''The Lion's Busy'' is a 1950

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside its spin-off series ''Merrie Melodies'', during t ...

'' cartoon written by

Tedd Pierce Edward Stacey "Tedd" Pierce III (August 12, 1906 – February 19, 1972) was an American screenwriter and voice actor of animated cartoons, principally from the mid-1930s to the late 1950s. Biography Pierce was the son of a stockbroker, Samuel ...

and directed by

Friz Freleng Isadore "Friz" Freleng (; August 21, 1905May 26, 1995), credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, Film director, director, Film producer, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons ...

. It features Leo the Lion (who had previously appeared in '' Hold the Lion, Please'') and

Beaky Buzzard Beaky Buzzard (initially known as "Killer") is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons. He is a young turkey vulture (sometimes called a "buzzard" in the United States) with b ...

(who had previously appeared in '' Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid'' and '' The Bashful Buzzard''), both voiced by

Mel Blanc Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908 – July 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 come ...

. This cartoon is the first time Blanc voices Beaky due to Kent Rogers' death in 1944, and the final appearance of Leo the Lion from Looney Tunes cartoons until ''

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 ...

'' in 2000. It is also Beaky's only appearance in which he is smarter than his opponent rather than dumber. The cartoon itself sometimes appears on public domain and grey market VHS and DVDs, however, the cartoon is actually still copyrighted.

Plot

Leo the Lion (who now speaks with an Irish accent in this cartoon), on his tenth birthday, receives a book as a present, and after finding out that lions rarely live beyond ten years, a hungry

, who turns out to be the one who had sent the book to him in the first place, takes the chance to eat him for his meal. What follows is a series of attempts by Beaky to eat Leo, starting with making him slip off a cliff using a banana peel to try and kill him. After he lands, Beaky makes a burger out of Leo's tail, which he tricks Leo into biting so he will jump up in pain. Beaky proceeds to catch the lion in a roasting pan and, while Leo is dazed, starts to prepare him for dinner. Leo comes to his senses and then points out to Beaky that he should wait until he is dead before he tries to eat him, since buzzards typically eat their prey well after they are "decently deceased." When Beaky refuses to back down, Leo instead attempts to beat him with a club. But Beaky evades every swing and takes cover up in a tree, which Leo tries to climb to reach the buzzard and try to beat him up. But Beaky slicks up the tree trunk with oil just as Leo reaches him, making him slide down the trunk, running into hard branches along the way, and crashing hard against the ground, causing Beaky to mockingly tell him, "You really oughta be more careful, Mr. Lion." Leo makes another attempt to get up the tree, now using climbing hooks to avoid any attempt by Beaky to make him slip again. Seeing this, a startled Beaky thinks fast and, out of nowhere, adds on the trunk of another tree to give Leo more trunk to climb. Leo is initially shocked and frustrated by this, but continues his climb, only to find out that Beaky has added yet ''another'' tree trunk to the tree. Leo keeps on climbing up more and more added-on trunks until he finally reaches the top, where he hopes to find Beaky. But Beaky has since flown down to the bottom and starts to chop the tree down, with Leo still in it. Leo is frightened by this, as he has now climbed up to an incredible height, and he tries to dissuade Beaky from chopping. But Beaky chops it down, anyway, and Leo crashes to the ground, feeling dazed afterwards. He comes to his senses seconds later and smells Beaky attempting to cook his tail, which he has now tied up to look like sausage links. Finally fed up with Beaky, the dimwitted Leo tries to escape to the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

by a rocket. Unfortunately, by the time he arrives, he finds Beaky already there, waiting to eat him. Leo hides in a cave on the moon and barricades himself inside for years. But the stress and paranoia of knowing that Beaky is outside, still waiting to eat him, finally gets to him one day, and he, now elderly, comes out to surrender himself to him. But so many years have gone by, Beaky, who also is elderly, can no longer eat meat, instead only being able to eat marshmallows, one of which he offers Leo.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lions Busy, The 1950 films Looney Tunes shorts Warner Bros. Cartoons animated short films Short films directed by Friz Freleng Films scored by Carl Stalling Beaky Buzzard films Animated films about lions Bugs Bunny films 1950s Warner Bros. animated short films 1950s English-language films Films set on the Moon English-language short films 1950 animated short films