Hubie and Bertie are
animated cartoon
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 anima ...
rodent
Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are na ...
characters
Character or Characters may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk
* ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...
in the
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. Di ...
''
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. '' and ''
Merrie Melodies
''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animation, animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. starting in 1931, during the golden age of American animation, and ending in 1969. Then some new cartoons were produced from the late 197 ...
'' series of cartoons. Hubie and Bertie represent some of
animator
An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video gam ...
Chuck Jones
Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, director, and painter, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He wrote, produ ...
' earliest work that was intended to be funny rather than cute. Seven Hubie and Bertie cartoons were produced between 1943 and 1952.
Debut
Jones introduced Hubie and Bertie in the
short
Short may refer to:
Places
* Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon
* Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community
* Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place
People
* Short (surname)
* List of people known as ...
''
The Aristo-Cat
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
'', first released on June 19, 1943.
[Hubie and Bertie]
at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...
Archived
from the original on February 5, 2016. The plot of the cartoon would serve as the template for most future Hubie/Bertie outings: a character with some mental illness or degree of naïveté (here, a cat who doesn't know what a mouse looks like) is psychologically tormented by the pair. They tell the hungry cat that he is a lion and a bulldog his prey, leading to several painful encounters for the cat.
Hubie and Bertie as designed by Jones are nearly identical rodents (Hubie, a rat and Bertie, a mouse) with long snouts, large ears, and big, black noses. The two are
anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.
Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...
, walking on their stubby hind legs and using their forelimbs as arms. They are primarily distinguished by their color: one is brown with a lighter-colored belly and face, while the other is gray. Hubie has a
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
accent ("Hey, Boit! C'mere!"). Bertie has large buck teeth, and a habit of responding to Hubie with "Yeah-yeah, sure-sure!" or snickering "Riot!" if Hubie has just proposed some scheme with comic potential.
Mel Blanc
Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for comedy ra ...
voiced Hubie. While historians differ on who voiced Bertie in the initial cartoon,
Stan Freberg
Stan Freberg (born Stanley Friberg; August 7, 1926 – April 7, 2015) was an American actor, author, comedian, musician, radio personality, puppeteer and advertising creative director.
His best-known works include " St. George and the Dragonet ...
voiced him subsequently.
Development
Bertie made a cameo in ''
Odor-able Kitty
''Odor-able Kitty'' is a 1945 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon directed by Chuck Jones. The short was released on January 6, 1945, and was the first appearance of the romantic skunk Pepé Le Pew.
The scriptwriter was Tedd Pierce. Jones, a c ...
''.
''
Trap Happy Porky
''Trap Happy Porky'' is a 1945 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' short directed by Chuck Jones and written by Tedd Pierce. The short was released on February 24, 1945, and features Porky Pig, along with Hubie and Bertie, an early version of Claude Cat ...
'' (February 24, 1945) was their second appearance.
Nameless, indistinguishable except for color, they appear only in the first act, stealing food from Porky in nightshirt and cap. They are silent except for a single "I'm only three and a half years old", and retreat when a cat shows up.
Jones would repeat the theme of mind games several more times in his Hubie and Bertie shorts, as in their third cartoon, ''Roughly Squeaking'' on November 23, 1946. This time, Jones has the mice exploit a cat's stupidity by convincing him he is a
lion
The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...
and a
dog
The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...
is a
moose
The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult mal ...
he wants to eat. By the short's end, the cat thinks he is a lion, the dog believes he is a
pelican
Pelicans (genus ''Pelecanus'') are a genus of large water birds that make up the family Pelecanidae. They are characterized by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before s ...
, and a bystanding bird (driven mad from watching the two) has pulled his feathers out and imagines himself a
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...
turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
. The mice are here voiced by Dick Nelson (Hubie) and
Stan Freberg
Stan Freberg (born Stanley Friberg; August 7, 1926 – April 7, 2015) was an American actor, author, comedian, musician, radio personality, puppeteer and advertising creative director.
His best-known works include " St. George and the Dragonet ...
(Bertie).
The short was followed by ''
House Hunting Mice
''House Hunting Mice'' is a 1947 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon short directed by Chuck Jones and co-written by Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce. The short was released on September 6, 1947, and features Hubie and Bertie.
''House Hunting Mice ...
'' on September 6, 1947, where Hubie and Bertie run afoul of a housekeeping
robot
A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be c ...
.
In the next cartoon, ''
Mouse Wreckers
''Mouse Wreckers'' is a 1949 Warner Bros. '' Looney Tunes'' short directed by Chuck Jones, written by Michael Maltese and starring Hubie and Bertie in their first pairing with the redesigned Claude Cat (an early, primordial version of the cat ap ...
'', and for the remainder of the series, Blanc and Freberg would handle the voices of Hubie and Bertie, respectively.
Cat and mouse
Jones introduced a permanent "antagonist" of sorts for the mice in ''
Mouse Wreckers
''Mouse Wreckers'' is a 1949 Warner Bros. '' Looney Tunes'' short directed by Chuck Jones, written by Michael Maltese and starring Hubie and Bertie in their first pairing with the redesigned Claude Cat (an early, primordial version of the cat ap ...
''. The short was released in 1949 and was the first in which they are officially called "Hubie" and "Bertie". In the cartoon, the duo moves into a new home, only to discover that it is protected by champion mouser
Claude Cat
Claude Cat is an animated cartoon character in the '' Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons from Warner Brothers.
Character biography
Claude Cat had his origins in several other cat characters used by animator Chuck Jones ...
(the character's debut), voiced by Mel Blanc. The mice torment the cat both physically and mentally. The short was nominated for an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
.
[ Retrieved on May 9, 2011.]
The mice would antagonize Claude in two more films: ''
The Hypo-Chondri-Cat
''The Hypo-Chondri-Cat'' is a 1950 Warner Bros. '' Merrie Melodies'' short directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. The cartoon was released on April 15, 1950 and stars Hubie and Bertie and Claude Cat. The title is a play on "hyp ...
'', released in 1950, featured Hubie and Bertie making Claude think he is sick with various ailments and, ultimately, that he has died. In 1951's ''
Cheese Chasers
''Cheese Chasers'' is a 1951 Warner Bros. Cartoons ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. The cartoon was released on August 25, 1951 and stars Hubie and Bertie, with Claude Cat.
Plot
At the end of a ...
'', however, Hubie and Bertie inadvertently torment Claude when, after going overboard on a cheese raid and getting sick of their favorite food, they decide to commit suicide by trying to get Claude to eat them, but Claude thinks that they are poisonous and refuses, deciding to commit suicide as well by getting a bulldog to attack him but the bulldog gets confused.
After these seven cartoons, Jones retired Hubie and Bertie, but continued to use the characters (or mice resembling them) in
cameo roles in other shorts whenever he needed a generic mouse for a gag, such as the unnamed mouse in ''
Chow Hound
''Chow Hound'' is a 1951 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' animated short directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. The short was released on June 16, 1951. The voices are performed by Mel Blanc, Bea Benaderet and John T. Smith.
Unli ...
'', who resembles Bertie, or the "killer" mice in ''
Scaredy Cat
''Scaredy Cat'' is a 1948 Warner Bros. ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon directed by Chuck Jones. The short was released on December 18, 1948 and stars Porky Pig and Sylvester the Cat. The cartoon is notable in that it marks the first time the name "Sy ...
''.
Filmography
* ''
The Aristo-Cat
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
'' (1943)
* ''
Trap Happy Porky
''Trap Happy Porky'' is a 1945 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' short directed by Chuck Jones and written by Tedd Pierce. The short was released on February 24, 1945, and features Porky Pig, along with Hubie and Bertie, an early version of Claude Cat ...
'' (1945)
* ''
Roughly Squeaking
Roughness may refer to:
*Surface roughness, the roughness of a surface
*Roughness length, roughness as applied in meteorology
* International Roughness Index, the roughness of a road
*Hydraulic roughness, the roughness of land and waterway featur ...
'' (1946)
* ''
House Hunting Mice
''House Hunting Mice'' is a 1947 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon short directed by Chuck Jones and co-written by Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce. The short was released on September 6, 1947, and features Hubie and Bertie.
''House Hunting Mice ...
'' (1947)
* ''
Mouse Wreckers
''Mouse Wreckers'' is a 1949 Warner Bros. '' Looney Tunes'' short directed by Chuck Jones, written by Michael Maltese and starring Hubie and Bertie in their first pairing with the redesigned Claude Cat (an early, primordial version of the cat ap ...
'' (1949)
* ''
The Hypo-Chondri-Cat
''The Hypo-Chondri-Cat'' is a 1950 Warner Bros. '' Merrie Melodies'' short directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. The cartoon was released on April 15, 1950 and stars Hubie and Bertie and Claude Cat. The title is a play on "hyp ...
'' (1950)
* ''
Cheese Chasers
''Cheese Chasers'' is a 1951 Warner Bros. Cartoons ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. The cartoon was released on August 25, 1951 and stars Hubie and Bertie, with Claude Cat.
Plot
At the end of a ...
'' (1951)
Later appearances
Hubie and Bertie have made several cameos and recurring appearances in various Warner Bros. productions:
* Hubie and Bertie were going to have a cameo in ''
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American live-action/animated comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and loosely adapted by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman from Gary K. Wolf's 1 ...
,'' but were later dropped for unknown reasons.
* They also appeared in ''
Tiny Toon Adventures
''Tiny Toon Adventures'' is an American animated comedy television series that was broadcast from September 14, 1990, to December 6, 1992. It was the first collaborative effort of Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television and Warner Bros. Animation ...
''.
* Hubie and Bertie appear in ''
The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries
''The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries'' is an American animated television series produced by Warner Bros. Animation which aired from September 9, 1995 to February 5, 2000 on Kids' WB. The final episode, containing the segments "The Tail End?" and ...
''.
* In the 1996 movie ''
Space Jam
''Space Jam'' is a 1996 American live-action/animated sports comedy film directed by Joe Pytka, with animation sequences directed by Bruce W. Smith and Tony Cervone, and written by Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick, Timothy Harris, and Herschel We ...
'', Hubie and Bertie play the
public address
A public address system (or PA system) is an electronic system comprising microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and related equipment. It increases the apparent volume (loudness) of a human voice, musical instrument, or other acoustic sound sou ...
announcer
An announcer is a voice artist who relays information to the audience of a broadcast media programme or live event.
Television and other media
Some announcers work in television production, radio or filmmaking, usually providing narrations, ...
s during the basketball game where
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. His biography on the official NBA website states: "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the g ...
and the Looney Tunes compete against the MonStars. Bertie's announcer voice was provided by Steve Kehela.
* Hubie and Bertie made a cameo in ''
Tweety's High-Flying Adventure
''Tweety's High-Flying Adventure'' is a 2000 American animated musical slapstick comedy film produced by Tom Minton and James T. Walker, written by Tom Minton, Tim Cahill and Julie McNally, and directed by James T. Walker, Karl Toerge, Charles Vi ...
''.
* Hubie and Bertie appear in the ''
Duck Dodgers
Duck Dodgers is the metafictional star of a series of cartoons produced by Warner Bros., featuring Daffy Duck in the role of a science fiction hero.
He first appeared in the 1953 cartoon short ''Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century'', directed b ...
'' episode "Too Close for Combat." They are hired by Queen Tyr'Ahnee and Martian Commander X-2 to break up Duck Dodgers and the Eager Young Space Cadet with their vocal impersonations of them. It nearly worked until Duck Dodgers and Cadet discovered them. They managed to persuade Hubie and Bertie into using their tricks on Queen Tyr'Ahnee and Martian Commander X-2.
* Hubie and Bertie briefly appear in ''
The Looney Tunes Show
''The Looney Tunes Show'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Warner Bros. Animation that ran from May 3, 2011, through November 2, 2013, on Cartoon Network. The series consists of two seasons, each containing 26 episodes, and features cha ...
'' opening.
* Hubie and Bertie appear in the ''
New Looney Tunes
''New Looney Tunes'', originally titled ''Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Production'' in the US and ''Bugs!'' in some markets for its first season, is an American animated television series from Warner Bros. Animation based on the characters from ''Loon ...
'' segments "Appropriate Technology", "Daffy the Stowaway", "Tweet Team", "Darkbat", "Bonjour, Darkbat!", "Smoothie Operator".
* Hubie and Bertie have also appeared in some video games.
* Hubie is seen alone in the ''
Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time'' level "The Carrot Factory".
* Both can be seen in the ''
Space Jam
''Space Jam'' is a 1996 American live-action/animated sports comedy film directed by Joe Pytka, with animation sequences directed by Bruce W. Smith and Tony Cervone, and written by Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick, Timothy Harris, and Herschel We ...
'' video game.
* Hubie and Bertie made appearances in the
HBO Max
HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...
series ''
Looney Tunes Cartoons
''Looney Tunes Cartoons'' is an American animated television series developed by Peter Browngardt and produced by Warner Bros. Animation, based on the characters from ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies''. The series made its worldwide debut ...
'' starring in shorts such as "Happy Birthday, Bugs Bunny!" and "Frame the Feline".
Home media
All of the Hubie and Bertie cartoons are available, remastered, on ''
Looney Tunes Mouse Chronicles: The Chuck Jones Collection'' on DVD and Blu-Ray.
References
External links
* All abou
Hubie and Bertieon
Chuck Jones
Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, director, and painter, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He wrote, produ ...
' Official Website.
{{Chuck Jones
Fictional mice and rats
Fictional tricksters
Looney Tunes characters
Male characters in animation
Film characters introduced in 1943
Fictional anthropomorphic characters
Animated duos