Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Hare-abian Nights (1959)

Posted on December 24, 2025 by Phil Hall

“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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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Knighty Knight Bugs

Posted on December 3, 2025 by Phil Hall

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: Piker’s Peak (1957)

Posted on October 8, 2025 by Phil Hall

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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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: 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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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: This is a Life? (1955)

Posted on June 25, 2025 by Phil Hall

This is a Life? (1955)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Animation by Ted Bonnicksen, Arthur Davis
Music by Milt Franklyn

This offering is a hilarious riff on “This is Your Life,” a very 1950s popular program hosted by Ralph Edwards that surprised people with retrospectives of their life. The show was staged in front of a studio audience, and sometimes unsuspecting people would be taken from the audience and led to the stage. The concept of “This is Your Life” had already been brilliantly spoofed on “Your Show of Shows” in 1954, but screenwriter Warren Foster and director Friz Freleng opted to put their spin on the subject using the Looney Tunes characters.

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Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Sahara Hare (1955)

Posted on June 4, 2025 by Phil Hall

Sahara Hare (1955)
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Music by Milt Franklyn
Animation by Gerry Chiniquy, Ted Bonnicksen, Arthur Davis

“Sahara Hare” gets off to a great start when Bugs Bunny burrows his way into the middle of the Sahara Desert and mistakenly believes he is in Miami Beach. Bugs happily runs across the desert to take a dip in the Atlantic Ocean, but the endless hot sands confuse and exhaust him. “Man, dig this crazy beach,” he exhales before hitting upon a tiny oasis. Mistaking the oasis pond for the ocean, he dives in headfirst, but winds up with a headful of mud from the pond’s shallow bottom.
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