It Can Happen Here
My personal favorite decade from Warner Bros. The majority of my favorites came from this era. (It was the last one where we still had Avery and Clampett)
“Now I’ll show you the back.”
Since I am talking about war time cartoons, I figure I better talk about this as well.
We see our hero, Hook, telling his shipmates about his post war plans. They laugh and ask about them. He goes to say he plans to woo and marry a girl. (In my opinion she is ugly. And her name is Choo-choo? Does she have a brother named Chugga?) Coming to the end of his plans, he sees all of them buying bonds. “Any bonds today” plays as it ends.
Personal Rating: 1
“Full speed ahead!”
A thing I forgot to mention last time, is that some of these shorts were written by the great Dr. Seuss, such as this one.
We see Snafu bragging about a secret he knows and how he will never reveal it. Although unbeknowenst to him, he is being followed by his enemies. He walks through town and little by little, he leaks more and more. Eventually, he comes to a bar, and to the tune of powerhouse, he gets drunk. Now he could care less and he goes to a woman to tell her all about it. She is a Nazi and she lets all the others know what is going on. Then, when Snafu is sailing later, he is torpedoed and killed. In hell, he wonders who let his secret out. His answer comes to him in a mirror. Before the short ends, his reflection turns into a horses butt.
Personal Rating: 4
Now what we have here is a short that is entirely music. We see a figure approaching and it is our patriotic cartoon character, Bugs Bunny. He starts to sing and tell us we must buy war bonds if we are going to win World War 2. Soon Porky and Elmer (in his fat phase) join him. So as you are probably guessing it is not really worth your time to watch it, right? Wrong! It is a great song! One that I find myself singing whenever I take a walk. If you do not watch this, then you are definitely missing out. (Just be mindful of the blackface. That is humorless.)
Personal Rating: 3
“Here comes the toitle.”
In what may be the first Looney Tunes clip show, we see footage from Bugs’ first race against Cecil Turtle. As we all know, Cecil won, and Bugs is ticked. How did he do it? He goes to Cecil’s house in disguise and asks for the secret. Cecil tells him that his shell is streamlined and that rabbits are retards. Bugs is mad and runs off to make sure he’ll win the next race. Cecil of course knew who it was the whole time and speculates that another race is about to happen.
The day of the race arrives and the rabbits are betting everything on the rabbit, and they are sure to have some tricks. They begin and Bugs puts on a metal tortoise shell in hopes of raising his aerodynamics. However, Cecil is now wearing a rabbit suit and as mentioned before, rabbits are dumb. They clobber Bugs and carry Cecil to the finish. Bugs reveals who he is and the rabbits commit suicide.
Personal Rating: 4
“Shh! I’m a-stalking a victim.”
Its Beaky Buzzard’s debut and he is sent by his mother to get food for dinner. (While she stays home and does who knows what) Beaky wants no part of this, but his mom kicks him out saying to at least get a rabbit. (We all know where this is heading)
The Snerd bird sees Bugs and grabs him. Bugs says he must shower first, but Beaky catches on. He leaps into the hole only to find Bugs dressed as a woman. Bugs smacks him with his towel and runs. Beaky catches him and flies off. Bugs rips out one of his feathers and tickles him into letting go. Bugs lands in front of a skeleton and mistakes it for his own. On seeing his feet he realizes he is okay.
He goes off but Beaky grabs him. They dance and Bugs puts him in front of the skeleton. Beaky calls for his mom and she is ticked. Bugs reveals that her “leetle keeler” is fine and she declares him a hero instead!
Personal Rating: 4
“Jumping ice cubes! Its freezing!”
Out of the two shorts that Playboy Penguin appeared in, this is my favorite. Bugs is on his way for a vacation and makes a wrong turn at Albuquerque and ends up at the south pole. There he saves a penguin from an… Eskimo? (Never mind. I’m not going to mention he’s in the wrong hemisphere.) Now the little bird is smitten with him and we see the cutest scene ever! (I want to hold him) Bugs throws him away, and sees him get nabbed by the Inuit. Realizing he must do the right thing he disguises himself as a woman again, and manages to rescue the penguin.
Upon the guy’s realization that his dreamboat is a rabbit, the chase begins. They end up dangling over a cliff where Playboy returns the favor and saves bugs. (The Eskimo is carried off by a whale that has a vertical tail. WRONG!) Bugs wants nothing more to do with the bird and just wants to get to his vacation spot. Until he learns that the days down there are 6 months long! We wont see bugs again until 1951. (Not literally.)
Personal Rating: 3
“Touching, is it not?”
This may not be the first Pepe cartoon but it is Penelope’s, and it won an Oscar. (the only Looney Tune that won an Oscar and was not directed by Friz Freleng) We see a man going to open his perfume shop for the day. Only to find Le Pew in there already. The shop owner is a coward and won’t even try to get him out. So he has to go whine to some guard like character, but even he wants nothing to do with it. So the shop owner throws in a cat that is purring by his legs. (What a dick.)
Upon being launched in, a bottle of white dye gets poured on her back, and cartoon history is born. The skunk mistakes her for one of his species and a chase ensures. One gag is that she is locked in a glass room and they both pantomime talking. (The only time I recall her ever communicating) In the end, they both fall out a window and land in different substances. Pepe in paint that apparently masks his scent, because now Penelope is chasing him! We iris out on Pepe wondering if he is too attractive.
Personal Rating: 4
“I’m alone on the moon!”
In the cartoon that was the first appearance of our favorite martian, we find Bugs being forced to be the first rabbit to be sent into space. He is reluctant at first until he sees all the carrots being loaded into the ship. Once on the moon he encounters Marvin (who has a way different voice) preparing to blow up the earth. Bugs takes the infamous illudium pu 36 explosive space modulator and Marvin’s reserves (or his dog K-9) is sent to retrieve it. Bugs and the dog end up in a comedic embrace and Bugs makes his getaway. He then returns the explosive to the martians attached to a detonator. Bugs lowers the plunger and finally the scientists get through to him and ask for a statement for the press. Bugs response is “GET ME OUT OF HERE!” All that’s left of the moon is a sliver and Bugs… with the two martians hanging on to him for dear life.
Personal Rating: 3
“Looking for something, bub?”
Every time Charlie appeared with Porky, orphan was in the title. Just FYI.
We start out with a crowd of people who are watching Charlie give a demonstration of something every home needs…himself. Needless to say, no one is amused and Charlie is forced to hitch a ride in a pet shop delivery car. He crawls into a cage that is supposed to contain a canary and is delivered to Porky. The rest is just Porky trying to get rid of him and Charlie coming back.
He tries reasoning, he tries bribery, he even tries locking Porky out of his apartment. In the end, Porky gives in but now Charlie does not want to live there. This makes Porky go insane and we end with a shot of Charlie being forced to be the master of a snarling Porky.
Personal Rating: 4
“Did you ever get the feeling you was being watched?”
You can probably tell from the title, that Gossamer is in this one. He is, and it’s his first appearance.
Bugs is being watched by a Peter Lorre scientist who is trying to lure him into his lair to be the monsters dinner. He succeeds with a female rabbit decoy. “You don’t need to lock that door mac, I don’t want to leave” Bugs coyly remarks. Upon realizing he has been had, he tries to bid a hasty retreat, but Gossy won’t let him go that easily and what happens is a romp around the castle.
Gossamer is a particularly nasty foe and Bugs has to dispose of him not one, but three times. Its a great short in a place where lamps dance, rabbits become manicurists, monsters are scared of people, and where the pictures watch your every move.
Personal Rating: 4