Little Lion Hunter

Little Lion Hunter
Directed byCharles Jones
Story byRobert Givens
Produced byLeon Schlesinger
Music byCarl W. Stalling
Animation byPhilip Monroe
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
Release date
  • September 23, 1939 (1939-09-23)[1][a]
(earliest known date)
Running time
7 min
CountryUnited States
LanguageNone

Little Lion Hunter is a 1939 American animated comedy short film directed by Charles Jones. The short was released to theaters as early as September 23, 1939.[1] It is part of the Merrie Melodies series and the first cartoon to feature Inki. It was re-released as a "Blue Ribbon" reissue in 1946 as The Little Lion Hunter, rendering the original film and credits lost.[2][3]

Plot

Inki fails to hunt a parrot, giraffe and butterfly with his spear. He then finds giant footprints created by the Minah Bird, who walks to the beat of Felix Mendelssohn's The Hebrides and is chased into a hole. He tricks Inki with a sleeping skunk.

Inki tries to hunt a tortoise, who escapes into a hole. Inki could not find the tortoise while the Minah Bird walks on him. Inki angrily throws his spear, which coincidentally forms a bridge for the Minah Bird to walk across a cliff. He chases the Minah Bird into a tree, where the Minah Bird tricks him into falling, while a lion spots him. Inki does not realize the lion is next to him until he squeezes under a tree and spots it. Inki disguises himself as a cut tree trunk, which the lion falls for until the Minah Bird's call causes him to notice Inki running. As Inki taunts the lion, the Minah Bird emerges from the trunk and distracts the lion, who is brutally beat up and tied to a tree offscreen. The Minah Bird points Inki towards the trapped lion before kicking him, much to his confusion.

Home media

Little Lion Hunter is available in an unrestored version on both the VHS tape The Best of Bugs Bunny and Friends and the laserdisc The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Volume 2 (side 4).

Notes

  1. ↑ Archived from a September 24 article, this is based on the fact that new cartoon shorts would typically premiere in theaters on Saturdays.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Little Lion Hunter - Earliest Known Date". The Daily Democrat-News. September 23, 1939. p. 4. Retrieved November 15, 2025.Free access icon
  2. ↑ Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 94. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
  3. ↑ Schneider, Steve (1988). That's All, Folks! : The Art of Warner Bros. Animation. Henry Holt and Co. p. 62. ISBN 0-8050-0889-6.
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.