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Beaky
Buzzard - A Mortimer Snerd like vulture seen in a number of
Warner Brother cartoons. Beaky's main mission in life was to find something
to eat which usually involved trying to catch the likes of Bugs Bunny. When
Beaky fails to bring home an appropriate meal, he is chastised by his shrew
of a mother and told he needed to become a "killer" (her nickname for her
son).
Beaky's brothers were better hunters. They brought home large animals like
elephants and cows to the family nest, but all poor Beaky could muster was a
bumble bee. As he traveled home with his tiny prey he sang the lyrics "I'm
Bring Home A Baby Bumble Bee."
Once when Beaky learned that lions only lived ten years, he found a lion
celebrating his tenth year and then unsuccessfully sat around waiting for
the lion to die. Unfortunately, the lion lived past the age of ten and
in the end, both of the characters found themselves on the moon.
In another cartoon, Beaky was found by a couple of British sparrows who
adopt his abandoned egg and raise Beaky to survive in the wild after he
emerges into the world.
Created by Bob Clampett (of Beany and Cecil fame) the Beaky
Buzzard character debuted in the Merrie Melodies cartoon "Bugs
Bunny Gets the Boid." (1942) directed by Bob Clampett. Beaky later
appeared in the Looney Tune cartoon "The Bashful Buzzard" (1945); the Loony
Tune cartoon "The Lion's Busy" (1950) directed by Friz Freleng; and the
Merrie Melodie cartoon "Strife with Father" (1950) directed by Robert
McKimson.
Beaky also appeared in a series of Loony Tunes and Merrie Melodies
comic books produced by Dell comics in the early 1940s where he was paired
with Henery Hawk. In the 1990s, Beaky appeared in Steven Spielberg's Tiny
Toon Adventures, where he mentors Concord Condor.
Vocals for the Beaky the Buzzard character were provided by Kent Rogers (who
died in WWII), Eddie Bartell, Stan Freberg and Mel Blanc (in the 1950s).
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