Gorilla my Dreams

“I ain’t an ape, I’m a rabbit”

Sorry for lack of update. Went to Disneyland. (What? Looney Tunes fanboys can enjoy it too.)

Back in full swing now. (Pun intended.) We see Bugs in a barrel boat. How did he get here? Who knows, who cares, enjoy the cartoon already, you moron. The current is carrying him to the island of Bingzi Bangza which is home to ferocious apes. However, they seem to be good parents. One couple has no children to the dismay of the mother. (This being her and her husband’s first appearance.)

The father wants no kids, so she heads out to sob. But while she is crying, she finds Bugs. She adopts him (he only agrees to make her stop crying) and takes him home to meet his father. Deciding to do the “little” one in. He takes him out for a walk, where Bugs almost immediately catches on. A lovely chase scene (with Raymond Scott’s “Dinner music for a pack of hungry cannibals” is playing) climaxes with Bugs trapped against a cliff. He allows Gruesome to pound him but the big brute can’t. He’s too worn out from chasing him.

Personal Rating: 3

Broomstick Bunny

“Magic mirror on the wall, who is the ugliest one of all?”

Halloween night and our lovely Witch Hazel is preparing a brew. (I’ve always wondered why witches always do that. Is there nothing else to do on a Friday night?) One thing she prides herself on is being ugly, so it is a great stroke of luck that she has a genie’s head in a mirror who can tell who is the ugliest.

Enter Bugs who is trick or treating as a witch. When he comes to her door, she is aghast to find that “she” is uglier than her. She plans to make the witch pretty by drinking a special tea. Bugs takes off his mask and she realizes that not only is he a rabbit, but a rabbit’s clavicle is the final ingredient for her brew. The chase commences and she catches her prize.

She’s about to do him in when, Bugs gives the Bambi eyes. Reminding her of her late tarantula, she bursts into tears. Bugs gives her a cup of tea to calm down, and poof! She turns into June foray. (Or a caricature, anyhow) She runs to her mirror, with the faint hope that she might still be the ugliest. Instead of answering her however, the genie chases after the now sexy witch.

Personal Rating: 3

The Big Snooze

“I get the worst of it from that wabbit in every one of these cartoons!”

Judging by the title, you’d think this is one boring cartoon. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is a Bob Clampett cartoon after all! Sadly it is the last one he directed before he left the studio to do his own things.

As usual, Elmer is chasing Bugs. After falling for a log gag that Bugs used in a earlier cartoon (one of the censored eleven) Elmer gets fed up. This is the last straw and he is calling it quits. Bugs tries to get him to reconsider, but Elmer has made up his mind. Deciding to just relax and fish, Elmer falls asleep. This is Bugs’s chance!

He takes some sleeping pills and proceeds have a dream of himself to invade Elmer’s dream. After tormenting him a bit, he dresses Fudd up like a girl. This attracts some wolves who can’t wait to get their paws on him. Bugs helps him escape but in doing so, leads Fudd off a cliff. He falls out of the dream and back into his body. Glad to rid of the nightmare he goes back to chasing Bugs for all eternity. With such a great cartoon as this, it makes one wonder what Bob could have created if he stayed with the WB.

Personal Rating: 4

Devil-May Hare

“I don’t even know what a Tasmanian devil is”

While spring cleaning, Bugs finds himself in a stampede of animals. Wanting to know what is going on, he stops a turtle (with a shovel) and learns that THE Tasmanian devil is on the loose! (What exactly does that mean? Was he in a zoo?) Bugs looks it up in an encyclopedia and the creature corners him in his lair. To keep his hide alive, Bugs offers to help him find plenty of other food. Groundhogs, chicken, pigs, and deer.

While the devil is falling for Bug’s tricks, a real deer comes up. (where is his “I am not Bambi” sign?) Taz shows up and says that he is done being fooled and will not fall for another fake animal. To spare the creature, Bugs lies and says that the little deer is made of straw. Taz reasons that Bugs is not, and tries to eat him again. Bugs only choice is to call Tasmania for a Tasmanian-she devil. The two fall in love and get married. A happy ending!

Personal Rating: 3

A Broken Leghorn

“Its gotta be that kid, or me.”

Today is the day! Prissy is going to lay an egg! However, the other chickens mock her and overhearing this, Foghorn decides to do probably the best deed he ever has done. He steals an egg, and slips it under the elderly hen. It hatches into a young rooster, and since their can only be one on a farm, Foggy plans to kill it.

Pretending to train the chick to be a proper rooster, he gets it to retrieve a ball in traffic. (That’s why the chicken crossed the road: to have a ball.) Not thinking he did it right, the chick asks Foghorn to show him how. As to be expected, he is hit by two cars. Various methods including dynamite, rifles, and land mines all result in pain. Deciding the only way to settle this is to talk to the farmer in charge (old Mcdonald) and let him pick who leaves. We end with Foghorn being carted off to a poultry plant.

Personal Rating: 4

Daffy Duck Hunt

“B-B-Benedict Arnold!”

Porky and his dog, the Barnyard Dawg are out hunting. Cue duck. Daffy empties all the shells and taunts Porky and his dog with some french dancing. Porky tells the dog to get him and the dog decides that a trick will help him win. He begins to cry and Daffy asks what’s wrong. The dog explains (lies) that if he does not catch a duck, Porky will torture him. In a rare moment of selflessness, Daffy says they will pretend he was caught. After the dog brings Daffy back to his master, Porky decides that one duck is enough for dinner. They go home and put Daffy in a freezer.

Porky goes to sleep whilst the dog hears thumps in the freezer. His two consciousnesses appear and try to make him choose to let Daffy freeze or at least warm up for helping him. Choosing the right choice, he puts Daffy in the oven to get some heat. Daffy tries to leave but is explained that he is not going to leave. Daffy makes a lot of racket and Porky storms in to see what is going on. Daffy jumps in the dog’s mouth and the poor mutt gets beaten.

More of this zaniness follows. Finally, Porky says that if the duck is not in the freezer then the dog dies. Opening it up he allows Daffy to jump out, dressed like Santa and has them sing “Jingle Bells.” Porky then notices the calendar says April, and gets an axe to finish Daffy. However, he is stopped by the patch on Daffy that says, “Do not open until Christmas”. Daffy figures that by then, he will have figured a way out of the mess he got himself into.

Personal Rating: 3 (but it teeters dangerously towards the “4” category)

Lumber Jerks

“It seems like they are bent on the destruction of our forest.”

For unknown reasons, the gophers are more like tree squirrels in this short. They are gathering acorns for the winter only to find their tree is gone. A quick search later and it is found among many others in a river. They try to paddle it back to shore but wind up going down a waterfall and ending up at a sawmill. Narrowly avoiding being sliced they notice where they are. Its the sawmill from hell!

They are turning trees into sawdust and then mixing with glue and water to make fake logs, and sharpening whole trunks into toothpicks. Finding their stolen property (now a chest of drawers) they siphon the gas from the delivery truck and catch up to it.  We see that they have built a new tree out of furniture which is much nicer than the old one because they have television. Really enjoying it, they think that they will enjoy it more once they have electricity.

Personal Rating: 3

Canned Feud

“They forgot to put the cat out.”

Sylvester’s owners are leaving on a vacation for two weeks, but forget to put him out. He tries the doors (which are all locked from the inside) and every cupboard. He is relieved to find cans of sardines, salmon, and tuna. Plus one can of herring. Needing a can opener, he realizes that a mouse has it and will not give it to him. This leads to Sylvester trying to get it. (With him getting hurt every time)

This mouse is such a dick. I don’t think Sylvester ever did anything to him. Plus, if he’s well fed, he won’t try to eat the mouse; the little pus bag. Ultimately, Sylvester shoves tons of explosives into the mouse’s hole and finally gets the tool. But what’s this? There is now a lock on the cupboard. That dickwad of a mouse has the only key. With this, our favorite feline faints. (Try saying that three times fast)

Personal Rating: 3

Bugs and Thugs

“Jiggers! The cops!”

It’s rabbit season, but Bugs is a city dweller, so he’s in no danger. That all changes when a mysterious car stops at the bank Bugs is at. Mistaking it for a taxi, Bugs hops in and soon finds out its the getaway car of Rocky and Mugsy! (The latter of whom is making his first appearance.) Figuring out they are crooks, Bugs tries to call for help, but fails and now has to stall the crooks. When they get to the hideout, Rocky tells Mugsy to let Bugs have it. In the other room, Bugs asks to be given “it”, with “it” being the gun.

To survive, Bugs imitates the cops, causing the crooks to hide in the oven. Still pretending, (Even though he could now leave. Classic Bugs) he tells himself that if they were in the oven, he would not turn on the gas or throw in a lighted match. After his charade, the real police arrive causing the same dialogue we just heard. The crooks beg to be arrested, and Bugs goes back to the city as a detective.

Personal Rating: 4

Puddy Tat Twouble

“This is what I get for dweaming of a white Christmas.”

This short starts with Tweety singing his theme song. After the intro, we see it’s winter and Tweety has been spotted by Sylvester and an orange cat. They both grab the bird, but there is not enough for the both of them. They fight and eventually end up in a basement. Tweety sees a toy dunking bird and mistaking it for a real bird, tries to make friends, Orange makes the same mistake and eats the toy.

The two putty tats fight and they end up outside again. They see a hole near a sign that says “thin ice,” with Tweety’s hat beside it. In reality he is picking a circle around the cats and they fall in the water. (“thin ice,” my butt.) We end with the cats both suffering from colds. Probably dreaming of the cream of Tweety they don’t have.

Personal Rating: 3