Napoleon Bunny-Part (1956)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Gerry Chiniquy, Virgil Ross. Art Davis
Music by Carl Stalling
Bugs Bunny makes “one wrong turn off the Hollywood freeway” and somehow winds up in the palatial headquarters of Napoleon Bonaparte. Mistaking his destination for an ornate movie theater, Bugs disrupts Napoleon’s military planning on a desktop map by moving artillery piece where he sees fit and then sneezing away the map’s contents after taking a too-generation inhale of snuff. Napoleon and his oafish guard (the oversized moronic Mugsy from “Bugs and Thugs”) attempt to subdue Bugs, which proves to be a Waterloo-worthy debacle.
More silly than funny, “Napoleon Bunny-Part” has an inspired segment with Bugs dancing to jukebox music while dressed as the Empress Josephine – the selection of tunes includes “St. Louis XIV Blues” by Count du Basie and “I Ain’t Got No Body” by The Guillotineers. And Mugsy adds to the mayhem by repeatedly his stabbing a bayonet into Napoleon’s rear, which the emperor repays with the same action on Mugsy’s generous backside – the stabbing sends Mugsy skyward while making a zany yelp.
However, the cartoon closes with a weak gag involving two mental hospital orderlies apprehending the emperor while claiming he is the twelfth Napoleon they captured that day. And, unfortunately, Napoleon is a highly ineffective foe who is more dyspeptic than dangerous. It is a shame director Friz Freleng and writer Warren Foster didn’t use Elmer Fudd or Yosemite Sam as Napoleon, which could have created more satisfying slapstick.