Bugs’ Bonnets (1956)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Story by Tedd Pierce
Animation by Ken Harris, Abe Levitow, Ben Washam, Richard Thompson
Music by Milt Franklyn
The impact of clothing – specifically, headgear – on one’s personality is the focus of this Chuck Jones offering, which involves the contents of a truck carrying theatrical hats falling from the vehicle and on the unsuspecting noggins of Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. With each new hat that lands on their head, Bugs and Elmer take on a variety of aggressive and passive personalities.
“Bugs’ Bonnets” feels like an acting class improvisational exercise with the performers abruptly changing personas at moment’s notice. Some of the changes are funny, most notably when an Army helmet turns Bugs into a hostile drill sergeant while Elmer takes on the trappings of Douglas MacArthur when the general’s iconic cap lands on his head.
But, for the most part, the short wears out its welcome quickly as the two characters go through a multitude of different hat-defined identities, and the happily-ever-after same-sex marriage ending as the closing gag is far less amusing than the similar conclusion of “Rabbit of Seville” with Bugs dumping his unlikely “bride” into a giant wedding cake.
Perhaps the best reason to seek this short is for the chance to watch it uncut – television broadcasts over the year edited out Bugs’ reference to blood, a stereotypical American Indian joke and the sight of Bugs blowing cigar smoke into Elmer’s face. In retrospect, it would seem that those edits did not contribute to the creation of a more holistic and sensitive society.