Picture this: it’s 1981, and you’re Warner Bros., looking for a way to introduce your beloved Looney Tunes characters to a new generation of kids (read: me). What do you do? Put together a feature-length film showcasing some of the best shorts, of course (okay, five of them)! The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie might not be unique in its status as a Looney Tunes “cartoon compilation”, but that doesn’t change the fact that it includes some of the best Friz Freleng shorts around—thirteen of them, to be exact. Although most of them aren’t featured in their entirety (they’re tied together by loosely-contrived themed fillers spanning three acts, which cuts off the start and finish of each short), just being able to watch this selection of cartoons alone on one DVD with some degree of continuity might well be reason enough to sign up.
That Left Turn at Albuqoiquee
Here’s the full list of cartoon shorts included in the film:
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Knighty Knight Bugs
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Hare Trimmed
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Devil’s Feud Cake
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Roman-Legion Hare
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Sahara Hare
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Wild and Wooly Hare
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The Unmentionables
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Golden Yeggs
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Catty Cornered
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Three Little Bops
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Birds Anonymous
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High Diving Hare
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Show Biz Bugs
Surely you recognize at least a few of the names if you’re at all familiar with the classic Warner Bros. cartoons. Of the above-listed shorts, if I absolutely had to pick favorites, I think I’d go with the following:
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Knighty Knight Bugs – Who doesn’t love this one? Apart from the fact that it’s the only Bugs Bunny cartoon to win an Academy Award (in 1951), it’s both creative and hilarious. Bugs plays a jester in King Arthur’s Court when he’s assigned by the king himself to recovering the legendary Singing Sword (which was stolen by the Black Knight). He reluctantly obliges, and soon enough, he’s found the sword, guarded closely by an armor-clad Yosemite Sam and his chronically-allergic fire-sneezing dragon. If you haven’t already seen it, you’re obligated.
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Roman-Legion Hare – Maybe I’ve just got an affinity for medieval Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam, but this is another rip-roaring romp through the duo’s escapades, centering instead on Sam’s pursuance of the rabbit while commanding a small army of his own (though we don’t see it in this truncated version of the cartoon, Sam has actually been ordered by Nero to capture Bugs for purposes of brutal coliseum entertainment). If you remember anything at all from this short, it’s probably the lions—they’re hilarious. I’m also personally a fan of the ubiquitous giddyup/whoa horse routine, which is seen yet again here.
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Sahara Hare – Seriously, what can I say? Yosemite Sam rocks. In this short, he plays “Riff Raff”, a hot-tempered Arab who can’t stand the fact that someone’s been making footprints all over his beautiful desert. Forgoing the guesswork of who plays culprit, let’s just say that yet another hilarious rivalry between Sam and Bugs ensues, leading to some ridiculous scenes and a very funny ending.
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Three Little Bops – The remanufactured jazz edition of the classic Three Little Pigs tale, Bops is told in swingin’ and rhymin’ musical format featuring some (always) impressive musical accompaniment from the orchestra. The Three Little Bops are a happenin’ musical trio who really know their stuff, but they just can’t seem to shake the Big Bad Wolf, who so badly envies their popularity that he desperately tries to barge into their acts and play along on his trumpet. Problem is, he can’t hold the rhythm, and he’s hardly complimentary to their style. So they kick him out repeatedly, and he retaliates in predictable folklore fashion, resulting in a series of wrecked social venues and eventually a nasty demise for our antagonist, who subsequently picks up a curiously appealing playing technique which the three pigs immediately embrace.
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Birds Anonymous – Another famous short (which won a 1958 Oscar), here we find Sylvester the Cat rebuked by a nearby, cool-headed rehabilitated feline (“Clarence”) at the most inopportune of times—just when he’s about to eat Tweety Bird. Consequently, he’s coaxed into attending a Birds Anonymous meeting, where cats everywhere convene to discuss their lifelong struggle with the temptations of avian consumption. This is, of course, a blatant reference to the real-life Alcoholics Anonymous, and as the cartoon progresses, we’re met with even more unabashed gags, such as Sylvester’s sleepless night and immediate relapse into bird feasting, interrupted once again, this time by a not-so-composed Clarence. The whole thing’s very funny, positively ripe with Freleng’s typical societal commentary and comedic intellectualism.
The above-listed shorts are all tied together by newly-added bridge sequences written by Friz Freleng. These sequences are generally adequate for the application, but there’s no getting around the fact that they don’t completely fit—not so much in terms of continuity, as that’s not really the focus of these cartoons, but rather with regard to quality. The bridging sequences don’t quite share the wit of the classic shorts they’re meant to complement, and everything from improved (and out of place) video color and definition and the more muted voice acting (though still performed by the immortal Mel Blanc) serve as a distraction.
Nonetheless, there’s still plenty of entertainment to be found here. The movie is split up into three Acts to keep things interesting: Satan’s Waitin’, The Unmentionables, and The Oswalds. Undoubtedly, I would say that the first act is the best. As you can see from the chronological shorts list above, the shorts near the beginning are truly great stuff. On the other hand, the cartoons in the third act are also quite fantastic, but the material in between—which is meant to be a mockery of the Oscars—just isn’t all that funny. The second act, which features Rocky and his gangster gang, is amusing and memorable, but it isn’t my personal favorite.
Other Stuff
You also get three more modern shorts in the special features section of the DVD, and while none of them even comes close to providing the level of entertainment of their ancestors, collectors will appreciate their inclusion. Here’s a quick rundown:
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Box-Office Bunny – Originally a theatrical release shown just before The Neverending Story II, this short was written and released in the early nineties. This was the first cartoon featuring Bugs Bunny where anyone other than Mel Blanc had voiced him, as he’d died just one year prior to its release. In it, Bugs is visibly peeved by the fact that an enormous multiplex cinema building has been constructed directly overtop his home. But his attempts to embrace its presence are subverted by none other than Elmer Fudd and Daffy Duck (who play allies—wha?!). The jokes herein are fast-paced and, for the most part, enjoyable. Nevertheless, Looney Tunes fundamentalists are less than enamored with this particular short, as it “breaks the rules” of the classic cartoons with some of its uncommon decisions (such as the Daffy + Fudd phenomenon)—as seen on IMDB.com.
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From Hare to Eternity – Chuck Jones’ final cartoon ever, this one’s honestly pretty hard to enjoy, for one simple reason: the terrible voice acting behind the likeness of Yosemite Sam, who sounds just plain ridiculous in comparison to Mel’s brilliant and beloved original. The short itself—which is a parody of the H.M.S. Pinafore opera (and thus remarkably similar in some ways to the related Animaniacs episode from a few years earlier)—really isn’t bad, but the VO just kills this one in all honesty.
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Pullet Surprise – Catch that pun? Foghorn Leghorn here is at least a little more convincing in his revised vocal style than Sam was in From Hare to Eternity, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say the voice acting here was a distraction as well. Nevertheless, this Chuck Jones directed cartoon is a little more stomachable than From Hare to Eternity, though the cartoon itself is really pretty substandard. I’m not sure that this is so much Chuck Jones’ shortfall as it is that of the actual production style of the cartoon. Once again, without the thoroughly believable yet uniquely over-the-top voice acting of Blanc, these stories just don’t have the same impact. It’s amazing how much of a difference it makes, and simply viewing these later cartoons proves it.