{"id":46211,"date":"2025-01-29T08:30:33","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T13:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=46211"},"modified":"2025-01-25T19:10:41","modified_gmt":"2025-01-26T00:10:41","slug":"every-bugs-bunny-ever-rabbits-kin-1952","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/29\/every-bugs-bunny-ever-rabbits-kin-1952\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Rabbit’s Kin (1952)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rabbit\u2019s Kin<\/strong> (1952)
\nDirected by\tRobert McKimson
\nStory by\tTedd Pierce
\nAnimation by\tCharles McKimson, Herman Cohen, Rod Scribner, Phil DeLara, Keith Darling
\nMusic by\tCarl Stalling<\/p>\n

Of all the predators who pursued Bugs Bunny, Pete Puma was arguably the stupidest of the bunch. But at the same time, he might have been the most endearing \u2013 if only because his cheerful imbecility made him oblivious to the fact that he was his own worst enemy rather than Bugs\u2019 greatest foe.
\n<\/p>\n

Unlike Bugs\u2019 other predators, Pete Puma offers no physical, intellectual or gunmanship skills to challenge his long-eared target. Indeed, his chronic inability to successfully overwhelm creatures smaller and weaker than himself, coupled with his blissful ignorance at his shortcomings, opens him to being viewed with contempt. But Pete Puma is such a jolly character \u2013 a large, scraggly, orange feline with a big grin and a wonderfully silly voice \u2013 that it is impossible to hate him or scorn him. He is the ultimate feel-good villain.<\/p>\n

And that voice is what sells Pete Puma\u2019s appeal. It was modeled after the happily befuddled John L.C. Sivoney character voiced by Frank Fontaine on Jack Benny\u2019s radio show \u2013 Fontaine would later take that character to Jackie Gleason\u2019s television variety show and rename him Crazy Guggenheim. With a plodding speech pattern suffixed by a goofball screech of a laugh, it is one of the funniest voices from the era\u2019s comedy orbit. An uncredited Stan Freberg provided the vocals of Pete Puma and this may have been the one time that Mel Blanc was significantly one-upped in the voice performance department.<\/p>\n

The set-up for \u201cRabbit\u2019s Kin\u201d involves a tiny juvenile rabbit named Shorty who seeks refuge in Bugs\u2019 underground residence from a \u201cferocious beast.\u201d Shorty is given a high-pitched, sped-up voice that eventually becomes a bit irritating. Bugs quickly realizes Pete Puma is the culprit and, sure enough, the feline\u2019s arm comes reaching down into Bugs\u2019 domicile feeling about for Shorty. Bugs quickly makes a decoy with leaves for long rabbit ears and a body made from a lit dynamite stick. Pete feels this, grabs it, brings it above ground and has it explode on him \u2013 resulting in his placing the remains of the booby trap back where he found it.<\/p>\n

Pete\u2019s dimwittedness is exploited above ground by Bugs with the seemingly pleasant offer of sharing a cup of tea. When Pete is seated and holding his tea cup, Bugs lifts the sugar bowl and asks Pete how many lumps he wants \u2013 this was back in the day when sugar was offered in cubes (also known as \u201clumps\u201d) rather than packets. Pete\u2019s innocent reply of \u201cOh, three or four\u201d is quickly met with Bugs slamming a mallet on Pete\u2019s head, raising lumps. This gag is repeated twice in the cartoon and, amazingly, it never loses its hilarity.<\/p>\n

But the real gem is Pete\u2019s attempt to grab Shorty by pretending to be the little rabbit\u2019s mother. Unlike Bugs\u2019 highly convincing drag disguises, Pete is the world\u2019s worst crossdresser \u2013 with long leaves for rabbit ears, his puma tail sticking out from a skirt, a rough brush of lipstick across his mouth and a slightly higher pitched voice that still carries that goofball laugh. The incompetence of the disguise is a grand sight gag that is hard to top \u2013 and the cartoon\u2019s latter stage with Bugs\u2019 disguising himself as a puma is nowhere near as funny.<\/p>\n

\u201cRabbit\u2019s Kin\u201d was the only Golden Age cartoon with Pete Puma, but his one-shot appearance resonated with cartoon lovers for generations. When The WB television network was being launched in the mid-90s, a poll of Looney Tunes fans to pick the network\u2019s mascot overwhelmingly came out with Pete Puma as the winner. Sadly, the network opted for another one-shot character \u2013 the musical frog from \u201cOne Froggy Evening.\u201d Who knows, maybe The WB would have lasted longer with Pete Puma back in the spotlight?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rabbit\u2019s Kin (1952) Directed by Robert McKimson Story by Tedd Pierce Animation by Charles McKimson, Herman Cohen, Rod Scribner, Phil DeLara, Keith Darling Music by Carl Stalling Of all the predators who pursued Bugs Bunny, Pete Puma was arguably the stupidest of the bunch. But at the same time, he might have been the most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":46212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3068],"tags":[99,167,3069,3606,2301,1175],"class_list":["post-46211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bugs-bunny-ever","tag-animation","tag-bugs-bunny","tag-merrie-melodies","tag-pete-puma-cartoon","tag-stan-freberg","tag-warner-bros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46211"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46213,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46211\/revisions\/46213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}