Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips" | |
| Merrie Melodies series | |
 |
|
| Directed by | I. Freleng |
|---|---|
| Story by | Michael Maltese |
| Animation by | Gerry Chiniquy Virgil Ross |
| Voices by | Mel Blanc |
| Music by | Carl W. Stalling |
| Produced by | Leon Schlesinger |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
| Release date | April 22, 1944 (USA premiere) |
| Format | Technicolor, (one reel) |
| Language | English |
| IMDb page | |
Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips is a Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, and released to theatres on April 22, 1944 by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Vitaphone Corporation.
The cartoon was made during World War II, and reflects the United States' attitude towards one of its main enemies at the time, Japan. In the cartoon, Bugs Bunny lands on an island in the Pacific and is pitted against a group of highly stereotyped Japanese soldiers. Bugs shows no mercy against the Japanese soldiers, greeting them with several racial slurs such as "monkey face" and "slant eyes", making short work of a large sumo wrestler, and bombing most of the Japanese army using various explosives, including grenades hidden in ice cream bars.
[edit] Controversy
Since the 1960s, Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips has become very controversial, because of its portrayal of the Japanese and Bugs' attitude and casual violence toward them. Despite its dated anti-Japanese slant (in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor drawing the United States directly into World War II against the Axis powers), and because the cartoon was not one of The Censored Eleven, it was occasionally shown on television in syndicated packages with other pre-1948 Warner cartoons that were under the ownership of Associated Artists Productions. It debuted on home video in December 1991 on the first Golden Age of Looney Tunes laser disc collection. The niche market format did not cause a stir, but when the 5 disc set was later issued in the more accessible VHS format on 10 separate tapes, Japanese rights groups protested its distribution, and both releases were withdrawn. Reissues for both formats replaced the cartoon with Racketeer Rabbit. The VHS reissue combined volumes 4 and 7 of the 10 tape set.
