I Was a Teenage Thumb

Title Card

I Was a Teenage Thumb

Short Information

Notes:

1.) In King Arthur's line after he finds the thumb-sized baby in his fish, "Morty, you ass! This fish is full of people!" , the word "ass" he refers to is an informal British term for a stupid or foolish person, rather than a vulgar term for the buttocks. Despite the intention of the word's usage, the word "ass" in his dialogue is often censored from all television showings in the United States (see "Censorship" above for more details) as "ass" is inappropriate to say in children's/family-friendly television in the United States.
2.) This is the Chuck Jones' second Looney Tunes cartoon based on the classic Tom Thumb story, the other being "Tom Thumb in Trouble". This one, however is told with a dry, British twist.
3.) In the opening credits, director Chuck Jones' name was credited as "Chuck Jones. Esq."
4.) Current television prints of this cartoon are known to have blue borders in the opening credits, though both the opening and closing rings don't have borders (as evident by the video in the infobox here). Since the use of colored borders in the opening titles for post-1948 cartoons are usually associated with the Golden Jubilee VHS tape collection of the mid-1980s by fans; it was unknown whether this print was originally mastered to be included in one of the tapes in this said VHS collection but was omitted at the last minute. However, as of 2015, this short has not been available on any home media releases.

Series:

Merrie Melodies

Production No.:

1578

Reel No.:

3103

Based on

Tom Thumb

Animation

Bob Bransford
Tom Ray
Ken Harris
Richard Thompson

Layouts

Bob Givens

Backgrounds

Philip DeGuard

Film Editor

Treg Brown

Voice Characterizations

Mel Blanc (Ralph K. Merlin Jr., King Arthur, Morty)
Richard Peel (George Ebeneezer Thumb)
Julie Bennett (Prunhilda)

Narrator

Ben Frommer

Music

Bill Lava

MPAA No.:

19941

Preceded by

Martian Through Georgia

Followed by

Devil's Feud Cake

I Was a Teenage Thumb is a 1963 Merrie Melodies short directed by Chuck Jones.

Plot[]

George Ebenezer Thumb and his wife Prunhilda desperately want a son, so they are granted a thumb-sized one by the constantly-transforming wizard Ralph K. Merlin Jr. After being snatched by the family cat, and then by a large bird, the baby manages to escape, then falls victim to a giant fish caught by a knight, which is then brought to King Arthur himself for a meal. The baby then is noticed by Arthur when he cuts open the fish. Arthur makes him a knight, and he eventually marries and has a son the size of his thumb, who has a son the size of his thumb, and so on.

Prunhilda is still endlessly knitting a giant bootie while having a strange craving for sardines in strawberry popovers, much to George's horror, who witnesses the insanely large bootie his wife is still knitting.

Censorship[]

Versions of this cartoon commonly shown on American television censor King Arthur's line after he finds the thumb-sized baby in his fish, removing the profane word "ass." The scene is edited in at least three different ways depending on the channel:

On ABC and Nickelodeon, King Arthur's line after he finds the thumb-sized baby in his fish, "Morty, you ass! This fish is full of people!" was edited to remove "you ass" (so now the line goes, "Morty...this fish is full of people!"). ABC used to air this uncut on Saturday morning TV between 1985 and 1989. The "you ass" edit wasn't made until 1998.
Rather than edit the "you ass" in "Morty, you ass! This fish is full of people!", Cartoon Network and Boomerang USA's version cut the scene featuring that entire line^[1]. Despite this, this cartoon aired completely uncut and uncensored on CN/Boomerang fees outside the United States, including on the Latin American sister channel Tooncast (evident on the video in the infobox).
In the version shown on the Russian channel 2x2, the fish cutting scene remains, but the line is muted.

Television[]

The Merrie Melodies Show: Episode # 13 (1970's) along with "Mexican Mousepiece" and "Tease for Two".
The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Comedy Hour (1985-6)
The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show

Gallery[]

TV Title Cards[]

References[]

↑ 01/19/63 I Was a Teenage Thumb MM CN Censored at chomikuj.pl

[1] 01/19/63 I Was a Teenage Thumb MM CN Censored at chomikuj.pl

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