Orange Blossoms for Violet (1952) Online

Little monkeys are dressed up pretending to be people in this live-action short. That's the appeal here. I guess it's supposed to be "cute" and "funny" and sometimes it is. Seeing a little monkey with a policeman's uniform on and directing traffic, or "Violet" with her curls looking into a small mirror, is so strange I had to laugh. I would guess it has been a number of years since this short of thing was done in films. Most absurd animal humor today is computer- generated.

"Fred," the town's "most eligible bachelor" could fit in today with a two-day growth, a ponytail and baggy clothes.

This is embarrassingly racist with a shoeshine "boy" with black-face and painted lips saying "Yowser!" However, I enjoyed his "scat" talk, which was pretty hip.

It isn't all monkeys. There are geese and poodles and other small animals. This kind of thing - animals who speak English - is still popular today, just done a lot better ("Babe," "Charlotte's Web," etc.)

This short feature was part of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2.

Paramount (with producer Jerry Fairbanks) scored a popular "Speaking Of Animals" series during the years 1941-49, so it is no surprise Warner Brothers would do a little dabbling in "talking" animal shorts. However, this was a "one-shot" novelty, because the bulk of the footage was lifted from a 1923(?) short acquired by the studio. The big rumor was that the yet-to-be-identified comedy was produced by Mack Sennett during his First National stint... lately, the evidence points to Hal Roach's "Dippy Dood-Dad" series for Pathe. The age of the material may also account for the "socially incorrect" shoe-shine monkey in black-face (more of a spoof on Al Jolson in the sound version), although the editors probably didn't think future viewers would question the "joke".

Animation directors Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng assembled the footage of capuchin monkeys and goat, along with familiar voice artists Robert C. Bruce, Mel Blanc and Bea Benaderat. Thanks to the Looney Tune connection, the film has enjoyed a second life on DVD. Otherwise, it is little different than other silent film "re-edits" that Warner Brothers/Vitaphone made from First National and Vitagraph footage found in its vaults. Another Sennett film, narrated by Art Gilmore, is "Animal Antics", produced in 1949, but released in 1951 (the year this was completed).

Mel Blanc voices this live action tale of monkeys dressed up like people. Two monkeys in particular, who both lust for a monkey girl. Back in it's day monkeys acting like people shorts were all the rage. The people of the era couldn't get enough of it.. Today it wouldn't fly for fear of all the animal rights groups. They're the REAL Looney Tunes, i tell ya. Anyways for what it is, the short isn't that bad. Not really all that funny though. This animated short can be seen as an extra in the "From the Vaults" section on Disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2.

My Grade: C+

. . . it must be a shoe "Shine Boy" Capuchin monkey in Blackface (complete with the obligatory White-painted cartoon lips). This Crime against Humanity--and Capuchin Monks--is NOT a Looney Tune, though it was written by the top two Warner Bros. directors of animated shorts, Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng. ORANGE BLOSSOMS FOR VIOLET is a nine-minute live-action short voiced by BugsDaffyPorkyFoghorn himself, Mel Blanc, since all the "actors" are ACTUAL animals and birds (NOT Claymation ones). Somehow the Knavery of Motion Picture Censors passed BLOSSOM (#14847 on their Papal-sanctioned list), but there's no AHAD Seal of Approval, since the filmmakers forced the Capuchins to be fully dressed in three-piece suits with hats and ties under the Klieg lights of the film set. Zookeepers shot dead one of the World's last surviving Gorillas in the Mist of the Cincinnati Zoo this week, but if these trigger-happy guys had been around in 1952, I'm sure that they would have gunned down animal abusers Jones and Freleng instead.

I am not big on being PC, I think that flies in the face of that free speech thing we have, but the racism in this short is disgusting. It is actually quite common in Looney Tunes to have characters in black face doing their impersonations. This time, it is a shoe shining monkey. I can almost picture the family sitting down to watch this with some fresh apple pie. But even when you set aside this problem, which isn't easy, you are left with a boring short that simply plays off the "novelty" of having monkeys portray humans. Mel Blanc is, as he always is, a fine voice actor and he is the only good reason to see this. This short belongs on the same shelf with Ed Wood films and all those "stay away from..." films like Refer Madness. I have no right with people exercising their right to speak, I just won't agree with you if you are wrong. This is a good example of the darker side of the Looney Tunes brand that has been swept under the proverbial carpet. See it. Hate it. Vent your frustration.