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500_14 | Fight for a sales tax |
500_15 | Laffoon's administration was confronted by the economic difficulties of the Great Depression. While he proposed a number of improvements, money was not available in the state budget to implement his plans. In his first full year in office, he cut $11.5 million from the state budget, but it remained out-of-balance. The state issued additional interest-bearing warrants to cover its debts. In 1931, these warrants accounted for 24.2 percent of the state's receipts; by 1932, that number had climbed to 40.2 percent. In order to raise more funds, Laffoon proposed a 2 percent state sales tax in 1932. The proposal was extremely unpopular with merchants and private citizens, and it showed little promise of passing in the General Assembly. On March 2, 1932, a mob of 100 anti-tax protesters stormed the governor's mansion, damaging some items inside. In an attempt to get the tax passed, Laffoon agreed to seek only a 1 percent tax. The proposal passed the House, but a Senate committee refused to |
500_16 | report it to the full chamber for a vote. |
500_17 | The sales tax proposal caused a rift in the Democratic party generally and in Laffoon's administration specifically. As presiding officer of the Senate, Lieutenant Governor A. B. "Happy" Chandler had led opposition to the tax in the legislature. Highway Commissioner Ben Johnson sided with Chandler, as did former Laffoon supporters Allie Young and J. Dan Talbott. In retaliation, Laffoon vetoed $7 million in appropriations and a measure to cut property taxes at the end of the legislative session. Among the few pieces of legislation that passed during the session were bills reorganizing the highway department, making the state Board of Charities a partisan entity, and further removing the Fish and Game Commission from the control of sportsmen. A redistricting bill was hastily passed at the end of the session, reducing the number of congressional districts from 11 to 9, per the most recent census results, but charges of gerrymandering kept the bill tied up in the courts, preventing it |
500_18 | from taking effect in time for the 1932 congressional elections. Consequently, all of Kentucky's representatives that year were elected at-large. The Louisville Courier-Journal called the 1932 legislative session "about the worst legislative session in Kentucky's history". |
500_19 | Laffoon responded to the economic crisis by declaring a four-day banking holiday to begin on March 1, 1933. He twice extended the holiday, which finally ended on March 18. Responding to complaints of low prices by farmers, he closed burley tobacco markets in December of that year. At the end of the 1932 fiscal year, figures showed that the state incurred a $2 million deficit. Kentucky was also unable to secure significant financial assistance under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal because the state was often unable to raise the required matching funds. |
500_20 | Though Laffoon was determined to pass a state sales tax, he vowed not to call a special legislative session to consider the issue. However, in August 1933, he did call a special session to debate a "gross receipts tax", which was essentially a sales tax by another name. Johnson and Chandler again led the opposition to Laffoon's plan; Laffoon called them, along with Allie Young and U.S. Representative John Y. Brown, Sr., "the most insidious lobby that ever infected the Capitol". He reportedly further charged that opposition to his tax program was financed by "a bunch of New York Jews". Despite Laffoon's rhetoric, the sales tax was again defeated. |
500_21 | The General Assembly was split three ways when it convened in 1934. Approximately one-third of the Assembly was Republican, one-third was pro-Laffoon Democrats, and one third was anti-Laffoon Democrats. Using the promise of new roads in Republican districts as leverage, Laffoon and political boss Tom Rhea formed an alliance with the Republicans. The bipartisan alliance succeeded in enacting several measures to benefit education, including establishing a Council on Public Higher Education, extending the school year to six "or more" months, and mandating school attendance until age sixteen. Additional revenue was generated by increasing the tax on whiskey from 2 cents to 5 cents per gallon. Laffoon's bipartisan alliance also passed a governmental reorganization bill that reduced the number of state commissions and departments from 69 to 24, cutting several jobs from the state payroll. The real target of the bill, however, was Laffoon's political enemies. The bill curbed the powers of |
500_22 | the lieutenant governor and state auditor, both Laffoon opponents. The lieutenant governor was removed from his post as president of the Kentucky Senate. The bill also empowered the governor to remove any appointed state official. |
500_23 | Having neutralized opponents of the sales tax, Laffoon encouraged legislators to lower the state income and automobile taxes, which he believed would leave no alternative source of revenue except a sales tax. The General Assembly passed the requested cuts, and in July 1934, Laffoon called another special session to consider the sales tax. Pro-administration officials organized parades and demonstrations in favor of the tax. By contrast, a group of 100 unemployed men marched on Frankfort demanding financial relief. Some of them made death threats against Laffoon, and the Kentucky National Guard surrounded the governor's mansion to protect him. Although anti-sales-tax forces used parliamentary procedures that stalled a vote for weeks, a three percent sales tax was approved by the end of the session. The tax was derided in a children's chant that said "Hippity-hop to the toy shop to buy a red balloon. A penny for you, a penny for me, a penny for Ruby Laffoon." Following the special |
500_24 | session, Laffoon was admitted to a sanatorium, where he was treated for exhaustion. |
500_25 | Role in the 1935 gubernatorial race
As his term neared expiration, Laffoon removed Ben Johnson from his post as highway commissioner, replacing him with Tom Rhea. This move was made in order to groom Rhea to be the next governor. Due to the influence of Laffoon and Rhea, the Democratic Party again chose a nominating convention in lieu of a primary to choose their gubernatorial candidate. Because Laffoon supporters controlled the state Democratic Central Committee and most of the county political organizations, a convention would favor Laffoon's choice of gubernatorial nominee. The convention was scheduled for May 14, 1935 in Lexington. |
500_26 | On January 5, 1935, Laffoon traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with President Roosevelt. Although Laffoon said the purpose of his trip was to discuss further federal aid for Kentucky, his opponents maintained he had gone to explain the lack of a primary to the president. (Roosevelt had written a letter to the state Democratic Central Committee encouraging them to adopt a primary.) Due to Laffoon's absence from the state, Lieutenant Governor Chandler was left as acting governor under the provisions of the Kentucky Constitution. On February 6, Chandler issued a proclamation calling a special session of the legislature on February 8 to consider a bill requiring a primary election to select nominees for all state offices. Laffoon rushed back to the state, arriving in Ashland on February 7, and immediately issued a proclamation revoking Chandler's call. Franklin County legislator John Gatewood obtained an injunction against Laffoon's order, and pro-primary legislators gathered in |
500_27 | Frankfort on February 8. These members failed to achieve a quorum on February 8, 9, and 11. On February 11, six legislators sought a declaratory judgment to see if Laffoon's revocation was legal. The Franklin County Circuit Court upheld Chandler's call and invalidated Laffoon's revocation, and the Kentucky Court of Appeals, then the court of last resort in the state, upheld this decision by a 4–3 majority. |
500_28 | On February 13, the Kentucky House achieved a quorum, and the Senate did so the following day. Having lost the battle against the special session, Laffoon proposed a primary with a run-off if no candidate received a majority on the first ballot. Some, including Chandler, believed this action was aimed against former governor and senator J. C. W. Beckham, who Laffoon believed would challenge Rhea for the Democratic nomination. They believed that a double primary would be too much for the aging Beckham to endure. Supporters of a single primary found they did not have the votes in the legislature to pass it, so they agreed to a double primary, which Laffoon signed into law on February 27, 1935. |
500_29 | Seven candidates declared their candidacy for the Democratic nomination, including Rhea and Lieutenant Governor Chandler. Former governor Beckham was not a candidate; his only son had died in late 1934, devastating his family and leaving his wife strongly opposed to another political campaign. Near the end of the primary campaign, Laffoon suffered an attack of appendicitis and required an appendectomy, leaving him unable to campaign for Rhea. Two candidates dropped out of the race prior to the election. |
500_30 | On the day of the primary, Adjutant General Denhardt took National Guard troops into Harlan County, which was known for its history of election violence. The troops questioned voters, examined ballot boxes, and made several arrests. These actions were in direct violation of a restraining order issued by circuit court judge James M. Gilbert, but Denhardt claimed to be acting on orders from Laffoon. Denhardt later reported that "We stopped the most stupendous, well-planned election steal ever attempted in Kentucky. Chandler would have gotten 15,000 votes had we not been here." Denhardt was later arrested and charged with contempt of court for violating the restraining order. |
500_31 | In the primary, Rhea achieved a plurality of the votes, but not a majority. Chandler had the next highest vote total, and the two faced each other in a run-off on September 7, 1935. In the run-off, Chandler defeated Rhea, securing the nomination for governor. President Roosevelt, not wanting Democratic factionalism to cost him votes in the 1936 presidential election, attempted to bring together the Laffoon and Chandler factions, but to little avail. Laffoon and Rhea, along with most of Laffoon's administration, bolted the party and supported Republican nominee King Swope. Despite losing the support of his predecessor, Chandler went on to win the general election. In his last days in office, Laffoon issued pardons for Denhardt and others charged in connection with the National Guard's interference with the primary in Harlan County. These were among a record 560 pardons issued by Laffoon, most of which were to relieve prison crowding. |
500_32 | Later life
During his gubernatorial campaign, Laffoon had promised not to seek higher office if elected governor. Term-limited by the state constitution, he returned to private life following his four years in office. On the day of Chandler's inauguration, Laffoon said "I'm going to Madisonville right after the inauguration, and I hope to get some clients at my law office by Wednesday morning."
Shortly after Chandler's inauguration, attorney general Beverly M. Vincent opined that Kentucky Colonel commissions expired at the end of the commissioning governor's term. Laffoon vigorously defended the commissions he had issued and those issued by his predecessors. On April 27, 1936, when both Governor Chandler and Lieutenant Governor Keen Johnson attended a baseball game in Cincinnati, President Pro Tem of the Senate James Eugene Wise was left as acting governor and recommissioned all 17,000 existing colonels. |
500_33 | Laffoon was a member of the Democratic National Committee in 1936, but decided not to attend the national convention. He chose Urey Woodson to serve as his proxy, but Woodson declined to attend as well and turned the proxy over to Fred M. Vinson. Laffoon also backed Senator M. M. Logan's re-election bid in 1936. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1940, and despite his differences with President Roosevelt during his gubernatorial term, he supported Roosevelt's re-election.
Defying a doctor's order not to work for two weeks due to high blood pressure, Laffoon presided for three days as a special judge in the Union County Circuit Court in February 1941. On February 17, 1941, he returned home early from his law office due to a bout of dizziness. It was reported that he had suffered a stroke, and after a mild improvement, his condition worsened again and he died on March 1, 1941, at 2:50 am. He was buried in Grapevine Cemetery in Madisonville.
References |
500_34 | Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Political Graveyard: Ruby Laffoon
1869 births
1941 deaths
American Disciples of Christ
Governors of Kentucky
Kentucky Democrats
Kentucky lawyers
Kentucky state court judges
People from Madisonville, Kentucky
Washington and Lee University School of Law alumni
George Washington University alumni
Democratic Party state governors of the United States
20th-century American politicians |
501_0 | is a shōjo manga by Miyoshi Tomori first serialized in Biweekly Margaret and licensed by Viz Media. |
501_1 | Plot
Maria Kawai transfers to Totsuka High School after being expelled from her previous school St. Katria - a catholic school for girls. Upon entering the classroom and hearing the students gossip, she bluntly states that the reason for her expulsion was an act of violence on her teacher.
The sharp tongue and frank nature hidden under her pretty face immediately makes Maria an outcast among her classmates. After all, she was told that she "taints others." She's like a mirror that reflects people's real characters. |
501_2 | Nevertheless, Maria hopes for a fresh start. She manages to become close with two of her classmates after they hear her beautiful singing (the song is Amazing Grace and Maria often sings it in the manga). One is Yusuke Kanda, who's kind and friendly to everyone on the outside, but inside isn't that way at all. He teaches her a "lovely spin" which should help her get along with others better, but it just makes her seem even more intimidating. Maria, apparently, isn't a "lovely spin" kind of a girl. The other is Shin Meguro. He is tall, dark-haired and always frowning. Coming from a family of musicians, he knew right away which song Maria was singing. Meguro is a returnee but Maria points out that because he lacks communication skills he doesn't really know how to speak English. Throughout the year Maria faces many problems, mainly relating to getting along with others but soon resolves it with the constant help of her friends and bluntness. |
501_3 | Characters
Maria Kawai |
501_4 | The protagonist of the story, Maria has a cold personality which estranges herself from her classmates. She says what she wants, albeit too bluntly and harsh, even when she intends to help others. Her arrogant facade and point blank statements are the reasons she is hated by most people and it seems she too is indifferent towards them. Emphasized throughout the manga, Maria also is shown to have the ability to see the true natures of people around her, or—more simply—their flaws. Although she maintains this air of superiority, she actually yearns for acceptance and friendship. Even when knowing the unpleasant outcomes, she often steps into troublesome situations just to prove herself to others. Everyone thinks that she is a devil but they don't know that they're the devils. She gives special regard to Kanda Yusuke but exhibits much stronger feelings for Meguro Shin, stating that she feels Shin is much closer to her than God and she is much more afraid of being hated by him. Later she |
501_5 | realizes she is in love with him. She likes nursery rhymes and hymns like "Amazing Grace." She apparently got expelled because of "punching the teacher/nun," but it has not been explained in detail, though it was revealed that the cross she always wears is from that teacher/nun. She has a habit of pushing out her lips and having her eyes half open when someone says something that annoys her. |
501_6 | Shin Meguro |
501_7 | Shin dislikes drawing attention to himself and prefers to observe situations. He is often cold and aloof towards his classmates, and Yusuke's constant pestering irritates him. At first, he treated Maria with disdain, appearing to want nothing to do with her, but circumstances proved otherwise and he seems to actually care greatly for her. He pretends to be "rude" to Maria thinking that his actions would somehow lead the other girls to sympathize with her. In Chapter 4, he scooped up Maria in the middle of the class and declared that he would take her to a hospital because of her sprained ankle, making a scene as they leave. Then, he secretly bought Maria a pair of flashy shoes (apart from the ballet shoes he already bought for her) even after earlier commenting that they looked stupid. Despite claiming that he does not want anything to do with her, he finds himself falling in love with Maria, but there is no way that he'd let the "devil" discover his feelings. It is later revealed his |
501_8 | "loner" persona comes from an incident when he was a kid where he "choked" during his large piano debut making the media destroy his image. In chapter 23, Meguro insists he will stand by Kawai Maria's side no matter what happens. |
501_9 | Yusuke Kanda
Yusuke is a bubbly and cheerful person, who is popular with the girls and generally well-liked. Much to Shin's chagrin, Yusuke always has an idiotic grin pasted on his face. Initially, he develops a liking for Maria as she is very beautiful and has an intriguing personality. He is the first student to approach her and constantly pops up wherever she is. While he is extremely fond of her, it is not yet revealed if it is more than admiration. It seems as if he knows that Meguro likes Maria, because in chapter 11 he calls Meguro out and tells him that if he doesn't step up he might "steal Maria away". Yusuke taught Maria the "lovely transform". He calls Shin "Megu-chin" and Maria, "Maria-chi". His face forms a comical style with thick dark outlined eyes and a w-shaped smiled when someone (mainly Kawai) is blatantly against one of his ideas. He also confessed his love to Maria later in the series.
Teacher |
501_10 | He is their homeroom teacher and usually is shown to have no real care for his job or his students. He often uses Kawai as a scapegoat when something goes wrong, even when confronted by Yusuke of these ways he just smiled and accused Yuske of standing up for her because he was in love with Kawai. He always tries to find a way to get Kawai expelled, even giving a necklace he confiscated from Kawai to Hana in hopes that she would attack her to get it back. He showed his lowest point where he poured ink all over Kawai, and when he arrived in the room stated she ran away. Once she enters still drenched in ink, he goes off accusing the students as they had a grudge against her, even going as far as to accuse that Kawai did it herself to gain sympathy, where it wasn't till after all that did he admit it was him and he spilled it on "accident", though would only publicly state that if she announced she had reformed thanks to "her loving teacher's guidance".
Hana Ibuki |
501_11 | A sickly girl who arrives later in the manga because she has been hospitalized since before the start. She appears to be Kawai's opposite in every way as she is cheerful and popular. When she first returned to school, she noticed the necklace the teacher took from Kawai which he then gives her (seemingly as a way to get Kawai expelled in hopes she would attack Hana to get it back), however, she instead tries to befriend Kawai which goes well. Until she discovers that Yusuke confessed to Kawai, as she has feelings for Yusuke and even asked earlier if Kawai had feelings for him, which she denied but believes she is lying. Because of her outbursts, Kawai believes that she is only doing this because she likes the attention. Which maybe true as with anything that happens she is prone to emotional outbursts that get the rest of the classes attention in the matter, shown where Kawai causally pointed out that the cross was missing from the necklace, only for her to have an emotional outburst |
501_12 | about it being missing. At the end of chapter 17 it appears that Hana is losing her sanity, smiling evilly with a blank look in her eyes. Later she conspires with the classmates against Kawai to have everyone hate her by setting her up with vicious comments about the other students in her bag, however this seems to quickly falls apart when Shin points out that she says what she feels without hesitation and wouldn't write that, as well as Kawai seeing through Hana's "help". However, later she sets Kawai up to make it look like she really did write it and ultimately suggests splitting up the group. In the end is stated to be the head of the group. This causes Kawai to show aggression for the first time, as she was truly dedicated to her role as the Choir Leader and correcting Hana when she thought that Kawai hated her, where she just didn't see her as a friend, calling her a Bad Friend. However, Hana finally shows her true colors and confirms that the teachers only set up Kawai as the |
501_13 | Leader as a way to promote the school. Hana makes a conspiracy against Kawai to make herself look good at the choir competition. Hana finds out that reporters are going to be there. She gets even madder when Kawai ruins her plan 'accidentally' and bursts with anger in front of the camera. The reporters realize that Hana and everyone are misunderstanding Kawai. |
501_14 | Tomoyo Kousaka |
501_15 | She is first introduced to us as Nippachi (apparently because she always gets a 28/100 in tests and is always grinning). Upon hearing this Maria stated that Tomoyo was looking down on the very girls that called her Nippachi. This aggravated those girls a lot, and shocked Tomoyo (indicating in a way that Maria was correct). Later, the other girls in the class made Tomoyo give an invitation to Maria for a fake welcome party for herself. The reality was that the girls in the class were going to make Tomoyo drink a lot of alcohol and then say that Maria made her do so. They supposed this would work because they already convinced Tomoyo to lie and say that Maria beat her up earlier. Upon receiving the invitation, Maria, who was already aware that no good would come to the party stated that “I think, no matter how much filth you show, I need to go”. Hearing this Tomoyo pushed Maria down the stairs, insisting that she was not filthy like Maria. Tomoyo ended up crying. Then Kanda Yuusuke |
501_16 | showed up at the party with Tomoyo. He smoothed out the whole situation. The next day, Tomoyo appeared in school with a cast around her legs and crutches. Then the other girls insisted that Maria pushed her, which was not true. The other girls in the class asked Maria to be Tomoyo's replacement; Maria abruptly refused, saying that she could not just go around smiling at everyone, and that she could only be herself. It was very soon after that the class discovered that the cast was fake. They then began to call Nippachi a liar, even though Nippachi insisted that she fell down the stairs that morning, which was later proven wrong. Tomoyo did not show up to school for the next week. This was later considered a problem, so the class and teacher told Maria to bring Tomoyo back to school. She and Kanda went to her house together. They spoke to her normally and then left. The following day, Maria went to Tomoyo's house before school and told her to come to school with her. At school, |
501_17 | Nippachi defended Maria and also put an end to the other students and the teacher calling her Nippachi. This begins the friendship between the two of them. |
501_18 | Ayu Nakamura
Ayu cares a lot about how she looks and takes a long time doing her makeup and hair in the morning. Because of her ego and jealousy over Maria's looks, she tries to make Maria look bad in front of the class. Maria's classmates, excluding Yuusuke and Shin, start to hate Kawai even more because of Ayu. But when Maria's words help Ayu confess her love to Yuusuke, she realizes Maria isn't too bad.
Anna Mouri |
501_19 | A former close friend of Maria's from St. Katria Girls School. The two girls became friends when Anna heard Maria singing Amazing Grace they became very close because Maria, even at her old school found it hard to relate to others so she had no other friends. Anna was a very cheerful girl and got along well with the other girls until she lost her voice in an accident. Maria being friends with her said she would be her voice for her. Slowly Maria noticed the space growing between them and one day Maria saw Anna form the words "you corrupt others" which soon ended the friendship. She and Maria meets again soon after Shin starts to take piano lessons again. |
501_20 | Manga
Completed with thirteen volumes published by Shueisha. Also licensed by Tong Li Publishing in Taiwan, Kana in France. Viz Media is releasing the series in print and digital formats.
References
Further reading
External links
A Devil and Her Love Song at Viz Media
2007 manga
Coming-of-age anime and manga
Romance anime and manga
Shōjo manga
Shueisha manga
Viz Media manga |
502_0 | Jak and Daxter is a video game franchise created by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin and owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The series was developed by Naughty Dog with a number of installments being outsourced to Ready at Dawn and High Impact Games. The first game, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, released on December 3, 2001, was one of the earliest titles for the PlayStation 2, and is regarded as a defining franchise for the console. |
502_1 | The games are story-based platformers that feature a mixture of action, racing and puzzle solving. The series is set in a fictional universe that incorporates science fantasy, steampunk, cyberpunk, and mystical elements, while centering on the eponymous characters as they try to uncover the secrets of their world, and unravel the mysteries left behind by an ancient race called the Precursors. The games are inspired by Eastern and Western culture, a decision made among the team members at Naughty Dog and related stakeholders while developing the first title. |
502_2 | The first three games in the series were re-released on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita as part of the remastered Jak and Daxter Collection that includes support for the PlayStation Network and the PlayStation Suite. The original three Jak and Daxter games, along with Jak X: Combat Racing, were released for the PlayStation 4 as Jak and Daxter Bundle in August 2017, alongside the release of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. In December that year, Jak II, Jak 3 and Jak X: Combat Racing were released. The series has also produced various forms of extended media and merchandise, and has sold over 12 million copies worldwide.
Games |
502_3 | Main installments
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy was first released in North America on December 3, 2001, for the PlayStation 2. After Daxter falls into a Dark Eco silo at the forbidden Misty Island, he is transformed from a human into an ottsel, a fictional hybrid of an otter and weasel. In a quest to return Daxter to human form, he and Jak set out to find the Dark Eco sage Gol Acheron. However, the duo find Acheron corrupted by Dark Eco, choosing to use the elusive Light Eco to defeat him and save the world at the cost of Daxter remaining in his ottsel form. A flash game was published online in 2001 to promote The Precursor Legacy. |
502_4 | Jak II was first released in North America on October 14, 2003, for the PlayStation 2. Its narrative takes place directly after the events of The Precursor Legacy. Jak, Daxter, Samos, and Keira are thrust into the industrious Haven City after using the rift gate, with Jak being imprisoned by the Krimzon Guard upon his arrival in the city. Jak is subjected to experiments with Dark Eco and is subsequently capable of using Dark Eco powers. With the help of Daxter, Jak escapes the prison and is now in search of vengeance against the Krimzon Guard. |
502_5 | Jak 3 was first released in North America on November 9, 2004, for the PlayStation 2. After being blamed by the residents of Haven City for its destruction, Jak and Daxter are exiled to the Wasteland by Count Veger. Ashelin gives Jak a beacon in hopes that he'll be tracked down, with Damas, the king of nearby Spargus, rescuing him. In exchange, Jak and Daxter must now prove their worth to Damas and the city or risk being banished and thrown back into the desert.
Other games
Jak X: Combat Racing was first released in North America on October 18, 2005, for the PlayStation 2. Its narrative takes place following the events of Jak 3, with Jak and his allies inadvertently being poisoned while attending the reading of Krew's last will. Jak and his allies must partake and win the Kras City Grand Championship, a championship of the fictional sport of "combat racing", in Krew's name in order to obtain an antidote for the poison. |
502_6 | Daxter was first released in North America on March 14, 2006, for the PlayStation Portable. The game primarily focuses on Daxter, taking place during the two year gap introduced in the opening of Jak II. Daxter is now employed as a pest exterminator by the Kridder Ridder company, in which he works to mitigate the incoming metal bug invasion. Alongside this work, Daxter is on a quest to find and free Jak from his imprisonment by the Krimzon Guard.
Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier was first released in North America on November 3, 2009, for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. Its narrative takes place an undisclosed amount of time after the events of the original trilogy. When their world begins to run low on Eco, Jak, Daxter, and Keira travel to the Brink, the edge of the world, in search of ancient Precursor machinery that can reverse this decline of Eco. |
502_7 | Collections and remasters
Jak and Daxter Collection was first released in North America on February 7, 2012, for the PlayStation 3—the franchise's first appearance on the platform. It is a remastered port of the original trilogy—Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Jak II, and Jak 3. The games were ported by Mass Media Games and feature 720p graphics at 60 frames per second and trophies. Mass Media Games later ported the collection to the PlayStation Vita and it was released in June 2013—the franchise's only appearance on this platform. |
502_8 | Jak and Daxter Bundle was first released in North America on December 7, 2017, for the PlayStation 4—the franchise's first appearance on the platform. The bundle features emulations of Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Jak II, Jak 3, and Jak X: Combat Racing, in addition to retaining trophy support. Prior to the release of the bundle, The Precursor Legacy was released on the PlayStation 4 as a pre-order bonus for Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. Between 2019 and 2020, Limited Run Games released a limited amount of physical copies of both standard and collector's editions of the games. |
502_9 | Gameplay |
502_10 | The series consists of four single-player-only games, and two that include multiplayer. The series is primarily a story-based platformer presented in the third-person perspective. The player can explore a multitude of different areas in an open world environment and can perform several melee attacks. A substance called Eco can also be manipulated to enhance the player's abilities, with differently-colored Eco having different effects. Red Eco enhances the damage dealt and yields one impervious to damage from Dark Eco crates. Blue Eco allows the player to move faster, jump slightly higher, move slightly farther using attacks, attract Green Eco and Precursor orbs, and operate certain color coded machines. Green Eco is used to restore health, while Yellow Eco allows the player to shoot fire from the character's hands, which can be done “from the hip,” or using a scope. A hover bike called a "Zoomer" and a large bird known as a "Flut-Flut" are also available for transportation and to gain |
502_11 | access to hard-to-reach places. “Flut-Flut” also has the ability to attack. Power Cells and Precursor Orbs are required to advance the story in The Precursor Legacy, while completing story-related missions and collecting Precursor Orbs unlocks new locations and allows the player to unlock certain “Secrets” in all subsequent entries. |
502_12 | Shooting elements are briefly introduced in The Precursor Legacy, becoming fully implemented in Jak II. Jak II features customizable weapons and other varied forms of combat, expanding upon features present in The Precursor Legacy. For example, Jak has many different gun mods. Each one is a certain color, either Red, Blue, Yellow, or Dark. Red gun mods make the gun similar to a shotgun. Blue lets it fire as a machine gun. Yellow mods are for long-range shooting, and Dark mods are for utmost power. Daxter is also a playable character and features in several Crash Bandicoot-esque missions. Dark Eco powers also become available, which is countered by the introduction of Light Eco powers in Jak 3. Guns can be upgraded twice through accomplishing certain story missions, and several abilities to use in both Light and Dark Jak forms are unlocked as well. Driving becomes a core ingredient and is further expanded upon in Jak 3. In The Lost Frontier aerial combat is integrated into the series. |
502_13 | Precursor orbs can be collected in each game to unlock cheats. |
502_14 | Jak X deviates from the series' more traditional style of gameplay, adapting into the racing genre, and is based on the driving mechanics developed for Jak 3. Several extras can be unlocked for Jak X and Daxter by linking up the save files from the two respective games, and several player skins can be unlocked if the player has save files from The Precursor Legacy, Jak II, Jak 3 and Insomniac Games' Ratchet: Deadlocked.
With the exception of The Precursor Legacy, each installment offers "Hero Mode", which allows a player to replay the game at a higher level of difficulty with all or most of their previous acquisitions. This mode, in addition to other bonus content, can be unlocked by finishing the game and purchasing said content in the secrets menu with Precursor Orbs.
Development |
502_15 | Main series |
502_16 | Naughty Dog began work on a new game shortly after the release of the sixth generation of consoles. Only two programmers were originally allocated to the project, as the rest of the department was still developing Crash Team Racing. They began by building a new graphics engine that would be capable of rendering a seamlessly connected, open world environment. They then developed a fully articulated character to examine the engine's efficiency, before presenting the idea to Sony Computer Entertainment following the completion of Crash Team Racing. The aim of their new title was to break away from the linear approach taken in the Crash Bandicoot series, with minimal story and character development, and individually loaded levels. In a behind-the-scenes special by Naughty Dog it was revealed that a new blend animation had been utilised for the game, allowing for a smoother frame rate and animation process. The engine for Jak and Daxter was created from the ground up specifically for the |
502_17 | game. Unusually for most games, Naughty Dog invented a new programming language, GOAL, which was only ever used for the Jak and Daxter series. |
502_18 | Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy was revealed at E3 in June 2001. The game had a budget of $14 million and a development cycle that lasted nearly three years. At that time, they managed to create a fully interactive world and conceived a narrative that would allow for more meaningful character development. The two central characters also went through a rigid design process that took inspiration from both Manga and Disney animation. They had initially planned on introducing a third character who would evolve as the game progressed in a Tamogotchi-style fashion. However, this idea
was scrapped as it led to several unnecessary complications. The game's soundtrack was recorded at Mutato Muzika Studios, and was produced by Mark Mothersbaugh with Josh Mancell composing the score.
Side games |
502_19 | PlayStation Portable |
502_20 | Following the release of the PlayStation Portable, Naughty Dog took interest in developing a new Jak and Daxter title for the system. Producer Sam Thompson helmed the production of the game, while Neil Druckmann was responsible for much of the design. The team ultimately produced a tech demo, and had plans to allow players the ability to "create your own airships and cobble together all these things with these different stat bonuses and actually have meaningful engagements in the air". However, Evan Wells revealed that they were unable to sustain the game's development alongside Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and made the decision to pass the project onto High Impact Games, ultimately being fleshed out as Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier. Following the lackluster success of the game, Thompson expressed the company's disappointment with the execution of The Lost Frontier, commenting "I'm not happy with that being Jak's swan song. I think we could have done a lot better". |
502_21 | Common elements
Setting |
502_22 | Jak and Daxter is set in a fictional universe. The first game takes place in a world brimming with various natural environments that are encompassed by village settlements, and ancient Precursor ruins and elements can be found riddled throughout the landscape. An elemental substance called Eco is prominent throughout the game and is considered the world's life source. Eco comes in several forms, Red Eco, Blue Eco, Yellow Eco, Green Eco, Light Eco and Dark Eco, each with different prospective effects. Subsequent entries/games are set in a future setting that has witnessed large advancements in both society and technology, mainly taking place in cities and other larger settlements and affecting both hand-to-hand combat and available weaponry. Beyond cities in subsequent games lies natural environments with many platforming segments, akin to the first game. Overall, there are many distinct and differing environments available to discover and explore. All three main titles take place in |
502_23 | an open world with no little to no load times - a goal emphasized heavily since the first game. |
502_24 | Characters
The Jak and Daxter universe is populated primarily by a humanoid elfish species. Jak is the main protagonist of the series, and is playable in every game with the exception of Daxter. In The Precursor Legacy, he accidentally turned Daxter from a human into an ottsel (a fictional hybrid of an otter and weasel) after accidentally bumping him into a reservoir of Dark Eco and sets out on a quest in attempts to undo the transformation. In Jak II, he is infused with Dark Eco due to experimentations performed by Baron Praxis, and in Jak 3 he is blessed with Light Eco by the Precursors. Both Light and Dark Eco abilities are expanded upon during the course of the story in “Jak 3.” In Jak X, he is forced to race in the Kras City Grand Championship in order to save his life. He later travels to The Brink to investigate the Eco shortage that is ravaging his world in The Lost Frontier. |
502_25 | Daxter is Jak's sidekick, and is often found getting into trouble. Daxter was once a human but fell into a pit of Dark Eco in the opening cutscene of the first game in the series, which mutated him into an ottsel. He rescues Jak at the beginning of Jak II, and becomes playable intermittently for the first time in the series. In Jak 3 his role is expanded, and he gets a pair of pants as a reward for his efforts as an ongoing gag in the game. In Daxter, he details his adventures in the two-year time span before he managed to break Jak out of prison. In Jak X, he accompanies Jak and his friends to Kras City, and assists them as they compete in the Kras City Grand Championship. He later travels with Jak and Keira to The Brink in The Lost Frontier. |
502_26 | Music
Five Jak and Daxter soundtracks have been commercially released and have featured several composers, including Mark Mothersbaugh, Josh Mancell, Larry Hopkins, Billy Howerdel, and James Dooley. The compositions were inspired by world music, with Mancell commenting that he intended "to create something other than an expected orchestral flavoured fantasy soundtrack. I ended up using a lot of non-Western instruments and traditional, Western orchestral instruments such as the French Horn and Cello. Additionally, I feel the Jak games have both an ancient and futuristic vibe about them - I wanted the music to evoke both qualities.” The soundtracks for Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Jak II, Jak 3, and Jak X: Combat Racing were all commercially released in 2019 by Limited Run Games as part of the Collector's Edition of each respective game.
On November 2, 2009, Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier Original Soundtrack was released on the iTunes Store by SIE.
Critical reception |
502_27 | With physical and digital copies combined, the Jak and Daxter franchise has sold over 15 million games worldwide (as of April 2017). Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy received critical acclaim from several reviewers as compiled by review aggregator Metacritic, with the game having the highest score in the franchise at 90/100. Jak II, Jak 3, Daxter, and Jak and Daxter Collection (PS3) all received generally favorable reception, while Jak X: Combat Racing only received mixed reception. The Lost Frontier also only had mixed reception and, not including the PlayStation Vita port of Jak and Daxter Collection, it has the lowest score in the series from Metacritic (71/100). |
502_28 | The series has received critical acclaim for its innovation in the platform genre. The series holds seven records in the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition, 2008, with The Precursor Legacy holding a record for including the First Seamless 3D World in a Console Game. Jack DeVries of IGN referred to the series as "the best action platformers of [that] generation," praising the "huge worlds, memorable characters, action packed stories, and great gameplay". Jeffrey Matulef of Eurogamer stated that "the Jak and Daxter series may not be as solid a platformer as Sly Cooper and its gunplay isn't as refined as Ratchet & Clank's – but in terms of ambition, invention and grandiosity, it remains leagues above its last-gen platforming brethren". |
502_29 | The series has also received praise for its diverse gameplay styles. Matt Helgeson of Game Informer noted that the "series was driven by a restless sense of innovation," praising "Naughty Dog's work in this franchise [for creating] great characters, finely tuned gameplay, and a unceasing inventiveness". Helgeson also declared that the Jak games "stand up as epic adventures". Matulef further stated that "the Jak and Daxter series remains a fascinating document of the evolution of the action adventure; its heroes are unstuck in time, without a genre to call home. No series has been so willing to switch gameplay styles with such reckless abandon, and The Jak and Daxter Trilogy represents a shining example of what happens when a capable developer takes a huge risk." GameSpot stated that the franchise's "tight execution and heavy action elements ensure that things never become dull," adding that the franchise "manages to provide a rewarding gameplay experience that shouldn't be missed". |
502_30 | Merchandise
Naughty Dog have released various forms of merchandise since the series' inception. These include strategy guides for each game, several forms of clothing and collectible figures. A limited edition Precursor orb was also released to celebrate the series' 10th anniversary. |
502_31 | Miscellaneous media
The Jak and Daxter series has been featured in a variety of other media.
In LittleBigPlanet, LittleBigPlanet 2 and LittleBigPlanet Karting, a Jak costume and a Daxter costume are available for Sackboy through bonus add-ons.
Jak and Daxter appeared as playable characters in the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita title PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.
In Ratchet: Deadlocked, Jak appears as an alternate skin for Ratchet.
In Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, Daxter appears wearing a leopard loincloth as a museum treasure. Its description reads "The Lutrela Nivadensis is a rare hybrid species of the Carnivora family. It is known for its orange fur and loud mouth."
A "Strange Relic" can be discovered in multiple games in the Uncharted series, another game series developed by Naughty Dog. It is a copy of the Precursor Orbs found in the Jak and Daxter universe, and when translated reads "NaughtyDog, Madman." |
502_32 | Jak appears alongside Ratchet as a playable character in Hot Shots Golf Fore! and Daxter acts as a golf caddy.
Jak and Daxter appear on posters in various games in the Ratchet & Clank universe.
Jak and Daxter appear in several background cameos in Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando.
Daxter is referenced in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, with "Ottsel" written across Nathan Drake's swimsuit, and a picture of Daxter's face on the sleeve.
Daxter is featured as a free downloadable character in the PlayStation 3 game Pain.
In Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, a pair of Jak Goggles can be purchased from the PlayStation Store for use in multiplayer.
In The Last of Us, Jak and Daxter make several cameos in the form of easter eggs and unlockable outfits.
In The Order: 1886, Daxter appears in the form of an easter egg. The game is developed by Ready at Dawn.
In The Last of Us Part II, Jak and Daxter make several cameos in the form of easter eggs. |
502_33 | In Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Jak and Daxter as well as Precursor Orb can be brought into Ratchet and Clank's dimension by using the new RYNO 8 weapon. The dimension from which Jak and Daxter originate is named Dimension 31x7 according to a character named Mags. |
502_34 | Future
Evan Wells revealed that they had explored the idea of making a new game extensively before the development began on The Last of Us. Creative director Neil Druckmann later unveiled several illustrations for the abandoned game at a conference for The Last of Us. He explained that they had planned on making a reboot of the series and had spent a long time exploring various concepts.
In response to an alleged concept art leak in 2016, Naughty Dog's Director of Communication Arne Meyer stated that nothing was currently being worked on. Also, due to circumstances at Naughty Dog, Jak and Daxter has not yet been reconsidered, but is never off the table. |
502_35 | In 2019, Limited Run Games announced a commemorative mock case for the unreleased Jak and Daxter reboot, which was released in June 2020. The mock case uses the title Jak IV and features concept art from the scrapped reboot that was revealed in Naughty Dog's coffee table book, The Art of Naughty Dog. The case, in addition to a digital theme code, was given to consumers who purchased all four Jak and Daxter titles directly from the Limited Run Games website.
In February 2022, a Jak and Daxter film adaptation was revealed to be in development with Uncharted director Ruben Fleischer collaborating on the film with Naughty Dog.
References
Explanatory notes
Citations
Sony Interactive Entertainment franchises
Video games developed in the United States
Video game franchises
Fictional duos
Science fantasy video games
Post-apocalyptic video games
Video game franchises introduced in 2001
Video games set on fictional planets |
503_0 | Hrefna Sigurjónsdóttir (born 24 October 1950) is a biologist and a professor at the University of Iceland. |
503_1 | Professional career |
503_2 | Hrefna completed the national standard lower secondary school examination from Kvennaskólinn í Reykjavík (Reykjavik Women's Gymnasium) in 1966 and a matriculation examination from the Mathematics Department of Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík (Reykjavik Junior College) in the spring of 1970. She graduated from the University of Iceland (UI) with a BS (90e) in biology in the spring of 1973. Her final project was on the ecology of insects. A year later, she finished a graduate program from the same department (BS 120e), emphasising insects and other land arthropods. She investigated their abundance and distribution on the south side and top of Mt. Esja. She pursued studies in ecology at University College of North Wales, Bangor, (1975-1976) and completed a master's there. The research project was on competition for food between closely related freshwater flatworms. She worked under the supervision of Prof. T. Reynoldson. Hrefna started a doctoral programme in 1977 in the Zoology Department of |
503_3 | the University of Liverpool in England and completed it in 1980. Her supervisor there was Professor G.A. Parker who was a pioneer in evolutionary studies emphasising reproductive behaviour and evolution of differences between the sexes and had worked a great deal on the yellow dung fly. Hrefna's doctoral project was in this field, where the emphasis is to interpret animals' behaviour, in the light of ecology and evolution (behaviour ecology/sociobiology). The title of the dissertation is Evolutionary Aaspects of Sexual Dimorphism in Size: Studies on Dung Flies and Three Groups of Birds. She was the first woman in Iceland to complete a doctorate in animal ethology. After returning home, she completed teacher certification at the University of Iceland (1982). |
503_4 | During her years of study, she worked one summer at the Icelandic Fisheries Laboratories (1971). In 1973 and 1974 she assisted Prof. Arnþór Garðarson (UI) with research on the vegetation in the Þjórsá River Wetlands. In the summers of 1975 and 1977, she worked for Prof. Agnar Ingólfsson (UI) doing research on the distribution of coastal invertebrates in Iceland. She assisted with practical teaching in ecology and zoology with her studies in winter 1974–1975. After finishing her doctoral programme, she taught part-time at the Biology Department of the University of Iceland and Hamrahlíð Junior College (two years). In the fall of 1982, she was hired as assistant professor in biology at Iceland University of Education (KHI) and was promoted to associate professor in 1987 and then to professor in 1999. With the merger of Iceland University of Education and the University of Iceland in 2008, she became professor at UI's School of Education. Her students at the School of Education have |
503_5 | been pre-service teachers selecting biology/natural science as their major and in-service teachers who have been doing continuing education courses in biology, environmental education and outdoor education. At the University of Iceland, she was the principal teacher in ethology (animal behaviour) first in spring 1981 and then, usually, every other year – last in 2018. She has supervised students (Icelandic and French) in master's studies in ethology, in addition to many teacher education students in their final projects for B.Ed. and M.Ed. degrees. She has also taught a course on the ethology of horses at Hólar University College, Iceland (2011-2013). |
503_6 | Research
Hrefna's research in biology has focused on ethology (behavioural ecology). For example, she has worked on the reproductive behaviour of dung flies and arctic char. Since 1996, she has worked with many experts and students on the (social) behaviour of the Icelandic horse, focusing on dominance orders, what determines an individual horse's positioning, and friendship patterns, how their behaviour (aggression, mutual grooming) is affected by group composition in pastures, their behaviour and time budget in the wintertime and with French colleagues on the natural weaning of foals. Her research has received support from the Icelandic Centre for Research, UI's Research Fund and other parties. In addition, the research has been presented at many conferences and meetings in many parts of the world and published in peer reviewed journals. |
503_7 | Hrefna has participated in studies in natural science education, given talks, written articles and chapters in books on educational theory on biology and environmental education, written course materials for elementary schools in zoology and made a film on the reproductive behaviour of arctic char in Lake Thingvallavatn, along with Karl Gunnarsson. She belonged to a workgroup of the National Centre for Educational Materials and was for a long time a counsellor at the centre regarding translations and the selection of course materials in biology. |
503_8 | Other work and projects |
503_9 | Hrefna has been trusted to serve in various committees where full confidence is needed at the University of Iceland and outside it. She was the first woman member of the Student Council's Board of Directors 1973–1974. At KHI, for example, she was a department chair, a member of the School Council, semester manager, member of the Continuing Education's Faculty Council, and chair of the selection committee. After merger of the Universities, she was a member of the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Teachers. She was the chair of the Electives Division and is now the School of Education's representative on UI's Promotion Committee. She was on the selection committee of the Agricultural University of Iceland in Hvanneyri and was appointed to the selection committee for the Knowledge Centre in the Faroe Islands. She has been a member of the professional group of natural and environmental sciences for The Icelandic Centre for Research. She sat on the Professional Council of Hagþenkir, |
503_10 | Association of Non-fiction Writers, for several years, and on the Allocation Committee of the Board of Directors of the Association of Self-employed Scholars. She was a member of the Board of Directors of KHI's Teachers Association and a confidante for six years and on the Board of Directors of the Professors Association in Iceland and its representative to a consultants group for a wages committee for many years. |
503_11 | Hrefna has been a member on the boards of directors of professional associations and interest associations in the fields of biology and conservation. She sat on the Board of Directors of the Biology Association of Iceland and was on the editorial board of Náttúrufræðingur (Natural Scientist) for the Icelandic Natural History Association (HÍN = NHA) for 28 years. She was twice a member of the Board of Directors of Landvernd, Icelandic Environment Association (7 years). She was on the Board of Directors of the Southwest Iceland Nature Conservation Association (4 years). She chaired the Board of Directors of Reykjanesfólkvangur (outdoor recreational area) and is now a member of NHA's Board of Directors for the second time. |
503_12 | Childhood and personal life
Hrefna grew up in Reykjavik but always spent her summers in the countryside as a child and youth. Parents: Sigurjón Sigurðsson, banker (b. 1920, d. 2013), and Björg Ólafsdóttir (b. 1921). Her husband is Sigurður Sveinn Snorrason, professor in biology at the University of Iceland. They have two children, Björg and Snorri.
Main written works |
503_13 | Articles
Sigurjónsdóttir, H and G.A. Parker. 1981. Dung fly struggles: evidence for assessment strategy. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 8: 219–230.
Sigurjónsdóttir, H. and Gunnarsson, K. 1989. Alternative mating tactics of arctic charr, Salvelinus alpinus, in Thingvallavatn, Iceland. Environmental Biology of Fishes 26: 159–176.
Hrefna Sigurjónsdóttir, M. van Dierendonck, Anna G. Þórhallsdóttir and Sigurður Snorrason. 2003. Social relationships in a group of horses without a mature stallion. Behaviour, 140: 783–804.
Hrefna Sigurjónsdóttir and Hans Haraldsson. (2019). Significance of Group Composition for the Welfare of Pastured Horses. Animals, 9, 14.
Hrefna Sigurjónsdóttir og Sandra M. Granquist. (2019). Hátterni hesta í haga - Rannsóknir á félagshegðun. Náttúrufræðingurinn 89 (3-4) bl. 78–97, 2019.
Henry, S.; Sigurjónsdóttir, H.; Klapper, A.; Joubert, J.; Montier, G.; Hausberger, M. Domestic Foal Weaning: Need for Re-Thinking Breeding Practices? Animals 2020, 10, 361. |
503_14 | Books
Agnar Ingólfsson, Eggert Pétursson, Hrefna Sigurjónsdóttir og Karl Gunnarsson. 1986. Fjörulíf. Fræðslurit Ferðafélags Íslands nr.2, 116 bls. Ferðafélag Íslands. Reykjavík.
Curriculum material
Komdu að skoða hvað dýrin gera. Co-author: Sólrún Harðardóttir.
Greiningarlyklar fyrir smádýr. Co-author: Snorri Sigurðsson.
Æxlunarhegðun bleikju í Þingvallavatni – educational film. Co-author: Karl Gunnarsson.
Æxlunarhegðun bleikju í Þingvallavatni – teaching instructions with a video.
References
Living people
1950 births
Hrefna Sigurjónsdóttir
Hrefna Sigurjónsdóttir
Hrefna Sigurjónsdóttir
Hrefna Sigurjónsdóttir
Hrefna Sigurjónsdóttir
Hrefna Sigurjónsdóttir |
504_0 | DePatie–Freleng Enterprises (also known as Mirisch–Geoffrey–DePatie–Freleng Productions when involved with the Mirisch brothers and Geoffrey Productions; and DFE Films) was an American animation production company that was active from 1963 to 1981. Based in Burbank, DFE produced animation for film and television.
Notable among these are the opening titles for The Pink Panther, its sequels and an associated series of theatrical shorts featuring the character of the same name, entries in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series from 1964 to 1967, the Dr. Seuss television specials from 1971 to 1982, the lightsaber effects in the original Star Wars, and the Time for Timer ABC public service announcements in the early 1970s.
History |
504_1 | Origins
DFE was formed by two former employees at Warner Bros. Cartoons, director/composer/producer Friz Freleng and executive David H. DePatie, after Warner Bros. closed its animation studio in 1963. Although Freleng and DePatie were no longer working for Warner Bros., a generous gesture from a Warner executive allowed Freleng and DePatie to lease the former Warner cartoons studio on California Street in Burbank, complete with equipment and supplies for a few dollars each year. Although DFE's initial business was commercials and industrial films, several lucky breaks put the new studio into the theatrical cartoon business. |
504_2 | Director Blake Edwards contacted DFE and asked them to design a panther character for Edwards's new film, The Pink Panther. Pleased with the design for the character, Edwards contracted with DFE to produce the animated titles for the film. Upon the film's release, the titles garnered a tremendous amount of attention, so much that a large amount of the picture's gross is believed to have been generated by the success of DFE's title sequence.
DFE soon agreed to a contract with United Artists to produce a series of cartoon shorts featuring the Pink Panther, which would include over 100 shorts for both theatrical release and television through 1980. Also in 1964, Freleng and DePatie's old employer, Warner Bros., contracted with DFE to produce new Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons for television. |
504_3 | DePatie and Freleng found themselves overflowing with work. Many of the animators who had worked at Warner Bros. in the 1950s and 1960s returned to the old Warner cartoon studio to work for DFE. The first entry in the Pink Panther series, The Pink Phink, was directed by Freleng and won the studio its only Academy Award in 1964. In 1966, DFE would receive another Academy Award nomination for The Pink Blueprint.
The Pink Panther and other television series
The Pink Panther theatrical series of cartoons became the basis of a Saturday morning television series, The Pink Panther Show, which also included theatrical cartoons of The Inspector and eventually The Ant and the Aardvark, Roland and Rattfink, and The Texas Toads (Tijuana Toads). Like most animated television cartoons at the time, The Pink Panther Show contained a laugh track with narration. The cartoons were edited and in some cases re-dubbed to meet television standards and practices for content. |
504_4 | The Pink Panther Show had several incarnations during the 1970s. The show was very popular on NBC's Saturday morning line-up, starting as a half-hour program and expanding a few years later to 90 minutes each week. The studio provided the animated sequences for the 1969–1970 television series My World and Welcome to It based on the drawings of James Thurber. DFE was one of the subcontractors for the 1964–1967 Warner Bros. cartoons, along with Format Productions. |
504_5 | The Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies shorts made by the studio can be easily identified by their modernized "Abstract WB" opening and closing sequences (although the "Abstract WB" opening and closing sequences were first used in three cartoons made by Warner Bros. Cartoons). However, select 1964–1967 DePatie–Freleng Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies (most notably those directed by Rudy Larriva) were panned by fans and critics alike. DFE did not continue doing Warner cartoon work until the late 1970s/early 1980s, with the TV specials Bugs Bunny's Easter Special (1977), Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales (1979), and Daffy Duck's Easter Egg-Citement (1980). |
504_6 | DFE also created Return to the Planet of the Apes, which ran on NBC from 1975 to 1976 and The Oddball Couple, which ran on Saturday mornings on ABC from 1975 to 1977. One of the studio's television specials was The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas (1973), with Tommy Smothers voicing the little bear who goes out to find Christmas (in the human world) while his fellow bears head for hibernation. DFE was also responsible for a number of Dr. Seuss specials, including The Cat In The Hat and different incarnations of The Grinch. |
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