I Love to Singa

“ENOUGH IZ TU MUCH! go awn an singa. about ya moona and ya joona batta swinga…” And also, how good is the gag about the girl reading the telegraph saying “stop” to the dudes advances? golden…

I Love to Singa is both the title of a song written by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg and a later Merrie Melodies animated short subject based on that song. Arlen and Harburg originally wrote the tune for the 1936 Warner Bros. feature-length film The Singing Kid. It is performed three times in the film: first by Al Jolson and Cab Calloway, then by the Yacht Club Boys and Jolson, and finally again by Calloway and Jolson.

During this period, it was customary for Warners to have their animation production partner, Leon Schlesinger Productions, make Merrie Melodies cartoons based upon songs from their features. One of the resulting short subjects, I Love to Singa, was directed by Tex Avery and released by Warners on July 18, 1936. The cartoon, one of the earliest Merrie Melodies produced in Technicolor’s 3-strip process, is recognized as one of Avery’s early masterpieces.

Plot

I Love to Singa depicts the story of a young owlet who wants to sing jazz, instead of the classical music that his German parents wish him to perform. The plot is a light-hearted tribute to that of Al Jolson’s film The Jazz Singer.

The young owl, voiced by Tommy Bond, best known as “Butch” of the Our Gang (Little Rascals) films, is unjustly kicked out of his family’s house by his disciplinarian violinist father (voiced by Billy Bletcher) after he is caught singing jazz instead of Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes to his mother (voiced by Martha Wentworth)’s reed (pump) organ accompaniment. While wandering, he comes across a radio amateur contest, hosted by “Jack Bunny” (a pun on Jack Benny), and billing himself as “Owl Jolson”, wins the contest, but not before his father has finally seen his son’s potential and allowed him to freely sing jazz.

Cultural influence

The I Love to Singa cartoon has taken on something of a cult following in recent years. In the “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe” episode of the adult cartoon South Park, characters Eric Cartman and Officer Barbrady lapse into Owl Jolson’s odd song-and-dance routine whenever they get hit with an alien beam. In Warners’ 2003 film Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Owl Jolson’s dance sequence from I Love to Singa repeatedly appears on the video screen of the ACME Corp. Chairman (Steve Martin), since he cannot properly operate his remote control. He also shows up in the Looney Tunes: Back in Action game, in the France, Las Vegas, and Africa levels. He can be turned on and shut off by being hit by either character. When approached, Bugs and Daffy will make comments.