Mutiny on the Bunny (1950)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Written by Tedd Pierce
Animation by Gerry Chiniquy
Music by Carl Stalling
Friz Freleng’s “Mutiny on the Bunny” is another of Bugs Bunny’s sea faring adventures and they always manage to hit differently. There’s just something more inherently funny about Bugs Bunny out at sea that allows the writers to get a bit more creative. Meanwhile, we’re given yet another appearance by Yosemite Sam who plays the sea captain, and I couldn’t have asked for a better nemesis this time around. Yosemite Sam is one of my all time favorite nemeses for Bugs. Probably even more so than Elmer Fudd, now that I come to think about it.
While Elmer is considered by many to be his quintessential foil, Sam is just so much more fun. Plus the animators have spent so much time trying to duplicate Sam after his introduction, for reasons I’m not too sure about. The original Yosemite Sam is the best. Except this time he’s known as Shanghai Sam. After chasing off all of his ship’s crew, he tricks Bugs Bunny in to going on a trip around the world. Secretly he holds him prisoner as a means of making him work hard labor. Of course, Bugs doesn’t take this lying down, engaging in a lot of pretty hysterical antics that not only wreck Sam, but his boat, too.
There’s a great gag involving Bugs manning the life boats, and they inevitably fight over who is captain when Bugs declares the captain has to go down with his ship. After Bugs also proclaims that women and children go first, Sam immediately pops up with a granny wig begging to let on board. The gag is capped off with Bugs dressing an anchor as a baby and dropping it down on to Sam. I love the exaggerated way that the boat always sinks, just plopping down in to the water after a single shot in to the haul. Also, I always crack up every time Yosemite Sam calls Bugs a “Buck toothed Barnacle.”
Friz Freleng’s direction matched with the sharp animation make the short one filled with some great comic timing and gags that land well. Bugs Bunny is able to turn the tables on Shanghai Sam time and time again even staging a gag where he writes on the ship “The Captain’s Wife Wear Army Shoes!” which I later discovered was a classic insult to insinuate someone’s mother was less than “chaste” more or less. It’s always surprising how much of these raunchy jokes the animators are able to get away with, and how many of them made it on children’s television during the heydays of syndication and basic cable.
It’s not at all the funniest of the sea captain trilogy with Bugs and Yosemite Sam, but it’s still a solid comedy short, filled with some great, hilarious bits and ace animation.
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