The less said about \u201cBugs Bunny\u2019s Bustin\u2019 Out All Over,\u201d the better. This CBS-aired special was another Chuck Jones mess, with two of the worst Bugs Bunny shorts ever conceived plus a Road Runner romp that was strictly okay.
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The first short, \u201cPortrait of the Artist as a Young Bunny,\u201d travels over the terrain that was better explored in Bob Clampett\u2019s 1944 \u201cThe Old Grey Hare,\u201d with younger versions of Bugs and Elmer Fudd in a frenetic chase. But whereas Clampett\u2019s classic had the characters as wild infants engaged in fast-paced slapstick and bold visualizations, Jones reimagined them at the elementary school level with lethargic sight gags and weak animation. <\/p>\n
And while Jones\u2019 later works were burdened with verbosity, this cartoon ratchets up the endless babbling to an obnoxious level. Seriously, what\u2019s with the nonstop talking in these late-career Jones cartoons?<\/p>\n
The other Bugs short, \u201cSpaced Out Bunny,\u201d brings back Marvin the Martian for an interplanetary kidnapping that takes Bugs back into outer space. Hugo the Abominable Snowman is also present, but he can\u2019t save this from being a wholly laugh-free endeavor.<\/p>\n
Things improve somewhat with \u201cSoup and Sonic,\u201d with Wile E. Coyote still trying to catch the Road Runner and, amazingly, succeeding in a bizarre sight gag. It is nowhere as funny as the Golden Age Road Runner shorts, but at least the damn thing has some life to it \u2013 which cannot be said for the other two shorts.<\/p>\n