Jumpin' Jupiter
Jumpin' Jupiter is a 1955 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Chuck Jones.[2] The short was released on August 6, 1955, and stars Porky Pig and Sylvester.[3]
| Jumpin' Jupiter | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Charles M. Jones |
| Produced by | Edward Selzer |
| Story by | Michael Maltese[1] |
| Starring | Mel Blanc |
| Music by | Carl Stalling |
| Animation by | Ken Harris Abe Levitow Richard Thompson Keith Darling Harry Love (special animation effects) |
| Layouts by | Robert Givens |
| Backgrounds by | Philip DeGuard |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release date | August 6, 1955 |
Running time | 7:00 |
| Language | English |
It is the last of a series of three horror-themed cartoons that starred the duo, with the other two being Scaredy Cat (1948) and Claws for Alarm (1954). They all had the running theme of Porky and Sylvester settling down for the night in a location that was dangerous with Porky being oblivious and Sylvester being aware and trying to alert Porky but only succeeding in annoying him. This one deals with Porky and Sylvester having to deal with aliens that land as they camp the night in a desert.
Plot
That night Porky and Sylvester are relaxing, camping in the Superstition Mountains. Sylvester suddenly hears a howl that scares him and Porky proceeds to point out it is a harmless coyote, forcing the cat to go to sleep outside while Porky himself sleeps in his tent.
Suddenly, a tall, bird-shaped alien (later used as the design for the Instant Martians from Hare-Way to the Stars) from the planet Jupiter arrives on Earth, with his mission being to collect some "Animal Life" for an experiment. Sylvester is naturally scared by the alien and tries to warn Porky, but this only makes Porky angry and causes him to boot Sylvester back outside. Eventually, Porky sees the alien who has arrived in their tent, but Porky mistakes the alien for a Navajo Native American and tells him to go back in his 'wigwam', on the supposed pretense he will look at his 'beads and trinkets' in the morning.
Confused, the alien goes back to his flying saucer and drills into the rock to rise up from underneath the campsite and take it back to his home planet. After some more confusion and chaos as Sylvester freaks out and realizes they are leaving Earth, which Porky is completely unaware of and blissfully ignores, they eventually are released from the saucer's top as they leave the gravity field of Earth. Sylvester is utterly panicking and praying at this point, but they land on an alien world and safely wake up to leave (with Porky seeing Earth in the sky and wondering what planet he is looking at), unaware that they are being observed by a pair of giant bird-like aliens as the cartoon irises out...
References
- Beck, Jerry (1991). I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat: Fifty Years of Sylvester and Tweety. New York: Henry Holt and Co. p. 128. ISBN 0-8050-1644-9.
- Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 276. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
- Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 124–126. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.