[[quoteright:342:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/friz_freleng_larger_1903.jpg]]

Isadore "Friz" Freleng (August 21, 1906 – May 26, 1995) was a prominent animator and director of Creator/WarnerBros' classic ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Merrie Melodies]]'' animated shorts during UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation and UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfAnimation. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Friz got his start during the twilight years of UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfAnimation, working for Creator/WaltDisney alongside Creator/UbIwerks and Creator/HarmanAndIsing on the WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit comedy shorts. After Disney left, he stuck around with Hugh and Rudy at the Charles Mintz studio, even getting the chance to direct on one Mintz Oswald, "Fiery Fireman", before they were fired.

However, he would later leave the studio to go to the then new Leon Schlesinger cartoon studio alongside Creator/HarmanAndIsing when they requested his help in making their WesternAnimation/BoskoTheTalkInkKid short subjects. He worked as an animator on the early Looney Tunes, with an early work of his being the opening scene of Bosko and Honey playing the piano and tap dancing in "Bosko In Person". Even after Harman and Ising left the studio in '33, Friz came back to Leon to help him touch up some rejected comedies. Friz would continue to be a prominent director in the '30s, cranking out many classic cartoons such as 1935's "WesternAnimation/IHaventGotAHat" (the debut of WesternAnimation/PorkyPig). However, toward the end of that decade Freleng became enticed by [[Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer MGM]]'s more big-budget animation department and quit Leon's studio to work there – only to be put onto the less-than-positive "Captain and the Kids" series, with little to none of the creative freedom that he'd enjoyed under Schlesinger. Friz despised working on those cartoons, and as soon as his contract expired, he fled the studio and went straight back to Termite Terrace, where he would work until its demise in the early 60's.

Freleng is sometimes (and unfairly and nonsensically) taken for granted by critics because his sense of humor and visual style were more reserved than those of the other WB directors. However, Friz is legendary among animation fans for his strong emphasis on literal, mechanical musical timing – while all of the staff at the WB studio were capable of this, nobody used it in quite the way Friz did. Having directed more cartoons than any other director at the studio, Freleng directed many, many worthy classics, such as the groundbreaking RogerRabbitEffect short "Film/YouOughtToBeInPictures", "WesternAnimation/TheWabbitWhoCameToSupper", "WesternAnimation/RhapsodyInRivets", "WesternAnimation/TheThreeLittleBops", and the Academy Award-winning "WesternAnimation/KnightyKnightBugs", among others. He also directed the majority of the Sylvester and Tweety cartoons, including the critically-acclaimed "WesternAnimation/BirdsAnonymous", which was one of four Freleng cartoons to win Warner Bros. an Academy Award for Best Animated Short, more than any other director.

After the original Warner Bros. animation studio shut down in 1963, Friz teamed up with its last chief executive, David [=DePatie=], to form a new studio: Creator/DepatieFrelengEnterprises, based at the former WB facilities in Burbank. With this studio, they not only attempted to revive Warner Bros. cartoons but also created the smash hit ''[[WesternAnimation/ThePinkPanther Pink Panther]]'' theatrical and TV cartoons. (Freleng's first Pink Panther short, ''WesternAnimation/ThePinkPhink'', won him another Oscar.) He also assumed creative duties from Creator/ChuckJones on TV adaptations of Creator/DrSeuss books after Jones's studio closed down. Friz also directed animation for the bridging segments of ''WesternAnimation/TheBugsBunnyRoadRunnerShow'' and even made a few compilation movies like ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyLooneyLooneyBugsBunnyMovie'' and ''WesternAnimation/BugsBunnysThirdMovie1001RabbitTales''.

Friz passed on in 1995; Creator/ChuckJones dedicated his last cartoon short, made the following year, to his passing.

Some claim that he was the inspiration for his own creations WesternAnimation/YosemiteSam from ''Looney Tunes'' and the Little Man from the ''Pink Panther'' cartoons, as both characters were (like Freleng himself) short-statured, hot-tempered, and mustachioed.

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!!Filmography:
[[folder: Warner Bros. Theatrical Cartoon Filmography]]
!1928

* Fiery Fireman: An WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit short.

!1929

* Homeless Homer
* Hen Fruit
* The Wicked West
* Weary Willies

!1933: All shorts are probably co-directed with Creator/HarmanAndIsing.

* Bosko in Dutch
* Bosko in Person
* Beau Bosko
* Bosko's Picture Show

!1934
* Buddy the Gob
* Buddy and Towser
* [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast1934 Beauty and the Beast]]
* Buddy's Trolley Troubles
* Goin' to Heaven on a Mule
* How Do I Know It's Sunday
* Why Do I Dream Those Dreams
* The Girl at the Ironing Board
* The Miller's Daughter
* Shake Your Power Puff
* Those Beautiful Dames
* Pop Goes Your Heart

!1935

* Mr. and Mrs. Is the Name
* Country Boy
* WesternAnimation/IHaventGotAHat
* Along Flirtation Walk
* My Green Fedora
* Into Your Dance
* The Country Mouse
* The Merry Old Soul
* The Lady In Red
* Little Dutch Plate
* Billboard Frolics
* Flowers for Madame

!1936

* I Wanna Play House
* The Cat Came Back
* I'm a Big Shot Now
* Let It Be Me
* Bingo Crosbyana
* When I Yoo Hoo
* WesternAnimation/SundayGoToMeetinTime
* At Your Service Madame
* Toy Town Hall
* Boulevardier from the Bronx
* The Coo Coo Nut Grove

!1937

* He was Her Man
* WesternAnimation/{{Pigs Is Pigs|1937}}
* The Fella With the Fiddle
* She was an Acrobat's Daughter
* Clean Pastures
* Streamlined Greta Green
* Sweet Sioux
* Plenty of Money and You
* Dog Daze
* The Lyin' Mouse
* September in the Rain

!1938

* My Little Buckeroo
* WesternAnimation/JungleJitters
* A Star is Hatched
* Poultry Pirates
* A Day at the Beach: First MGM cartoon.
* The Pygmy Hunt
* The Captain's Christmas

!1939

* Petunia Natural Park
* Seal Skinners
* Mama's New Hat
* The Bookworm
* The Mad Maestro

!1940

* Confederate Honey
* The Hardship of Miles Standish
* Film/YouOughtToBeInPictures
* Little Blabbermouse
* Porky's Baseball Broadcast
* Malibu Beach Party
* Calling Dr. Porky
* Porky's Hired Hand
* Shop Look & Listen

!1941

* The Fighting 61 1/2th
* The Cat's Tale
* Porky's Bear Facts
* The Trial of Mr. Wolf
* WesternAnimation/HiawathasRabbitHunt
* The Wacky Worm
* Sport Chumpions
* Notes to You
* Rookie Revue
* WesternAnimation/RhapsodyInRivets

!1942

* Hop, Skip and a Chump
* Porky's Pastry Pirates
* WesternAnimation/TheWabbitWhoCameToSupper
* Saps in Chaps
* Lights Fantastic
* Double Chaser
* Foney Fables
* Fresh Hare
* The Sheepish Wolf
* The Hare-Brained Hypnotist
* Ding Dog Daddy

!1943

* WesternAnimation/PigsInAPolka
* The Fifth-Column Mouse
* WesternAnimation/GreetingsBait
* Jack-Wabbit and the Beanstalk
* Yankee Doodle Daffy
* Gripes
* Hiss and Make Up
* WesternAnimation/DaffyTheCommando
* Rumors

!1944

* WesternAnimation/LittleRedRidingRabbit
* Meatless Flyday
* Hare Force
* Snafuperman
* WesternAnimation/BugsBunnyNipsTheNips
* Duck Soup to Nuts
* Slightly Daffy
* Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears
* Pay Day
* Three Brothers
* Target Snafu
* Stage Door Cartoon

!1945

* WesternAnimation/HerrMeetsHare
* WesternAnimation/LifeWithFeathers
* Hare Trigger
* Ain't That Ducky
* Hot Spot
* Peck Up Your Troubles
* Operation Snafu

!1946

* WesternAnimation/BaseballBugs
* Holiday for Shoestrings
* Hollywood Daffy (uncredited)
* Of Thee I Sting
* WesternAnimation/RacketeerRabbit
* WesternAnimation/RhapsodyRabbit

!1947

* The Gay Anties
* WesternAnimation/TweetiePie
* Rabbit Transit
* WesternAnimation/AHareGrowsInManhattan
* WesternAnimation/AlongCameDaffy
* WesternAnimation/SlickHare

!1948

* WesternAnimation/BackAlleyOproar
* I Taw a Putty Tat
* WesternAnimation/BuccaneerBunny
* Bugs Bunny Rides Again
* Hare Splitter
* Kit for Cat

!1949

* Wise Quackers
* Hare Do
* WesternAnimation/HighDivingHare
* Curtain Razor
* Mouse Mazurka
* Knights Must Fall
* Bad Ol' Putty Tat
* Dough for the Do-Do: Remake of WesternAnimation/PorkyInWackyland.
* Each Dawn I Crow
* Which is Witch

!1950

* WesternAnimation/HomeTweetHome
* Mutiny on the Bunny
* The Lion's Busy
* Big House Bunny
* WesternAnimation/HisBitterHalf
* All a Bir-r-r-rd
* Golden Yeggs
* Bunker Hill Bunny
* Canary Row
* Stooge for a Mouse

!1951

* WesternAnimation/CannedFeud
* WesternAnimation/RabbitEveryMonday
* WesternAnimation/PuttyTatTrouble
* The Fair Haired Hare
* A Bone for a Bone
* Room and Bird
* His Hare Raising Tale
* Tweety's S.O.S.
* WesternAnimation/BallotBoxBunny
* Tweet Tweet Tweety

!1952

* Gift Wrapped
* 14 Carrot Rabbit
* Foxy By Proxy
* Little Red Rodent Hood
* Ain't She Tweet
* Cracked Quack
* A Bird In a Guilty Cage
* WesternAnimation/TreeForTwo
* WesternAnimation/HareLift

!1953

* Snow Business
* A Mouse Divided
* Fowl Weather
* Southern Fried Rabbit
* Ant Pasted
* Hare Trimmed
* Tom Tom Tomcat
* A Street Cat Named Sylvester
* Catty Cornered
* Robot Rabbit

!1954

* Dog Pounded
* I Gopher You
* WesternAnimation/CaptainHareblower
* [[WesternAnimation/BugsAndThugs Bugs and Thugs]]
* Dr Jerkyl's Hide
* Muzzle Tough
* [[WesternAnimation/SatansWaitin Satan's Waitin']]
* Yankee Doodle Bugs
* Goo Goo Goliath
* By Word of Mouse

!1955

* WesternAnimation/PizzicatoPussycat
* Pests for Guests
* Stork Naked
* Sahara Hare
* WesternAnimation/SandyClaws
* WesternAnimation/HareBrush
* Tweety's Circus
* Lumber Jerks
* This is a Life?
* A Kiddies Kitty
* Hyde and Hare
* WesternAnimation/{{Speedy Gonzales|1955}}
* Red Riding Hoodwinked
* WesternAnimation/RomanLegionHare
* Heir-Conditioned
* Pappy's Puppy

!1956

* Tweet and Sour
* Rabbitson Crusoe
* Tree Cornered Tweety
* Napoleon Bunny-Part
* Tugboat Granny
* A Star is Bored
* Yankee Dood It
* Two Crows from Tacos

!1957

* WesternAnimation/TheThreeLittleBops
* Tweet Zoo
* Tweety and the Beanstalk
* Piker's Peak
* WesternAnimation/BirdsAnonymous
* Bugsy and Mugsy
* Greedy for Tweety
* WesternAnimation/ShowBizBugs
* Gonzales Tamales

!1958

* Hare-Less Wolf
* A Pizza Tweety-Pie
* A Waggily Tale
* WesternAnimation/KnightyKnightBugs
* A Bird in a Bonnet

!1959

* Hare-Abian Nights
* Trick or Tweet
* Apes of Wrath
* WesternAnimation/MexicaliShmoes
* Tweet and Lovely
* WesternAnimation/WildAndWoollyHare
* Here Today, Gone Tamale
* Tweet Dreams

!1960

* Horse Hare
* Goldimouse and the Three Cats
* WesternAnimation/PersonToBunny
* WesternAnimation/HydeAndGoTweet
* WesternAnimation/MouseAndGarden
* WesternAnimation/FromHareToHeir
* Trip for Tat
* WesternAnimation/LighterThanHare

!1961

* D'Fightin' Ones
* The Rebel without Claws
* WesternAnimation/ThePiedPiperOfGuadalupe
* The Last Hungry Cat

!1962

* Crows' Feat
* WesternAnimation/HoneysMoney
* Mexican Boarders

!1963

* Devil's Feud Cake
* Mexican Cat Dance
* Chili Weather
* The Unmentionables

!1964
* Nuts and Volts
* Pancho's Hideaway
* Road to Andalay

!1965

* It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House
* Cats and Bruises
* The Wild Chase

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Other Freleng-directed theatrical shorts]]

!1964

* WesternAnimation/ThePinkPhink
* The Pink Pajamas

!1965

* Dial 'P' for Pink
* The Great [=DeGaulle=] Stone Operation
* Pinkfinger
* The Pink Ice
* The Pink Tail Fly
* Shocking Pink
* We Give Pink Stamps

!1969

* The Ant and the Aardvark
[[/folder]]

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!!Tropes that apply to Freleng and his work:
* AmusingInjuries: Like most cartoons of that era.
* ArtEvolution: As with all of the ''Looney Tunes'' directors. Of particular note is his cartoons after 1944, when not only did Hawley Pratt start doing layouts for him (and has been noted by Phil Monroe that Pratt was a better illustrator than Friz was), but he shed some of his former staff (Gil Turner, Jack Bradbury, Dick Bickenbach).
* ButtMonkey: Before inflicting this on his own crew, Friz himself claimed he was a victim of this. When he first got a job animating on WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit for Creator/WaltDisney, Walt and Friz did not get along, mainly because Walt proved to be a harsh taskmaker, constantly forcing Friz to rework scenes. His fellow animators, including Creator/HarmanAndIsing, loved playing pranks on him, including setting stacks of paper on fire under his chair, and poking fun at his short height by dragging him along off the ground.
* CreatorThumbprint:
** Detailed backgrounds that often show an implied FunnyBackgroundEvent (such as the sinking ship after it exploded on "Buccaneer Bunny" or the mangled Army surplus rabbit finder on "Hare Do") or the names of fictional products and companies named after Friz Freleng himself or any member of his animation unit (usually Hawley Pratt, whose name was shown as "Hadley Pert").
** Characters going to Heaven or Hell (mostly Hell) is featured.
** The American Civil War is often referenced or used for laughs, specifically the Confederate side (as seen on "The Rebel Without Claws", "Southern Fried Rabbit", and "Confederate Honey"), though "Hare Trimmed" implied that Emma (the old widow who looks like Granny from the Sylvester and Tweety shorts) was once courted by Union soldiers (her line about how the last time she was chased by a man was when "...the boys got back from Gettysburg").
** Did a handful of cartoons that showed insects going after humans. Mostly, it was the cliched scenario of ants at a picnic (as seen with "Ant Pasted"[[note]]a 1953 short where Elmer Fudd -- in one of the rare times he's not hunting Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck -- sets up a Fourth of July picnic and causes a war with some ants after tossing fire crackers at them[[/note]], "The Gay Anties", "The Fighting 69 1/2th", and even "Ballot Box Bunny" had a sequence showing Bugs setting up a picnic and Yosemite Sam using ants to ruin it), but "Of Thee I Sting" centered on mosquitos trying to sting a man with a screened-off porch.
** Food and hunger also feature heavily in his cartoons (this isn't to say that Jones or [=McKimson=] didn't have this theme in their cartoons. It just crops up a lot in the Freleng shorts as a character motivation and source of humor), specifically the Sylvester and Tweety ones, the Sylvester short "Canned Feud" where Sylvester is left behind when his owners go on vacation, finds that the milk supply has been cut off for two weeks, and fights with a mouse over a can opener after discovering that the only food in the house is all in cans; and the Yosemite Sam ones where Sam tries to capture and cook Bugs ("Rabbit Every Monday", "Shiskabugs," and "Rabbitson Crusoe").
** Music is often featured in his cartoons, whether it's the early cartoons that were used as a flimsy excuse to exploit Warner Bros. music library or something like "The Three Little Bops", which has a more fleshed-out story. Though, unlike most cartoons that have music in them, Freleng's shorts have a stronger sense of musical literacy and timing. Also: the piano is often used as the centerpiece of a gag in Freleng's shorts, whether it's a character getting trapped in a piano and hit by the hammers that hit the strings to make the notes (as seen in "Stage Door Cartoon" where it happens to Elmer or "A Hop, Skip, and a Chump" where it happens to two crows who look like Laurel and Hardy) or the gag where someone booby-traps a piano to explode when someone plays the first notes of "Those Endearing Young Charms" (though "Showbiz Bugs" substituted a piano for a xylophone).
** References to Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" featured in three or four of his cartoons for Warner Bros, specifically "Hyde and Hare" (with Bugs Bunny), "Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" (with Sylvester), and "Hyde and Go Tweet" (Sylvester and Tweety). Over at Depatie-Freleng, there was "The Inspector" episode "Sicque! Sicque! Sicque!" where Sgt. Deux-Deux drinks the classic potion and becomes a monster, the Pink Panther short "Pink Lightening" had the same thing happen to The Pink Panther's car and "Watch The Birdie" is pretty much a remake of "Hyde and Go Tweet" with "The Dogfather" characters instead.
** A lot of NoodleIncidents and implied humor are seen in his shorts, such as the beginning of "Bad Ol' Puddy Tat" where the cartoon opens on Tweety's birdhouse being perched on a pole with some barbed wire wrapped around it as we pan down to a scratched-up Sylvester staring up at it (implying that he tried to climb it and got hurt) or Granny's line on "Hare Trimmed" about how she hasn't had any male attention since "...the boys got back from Gettysburg."
* DerangedAnimation: Most of it coming from Art Davis and John Carey (who was briefly in his unit in the early '50s).
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Arguably more-so than the other directors; he didn't direct ''any'' dedicated Porky cartoons before his return to the studio in 1940 despite having created the character (pretty much every other director had done so), and most of his cartoons from the '34-38 period were one-shot musicals/blackout sketch cartoons. It's a far cry from his far more oft-remembered work with Bugs, Yosemite Sam, Sylvester and Tweety, and Daffy.
* FireAndBrimstoneHell: Was a big fan of this. Shorts taking place here include "WesternAnimation/SundayGoToMeetinTime," "Devil's Feud Cake," "Satan's Waiting" and "The Three Little Bops."
** "Back Alley Oproar" (the 1948 Sylvester cartoon that was more-or-less a remake of the Porky cartoon "Notes to You") is an interesting twist on how Friz Freleng showed Hell in his cartoons. While "Back Alley Oproar" does end with Elmer going to Heaven after his attempt at blowing up Sylvester failed, it turns out to be Hell for him because Sylvester also died and Elmer has to put up with Sylvester and his nine lives singing the sextet from Donizetti's ''Lucia di Lammermoor'' for all eternity (which causes Elmer to jump off his cloud after his halo gets taken).
* GrayingMorality: He {{inverted|Trope}} this with his interpretations of Elmer Fudd (who got a severe case of AdaptationalJerkass and AdaptationalIntelligence because Freleng didn't like how UnintentionallyUnsympathetic Bugs could get picking on someone as mild-mannered and harmless as Elmer sometimes was), Tweety (who eschewed his borderline-SociopathicHero ways of dealing with Sylvester and other puddy-tats in favor of being protected either by Granny or Hector the Bulldog) and Sylvester Jr. (who became a SpoiledBrat in "Goldimouse and the Three Cats," his only short directed by Freleng instead of his creator Robert [=McKimson=]).
* InkSuitActor: Freleng can be seen as one of the Gremlins From The Kremlin in ''WesternAnimation/RussianRhapsody'' (along with a lot of other animators and members of the Warner Bros. Animation Department, such as Creator/ChuckJones, Henry Binder, Ray Katz, Leon Schlesinger, etc) and as astronomist I. Frisby in Creator/ChuckJones' Bugs Bunny cartoon ''The Hasty Hare.''
* InspiredBy: ''Film/YouOughtToBeInPictures'' was based on Friz's experiences of leaving WB for MGM.
* JekyllAndHyde: Freleng was particularly fond of this trope, seeing the many cartoon installments he produced with this theme. And to different animation studios, to boot -- Creator/WarnerBros and Creator/DePatieFrelengEnterprises.. Some of the episodes feature TheFool being a Mr. Hyde-like character while his partner is unaware of it.
* MickeyMousing: Freleng learned how to play the Violin before becoming an animator, and used his musical literacy to expertly time his cartoons to the tempo of music.
* PrimaDonnaDirector: Friz was this, apparently (which explains why people have claimed that Yosemite Sam was Freleng's AuthorAvatar). He often forced his animators to redo scenes over and over again. One of those animators, Manuel "Manny" Perez (who was given the title "Friz's [[ButtMonkey Whipping Boy]]"), later said in an interview that he grew to hate the guy.
* RecycledAnimation: Moreso than the other directors at Warner Bros. By the 1960s, Friz have always seemed to reuse pieces of animation from past cartoons onto the ones produced at the time in one of the most extensive uses of budget saving for his final cartoons at Warner Bros. It'd be easier to identify where the original animation came from than finding a post-1962 cartoon that didn't had recycled animation.
* RecycledScript: Would often reuse gags (“Those Endearing Young Charms” and an exploding musical instrument in ''WesternAnimation/BallotBoxBunny'' and ''WesternAnimation/ShowBizBugs'') and general plots (''WesternAnimation/RacketeerRabbit'' and ''WesternAnimation/BugsAndThugs''). The material used was always fairly strong, however, and occurrences would happen years apart, unlikely to be noticed by a general theatrical audience.
* RogerRabbitEffect: ''Film/YouOughtToBeInPictures''.
* TakeThat: Friz Freleng clearly did not like Music/BingCrosby, because two of his shorts (''Let It Be Me'' and ''Bingo Crosbyana'', both from 1936) depicted animal caricatures of him as womanising {{Jerkass}}es. In ''Let It Be Me'', he's an unfaithful rooster who coldly abandons his first date; and in ''Bingo Crosbyana'', he's a complete DirtyCoward who abandons the female flies when a spider comes into the kitchen, then gets put in his place after the spider's been dealt with. Crosby saw these shorts and was so mad that he attempted to sue Warner Bros.
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