Line #36 WesternAnimation/BeanyAndCecil


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bandc_1435.gif]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"Now here's Beany and Cecil in, A Whole Half-Hour Creator/BobClampett Car-tooooOOOOON!"'']]
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4	A classic television cartoon series created, produced and directed by former WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes director Creator/BobClampett, ''Beany and Cecil'' covers the escapades of an adventurous boy named Beany, and his friend, a sea-sick serpent named Cecil, as they get into all sorts of trouble across the world with Beany's treasure-hunting Uncle Huffenpuff and their enemy, Dishonest John.
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6	Clampett first brought the characters to life in 1949 as a [[PuppetShows puppet show]] for TV entitled ''Time for Beany'', which ran until 1955 and proved so popular it eventually received an animated adaptation, also helmed by Clampett. The show was relatively short lived (only 26 episodes on [[Creator/AmericanBroadcastingCompany ABC]], all broadcast in 1962) but has gained a healthy cult following over the years. The Clampett family has also released the entire series on two DVD collections, packed with plenty of supplementary material, including an ultra-rare short Clampett made for Republic Pictures!
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8	Beany and Cecil also has one other quirk which almost never happens in media. The listed MediaNotes/{{copyright}} owner of the cartoons was not some corporate entity or animation company, but Creator/BobClampett personally. Individuals almost never get to own the rights to their creations because they're employees and thus it's a work for hire or they often incorporate their own company and have it own their work for tax reasons.
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10	A revival of the series was attempted in the late 1980s by Bob's family and Creator/JohnKricfalusi, but promptly crumbled following creative differences between Kricfalusi and the editors. The series was quickly cancelled after only 5 episodes had aired.
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12	The Clampett family set up a [[http://beanyandcecil.com/ website]] for the series, as well as a [[https://www.youtube.com/user/TheBeanyandCecil?feature=mhum Youtube Channel]] and [[http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Official-Beany-and-Cecil-Fan-Group/146266198775437?ref=ts Facebook page]]. They also released an updated version of the first DVD collection.
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15	!!Tropes This Series Uses:
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17	* TheAllAmericanBoy: Beany is a straight example, being and innocent, good-natured boy with YouthfulFreckles.
18	* AnimationBump: Happens quite a bit, often at least OnceAnEpisode, which is rare for a made-for-TV cartoon from the early 60s (most likely due to Bob Clampett running the series.)
19	* ArtEvolution: In early shorts, Beany and Cecil resembled illustrated versions of their puppet forms, with EyesAlwaysShut in effect for Beany. Their designs quickly became more streamlined and cartoony, with Beany having his eyes open more often.
20	* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: In "Beanyland", when Beany, Cecil, Captain Huffenpuff and Dishonest John are on the moon, they have no trouble breathing and staying alive, despite not wearing space suits or anything.
21	* {{Beatnik}}: Go Man Van Gogh is a jungle version of this.
22	* BigBallOfViolence: In "DJ's Disappearing Act" a huge fight breaks out because Dishonest John had stolen a rare diamond, Uncle Captain asks Cecil, "What's that?" and Cecil responds, "[[{{MediumAwareness}} The biggest fight cloud in the history of Saturday morning cartoons!]]"
23	* [[BigFriendlyDog Big Friendly Sea Serpent]]: Cecil. Almost every episode has at least one moment of him licking Beany's face.
24	-->"Lovable, gullible, armless, harmless, ten-foot-tall and wet!"
25	* BitingTheHandHumor: ''The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil'' features a jab at Creator/DiCEntertainment in "The Brotherhood of B.L.E.C.H." by showing a [=DiC=] studio building going over a waterfall.
26	* BrainsAndBrawn: Beany and Cecil, respectively.
27	* CartoonBomb: Dishonest John comes across one of these in "Strange Objects" and attempts to defuse it. It doesn't work.
28	--> '''Dishonest John:''' ''[Removes the lit fuse and tosses away the bomb itself]'' You've got to get up pretty early in the morning to put one over on ol' D.J.! ''[The '''fuse''' explodes, leaving John battered and singed]'' Shake hands with a late sleeper.
29	* CatchPhrase: "I'm comin', Beany-boy!"
30	** "DJ, you dirty guy!"
31	** "Help, Cecil! Help!"
32	* [[ComeOutComeOutWhereverYouAre Come Out, Come Out, Whatever You Are]]: Greenie the Meanie Genie, who was anything but mean. He was drunk.
33	* ClearTheirName: Upon noticing there are two Freeps in "Framed Freep", Beany is quick to correctly conclude that the Freep that's terrorizing the land is an impostor and makes it his goal to save the real Freep, a timid trio of sweethearts, from execution.
34	* ComedicSpanking: "Beany and Cecil meet the Invisible Man" ends with the titular Invisible Man being spanked by Edgar Allen Po Shadow for scaring away Beany, Cecil and Captain Huffenpuff before he could sell them his house.
35	* ContentWarning: In the scene of ''So What, And The Seven Whatnots'', when Dishonest John gets electrocuted by the stage lights, He pauses the pain to tell kids "You think there's too much violence on television?" Then continues the pain. This same gag is repeated in ''Beany and the Boo-Birds'' (a Boo-Bird glances to the audience to ask them the question after Cecil gets a CranialEruption from a literal hammerhead shark) and ''D.J. the D.J.'' (after Cecil and one of his dog singer sidekicks both literally crack up, leaving Cecil's mouth floating in the air to say the question.)
36	* CutShort: The revival only lasted ''five episodes'', with three more left unaired.
37	* DastardlyWhiplash: Dishonest John
38	* DemotedToExtra: "Never Eat Quackers in Bed" only has Beany, Cecil and Captain Huffenpuff appear in a brief restaurant scene early on in the episode; otherwise it largely focuses on Willy the Wolf attempting to catch a duck.
39	* DerangedAnimation: While not quite up there with Clampett's previous work like ''WesternAnimation/PorkyInWackyland'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatPiggyBankRobbery'', this is still a really, really bizarre show at times.
40	* DinnerDeformation: In "Grime Doesn't Pay", Dishonest John gets a birthday cake full of tools - but the guard makes him eat it all up in front of him. Cue wrench, hammer, and saw-shaped lumps in his throat dropping into his gut with appropriate tool sound effects and a jaunty "Happy Birthday To You".
41	* DirtyCoward: Captain Huffenpuff. More often than not, after telling Beany and Cecil what their mission or task for the episode is, he will go hide (usually in the Leakin' Lena's cabin; in "Spots Off a Leopard" it explicitly says "HIDING ROOM" above the cabin door) and leave Beany and Cecil to carry out the task themselves, but not before he makes a pun relating to his hiding.
42	* DontTryThisAtHome: In the ''New Adventures'' episode "The Bad Guy Flu", Dishonest John tells the audience not to try this at home when he deflates his raft.
43	* EvilLaugh: Dishonest John's signature evil laugh has him go "Nya-ah-ahhh!"
44	* FriendlyEnemy: Our heroes are surprisingly chummy with that "dirty guy" Dishonest John. There's even a short where he's in the hospital after a failed caper and they show up bearing gifts, and in the ''New Adventures'' episode "The Brotherhood of B.L.E.C.H.", it's even a plot point - where the heroes are so friendly with him that he's incapable of proving to other bad guys that he's a real villain.
45	* FunWithAcronyms: The ''New Adventures'' episode "The Brotherhood of B.L.E.C.H." has Dishonest John being a member of a club called '''B'''ad guys, '''L'''osers, '''E'''vil-doers, '''C'''rooks and '''H'''orrible people.
46	* GivingThemTheStrip: In "Spots Off a Leopard", Cecil tries to capture the Spotted Leopard by hammering down his claws after he punctures them through a tree, but the Spotted Leopard escapes by slipping his paw out of the glove.
47	* TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin:
48	** Beany and Cecil always triumph over Dishonest John, or any other villain they come across. This is even part of their song.
49	-->''' Beany and Cecil:''' We don't know where we're goin' cause we don't know where we've been. We just know we're the good guys, and good guys always win.
50	** "The Fleastone Cop Caper" is a Deconstruction ''and'' Reconstruction. Dishonest John invites himself over to Beany and Cecil's place to watch the latest episode of ShowWithinAShow "The Defective Story", because he read "the bad guy beats the good guy". The episode's villian, The Pincher, kidnaps actress Bridgette Bow-Wow and is seemingly rendered a KarmaHoudini by evading detective Fido Vance's capture and marrying Bridgette. To Beany and Cecil's delight (and D.J.'s disappointment), [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty karma catches up to]] The Pincher as he is shown to be a HenpeckedHusband trapped in an AwfulWeddedLife.
51	* GooGooGetup: The ''New Adventures'' episode "Framed Freep" ends with Dishonest John being punished by having the Freep treat him like an infant, complete with wearing a diaper and a bonnet.
52	* HandOrObjectUnderwear: "Wild Man of Wildsville" has a scene where Go Man Van Gogh falls out of his pelt after it snags on a branch. As he falls naked, he has his hands over his genitals.
53	* HurricaneOfPuns: '''THE WHOLE SHOW.'''
54	-->'''Captain Huffenpuff:''' "We've cut through the Sandwich Islands and saw the Thousand Islands dressing. And now we've reached our destination: No Bikini Atoll!"
55	-->'''Cecil:''' "NO BIKINI ATOLL!? WOOOOOW!!"
56	** Also, as Cecil gets clobbered looking at the cement footprints of Marilyn Monroe:
57	-->'''Cecil:''' I'd say Monroe needs a little doctorin'!
58	** As Cecil serenades Cecilia (1988 episode; last aired of the new series):
59	-->'''Dishonest John:''' Cecil's singing is giving me a haddock. I wish I was hard of herring.
60	* InterspeciesRomance: Snorky from "There's No Such Thing as a Sea Serpent" is the hybrid offspring of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Brontosaurus.
61	* IWantMyMommy: Little Ace cries that he wants his mommy twice in "Rat Race for Space".
62	* JailBake: In "Grime Doesn't Pay", convict Dishonest John gets a birthday cake full of tools - but the guard makes him eat it all up in front of him.
63	* JockDadNerdSon: Ben Hare and his son Harecules, respectively.
64	* LatexPerfection / MultiLayerFacade: Played with (of course) in "The Capture of Thunderbolt the Wondercolt," when the titular heroic horse notices Dishonest John's duck FullBodyDisguise he got out of a trunk labeled "Dishonest Disguises", Thunderbolt rushes to his own chest labeled "Honest Dishonest Disguises" and puts on a [[LawyerFriendlyCameo blue Mickey Mouse-esque mask]] to confront the "duck." To which said "duck" yanks the mouse mask off Thunderbolt to reveal a brown WesternAnimation/BugsBunny-esque mask, prompting the following exchange, referencing a few other incidental characters in the process...
65	-->'''Dishonest John:''' You're not that WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry-drinking mouse!
66	-->'''Thunderbolt:''' ''(removes D.J.'s duck head to reveal a WesternAnimation/PorkyPig-esque mask)'' And you're not Quain Quacker!
67	-->'''Dishonest John:''' ''(removes Thunderbolt's rabbit mask to reveal a dog mask)'' And you're not Harecules Hare!
68	-->'''Thunderbolt:''' ''(removes D.J.'s pig mask to reveal a smiling Beany Boy mask)'' And you're not Frankenswine!
69	-->'''Dishonest John:''' ''(removes Thunderbolt's dog mask to reveal another Beany Boy mask)'' You're not Rin Tin Can! ''(now imitating Beany's voice)'' Beany? You're not Beany Boy!
70	-->'''Dishonest John and Thunderbolt:''' ''(unmasking each other in unison)'' IMPOSTOR!
71	-->'''Thunderbolt:''' ''(as himself once again seeing D.J.'s true face)'' A HUMAN!
72	* LawyerFriendlyCameo: A Franchise/MickeyMouse-esque doll appears in one episode on Cecil's head. Also in "Beany & Cecil Meet Billy The Squid" (first produced in 1959 and screened in Canadian theatres), Uncle Captain is wearing Mickey Mouse ears.
73	** In "The Seventh Voyage of Singood," when Captain Huffenpuff tells the crew to watch out for Singood the Sailor Man (actually Dishonest John), Cecil's face turns into Popeye.
74	** In "The Wildman of Wildsville," Go Man Van Gogh paints a TV test pattern on Cecil's face and turns one of his nostrils. Cecil's eyes conjoined to form the CBS eye.
75	* {{Leitmotif}}: Dishonest John has one, in the form of a piano rendition of "Mysterioso Pizzicato" (a.k.a. "The Villain's Theme").
76	* LikeIsLikeAComma: Go Man Van Gogh, being a {{Beatnik}}, talks this way a lot, along with the "Batniks" in "The Rat Race For Space."
77	* LongerThanLifeSentence: In "Grime Doesn't Pay", Dishonest John informs the warden that he's serving a sentence of 199 years. The warden quips that it could've been worse and that Dishonest John could've gotten life.
78	* LorreLookalike: The episode "Beany Meets the Monstrous Monster" features the character Staring Herring, who has giant eyes and talks with a Creator/PeterLorre impression.
79	* MeaninglessVillainVictory: In "The Fleastone Cop Caper". Dishonest John is really excited to see the ShowWithinAShow "Defective Story" because he's read TheBadGuyWins. Said bad guy succeeds in kidnapping a beautiful actress and escaping arrest from the detective protagonist, but ends up trapped as a miserable HenpeckedHusband (which the show's narrator calls "a life sentence in solitary confinement").
80	* MeatOVision: "Beany Meets the Monstrous Monster" has the titular Monstrous Monster see the Leakin' Lena and Cecil as an ice cream sundae with a spoon.
81	* MediumAwareness: Frequent examples, such as the one given for BigBallOfViolence above.
82	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Plenty of examples!
83	** "So What and the Seven Whatnots" has the Whatnots all based off well-known celebrities of the time, including [[Music/LouisArmstrong Stacsh-do]], [[Music/ElvisPresley Elfis]], [[Creator/MarxBrothers Harpsy McChord]], Dizzy R. Nez[[note]]Desi Arnaz[[/note]], [[Creator/FredMacMurray Fred McFurry]] (reimagined as a Scotsman due to his name), [[Creator/HenriDeToulouseLautrec Screw-Loose Latrec]] and [[Music/{{Liberace}} Loverachi]].
84	** "Beany and Cecil Meet the Invisible Man" has Edgar Allen Po's Shadow, who is based off Creator/AlfredHitchcock (but [[ElmuhFuddSyndwome talks like Elmer Fudd]]).
85	** "The Phantom of the Horse Opera" has the titular phantom's voice and mannerisms based off comedian Jerry Colonna. Then at the end when he's smashed into a pile of rocks and shaped into a sphinx, his face takes on Colonna's likeness, completing the resemblance.
86	* NoFourthWall: Most of the characters take their time to address the audience.
87	* PaintedTunnelRealTrain: Go Man Van Gogh can paint things in mid-air that become real, such as a vine to swing on.
88	* PropellerHatOfWhimsy: The [[MeaningfulName meaningfully-named]] Beany is, of course, a happy young boy that wears a propeller beany.
89	* RebusBubble: The little alien Beepin' Tom (featured in ''[[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5rx8qs_beany-and-cecil-ain-t-i-a-little-stinger_tv Ain't I A Little Stinger?]]''), whose dialogue consists of rebuses, as shown in standard comic book dialogue balloons ("O", buoy, arrow pointing towards a Joker card and a "s" and some nuts, which reads as "Oh boy, this joker's nuts," referring to Dishonest John).
90	* RecycledSoundtrack: Some of the shorts recycle music from ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver'' and the Creator/WalterLantz cartoons.
91	* RoadSignReversal: The ''New Adventures'' episode "The Brotherhood of B.L.E.C.H." has Dishonest John attempt to ruin things for Cecil and company by switching signs that read "Deadman's Falls" and "Calm Seas".
92	* TheScrooge: Captain Huffenpuff is implied to be this in "So What and the Seven Whatnots", given that the years salary he gives to Cecil consists of a measly ''nickel''.
93	* SeaSerpents: Cecil is a benevolent example of this trope.
94	* SelfDeprecation: In the ''New Adventures'' episode "Framed Freep", Dishonest John asks if "Help, Beany, help" is all Princess Princess is ever going to say in the episode. Princess Princess answers that it is and provides Dishonest John with a copy of the script to prove it. After seeing for himself, Dishonest John remarks "What kind of jerk wrote this?"
95	* ShoutOut: Music/{{ACDC}}'s title "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" is a reference to a phrase used by Dishonest John.
96	** Harecules the Hare wears [[WesternAnimation/TheAlvinShow a long red sweater with his initial on it]]. He also wears horn-rimmed NerdGlasses similar to Simon's.
97	** After Cecil's face (with a Franchise/MickeyMouse doll on it) gets mauled by a cat, he says, "[[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes I tawt I taw a putty tat!]]". Since Clampett also created Tweety, this doubles as a CreatorInJoke.
98	** Cecil gets wrapped up in a strait-jacket meant for the Wildman of Wildsville, and the sleeves are raised up making him look like a rabbit. He quips "Eh...[[WesternAnimation/BugsBunny What's up, pops?"]]. The Wildman paints a giant carrot for him and says "Don't 'Bugs' me, man...don't 'Bugs' me!"
99	** "Super Cecil" and "So What and the Seven Whatnots" both contain a reference to the classic Anacin pain reliever commercials (by cutting away to inside Cecil's head, where a hammer is striking and an electrical spark is arcing, etc.) Speaking of which, you get one guess what Super Cecil [[Franchise/{{Superman}} is a reference to.]]
100	** "Beanyland" is a tongue-in-cheek spoof of ''Ride/{{Disneyland}}'' and includes attractions such as "Slipping Beauty Castle" and "Day After Tomorrow Land".
101	** "So What and the Seven Whatnots" is a reference to ''Literature/SnowWhite and the Seven Dwarfs'', with Dishonest John playing the part of the witch who gives So White the poisoned apple.
102	** The three little pigs in "Sleeping Beauty and the Beast" resemble [[WesternAnimation/TheThreeLittlePigs the Disney versions]].
103	* SignatureLaugh: Dishonest John's [[EvilLaugh "Nya-ha-HAH!"]].
104	%% * ThickLineAnimation
105	* TotemPoleTrench: In "Beany and the Boo Birds", the titular Boo Birds disguise themselves as Cecil's conscience by standing on top of each other and hiding in a hand puppet resembling Cecil with wings and a halo.
106	* WorldOfPun: Wordplay is absolutely everywhere in this show.
107	* YourSizeMayVary: How big Cecil is in relation to Beany varies quite a bit, sometimes within the same cartoon.

Context WesternAnimation / BeanyAndCecil