Every Bugs Bunny Ever: The Fair-Haired Hare (1951)

Posted on October 30, 2024 by Phil Hall

The Fair-Haired Hare (1951)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Ken Champin, Virgil Ross, Arthur Davis, Manuel Perez, John Carey
Music by Carl Stalling

When Yosemite Sam builds a cabin on top of Bugs Bunny’s hole-in-the-ground domicile, Bugs vows to sue Sam for damages. A judge rules that Bugs and Sam must share the newly constructed residence, with the knowledge that full ownership goes to the survivor if one of them should pass away. Sam opts to speed Bugs’ demise, but his homicidal schemes inevitably backfire. Furious at being outsmarted, he opts to fill Bugs’ subterranean home with explosives, but Bugs redirects the devices to the crawl space between the cabin’s floor and the bare ground. Sam winds up blowing his home into the clouds while declaring, “Well, whaddya know, I’ve got a cabin in the sky!”
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Bunny Hugged (1951)

Posted on October 23, 2024 by Phil Hall

Bunny Hugged (1951)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Story by Michael Maltese
Animation by Phil Monroe, Ken Harris, Lloyd Vaughan, Ben Washam
Music by Carl Stalling

During the early 1950s, professional wrestling enjoyed a flurry of popularity thanks to television. The Termite Terrace gang took advantage of this new wave of attention by dusting off the 1948 boxing cartoon “Rabbit Punch” and reimagining the action in a wrestling ring – with the musclebound pugilist Battling McGook brought back under the name Crusher.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Rabbit Every Monday (1951)

Posted on October 16, 2024 by Phil Hall

Rabbit Every Monday (1951)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Animation by Manuel Perez, Ken Champin. Virgil Ross, Art Davis
Music by Carl Stalling

“Rabbit Every Monday” casts Yosemite Sam in the hunter role usually occupied by Elmer Fudd, and Sam’s distinctive mix of bellicosity and idiocy expanded the possibilities for wildly original comedy.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Hare We Go (1951)

Posted on October 9, 2024 by Phil Hall

Hare We Go (1951)
Directed by Robert McKimson
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Phil DeLara, Charles McKimson, John Carey, Rod Scribner, J.C. Melendez
Music by Carl Stalling

One of the weaker entries in the Bugs Bunny series, Robert McKimson’s “Hare We Go” opens in the court of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, where Christopher Columbus is trying in vain to convince the monarchs that the world is round. “It’s-a round like-a my head,” the blonde Columbus declares in his Chico Marx-worthy Italian accent – to which the king bangs his noggin with a mallet, leaving it horizontal while declaring “It’s flat like you’re head!” in the Mexican accent that Mel Blanc used on Jack Benny’s show.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Rabbit of Seville (1950)

Posted on October 2, 2024 by Phil Hall

Rabbit of Seville (1950)
Directed by Chuck Jones
Written by Michael Maltese
Animation by Phil Monroe, Ben Washam, Lloyd Vaughan, Ken Harris, Emery Hawkins
Music by Carl Stalling

In my humble opinion, the 1950 “Rabbit of Seville” represents the apex of the Bugs Bunny animated shorts. The film is both laugh-out-loud hilarious and an artistic triumph that creates a slapstick masterpiece on the foundation of symphonic greatness – in this case, the overture to Rossini’s opera “The Barber of Seville.”
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Bushy Hare (1950)

Posted on September 25, 2024 by Phil Hall

Bushy Hare (1950)
Directed by Robert McKimson
Written by Warren Foster
Animation by Phil De Lara, J.C. Melendez, Charles McKimson, Rod Scribner
Music by Carl Stalling

On several occasions, the Warner Bros. animators placed Bugs Bunny up against one-shot foes designed to plumb humor from politically incorrect stereotypes. In “Bushy Hare,” the antagonist is supposed to be an Aboriginal Australian. However, the Termite Terrace gang obviously knew nothing about Aboriginal Australians and instead created an all-purpose (albeit light tan skinned) wild man in a red loincloth who sports bushy hair and a beard and throws a boomerang and a spear while screaming unintelligibly. No one in America seemed to mind or notice any problems until June 2001 when Cartoon Network pulled it from its “June Bugs” marathon along with other shorts featuring racial and ethnic stereotype characters.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Bunker Hill Bunny (1950)

Posted on September 17, 2024 by Phil Hall

Editor’s Note: Cinema Crazed founder Felix Vasquez Jr. began the “Every Bugs Bunny Ever” series on January 3, 2023, with the goal of reviewing the cinematic output of the most popular star from the Warner Bros. animation studio. Felix passed away yesterday, and I will be inheriting the series and continuing with this weekly output in tribute to Felix’s legacy and his love for animated films.

Bunker Hill Bunny (1950)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Written by Tedd Pierce
Animation by Ken Champin, Virgil Ross and Arthur Davis
Music by Carl Stalling

“Bunker Hill Bunny” takes place during the American Revolution – specifically, the Battle of Bagle Heights. As battles go, this was on the small side, with the red-coated Hessian mercenary Sam von Scham (our old pal Yosemite Sam) taking on patriot Bugs Bunny. The rivals are in adjacent forts, with Sam firing multiple cannons at once from a might stone structure while Bugs shoots off a single cannon by reaching out of his hole-in-the-ground residence and pulling a string attached to the weapon.
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