Butch (animated character)

Not to be confused with the cat cartoon characters from Tom and Jerry which also has the same name.
Butch
MGM Cartoons character
Butch in the cartoon Grin and Share It (1957)
First appearanceBad Luck Blackie (early version)
January 22, 1949
Wags to Riches (official version)
August 13, 1949
Created byTex Avery
Designed byLouie Schmitt
Voiced byTex Avery (1949–1952, 1956–1957)[1]
William Hanna (1949–1950, 1952, 1955–1956)[1]
Sara Berner (1949–1950, 1952, 1956)[1]
Daws Butler (1950–1951, 1957)[1]
Bill Thompson (1951, 1957–1958)[1]
Carlos Julio Ramírez (1952)[1]
Frank Ross (1952)[1]
Mary Kaye (1952)[1]
Paul Frees (1952, 1955)[1]
Norman Kaye (1952)[1]
Jeff Bergman (2000, 2010)[2][3]
Jim Cummings (2002)[3]
Joe Alaskey (2011–2016)[3]
Bill Farmer (2019–present)
In-universe information
AliasSpike
Poochini
SpeciesDog (Bulldog)
GenderMale

Butch (formerly known as Spike) is an animated cartoon character created by Tex Avery. Portrayed as an anthropomorphic Irish bulldog, the character was a recurring antagonist in the Droopy shorts, and appeared in his own series of solo shorts as well. His name was changed to Butch in 1955's Deputy Droopy to avoid confusion with Spike from the Tom and Jerry cartoons. All of the original 1940s and 1950s shorts were directed by Avery and Michael Lah at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio.[4] Butch would not appear in new material again until Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring in 2002.

Butch solo cartoons

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Title Release Date Notes
Bad Luck Blackie January 22, 1949 Butch's debut.
The Counterfeit Cat December 24, 1949
Ventriloquist Cat May 27, 1950
Garden Gopher September 30, 1950
Cock-a-Doodle Dog February 10, 1951
Magical Maestro February 9, 1952 Named as Poochini.
Rock-a-Bye Bear July 12, 1952
Cellbound November 25, 1955
Cat's Meow January 25, 1957 The final Butch cartoon; a remake of Ventriloquist Cat directed by Tex Avery and produced by Hanna and Barbera with different coloring for the cat, the dog, and some of the scenery.[4]

Appearances in Droopy cartoons

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  • Wags to Riches (1949) – Academy Award shortlist; first time Spike appears as Droopy's rival.
  • The Chump Champ (1950)
  • Daredevil Droopy (1951)
  • Droopy's Good Deed (1951)
  • Droopy's Double Trouble (1951)
  • Deputy Droopy (1955)
  • Millionaire Droopy (1956) – a CinemaScope remake of Wags to Riches directed by Tex Avery.
  • Grin and Share It (1957)
  • Blackboard Jumble (1957)
  • One Droopy Knight (1957) – a remake of Señor Droopy, Academy Award nominee.
  • Mutts About Racing (1958)
  • Droopy Leprechaun (1958)

Later appearances

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Butch reappeared in direct-to-DVD films such as Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring and Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes, alongside Droopy.

His latest appearance was in 2014's The Tom and Jerry Show. He appeared in the episode "Double Dog Trouble", where Spike and Butch are two separate characters who are twins, in order to poke at the character's retitling, while detectives Tom and Jerry mistake each one for the other after Spike buys a room at the town's motel.

Voice actors

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Scott, Keith (3 October 2022). Cartoon Voices of the Golden Age, Vol. 2. BearManor Media.
  2. ^ a b "CN: Paramedics". YouTube. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Voice(s) of Butch". Behind the Voice Actors. Retrieved 2021-06-18.
  4. ^ a b Adamson, Joe, Tex Avery: King of Cartoons, 1975, Da Capo Press
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