Muttley


Muttley is a fictional dog created in 1968 by Hanna-Barbera Productions; he was originally voiced by Don Messick. He is the sidekick to the cartoon villain Dick Dastardly, and appeared with him in the 1968 television series Wacky Races and its 1969 spinoff, Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. The character is known best for his mischievous, rasping laugh.

Characterization

Muttley first appeared in Wacky Races in 1968, as the sidekick of the accident-prone villain Dick Dastardly. While Dick was created as the equivalent of Professor Fate from the 1965 movie The Great Race, Muttley mirrored the film's character of Max Meen. Dastardly and Muttley were paired together in various later Hanna-Barbera series as bumbling villains.
As his name implies, Muttley is a mixed breed dog, identified in the Wacky Races segment "Dash to Delaware" as a mix of bloodhound, pointer, Airedale, and hunting dog. During Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines, in the episode Sappy Birthday, Muttley shows a calendar where April 16 is marked; his birthday. In an audio commentary for Dastardly and Muttley, the designers comment that they conceived of Muttley's shape as what a dog would look like if he were a tank-styled vacuum cleaner.
Muttley does not really talk; his main examples of speech are his trademark "wheezy snicker" and a mushy, sotto voce grumble against an unsympathetic or harsh Dick.
Don Messick had previously used Muttley's distinctive laugh in other Hanna-Barbara productions. In the Huckleberry Hound cartoons, Messick voiced a black-and-white dog who enjoyed antagonizing Huck the mailman, dog catcher, barbecuer, etc. Messick also used the same snickering chortle for "Snuggles", a mischievous dog who tormented Quick Draw McGraw; then for "Griswold" in an episode of Top Cat; then for "Mugger" appearing in the 1964 movie Hey There, It's Yogi Bear; and again for Precious Pupp in 1966. He also repurposed the characterization for Alexandra Cabot's cat Sebastian on Josie and the Pussycats in 1970.
Muttley wore only a collar in Wacky Races, but in Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines, he donned a World War I style aviator's cap and scarf, and served as a flying ace along with Dastardly and two other pilots as members of the "Vulture Squadron". In this spinoff, he also sported many medals and constantly demanded new ones from Dastardly for following his commands. Similarly, Dastardly frequently ripped medals off Muttley's chest as punishment for his incompetence. And it was upon joining Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines that Muttley gained the ability to fly in brief spurts by spinning his tail like a helicopter rotor blade.
Muttley also enjoyed his own short segment in the series Magnificent Muttley, where he would engage in Walter Mitty-style fantasies. The designers speculated that Muttley was popular that the producers wanted to give Muttley some time as a solo character.

Muttley vs. Mumbly

Muttley is sometimes confused with the crime-fighting dog Mumbly from The Mumbly Cartoon Show, who has a similar appearance. Mumbly later appeared as the captain of the villainous Really Rottens in Laff-A-Lympics along with his accomplice, the Dread Baron, who resembles Dick Dastardly. The Dread Baron and Mumbly later appeared in the television film Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose. It is not certain why Mumbly was retconned as a villain, neither is it certain why he and Dread Baron were apparently used as substitutes for Dastardly and Muttley, especially in the Yogi Bear movie where Paul Winchell voiced the Baron instead of Dastardly. In that story, Mumbly had once utilized his tail to fly just like Muttley does in Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. The reason most suggested is that the Wacky Races characters were not fully owned by Hanna-Barbera as the show was a co-production with Heatter-Quigley Productions.
An early version of the Muttley/Mumbly character appears in the 1964 Hanna-Barbera feature film Hey There, It's Yogi Bear! This prototype Muttley is a mean-spirited dog with a travelling circus who has a penchant for biting his owners on the leg. The character may also have been inspired by The Atom Ant Shows "Precious Pupp", who was known for laughing the same way.

Other appearances