Friz Freleng

Directing

Friz Freleng

Born 1906-08-21 · Kansas City, Missouri, USA

Isadore "Friz" Freleng (1906–1995), sometimes credited as I. Freleng, was an American animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros. He introduced and/or developed several of the studio's biggest stars, including Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the cat, Yosemite Sam (to whom he was said to bear more than a passing resemblance) and Speedy Gonzales. The senior director at Warners' Termite Terrace studio, Freleng directed more cartoons than any other director in the studio (a total of 266), and is also the most honored of the Warner directors, having won four Academy Awards. After Warners shut down the animation studio in 1963, Freleng and business partner David H. DePatie founded DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, which produced cartoons (notably The Pink Panther Show), feature film title sequences, and Saturday morning cartoons through the early 1980s. The nickname "Friz" came from his friend Hugh Harman, who initially nicknamed him "Congressman Frizby" after a fictional senator that was in articles in the Los Angeles Examiner. Over time this shortened to "Friz".

Acting credits

Gremlins poster
7.1

After receiving an exotic small animal as a Christmas gift, a young man inadvertently breaks three important rules concerning his new pet, which unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous creatures on a small town.

Gremlins

1984

Roger Rabbit and the Secrets of Toon Town poster
5.7

A behind-the-scenes documentary hosted by Joanna Cassidy on the making of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Roger Rabbit and the Secrets of Toon Town

1988

Happy Birthday, Bugs! 50 Looney Years poster
7.2

A 50th anniversary tribute to Bugs Bunny

Happy Birthday, Bugs! 50 Looney Years

1990

Looney Tunes 50th Anniversary poster
7.2

Some of the biggest stars in show business pay a fun tribute to Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes to mark their 50th anniversary.

Looney Tunes 50th Anniversary

1986

Bugs Bunny Superstar poster
7.3

Animator Robert Clampett presents a history of "Termite Terrace," the little shack on the Warner Brothers studio lot which in the 1930's and 1940's housed the animation unit which gave birth to Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. Includes color and black-and-white home-movie-type footage shot at the time showing such animation greats as Clampett, Tex Avery and Chuck Jones. Also featured are nine complete Warner cartoons.

Bugs Bunny Superstar

1976

The Magical World of Chuck Jones poster
8.0

Documentary on animator Chuck Jones.

The Magical World of Chuck Jones

1992

Friz on Film poster
8.0

Looney Tunes Friz Freleng appears in interview segments in this excellent documentary, which spends nearly an hour examining Freleng's history, career, talent, comic timing and classic shorts.

Friz on Film

2006

Irreverent Imagination: The Golden Age of the Looney Tunes poster
8.0

A documentary on the Looney Tunes. Including interviews from people who worked on it, and their family.

Irreverent Imagination: The Golden Age of the Looney Tunes

2003

No artwork available
5.0

Documentary short

Goodbye, Warner Bros., Hello DePatie-Freleng

2016

That's All Folks! Tales from Termite Terrace poster
3.5

Meet the creators of the Looney Tunes, animation's zaniest and most beloved characters! Join Chuck Jones, Friz Freling and Mel Blanc as they share rare and personal memories about Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, and some of the wildest stories behind your favorite cartoons!

That's All Folks! Tales from Termite Terrace

2014

King-Size Comedy: Tex Avery and the Looney Tunes Revolution poster
NR

Focuses on how the legend of animation, Tex Avery, revolutionized cartoons.

King-Size Comedy: Tex Avery and the Looney Tunes Revolution

2012

Behind the camera

Cracked Quack poster
7.1

Daffy Duck takes shelter from a blizzard by sneaking into a cozy home owned by Porky Pig. Daffy tries to secretly mooch off of Porky for an entire winter, but Porky's dog realizes that Daffy isn't the stuffed ornament he pretends to be and keeps trying to alert Porky to Daffy's ruse.

Cracked Quack

1952

The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie poster
7.3

Bugs Bunny hosts an award show featuring several classic Looney Tunes shorts and characters.

The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie

1981

The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie poster
7.3

Bugs Bunny hosts an award show featuring several classic Looney Tunes shorts and characters.

The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie

1981

The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie poster
7.3

Bugs Bunny hosts an award show featuring several classic Looney Tunes shorts and characters.

The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie

1981

Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island poster
6.7

Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales find a treasure map that leads them to a wishing well, which for a penny will grant any wish (through old cartoon footage). Daffy sets up a resort around the well and various Looney Tunes characters have their dreams come true. Meanwhile, Yosemite Sam and the Tasmanian Devil hunt for the varmints who stole their treasure map!

Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island

1983

Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island poster
6.7

Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales find a treasure map that leads them to a wishing well, which for a penny will grant any wish (through old cartoon footage). Daffy sets up a resort around the well and various Looney Tunes characters have their dreams come true. Meanwhile, Yosemite Sam and the Tasmanian Devil hunt for the varmints who stole their treasure map!

Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island

1983

The Hare-Brained Hypnotist poster
6.8

Elmer Fudd goes after Bugs using hypnotism, only the plan backfires.

The Hare-Brained Hypnotist

1942

Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales poster
7.2

If Bugs Bunny were to direct his signature inquiry--"What's up, doc?"--toward the modern-day Warner Bros. creative team, he wouldn't be far off. For 1001 Rabbit Tales, they've doctored up a batch of classic cartoons featuring the carrot muncher and his bumbling comrades and bundled them, near seamlessly, into a feature-length film. Here's the premise: Bugs and Daffy, both book salesmen, are competing to sell the most copies of a kids' book. Instead of burrowing a beeline to his sales territory (he should have made a left at Albuquerque), Bugs ends up in the castle of Yosemite Sam, here a harem-leading honcho. Sam's pain-in-the-spurs son, Prince Abalaba, needs somebody to read him stories; Bugs, who'd sooner take the job than suffer the alternative, that involving being boiled in oil, signs on.

Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales

1982

Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales poster
7.2

If Bugs Bunny were to direct his signature inquiry--"What's up, doc?"--toward the modern-day Warner Bros. creative team, he wouldn't be far off. For 1001 Rabbit Tales, they've doctored up a batch of classic cartoons featuring the carrot muncher and his bumbling comrades and bundled them, near seamlessly, into a feature-length film. Here's the premise: Bugs and Daffy, both book salesmen, are competing to sell the most copies of a kids' book. Instead of burrowing a beeline to his sales territory (he should have made a left at Albuquerque), Bugs ends up in the castle of Yosemite Sam, here a harem-leading honcho. Sam's pain-in-the-spurs son, Prince Abalaba, needs somebody to read him stories; Bugs, who'd sooner take the job than suffer the alternative, that involving being boiled in oil, signs on.

Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales

1982

Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales poster
7.2

If Bugs Bunny were to direct his signature inquiry--"What's up, doc?"--toward the modern-day Warner Bros. creative team, he wouldn't be far off. For 1001 Rabbit Tales, they've doctored up a batch of classic cartoons featuring the carrot muncher and his bumbling comrades and bundled them, near seamlessly, into a feature-length film. Here's the premise: Bugs and Daffy, both book salesmen, are competing to sell the most copies of a kids' book. Instead of burrowing a beeline to his sales territory (he should have made a left at Albuquerque), Bugs ends up in the castle of Yosemite Sam, here a harem-leading honcho. Sam's pain-in-the-spurs son, Prince Abalaba, needs somebody to read him stories; Bugs, who'd sooner take the job than suffer the alternative, that involving being boiled in oil, signs on.

Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales

1982

Pink Daddy poster
6.3

The stork gets lost in a thunderstorm, and delivers a baby alligator to the Pink Panther at the wrong address.

Pink Daddy

1978

Daffy Duck's Quackbusters poster
6.8

In this feature-length film combining footage from classic Warner Brothers cartoon shorts with newly animated bridging sequences, Daffy Duck, after having induced laughter in an ailing millionaire and forestalled the millionaire's death for a time (as chronicled in Daffy Dilly (1948), is the beneficiary for the deceased millionaire's assets. But the millionaire's will clearly stipulates that Daffy must use the money for the common good, by providing a service, and should Daffy think of pursuing selfish aims, the millionaire's ghost will "repossess" his millions by making them disappear from Earthly existence. Under the pretense of community service, Daffy opens an exorcism agency and employs Porky Pig, Sylvester Cat, and Bugs Bunny to track and eliminate ghosts, ghouls, and other monsters, while Daffy secretly schemes to use his learned "ghost-busting" talents to rid himself of the millionaire's nagging spirit.

Daffy Duck's Quackbusters

1988

Rhapsody in Rivets poster
6.6

A construction foreman conducts his workers like a symphony orchestra as they build a skyscraper to Franz Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2."

Rhapsody in Rivets

1941

Streamlined Greta Green poster
6.4

In a world wherein cars act like humans, Junior wants to be a taxi, but his mother wants him to grow up to be a nice touring car like his father. Mom doesn't know that Junior sometimes skips school and ventures into the city to ride in traffic, drink hi-test gas, and race trains.

Streamlined Greta Green

1937

Pink Pictures poster
6.6

The Pink Panther decides to become an amateur photographer, but the local wildlife are not cooperative.

Pink Pictures

1978

A-Haunting We Will Go poster
5.5

Daffy convinces his son that old Witch Hazel isn't what he thinks she is.

A-Haunting We Will Go

1966

Looney Tunes Super Stars Tweety & Sylvester: Feline Fwenzy poster
7.8

It's not your imagination; you really "taw a puddy tat." Laugh your way through 15 bird-chasing, all-time cartoon favorites with "Looney Tunes Super Stars: Tweety & Sylvester." It's a grand collection featuring the clever canary and the cagey cat. Includes classic Warner Bros. cartoons like "The Last Hungry Cat," "Snow Business," "Birds Anonymous" and the Oscar-winning short "Tweetie Pie."

Looney Tunes Super Stars Tweety & Sylvester: Feline Fwenzy

2010

Snow Business poster
6.6

Sylvester Cat and Tweety Bird are snowbound in a mountain cabin, and though Tweety has lots of bird seed, Sylvester will starve unless he can cook the unsuspecting Tweety. Meanwhile, a starving mouse thinks Sylvester is edible.

Snow Business

1953

Along Came Daffy poster
6.6

Snowbound in a remote cabin, two starving men begin visualizing each other as food. When salesman Daffy Duck calls at their door, it doesn't take long before the men set their minds on having Daffy as their dinner.

Along Came Daffy

1947

Sweet Sioux poster
5.1

Gags in a Native American village lead up to the tribe's attack on a covered wagon to the tune of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down," the first use of the song in a Warner Bros. cartoon.

Sweet Sioux

1937

Jack-Wabbit and the Beanstalk poster
6.7

Bugs Bunny encounters the legendary giant.

Jack-Wabbit and the Beanstalk

1943

Doctor Pink poster
5.3

As a hospital janitor the Pink Panther takes up first aid, to the disgust of the duty doctor.

Doctor Pink

1979

Meatless Flyday poster
6.4

A hungry spider is trying to catch a fly for dinner. Both pull pranks on each other until the fly is finally caught.

Meatless Flyday

1944

A Mouse Divided poster
7.4

A drunken stork delivers a baby mouse to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Sylvester Cat. Sylvester is about to eat the little rodent when it calls him Daddy. Touched, Sylvester adopts the mouse as his son - which, distressingly, attracts every hungry cat in the neighborhood to his door!

A Mouse Divided

1953