Baby Bottleneck

Baby Bottleneck
Baby Bottleneck
Directed by	Robert Clampett
Story by	Warren Foster
Music by	Carl W. Stalling
Animation by	Rod Scribner; Manny Gould; C. Melendez; I. Ellis
Layouts by	Thomas McKimson
Backgrounds by	Dorcy Howard
Color process	Technicolor
Production; company	Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc.
Distributed by	Warner Bros., Vitaphone
Release date	March 16, 1946;
Running time	7:03
Language	English

Baby Bottleneck is a 1946 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Bob Clampett and written by Warren Foster.^[1] The cartoon was released on March 16, 1946, and stars Daffy Duck and Porky Pig.^[2] Tweety makes a cameo appearance in the film.

Plot

During the post-World War II baby boom, a disgruntled stork (patterned after Jimmy Durante), laments his workload at the Stork Club. Inexperienced animals, including a dog with a propeller-powered tail, four crows attempting to deliver an elephant, and a mouse dragging a baby rhino, are tasked with delivering babies but make mistakes, resulting in comedic misplacements.

Porky Pig takes charge of Storks Inc., assisted by Daffy Duck, who manages the phones. Despite suggestions from a dog worker in research and development, such as strapping a skyrocket to a baby's back, the assembly line encounters mishaps, like diapering a baby turtle and bathing a puppy after a milk mishap. Trouble arises when Porky discovers an egg without an address and decides to have Daffy sit on it until it hatches. However, Daffy refuses, leading to a chase around the factory and an eventual mishap where both are packaged together and sent to Africa.

When they are sent there, a mother gorilla takes them to get a diaper changed. But when she sees Porky in the diaper, the gorilla gets scared and calls up the company (actually she calls a popular radio advice personality, Mr. Anthony).

Censorship

When the alligator is trying to get milk from Mrs. Pig, she starts to say something before it abruptly cuts. According to Bob Clampett, she says “Don’t touch that dial” (a common cliché when radio or television shows cut to commercial). It was cut out because the Hays Office deemed it too risqué. No footage has surfaced of the original uncut scene.

Reception

Michael Barrier writes, "Baby Bottleneck, like Book Revue (1946), reveals just how great Bob Clampett's impact was on the Warner Bros. cartoons in the early 1940s... As so often in Clampett's best cartoons, there is a prevailing air of hysteria and madness: The stork is drunk, inexperienced help is delivering babies to the wrong mothers, everything is a mess — and all is bliss."^[3]

Home media

DVD: Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2
Blu-ray and DVD: Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1

References

^ Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 165. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 70-72. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
^ Beck, Jerry, ed. (2020). The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons. Insight Editions. pp. 10–11. ISBN 978-1-64722-137-9.

External links

Baby Bottleneck at IMDb

[Beck-1] Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 165. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.

[2] Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 70-72. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved June 6, 2020.

[3] Beck, Jerry, ed. (2020). The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons. Insight Editions. pp. 10–11. ISBN 978-1-64722-137-9.

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