Happy Harmonies is a series of cartoons produced by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising.[1] The first entry, "The Discontented Canary", was released on September 1, 1934.
The series was very successful, with two shorts being nominated for Oscars, but the cartoons constantly went over MGM's budget. As a result, MGM terminated production of the shorts in early 1938 for the black-and-white Captain and the Kids series. The series was not financially successful, unlike Happy Harmonies, and was terminated less than a year later with 15 cartoons. After these two series, MGM produced the occasional one-shot cartoon (AN MGM CARTOON), and introduced their first recurring star, Barney Bear.
The final two cartoons in this series, "Pipe Dreams" and "The Little Bantamweight", had their copyrights bought from Walt Disney Productions, then sold to MGM for release under their label. A third cartoon, "Merbabies", was kept as a Silly Symphony cartoon, despite the animation crew from MGM contributing to that short.[2]
"To Spring" is in the public domain in the United States due to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer failing to renew its copyright in time, as it was supposed to be renewed by 1976. The cartoon is one of three total MGM cartoons in the public domain in the United States.
Sub-series[]
- Main article: List of MGM cartoon series#Happy Harmonies
Shorts[]
1934[]
- The Discontented Canary (first MGM cartoon, oldest to be currently owned by Warner Bros. via Turner Entertainment; first Happy Harmonies short, albeit credited as "A METRO COLOR CARTOON" in the opening because the name Happy Harmonies had not yet been created)
- The Old Pioneer (first with the Happy Harmonies name)
- Tale of the Vienna Woods
- Bosko's Parlor Pranks (first MGM cartoon with Bosko)
- Toyland Broadcast
1935[]
- Hey-Hey Fever (final cartoon with Bosko in original form)
- When the Cat's Away
- The Lost Chick
- The Calico Dragon (Academy Award nominee)
- Good Little Monkeys
- The Chinese Nightingale
- Poor Little Me (longest Happy Harmonies short)
- Barnyard Babies (final cartoon in 2-hue color, final cartoon with Coffee the Lion)
- The Old Plantation (first cartoon in 3-hue color, first cartoon with Tanner the Lion)
- Honeyland
- Alias St. Nick
- Run, Sheep, Run! (first appearance of redesigned Bosko)
1936[]
- Bottles (second longest Happy Harmonies short)
- The Early Bird and the Worm
- The Old Mill Pond
- Two Little Pups
- The Old House
- The Pups' Picnic
- To Spring (in the public domain in the United States)
- Little Cheeser
- The Pups' Christmas
1937[]
- Circus Daze (final to use the Happy Harmonies name)
- Swing Wedding
- Bosko's Easter Eggs
- Little Ol' Bosko and the Pirates
- The Hound and the Rabbit
- The Wayward Pups
- Little Ol' Bosko and the Cannibals
- Little Buck Cheeser
1938[]
- Little Ol' Bosko in Bagdad (final Bosko cartoon)
- Pipe Dreams (from Disney)
- The Little Bantamweight (final Happy Harmonies cartoon due to over-budget concerns from Disney)
Home Video Releases[]
The only official home release containing a significant number of the Happy Harmonies shorts is the MGM Happy Harmonies LaserDisc box set, which was released in 1994 by MGM/UA Home Video.[3] This release predated the purchase of Turner Entertainment by Warner Bros. in 1996. The four-disc set contains a meager 17 of the 37 Happy Harmonies shorts while the remaining 25 shorts include other one-shots, and Barney Bear cartoons. In March 1999, MGM announced that they would pay Warner Bros. $225M to end its distribution contract for the home video releases of Turner's assets. Since then, the distribution rights were transferred to Warner Home Video.[4] As of May 2018, there are no official plans for all 37 Happy Harmonies cartoons to be restored and released from Warner Home Video.