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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Horse Hare (1960)

Horse Hare (1960)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Michael Maltese
Animation by Gerry Chiniquy, Virgil Ross, Arthur Davis
Music by Milt Franklyn

In the Old West of 1886, Sergeant Bugs Bunny is tasked with being the sole guard on duty at Fort Lariat while the U.S. Cavalry leaves on a special mission. Once the Cavalry departs, Yosemite Sam – here known as “Renegade Sam” – leads a battalion of considerably incompetent Indian warriors in an attempt to overtake the fort. Needless to say, Bugs easily outwits these intruders while repeatedly humiliating Sam during the battle.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Apes of Wrath (1959)

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: Knighty Knight Bugs

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: Hare-Less Wolf (1958)

Hare-Less Wolf (1958)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Gerry Chiniquy, Art Davis, Virgil Ross
Music by Milt Franklyn

One of the most inspired one-shot characters in the Bugs Bunny series is Charles M. Wolf, a genial lupine slob who is yanked out a relaxing afternoon watching a baseball game on television by his harridan wife who orders him to hunt a rabbit for dinner. As he exits his cave residence with a rifle, Charles looks to the viewer and angrily whispers, “I hate her” – a declaration that is punctuated by his off-screen wife throwing a pot directly at his head.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Show Biz Bugs (1957)

Show Biz Bugs (1957)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Gerry Chiniquy, Arthur Davis, Virgil Ross
Music by Milt Franklyn

Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are performers in a vaudeville revue, but Daffy is furious that Bugs has top billing and a star’s dressing room plus the audience’s frenzied adulation while he faces the indignity of being assigned the men’s bathroom as his dressing room and an audience that greets his performing with either stony silence or a tomato thrown at his face. Unable to upstage and sabotage Bugs, Daffy pulls out all stops to perform a wildly dangerous act where he consumes multiple explosive ingredients and blows himself up. The audience loves the act and wants more, but alas it is too late – Daffy’s soul is Heaven bound when he ruefully confides to Bugs that he can only do that explosive act once.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Bugsy and Mugsy

Bugsy and Mugsy (1957)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Virgil Ross, Gerry Chiniquy, Art Davis
Music by Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn

Bugs Bunny is forced to relocate from his hole-in-the-ground residence after it gets flooded during a rainstorm. He takes shelter in a condemned tenement, only to discover the building is the hideout of the bank robbers Rocky and Mugsy. The gangsters are unaware of Bugs’ presence, and the mischievous rabbit uses trickery to convince Rocky that Mugsy is trying to kill him and claim the stolen loot for himself.
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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Piker’s Peak (1957)

Piker’s Peak (1957)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Music by Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn
Animation by Gerry Chiniquy, Arthur Davis, and Virgil Ross

In a small Swiss village, a competition is announced where a prize of 50,000 kronkites will be given to the first one who can climb the Schmatterhorn mountain. Yosemite Sam, dressed in Alpine mountain-climbing gear rather than his usual cowboy attire, agrees to the challenge. To Sam’s unhappiness, Bugs Bunny decides to try his luck at conquering the Schmatterhorn. Sam engages in outlandish chicanery designed to throw his competitor from the mountain, but inevitably winds up the victim of his deranged schemes
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