Happy Harmonies is the name of the first 37 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoons produced by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising [1] The first entry, The Discontented Canary, was first released on September 1, 1934. They are the first MGM cartoons.
The series had much success, with two entries being nominated for Oscars, but they constantly went over the budget of MGM. MGM terminated production of the shorts in early 1938 for the black-and-white The Captain and the Kids series, which was unsuccessful, unlike Happy Harmonies, and was terminated less than a year later with 15 cartoons. After these two series, MGM produced the occasional one-shot cartoon (AN MGM CARTOON), and introduced their newest star Barney Bear.
The final two cartoons in this series were from Disney, but were sold to MGM for release under their label. A third cartoon, Merbabies, was kept as a Silly Symphonies entry, despite the animation crew from MGM contributing to that short.[2]
Shorts
1934
- The Discontented Canary (first MGM cartoon, oldest to be currently owned by Turner Entertainment, in the public domain in the United States, A METRO COLOR CARTOON in the opening because the name Happy Harmonies was not existent yet)
- The Old Pioneer (first with the name Happy Harmonies)
- Tale of the Vienna Woods
- Bosko's Parlor Pranks (first MGM cartoon with Bosko)
- Toyland Broadcast
1935
- Hey-Hey Fever (final cartoon with Bosko in Looney Tunes form)
- When The Cat's Away
- The Lost Chick
- The Calico Dragon (academy-award nominee)
- Good Little Monkeys
- The Chinese Nightingale
- Poor Little Me
- Barnyard Babies (final cartoon in 2-hue color, final cartoon with Coffee the Lion)
- The Old Plantation (first cartoon in 3-hue color, first cartoon with Tanner the Lion)
- Honeyland
- Alias St. Nick
- Run, Sheep, Run! (first appearance of blackface Bosko)
1936
- Bottles (longest Happy Harmony short)
- The Early Bird and the Worm
- The Old Mill Pond
- Two Little Pups
- The Old House
- The Pups' Picnic
- To Spring (in the public domain in the United States)
- Little Cheeser
- The Pups' Christmas
1937
- Circus Daze (final to use the name Happy Harmonies)
- Swing Wedding
- Bosko's Easter Eggs
- Little Ol' Bosko and the Pirates
- The Hound and the Rabbit
- The Wayward Pups
- Little Ol' Bosko and the Cannibals
- Little Buck Cheeser
1938
- Little Ol' Bosko in Bagdad (final Bosko cartoon, due to stereotyping of black people)
- Pipe Dreams (from Disney)
- The Little Bantamweight (final Happy Harmonies cartoon due to overbudget concerns, from Disney)
Home Video Releases
The only official home release containing a significant number of the Happy Harmonies film shorts is the MGM Happy Harmonies LaserDisc box set, which was released in 1994 by MGM/UA Home Video.[3] This release predated the merger of Turner Broadcasting System/Turner Entertainment with Time Warner in 1996. The four-disc set contains a meager 17 of the 37 Happy Harmonies shorts while the remaining 25 shorts include other one-shots, and Barney Bear cartoons. Around March of 1999, MGM announced that it will pay Time Warner $225M to end its contract early of distributing the home video releases of Turner's assets. Since then, the distribution rights were transferred to Warner Home Video.[4] As of October 2017, there are no official plans for the Happy Harmonies to be restored and released from Warner Home Video.