Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Half-Fare Hare (1956)

Posted on August 27, 2025 by Phil Hall

Half-Fare Hare (1956)
Directed by Robert McKimson
Story by Tedd Pierce
Animation by George Grandpre, Russ Dyson, Keith Darling, Ted Bonnicksen
Music by Carl Stalling

Bugs Bunny picks up a newspaper at a railroad station and reads about wintry conditions that froze the local carrot crop, resulting in rabbits leaving the state “in droves” for Alabama, where carrots are plentiful. Bugs is confused and exclaims, “But I don’t have a drove!” Instead, Bugs climbs into a boxcar on the Chattanooga Choo-Choo and encounters a pair of hungry hoboes who resemble Jackie Gleason’s Ralph Kramden and Art Carney’s Ed Norton. The duo envisions Bugs as their long-overdue meal, but Bugs is not easily captured.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Barbary-Coast Bunny (1956)

Posted on August 20, 2025 by Phil Hall

Barbary-Coast Bunny (1956)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Story by Tedd Pierce
Animation by Abe Levitow, Richard Thompson, Ken Harris
Music by Carl Stalling

Bugs Bunny is burrowing underground to visit his cousin Herman in San Francisco when he bangs head-first into a giant gold nugget. The swindler Nasty Canasta tricks Bugs into believing he has a depository bank for storing the gold, and Bugs entrusts his new fortune with the miscreant. After Nasty violently waylays Bugs, the angry rabbit vows revenge. Six months later, he tracks down Nasty to the San Francisco casino that he built with Bugs’ gold. Bugs disguises himself as a naïve rural visitor, but this seemingly innocent façade enables him to casually drain the casino of its money by winning Nasty’s rigged games.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Napoleon Bunny-Part (1956)

Posted on August 13, 2025 by Phil Hall

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.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Rabbitson Crusoe (1956)

Posted on August 6, 2025 by Phil Hall

Rabbitson Crusoe (1956)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Gerry Chiniquy, Art Davis. Virgil Ross
Music by Milt Franklyn

This riff on “Robinson Crusoe” is the rare Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs is mostly a supporting character, with the bulk of the comedy handled by Yosemite Sam and a one-off shark character named Dopey Dick.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Broom-Stick Bunny (1956)

Posted on July 30, 2025 by Phil Hall

Broom-Stick Bunny (1956)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Story by Tedd Pierce
Animation by Richard Thompson, Ken Harris, Ben Washam, Abe Levitow
Music by Milt Franklyn

The character of Witch Hazel only co-starred as a Bugs Bunny adversary in three Golden Age cartoons: “Bewitched Bunny” (1954), which was strictly okay; “A Witch’s Tangled Hare” (1959), which was among the weakest of the series; and in today’s cartoon, “Broom-Stick Bunny,” which is not only the best of the trio but, IMHO, is among the very best of the Bugs Bunny canon.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Bugs’ Bonnets (1956)

Posted on July 23, 2025 by Phil Hall

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.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Roman Legion-Hare (1955)

Posted on July 16, 2025 by Phil Hall

Roman Legion-Hare (1955)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Virgil Ross, Art Davis, Gerry Chiniquy
Music by Milt Franklyn

It’s 54 AD in Rome and the crowd at the Coliseum is filing in to see the Detroit Lions – not the football team, of course, but the bungle-in-the-jungle bunch who devour any poor soul thrown into the path. Emperor Nero calls for a victim to be tossed to the lions, but the Coliseum is curiously bereft of victims to sacrifice. The captain of the guards (Yosemite Sam) is dispatched to locate a victim for Nero to sacrifice, but the only one around in Rome that afternoon is Bugs Bunny. Needless to say, Sam’s attempt to capture Bugs becomes an exercise in violent futility.
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