Category Archives: Every Bugs Bunny Ever

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Apes of Wrath (1959)

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Apes of Wrath (1959)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Arthur Davis, Virgil Ross, Gerry Chiniquy
Music by Milt Franklyn

A drunk stork tasked with delivering a baby gorilla to his impatient parents loses the simian infant during a jungle stop. Unwilling to admit his negligence, the stork knocks out Bugs Bunny, dresses him in a diaper and baby bonnet, and delivers him to the gorillas. The father gorilla (named Elvis, for some reason) is appalled by the sight of Bugs as his baby and grabs a mallet to pulverize the decidedly non-gorilla-looking infant. But the mother gorilla (who has no given name) is in love with her new baby and chastises her husband (with a rolling pin to the head) for being an unkind father. Bugs decides to take advantage of this unlikely situation and antagonize the ill-tempered gorilla father, until the stork delivers the real baby and Bugs is forced to escape from the revenge-hungry gorilla that he ruthlessly annoyed.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Hare-abian Nights (1959)

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“Hare-abian Nights” (1959)
Directed by Ken Harris
Story by Michael Maltese
Animation by Ken Harris and Ben Washam
Music by Milt Franklyn

Bugs Bunny is burrowing underground on his way to Perth Amboy, only to arrive in an Arabian sultan’s palace – a mistake he blames on failing to make a left turn in Des Moines. He thinks he is in a movie theater, but quickly discovers he is part of a line-up of would-be entertainers ordered to amuse the sultan. The performers work on an elevated stage with a trap door. If the sultan is not entertained, he pushes a button that drops the unlucky performers into a crocodile pit. Bugs is introduced as a “teller of tales” and quickly endeavors to stay out of the crocodile pit by recalling a few of his unlikely comic adventures.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Baton Bunny (1959)

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Baton Bunny (1959)
Directed by Chuck Jones and Abe Levitow
Story by Michael Maltese
Animation by Ken Harris, Richard Thompson, Ben Washam
Music by Milt Franklyn

Okay, raise your hand if your first introduction to classical music came while watching Bugs Bunny cartoons. Fine, you can put your hand down now. That kind of impact is something special when you consider that only six of the Bugs Bunny cartoons incorporated symphonic compositions or operas into their stories: “A Corny Concerto” (1943), “Rhapsody Rabbit” (1946), “Long-Haired Hare” (1949), “Rabbit of Seville” (1950), “What’s Opera, Doc?” (1957), and today’s offering “Baton Bunny” (1959).
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Pre-Hysterical Hare (1958)

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Pre-Hysterical Hare (1958)
Directed by Robert McKimson
Story by Tedd Pierce
Animation by Ted Bonnicksen, Warren Batchelder, Tom Ray, George Grandpré
Music by John Seely

It’s rabbit season and Bugs Bunny tries to evade rifle-toting Elmer Fudd. Bugs balls into an underground cave with prehistoric wall paintings and a giant powder horn that serves as a time capsule from 10,000 BC, with instructions for an opening in 1960 AD. Bugs opens the powder horn and finds a reel of film. Bugs returns to his hole-in-the-ground residence and loads the film into a projector. The film opens with title credits announcing “A Micronesian Film Documentary in Breathtaking Cro-Magnonscope. Color by Neanderthal Color.” To Bugs’ surprise, the film focuses on his prehistoric ancestor, a saber-toothed rabbit, who is being pursued by the caveman Elmer Fuddstone.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Knighty Knight Bugs

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Knighty Knight Bugs (1958)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Gerry Chiniquy, Arthur Davis, Virgil Ross
Music by Milt Franklyn

When you consider how many cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny are now celebrated as animation classics, it is bizarre to realize that only three cartoons featuring the top star of the Warner Bros. animation studio were nominated for the Academy Award. Even more peculiar was the fact the three cartoons that were nominated – “A Wild Hare” (1940), “Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt” (1941), and “Knight Knight Bugs” (1958) – were far from the best of the Bugs Bunny series.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Now, Hare This (1958)

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Now, Hare This (1958)
Directed by Robert McKimson
Story by Tedd Pierce
Animation by Tom Ray, George Grandpre, Ted Bonnicksen, and Warren Batchelder
Music by Milt Franklyn

B.B. Wolf wants to have a rabbit for dinner but lacks the brains and skills to catch Bugs Bunny through traditional means. He conspires with his giggly little nephew to outsmart the rabbit through fairy tale scenarios. The wolves first try to trick Bugs into participating in the Little Red Riding Hood story, and when that fails they seek to use the Goldilocks and the Three Bears story to trap him. Of course, Bugs is too smart to be fooled and B.B. gets battered as his plans go badly awry. In the end, B.B. manages to have a rabbit for dinner – with Bugs sharing a meal at the dining room table with a disgruntled B.B. and his giddy nephew.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Hare-Way to the Stars (1958)

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Hare-Way to the Stars (1958)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Story by Michael Maltese
Animation by Richard Thompson, Ken Harris, Abe Levitow, Harry Love
Music by Milt Franklyn

A half-asleep Bugs Bunny, hungover from mixing carrot juice and radish juice the night before, climbs up the ladder of his underground residence to take his morning bath in a nearby pond, unaware that a space agency parked a rocket ship directly above his hole in the ground. Bugs keeps climbing from the hole into the rocket, which blasts off from the Earth. Bugs only realizes his predicament when he unscrews the rocket’s cap and gets knocked off by a speeding satellite that lands him the lair of Marvin the Martian, who is planning to blow up the Earth with his “Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator” because it obscures his view of Venus. Bugs steals the “Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator” and Marvin dispatches a squad of Martians to capture him.
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