“He wants to play cops and robbers, eh?”
Directed by Robert Clampett; Story by Lou Lilly; Animation by M. Gould; Voice Characterization by Mel Blanc; Musical Direction by Carl W. Stalling. Released in 1944. (By the way, I love how the short feels the need to inform us that this short stars Bugs. If the title wasn’t a dead enough giveaway, Bugs’ face shows up before the title card)
Wow. A short where Bugs is the straight up villain. We’ve seen him be a trickster before, but I think this might be the only time where he is the antagonist. What’s his crime? He’s stolen all the carrots out of people’s victory gardens. (The fiend!) Only one person can stop him! (No, not Cecil Turtle.) Brooklyn’s own cowboy: Red Hot Ryder. (By the way, the narrator calls Bugs a rodent. Rabbits are not rodents! They are lagomorphs.) Ryder is sad to say, not my favorite opponent for Bugs. He’s a little too dumb for my tastes. (Why does that bother me? Well, why did anyone think he’d be a match for Bugs? What has he done to deserve such credit? Is everyone who knows him even dumber than him?) Appearance wise, it looks like someone made a clone out of Yosemite Sam and Captain Ollimar. (That’s not a complaint, its just an observation) His horse won’t stop for him, so he has to club it unconscious. He begins hunting for “The Masked Marauder.” Bugs is not fazed and decides to play along with him. Using a magnet, he robs Ryder of all his coins, bullets, sheriffs star and belt buckle causing his pants to fall down. (I’m pretty sure those coins shouldn’t have been magnetic, but toon magnets don’t have to follow our world’s logic) Only after Bugs leaves does Ryder catch on to his identity. He asks a stranger if he’s seen the bandit. (Bugs without his mask) Bugs asks if the guy is the one who not only wears a mask like his, but robs him like so! Well, this time he takes more. Including the pin of Red’s diaper, (wait, wasn’t he wearing ladies underwear before? I don’t get it.) and all the filings of Red’s teeth. (Ooh! That looks painful!) Red confirms that that is the guy. Too bad Bugs hasn’t seen him. But he has to excuse himself to rob a train. I think. He fakes the whole thing, but then he still has loot when he comes back. And it’s not just carrots this time, but tons of war time luxuries like meat, gas and a color changing can of pineapple. He gives Ryder phony directions to go after the Marauder and he heads back to his horse. He hops on and the horse runs off. Ryder however just hopped on a fence post and is yet to discover he’s not moving. (Best part of the short is his horse coming back and angrily waiting for him to discover he’s not moving. He doesn’t catch on.) The horse glues him to the saddle and they’re off! Bugs trips the two and then disguises himself as a telegram deliverer. He gives Ryder an insulting poem whose last line is censored. Ryder is too dumb to figure it out. And then they teleport back to where this started. (I’m not joking! That’s totally the same background! Bug’s hole is there and everything!) Bugs tells Ryder where the Marauder went which was apparently over steadily increasing in size gorges. The one the horse can’t make over is the Grand Canyon, and the two plummet down. Ending up underground, Red finally deduces that Bugs and the Marauder were one and the same. Bugs confirms this and gives him a kiss.
All in all, I don’t hate this short. But Red is probably my least favorite character in the history of Looney Tunes. If he wasn’t built up as some kind of hero, then I wouldn’t care about his idiocy. But even Wile E. Coyote could win against this guy! It would have worked better in my opinion, if he was just some guy Bugs stole from and he was trying to get revenge. Clampett, I love ya, but this was probably your weakest work.
Personal Rating: 3