{"id":40205,"date":"2023-07-18T00:05:21","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T04:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=40205"},"modified":"2023-06-27T13:49:03","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T17:49:03","slug":"every-bugs-bunny-ever-bugs-bunny-nips-the-nips-1944","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/07\/18\/every-bugs-bunny-ever-bugs-bunny-nips-the-nips-1944\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips (1944)"},"content":{"rendered":"

2023 marks the 85th<\/sup> Anniversary of Bug Bunny\u2019s first animated appearance in 1938’s \u201cPorky\u2019s Hare Hunt.\u201d Debuting originally as Happy Rabbit, Bugs eventually became one of the most iconic animated characters of all time. In honor of the landmark anniversary, we\u2019re discussing every animated appearance by Bugs Bunny. We\u2019re big fans of Bugsy and we hope that you are, too. <\/em><\/p>\n

Follow us on this massive journey where we discover and re-discover Every Bugs Bunny Ever.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips (1944)
\n<\/strong>Directed by Friz Freleng
\nWritten by Tedd Pierce
\nMusic by Carl W. Stalling
\nAnimation by Gerry Chiniquy<\/p>\n

The best way to approach \u201cBugs Bunny Nips the Nips\u201d is by examining it within the context upon which it was released. This was during World War II where anti-Asian sentiment was high. So, typical of movie studios at the time, the animators at Warner brought their iconic Bugs Bunny in to the war to fight a spiritual battle on screen against Japanese enemies. \u201cEnemies\u201d is putting it lightly. They\u2019re horrendous Japanese stereotypes and clich\u00e9s, and the animated short never misses a beat. There\u2019s the Japanese that sounds like gibberish. There\u2019s the big buck teeth, the bug eyes, the fractured English, the big glasses, there\u2019s the appearance of a Sumo Wrestler for some reason, and yes, Bugs Bunny dresses as a Geisha girl to woo the sumo wrestler.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also Bugs referring to them as \u201cJaps\u201d for most of the picture.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Basically \u201cBugs Bunny Nips the Nips\u201d was eight minutes of me painfully groaning \u201cOh god\u2026 Oh god\u2026 Oh my god\u2026 No\u2026 Dear lord\u2026 oh god!\u201d I\u2019ll admit that I\u2019d never seen \u201cBugs Bunny Nips the Nips\u201d before as most of my looney tunes education came from old VHS tapes, Saturday morning cartoons, and marathons on the Cartoon Network. The latter of which removed \u201cBugs Bunny Nips the Nips\u201d from their rotation, and rarely mentioned it, if ever. They did speak about it once in their more mature animated history show \u201cToonheads\u201d but that was about as far as it ever went. What makes \u201cBugs Bunny Nips the Nips\u201d so terrible is the same problem that \u201cAll This and Rabbit and Stew\u201d suffered from.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not only that it\u2019s so painfully offensive and mean spirited, but it\u2019s just not funny. There isn\u2019t a single \u201cgag\u201d in this short that even made me smile. The writers and animators are so obsessed with clapping back at their enemies in war, that they completely lose focus of the comedy and madcap lunacy. The premise of the short isn\u2019t even creative. Bugs Bunny is in a crate drifting along the Pacific Ocean and singing \u201cSomeone\u2019s Rocking my Dreamboat\u201d and he announces to the audience that any time now he\u2019ll find an island–since they always find an island in the moving pictures. And lo and behold he finds an island, but he\u2019s attacked at all corners by off screen gunfire.<\/p>\n

While attempting to hide, he comes across the Japanese soldier who thinks he\u2019s an enemy. And the short takes off from there. It\u2019s such a clunky and lazy set up that you can sense the writers were thinking \u201cLets just get him to the island, it doesn\u2019t matter how we do it.\u201d Bugs Bunny is also kind of smug, too, which makes his confrontation with the villains of the short feel like there\u2019s not a real protagonist to root for. I understand what the sentiment behind \u201cBugs Bunny Nips the Nips\u201d was. I understood that there was a huge anti-Asian mindset during that period. I don\u2019t agree with it, but I get why the masses were conditioned to despise the Asian. Even the title \u201cNips the Nips\u201d embraces the Asian slur \u201cNip\u201d to instantly de-humanize the short\u2019s villain for the viewer.<\/p>\n

Probably the worst easily most unwatchable moment is where Bugs is pretending to be a Good Humor man to trick the soldiers and as they\u2019re mobbing him he\u2019s muttering \u201cHere you are bow legs! One for you monkey face! There you go, slant eyes!\u201d Oh, so bad. So, so bad. To make things worse, the short ends on a clunker of a joke where it was obvious they didn\u2019t know how to bring it to an end. So Bugs cries about being alone on an island, he sees a US war ship and he\u2019s tempted by a female bunny. From there he chases after her howling in arousal and\u2014the end. Despite its horrific content, \u201cBugs Nips the Nips\u201d is not a part of the dreaded Censored Eleven list, however it was removed from a lot of syndicated airings in the mid to late 1900\u2019s.<\/p>\n

First and foremost it\u2019s pure propaganda, but it\u2019s lazy propaganda that hasn\u2019t aged well at all. I\u2019d put it at the top two worst from Bugs Bunny\u2019s library. At the end of the day, the best way to justify its existence, if you have to, is that it\u2019s so much better observed as an animation buff, or historian that are interested in the darker areas of what have become strictly family friendly properties over the last sixty years, that the studios prefer we not discuss.<\/p>\n

Find out what we think are the BEST<\/a> and WORST<\/a> Bugs Bunny shorts of all time!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n