Category Archives: Every Bugs Bunny Ever

Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears (1944)

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2023 marks the 85th Anniversary of Bug Bunny’s first animated appearance in 1938’s “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” Debuting originally as Happy Rabbit, Bugs eventually became one of the most iconic animated characters of all time. In honor of the landmark anniversary, we’re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We’re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too.

Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.

Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears (1944)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Written by Tedd Pierce
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Robert Cannon

“Once Upon a Time There were Three Bears–” is what sets of the chaos of what happens when Bugs Bunny meets the iconic three bears. The three bears is the iconic bedside story written by Robert Southey from the nineteenth century, and it’s been twisted, and retold, and adapted dozens of times since its introduction. While Warner and the Looney Tunes aren’t the first to offer animated versions of the Three Bears, they are surely the best. Here, rather than three inadvertent characters of a story that come across Goldilocks, they’re instead a dysfunctional family on the verge of starvation. This take on the three bears is not only prime material for pure comedy but it’s one of the few times in this era where there’s not a traditional nuclear family.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: What’s Cookin’ Doc? (1944)

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2023 marks the 85th Anniversary of Bug Bunny’s first animated appearance in 1938’s “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” Debuting originally as Happy Rabbit, Bugs eventually became one of the most iconic animated characters of all time. In honor of the landmark anniversary, we’re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We’re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too.

Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.

What’s Cookin’ Doc? (1944)
Directed by Bob Clampett
Written by Michael Sasanoff
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Bob McKimson

“What’s Cookin Doc?” is one of the few times where Warner tried to mimic Tex Avery, as where Avery had a knack for creating shorts that featured various facets of society and satirizing them, Bob Clampett and Bob McKimson go for that same method. With the narration, cuts to various sight gags, clever subversions of jokes, and implementation of live action footage to help land a joke, it’s hard not to compare this to a Tex Avery/MGM creation. That’s not a criticism per se, but more an observation, as it’s obvious what they’re aiming for here. Their primary goal is to satirize Hollywood and the Hollywood climate of the time. They also inject their big star Bugs Bunny in to the proceedings, which adds an extra spice that makes it all the better.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Little Red Riding Rabbit (1944)

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2023 marks the 85th Anniversary of Bug Bunny’s first animated appearance in 1938’s “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” Debuting originally as Happy Rabbit, Bugs eventually became one of the most iconic animated characters of all time. In honor of the landmark anniversary, we’re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We’re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too.

Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.

Little Red Riding Rabbit (1944)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Written by Michael Maltese
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Manuel Perez

I love “Little Red Riding Rabbit.” It’s brilliant, it’s hysterical, it’s so damn quotable, and it gets better and better when replayed. It’s one of the shorts from Bugs Bunny that genuinely gets me giddy, if only because the handling of Red Riding Hood and how they twist it comically is genius. There’s something so abundantly appealing about the adaptation of “Little Red Riding Hood.” Movies have been adapting the tale for decades and decades, and throughout the early 1900’s, studios sought to offer up their own animated versions of the fairy tale. Surprisingly almost all of them were pretty damn good. Disney gave us Little Red Riding Hood from 1922, and The Big Bad Wolf from 1934, while Tex Avery famously gave us the laugh riots Little Red Walking Hood from 1937, Red Hot Riding Hood from 1943, and Little Rural Riding Hood from 1949.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Falling Hare (1943)

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2023 marks the 85th Anniversary of Bug Bunny’s first animated appearance in 1938’s “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” Debuting originally as Happy Rabbit, Bugs eventually became one of the most iconic animated characters of all time. In honor of the landmark anniversary, we’re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We’re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too.

Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.

Falling Hare (1943)
Directed by Bob Clampett
Written by Warren Foster
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Rob Scribner

I do not like “Falling Hare.” I never have. Even as a kid I only really watched it as a means to stave off boredom. It’s loud. It’s obnoxious. And I could never quite get behind the Gremlin being one of Bugs’ nemeses. “Falling Hare” is one of the selections of public domain Bugs Bunny shorts put out there on VHS compilations throughout the years. It’s one of the many included on various cartoon cassette tapes and I spent a lot of my time re-watching this short for my Bugs Bunny fix, and pretty much as a last resort.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: A Corny Concerto (1943)

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2023 marks the 85th Anniversary of Bug Bunny’s first animated appearance in 1938’s “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” Debuting originally as Happy Rabbit, Bugs eventually became one of the most iconic animated characters of all time. In honor of the landmark anniversary, we’re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We’re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too.

Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.

A Corny Concerto (1943)
Directed by Bob Clampett
Written by Frank Tashlin
Music by Various
Animation by Bob McKimson

Warner has never been subtle about their discontent for Disney Studios. In fact, they made it their quest for a long time to mock and poke fun at a lot of what Disney did with their films, including their handling of music and fairy tales. “A Corny Concerto” isn’t just a spoof of their masterpiece “Fantasia,” but it’s an outright ribbing of their considerably high brow animated melding of classical music and the animation medium. I for one love “Fantasia,” but I don’t think Disney is ever above being poked at for the purposes of comedy. Every studio tends to do it at one point in time, but Warner has always done it the best. And dare I say that the Looney Tunes has always implemented classical music better than Disney ever has or ever will.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Wackiki Wabbit (1943)

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2023 marks the 85th Anniversary of Bug Bunny’s first animated appearance in 1938’s “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” Debuting originally as Happy Rabbit, Bugs eventually became one of the most iconic animated characters of all time. In honor of the landmark anniversary, we’re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We’re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too.

Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.

Wackiki Wabbit (1943)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Written by Ted Pierce
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Ken Harris

When push comes to shove, I always think of “Wackiki Wabbit” as my favorite Bugs Bunny short ever made. There are a lot of competitors that just barely edge out this one, but Chuck Jones’ more self contained adventure with Bugs is easily my favorite. It’s one I always really go back to and re-visit and never stop laughing through. Bugs is just at the top of his game, and the villains of the piece are a mix of pathetic and devious. Yeah, they’re trying to survive, but so is Bugs. I always wonder why they didn’t just ask Bugs how he survived for so long on the island. You know what?

I’m over thinking the short. That’s not a caveat of the whole shebang, it’s just something that pops up if you pick apart the whole situation.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Jack-Wabbit and the Beanstalk (1943)

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2023 marks the 85th Anniversary of Bug Bunny’s first animated appearance in 1938’s “Porky’s Hare Hunt.” Debuting originally as Happy Rabbit, Bugs eventually became one of the most iconic animated characters of all time. In honor of the landmark anniversary, we’re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We’re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too.

Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.

Jack-Wabbit and the Beanstalk (1943)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Written by Michael Maltese
Music by Carl W. Stalling
Animation by Jack Bradbury (etc…)

The whole “Jack and the Beanstalk” fairy tale has been fodder for some of the best and worst movies ever made. It has always translated well especially in the comedy realm with Bugs Bunny and Looney Tunes spoofing the story twice. “Jack Wabbit and the Beanstalk” should not be confused with “Beanstalk Bunny” from1955, yet another parody of this story starring Bugs Bunny, except this time featuring Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd pulling up the rear. That one is very good and very funny (we’ll get to that one), but “Jack Wabbit and the Beanstalk” has its merits just the same.

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