A Witch’s Tangled Hare (1959)
Directed by Abe Levitow
Story by Michael Maltese
Animation by Keith Darling, Ken Harris, Ben Washam, Richard Thompson
Music by Milt Franklyn
“A Witch’s Tangled Hare” incorporates bits and pieces of William Shakespeare’s plays – along with a character who resembles Shakespeare – into a Bugs Bunny romp that brings back the zany Witch Hazel as the predator. It’s a cute idea for a cartoon, but the execution is off and it quickly becomes a bore.
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It is a winter’s night in Dawson City during the midst of the 1896 Gold Rush when a snow-covered Bugs Bunny walks into a saloon and orders a glass of carrot juice. He is carrying a bag of large gold nuggets, but believes they have no value – he mistakes the “karats” of the rocks with the carrots that make up his diet. The villainous Blacque Jacques Shellacque – who is wanted for such crimes as for claim-jumping, pogo-sticking, and square-dance calling – makes multiple attempts to take Bugs’ bag of gold nuggets, but ultimately winds up running off a with a bag of gunpowder that Bugs ignites. Bugs ultimately admits the rocks were merely covered in paint and he drives off in a sled powered by a chihuahua.
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Wild and Woolly Hare (1959)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Virgil Ross, Gerry Chiniquy, Art Davis
Music by Milt Franklyn
“Wild and Woolly Hare” starts off with a wonderful parody of “High Noon” as the scruffy denizens of an Old West saloon nervously await the arrival of a gunslinging villain – in this case, it is Yosemite Sam in his first cowboy cartoon since “High Diving Hare” in 1949. The bellicose Sam declares his presence by bellowing, “Any one of you lily-livered, bow-legged varmints care to slap leather with me? In case any of you get any idee-ers, ya better know yer dealin’ with. I’m the hootinest, tootinest, shootinest, bobtail wildcat in the West! I’m the fastest gun north, south, east annnnnnnd west of the Pecos!”
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Backwoods Bunny (1959)
Directed by Robert McKimson
Story by Tedd Pierce
Animation by Warren Batchelder, Tom Ray, George Grandpré, Ted Bonnicksen
Music by Milt Franklyn
Bugs Bunny accidentally burrows his way into the Ozarks and decides it would be a fine place for a vacation. His arrival is detected by Pappy and Elvis, a father-and-son pair of buzzards. Pappy is a lazy, obese thing with flies swarming around him, while Elvis is a cheerful dimwit. Elvis volunteers to shoot the “eating rabbit” that turned up, but he is too stupid for the task and Bugs repeatedly humiliates him, to the point of tricking Elvis to repeatedly shoot Pappy.
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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“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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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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