{"id":49762,"date":"2025-09-24T08:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T12:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=49762"},"modified":"2025-09-23T08:29:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T12:29:47","slug":"every-bugs-bunny-ever-ali-baba-bunny-1957","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/24\/every-bugs-bunny-ever-ali-baba-bunny-1957\/","title":{"rendered":"Every Bugs Bunny Ever: Ali Baba Bunny (1957)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ali Baba Bunny <\/strong>(1957)
\nDirected by Chuck Jones
\nStory by Michael Maltese
\nMusic by Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn
\nAnimation by Richard Thompson, Ken Harris, Abe Levitow, Ben Washam and Harry Love<\/p>\n

The major problem with the Bugs Bunny-Daffy Duck frenemy cartoons is the surplus amount gags focused on Daffy, with Bugs serving mostly as a polite onlooker to the violent humiliation generated by his web-footed friend\u2019s self-destructive greed, jealousy, and rudeness. \u201cAli Baba Bunny\u201d is the best of these pairings because Bugs shares an equal load of generated laughs with Daffy, and the two work in unison in dealing with a memorable adversary. The result is one of the very best of the Bugs Bunny series, as well as one of the most comically satisfying cartoons ever made.
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There isn\u2019t a single wasted frame in \u201cAli Baba Bunny.\u201d From its set-up with the diminutive sultan riding an equally miniscule camel ordering the massive guard Hassan to guard the cave full of treasures to its closing gag of the absurdly shrunken Daffy clutching a pearl within a clam, the film is a riot of imaginative imagery, brilliant music and sound effects, highly quotable dialogue, and pricelessly funny sight gags. <\/p>\n

Michael Maltese\u2019s screenplay gives Bugs and Daffy a depth of texture that had not been evident since their \u201chunting trilogy\u201d with Elmer Fudd. In their pairings with \u201cBeanstalk Bunny,\u201d \u201cThis is a Life?\u201d and \u201cA Star is Bored,\u201d Bugs and Daffy suffered from one-dimensional personalities. In \u201cAli Baba Bunny,\u201d both carried fully dimensional characterizations. Bugs\u2019 entry in the sultan\u2019s cave is hilariously jubilant, emerging from a burrowed hole with outstretched arms and a cheerful declaration of \u201cWell, here we are, Pismo Beach and all the clams we can eat!\u201d \u2013 which is followed within seconds by confusion at being deep within a dark cave. He is even more confused after Daffy physically stomps him back into the hole while chanting \u201cMine, mine, mine!\u201d, with the dazed rabbit emerging in genuine bafflement at Daffy\u2019s sudden assault.<\/p>\n

Daffy\u2019s greed takes on a level of giddiness that was never duplicated in other cartoons where his cupidity proves to be his undoing. With lines like \u201cI\u2019m independently wealthy and socially secure\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m rich, I\u2019m a happy miser\u201d delivered in fruity declarations, Daffy\u2019s greed is rich in jollity.<\/p>\n

But the big difference here versus other Bugs-Daffy shorts since the \u201chunting trilogy\u201d is that both characters evolve in unexpected ways. Bugs has one of the funniest moments in his screen life when he fools Hassan by doing the genie dance with serpentine movements and gibberish chanting, while Daffy is hilarious going into a smiling state of shock as Hassan\u2019s scimitar slices his hat in half, exposing a single upstanding hair strand that slowly peels in half. The two characters have a great off-camera exchange with Bugs expressing Bud Abbott-level disappointment over Daffy\u2019s behavior while Daffy sobbingly responds in Lou Costello-worthy cadences, \u201cI can’t help it, I’m a greedy slob\u2014it’s my hobby.”<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s Hassan, who is one of the best one-shot villains in the Bugs Bunny series. With his overbuilt upper body and skinny legs, he is a wonderfully ridiculous sight to behold. His fearsomeness is perfectly balanced by his awkward embarrassment when he forgets the cave\u2019s password and timidly goes through a long inventory of words beginning with the letter \u201cS.\u201d His later subservience to Bugs\u2019 faux-genie and his diving into the cave\u2019s treasures is so excessively out of character that it becomes a joy to behold. And, of course, his chasing Daffy while holding up his scimitar and yelling \u201cHassan chop!\u201d provides one of the genius catchphrases of all time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAli Baba Bunny\u201d was a true lightning in bottle achievement \u2013 and an argument could be made that this was the last true masterpiece of the Bugs Bunny series. Yes, I know \u201cWhat\u2019s Opera, Doc\u201d came later, but I truly believe \u201cAli Baba Bunny\u201d is superior at every level. Because no matter how many times it is viewed, this gem never fails to create a vibrant laugh-out-loud experience. <\/p>\n