Little Orphan Airedale is a 1947 Looney Tunes short directed by Chuck Jones.
Title[]
The title is a play on Harold Grey's comic strip Little Orphan Annie, which has been adapted several times on radio, television, stage plays, and feature films.
Plot[]
A dog named Rags McMutt escapes from a dog pound and accidentally meets Charlie Dog, an old friend of his, in a car he used as a hiding place. Charlie tells that Rags should go find a new master so he doesn't have to risk being sent to the pound, and tells a story about his attempts to find an owner.
Charlie tries to imitate several people walking by as he is waiting aside on a bright day, and thinking he found a sucker, follows Porky Pig to his room. Charlie says that since Porky has no pet and Charlie has no owner, Porky should adopt him. However, Porky refuses, despite Charlie attempts to impress Porky such as failing to catch a cat and doing a few tricks. Charlie decides to leave to his nonexistent mother when Porky yells at him, but he only just stays at the door. As Porky tries to push Charlie out, the dog states that he shouldn't be roughhoused, and thinking he is a loner, Porky tries to let him stay at his place, but when he states his name is Charlie, he kicks him out again. Finally, when Charlie uses fake snow to make it look like he is freezing outside, Porky lets him inside a "doghouse" crate in order to attempt to ship Charlie away, however, he only returns to Porky's house after being shipped to various countries.
As Charlie ends the tale, the car happens to be one Porky is in, and he throws both dogs out of his car as he tells them he doesn't want a dog. When Rags sees how Charlie begs Porky to keep him as a pet, especially after Charlie continues to chase Porky's car, he decides to go back to the pound and yells to let him back inside even though the pound is closed for the night.
Availability[]
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Notes[]
- This is the debut of Charlie Dog.
- It is essentially a color remake of Bob Clampett's 1941 short "Porky's Pooch".
- While looking for prospective masters, Charlie imitates several passersby by mimicking their faces and mannerisms. The second one, a man with sleepy eyes and big lips, is a caricature of voice actor Mel Blanc.
- At one point this cartoon makes subtle references to pregnancy. Just as Porky forces Charlie out of his apartment by the belly, Charlie begs not to be roughly handled "the way he is", whispers into his ear and makes a girlish wink in front of the camera. Porky, believing that the dog is female and is pregnant, takes him in, puts him into bed and feeds him with some milk and broth. As Charlie's name gets revealed, since "Charlie" is most commonly a male name, short for Charles, and male dogs do not get pregnant, Porky realizes that he has been fooled and gets enraged, and throws Charlie out of his apartment by slamming the bed through the wall.
- However, females can have the name Charlie too, mostly Charlotte.
- The Polish dub of this short replaces the 1946-55 ending rendition of The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down with "The Wacky Wabbit" ending rendition of Merrily We Roll Along.[2]
- This is the only Charlie Dog cartoon to have its copyrights sold to Associated Artists Productions. The rest are in the post-1948 WB package.
- It is also the only Charlie Dog cartoon to not survive with its original technical credits.