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I Wanna Be a Sailor is a 1937 Merrie Melodies short directed by Tex Avery.

Plot[]

A mother parrot is teaching her children to say, "Polly want a cracker." The first two kids, Patrick and Patricia, do so, but Peter instead says that he wants to be a sailor. His mother refuses, telling Peter a story about his sailor father.

When Peter's mother and father were married, they resided in a hut in Hawaii. While his mother was taking care of the children, his father was a "rum-soaked old seagull" who had better things to do. Eventually, Peter's father chose to set sail for Catalina and never returned. This story causes Peter to cry, but he still wants to be a sailor, much to his mother's shock.

He takes a barrel and builds a ship. For his crew, he brings along a young duckling, who becomes the swabbie. As they take off, Peter acts hard to perform sailor duties. However, a thunderstorm erupts. Peter attempts to stop the ship and turn it around, but the steering wheel goes haywire, and the anchor causes the back of the boat to bust open. Eventually, Peter and the duckling are thrown overboard, and Peter calls his "Momma" and says that he wants a cracker. She comes running, but he is already saved by the duckling who calls Peter a big sissy. Unsurprisingly, the mother parrot knew that Peter was going to get himself into trouble, but despite it all, he still wants to be a sailor. This causes Peter's mother to faint in shock, but she wakes and responds, "Now what would you do with a child like that?"

Availability[]

Notes[]

  • The voice of Peter Parrot was prolific child actor Robert "Bobby" Winkler, who had worked in over eighty films and over two hundred radio shows with most of the stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood. His IMDB page is listed under his often credited name Robert Winkler.
  • This is the first cartoon to end with the 1937-38 "Merrily We Roll Along" rendition. However, the blue rings titles would remain for this cartoon and "The Lyin' Mouse".[citation needed] The rings would change to yellow, starting from "Little Red Walking Hood", and would remain this way up to "You're an Education".
  • "I Wanna Be a Sailor" fell into the public domain in the United States in 1966, when United Artists failed to renew the copyright within the 28-year period from release. It is the earliest color Warner Bros. cartoon in the public domain.
  • The duck in this cartoon is theorized by some people as being the same duck that appeared in the cartoons "It's an Ill Wind", "Porky's Hotel", and "She Was an Acrobat's Daughter".
  • Some sources claim (including Clampett himself) that Bob Clampett worked on this cartoon. However, Clampett was a director by the time this short was in production.
  • The music track for this short was recorded 17 August 1937.[4]
  • MeTV aired a previously unreleased restored print on 11 February 2022, during the Toon In with Me block.

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