Away	Rudolf Ising		1935-02-16
The Lost Chick	Hugh Harman		1935-03-09
The Calico Dragon	Rudolf Ising		1935-03-30
Good Little Monkeys	Hugh Harman		1935-04-13
The Chinese Nightingale	Rudolf Ising	Not shown on American television due to Chinese characterizations.	1935-04-27
Poor Little Me	Hugh Harman		1935-05-11
Barnyard Babies	Rudolf Ising		1935-05-25
The Old Plantation	Rudolf Ising	First cartoon in three-strip Technicolor not released by Disney. Rarely shown on American television due to African-American characterizations.	1935-09-21
Honeyland	Rudolf Ising		1935-10-19
Alias St. Nick	Rudolf Ising		1935-11-16
Run, Sheep, Run!	Hugh Harman	First appearance of the new Bosko, reimagined by Harman as a young African child.	1935-12-14

1936

Title	Directed By	Notes	Release Date
Bottles	Hugh Harman		1936-01-11
The Early Bird and the Worm	Rudolf Ising	First appearance of the "Lazy Crows". The two lazy crows are caricatured of then-famous blackface team Moran and Mack. Much of their dialogue is directly lifted from their hit 1920's comedy recording, Two Black Crows.	1936-02-08
The Old Mill Pond	Hugh Harman	First appearance of the frogs. Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Bill Robinson, Louis Armstrong, Stepin Fetchit, Ethel Waters and The Mills Brothers are caricatured. Re-released in abbreviated form by Soundies Distributing Corporation on March 2, 1942 under the title Hot Frogs.	1936-03-07
Two Little Pups	Rudolf Ising	First appearance of the "Two Lille Pups" and the last one for the "Lazy Crows". The two lazy crows are caricatured of then-famous blackface team Moran and Mack. Much of their dialogue is directly lifted from their hit 1920's comedy recording, Two Black Crows.	1936-04-04
The Old House	Hugh Harman	Honey sings "There Ain't No Spooks In There!".	1936-05-02
The Pups' Picnic	Rudolf Ising	Featuring the "Two Little Pups".	1936-05-30
To Spring	William Hanna	William Hanna's directional debut.	1936-06-04
Little Cheeser	Rudolf Ising		1936-07-11
The Pups' Christmas	Rudolf Ising	Featuring the "Two Little Pups".	1936-12-12

1937

Title	Directed By	Notes	Release Date
Circus Daze	Hugh Harman	Last cartoon billed as a Happy Harmonies.	1937-01-16
Swing Wedding	Hugh Harman	Featuring "The Frogs". Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Bill Robinson, Louis Armstrong, Stepin Fetchit, Ethel Waters and The Mills Brothers are caricatured.	1937-02-13
Bosko's Easter Eggs	Hugh Harman		1937-03-20
Little Ol' Bosko and the Pirates	Hugh Harman	First of three "Little Ol' Bosko and the Frogs" shorts. Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Bill Robinson, Louis Armstrong, Stepin Fetchit, Ethel Waters and The Mills Brothers are caricatured.	1937-05-01
The Hound and the Rabbit	Rudolf Ising		1937-05-29
The Wayward Pups	Rudolf Ising	Final appearance of the "Two Little Pups".	1937-07-10
Little Ol' Bosko and the Cannibals	Hugh Harman	Second of three "Little Ol' Bosko and the Frogs" shorts.	1937-08-28
Little Buck Cheeser	Rudolf Ising		1937-12-15

1938

Title	Directed By	Notes	Release Date
Little Ol' Bosko in Bagdad	Hugh Harman	Third of three "Little Ol' Bosko and the Frogs" shorts. Final Bosko cartoon.	1938-01-01
Pipe Dreams	Hugh Harman	Originally produced for Disney but released by MGM. Rarely shown on television due to showings of tobacco.	1938-02-05
The Little Bantamweight	Rudolf Ising	Originally produced for Disney but released by MGM.	1938-03-12

Home media

The only official home release containing a significant number of the Happy Harmonies film shorts is the Happy Harmonies Cartoon Classics laserdisc box set. The laserdisc set was released in 1994 by MGM/UA Home Video,[1] which predated the merger of Turner Broadcasting System with Time Warner in 1996. The four-disc set contains 17 of the 37 Happy Harmonies shorts while the remaining 25 shorts include one side of six Barney Bear cartoons, the 1939 animated short Peace on Earth and the 1940 animated short The Milky Way. In 1999, MGM paid Time Warner $225 million to end its lease of distributing content owned by Turner Entertainment prior to 1996. Copyrights and distribution rights were transferred to Warner Home Video, who still has no plans to release all thirty-seven Happy Harmonies cartoons as a full DVD set as of 2018.

External links

• Template:Bcdb