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Tweety and Daffy Duck returning to theaters -- with original voice Mel Blanc

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Warner Bros. is producing three new 3-D cartoons with its classic Looney Tunes characters to show in theaters before the studio’s movies –- two of them featuring the talent of legendary voice actor Mel Blanc, who has been dead for nearly 22 years.

Blanc, who for decades provided the voices of such beloved characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Bird, will be heard again via two recordings he made in the 1950s, the studio said Wednesday.

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One of them, “I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat,” performed in the voice of Tweety, sold millions of copies when it was released in 1951. The song will be featured in a new cartoon using the same title, with Sylvester -- of course -- on the prowl for the little bird.

The other song is ‘Daffy Duck’s Rhapsody’ from 1950, in which Blanc gives voice to the famed fowl explaining that the reason he’s “daffy, and so gosh-derned riff-raffy, and so screwy and laffy, is because those hunters won’t leave me alone.” It will be used in a new cartoon with Daffy and Elmer Fudd, “Daffy’s Rhapsody,” that Warners plans to release Nov. 18 alongside the feature film “Happy Feet 2.”

The third theatrical cartoon will feature the Road Runner and his long-time nemesis, Wile E. Coyote. They also were featured in three theatrical shorts that the studio released last year.

All three cartoons are being made in computer-animation rather than the hand-drawn style of the original Looney Tunes. They’re being directed by Matthew O’Callaghan for Warner Bros. Animation. Release dates for “Puddy Tat” and Road Runner have not been set.

Blanc, known as “The Man of 1,000 Voices,” worked in show business for more than 50 years. In addition to his stable of Warner Bros. cartoon characters, he also was the voice of Barney Rubble on “The Flintstones,” created the famous laugh for Woody Woodpecker and performed a variety of characters on Jack Benny’s radio and TV shows. Blanc died in July 1989 at the age of 81.

“This will probably be the last time that Looney Tunes fans will have an opportunity to see an original Mel Blanc short featuring these characters,” said Sam Register, an executive vice president at Warner Bros. Animation.

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--Lee Margulies

Top photo: Elmer Fudd and Daffy Duck in ‘Daffy’s Rhapsody.’ Credit: Warner Bros. Animation. Bottom photo: Mel Blanc. Credit: Associated Press

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