|
Yosemite Sam is an American animated cartoon character in the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The name is somewhat alliterative and is inspired by Yosemite National Park. Along with Elmer Fudd, he is the de facto archenemy of Bugs Bunny. He is commonly depicted as an extremely aggressive gunslinging prospector, outlaw, pirate, or cowboy with a hair-trigger temper and an intense hatred of rabbits, Bugs particularly. In cartoons with non-Western themes, he uses various aliases, including "Chilkoot Sam" (named for the Chilkoot Trail; Sam pronounces it "Chilli-koot") in ''14 Carrot Rabbit'' (although in the same cartoon, when he tries to gain Bugs Bunny's trust, he cleverly invents alias "Square-deal Sam"), "Riff Raff Sam" in ''Sahara Hare'', "Sam Schultz" in ''Big House Bunny'', "Seagoin' Sam" in ''Buccaneer Bunny'', "Shanghai Sam" in ''Mutiny on the Bunny'', and "Sam Von Schamm the Hessian" in ''Bunker Hill Bunny'' and many others. During the Golden Age of American animation, Yosemite Sam appeared in 33 shorts. ==History== Animator Friz Freleng introduced the character in the 1945 cartoon ''Hare Trigger''. With his grumpy demeanor, fiery temper, strident voice and short stature (in two early gags in ''Hare Trigger'', a train he is attempting to rob passes right over top of him and he has to use a set of portable stairs to get on his horse; in ''Bugs Bunny Rides Again'', he rides a ''miniature'' horse), and fiery red hair, Sam was in some ways an alter-ego of Freleng. The animator often denied any intentional resemblance. However, in the ''Looney Tunes Golden Collection'', surviving members of his production crew assert, and the late director's daughter acknowledges, that Sam definitely was inspired by Freleng. Other influences were the Red Skelton character Sheriff Deadeye and the Tex Avery cartoon "Dangerous Dan McFoo". When he does a "slow burn" and cries "Oooooh!" he borrows a bit from such comedic character actors as Jimmy Finlayson (a frequent foil to Laurel and Hardy) and Frank Nelson (one of Mel Blanc's costars on ''The Jack Benny Program''). Freleng also cited the Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang, a character in the ''Toonerville Trolley'' comic strip, as an influence. In his memoir ''Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist'', Chuck Jones says that a great-uncle who occasionally visited his family was a retired Texas Ranger who was short, had red hair, a large mustache, and a hair-trigger temper (but no beard, unlike Sam). Mike Maltese originally considered calling the character Texas Tiny, Wyoming Willie, or Denver Dan, but then settled on the final name. A running gag in the show is that sometimes Yosemite Sam tells Bugs "Open up this door open it up now!" and Bugs opens it when Yosemite Sam is in its way of opening and then closes it leaving a raging Yosemite Sam flattened. Another gag involved Sam yelling 'Whoa!' at whatever mode of transportation he was using, only to whack it when it refuses to stop. This is most notably shown in ''Sahara Hare'', where he hits his camel in the head twice for not stopping; When I say 'whoa', I mean WHOA!, at which time, the camel's hump shrinks, and a lump of similar size rises from the camel's head. Other characters with Sam-like features appear in several ''Looney Tunes'' shorts. The Bugs Bunny entry ''Super-Rabbit'' (1943) features the cowboy character "Cottontail Smith", whose voice is nearly similar to Sam. ''Stage Door Cartoon'' (1944), however, features a southern sheriff character that looks and sounds similar to Sam, except for a more defined southern stereotype to his voice. In a Daffy Duck cartoon called ''Along Came Daffy'' (1947), Daffy has to contend with ''two'' Yosemite Sams, one with Sam's red hair and one with black hair. Finally, ''Pancho's Hideaway'' (1964) features a Mexican villain who is designed much like Sam but has a different accent. In addition, in the 1949, Chuck Jones-directed cartoon ''Mississippi Hare'', Bugs Bunny battles with an old, pistol-toting gambler called Colonel Shuffle, one whose role could have easily been portrayed by Sam. (The Colonel reappears in "Dog Gone South", this time pitted against Charlie Dog, and accompanied by a bulldog named Belvedere, who resembles Hector the Bulldog). Freleng created Yosemite Sam to be a more worthy adversary for Bugs Bunny. Until then, Bugs' major foe had been Elmer Fudd, a man so mild-mannered and dim-witted that Freleng thought Bugs actually came off as a bully by duping him. Sam, on the other hand, was extremely violent and belligerent, not at all a pushover like Fudd. Freleng compacted into a tiny body and 11-gallon hat the largest voice and the largest ego "north, south, east, aaaaand west of the Pecos". For over 19 years, except for one cartoon (''Hare-Abian Nights'' in 1959) Freleng's unit had exclusive usage of Sam at the Warner studio. Though officially a cowboy, Freleng put Sam in a different costume in almost every film: a knight, a Roman legionary, a pirate, a royal cook, a prison guard, a duke (Duke of Yosemite, no less), a Confederate soldier, a mountain climber (climbing the 'Shmadderhorn' mountain in Switzerland), a hen-pecked househusband and even a space alien. The humor of the cartoons inevitably springs from the odd miscasting of the hot-tempered cowboy. However, some countries seem to prefer his pirate incarnation, as "Sam the pirate" is his official name in France and a frequent alternative name in Italy. While Sam's basic character is that of a cowboy, he wears a black Domino mask (or actually, just a wide black outline on the outer sides of his eyes) to show that he's an outlaw. This is so associated with his persona that he wears the mask even when dressed as a duke, a riff, a pirate, or a Viking. Sam is significantly tougher and more aggressive than Elmer Fudd when challenging Bugs Bunny. He is also quicker to learn from his mistakes, and never falls for the same ploy twice. But despite Sam's bluster, he doesn't prove much brighter than Elmer in his encounters with Bugs. His noise contrasts to the calmly cocky rabbit. Sam's own cockiness gets the best of him; Bugs can see he is incapable of turning down a challenge. Every time Bugs dares Sam to "step across that line", he can't help but do so, even if he steps off into empty space or down a mine shaft. In Wild and Woolly Hare Sam and Bugs play "Chicken" in two locomotives going toward one another-Sam doesn't crash into Bugs but still ends up losing. In the classic Knighty Knight Bugs Sam is a black knight with a fire breathing dragon. While unscrupulous and ornery himself, Sam consistently displays an odd respect for religious conventions. Whenever he is preparing to shoot Bugs, he tells the "varmint," "Now say your prayers!", allowing Bugs enough time to foil his intentions. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Yosemite Sam」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|