''Gold Diggers of '49'' is a 1935

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

theatrical

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

short in the ''

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series ''Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation.

'' series. This film is the first animated cartoon directed by

Tex Avery Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery (February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American animator, cartoonist, animation director, director, and voice actor. He was known for directing and producing animated cartoons during the golden age of American a ...

for Warner Bros., and the second Warners cartoon to feature the character

Porky Pig Porky Pig is an animated character in the Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his celebrity, star power, and the animators created ma ...

. The star is Beans the Cat, with Porky Pig as the father of Beans' fiancée, Little Kitty. Looking for suitable characters from the Warners stable to embellish, Avery took two child characters from the previous short ''

I Haven't Got a Hat ''I Haven't Got a Hat'' is a 1935 animated short film, directed by Isadore Freleng for Leon Schlesinger Productions as part of the ''Merrie Melodies'' series. Released on March 2, 1935, the short is notable for featuring the first appearance of sev ...

'', turned them into adults, and, as Steve Schlesinger writes, "set the studio on track to making adult cartoons." The short's title alludes to the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

as well as to the popular

Busby Berkeley Busby Berkeley (born Berkeley William Enos; November 29, 1895 – March 14, 1976) was an American film director and musical choreographer. Berkeley devised elaborate musical production numbers that often involved complex geometric patterns. Berke ...

musicals ''

Gold Diggers of 1933 ''Gold Diggers of 1933'' is a pre-Code Warner Bros. musical film directed by Mervyn LeRoy with songs by Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics), staged and choreographed by Busby Berkeley. It stars Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline ...

'' and ''

Gold Diggers of 1935 ''Gold Diggers of 1935'' is an American musical film directed and choreographed by Busby Berkeley, and starring Dick Powell, Adolphe Menjou, Gloria Stuart and Alice Brady. Winifred Shaw, Hugh Herbert and Glenda Farrell are also featured. The son ...

'' (which were also released by Warner Bros). In the short, Beans and Porky set out to find gold, and run into some meanies along the way.

Plot

In July 1849, in the middle of the dilapidated town Goldville, Little Kitty observes near a gathering, a poster announcing a young prospector Beans about to hunt for gold in Red Gulch. Little Kitty takes the poster and shows it to Porky. Meanwhile, Beans strikes gold from a mountain slot machine, rides off to Goldville and puts the word out, making all the locals leave in pursuit of the gold source. Beans and Porky followed by Ham and Ex head off to the gold source and get digging. Suddenly Beans uncovers a trunk containing a book on how to find gold. Then a greedy bandit spies Beans' bag of gold and snitches it with a lasso fired from his rifle. Beans pursues the bandit on Porky's request hoping to get Little Kitty's hand in marriage. After a wild gunfight, Beans supercharges his car dragging the bandit, the bag of gold and Porky along and back to Goldville. Porky reveals that what the bandit stole was in fact his lunch bag.

Home media

It was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

in 2007 in the '' Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5'', and in 2017 in the ''Porky Pig 101'' set.

References

External links

* 1935 films 1935 animated films 1935 short films American black-and-white films Animated films about cats Films about the California Gold Rush Films scored by Bernard B. Brown Films scored by Norman Spencer (composer) Films directed by Tex Avery Beans the Cat films Porky Pig films Films set in 1849 Looney Tunes shorts Warner Bros. Cartoons animated short films 1930s Warner Bros. animated short films {{looney-tunes-stub