Buckaroo Bugs

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Buckaroo Bugs is a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short released in 1944, starring Bugs Bunny and directed by Bob Clampett. It runs for about nine minutes, and is in color with a mono sound mix.

Mel Blanc provided the voices for Bugs Bunny, Red Hot Ryder, and some of the villagers. Lou Lilly wrote the story, and Leon Schlesinger served as producer. While only Manny Gould was credited as an animator, Robert McKimson and Rod Scribner also aided in the process. Other uncredited 'staff' includes the composers of several uncredited bits of non-original music--Sanford Faulkner ('Arkansas Traveller'), M.K. Jerome ('My Little Buckaroo', where the title ostensibly takes its name), Gioacchino Rossini ('William Tell Overture'), Franz Schubert ('Der Erlkonig'), and J.S. Zamecnik ('In the Stirrups'). All original music was composed by Carl W. Stalling. Oddly enough, Bugs Bunny serves as antagonist: in the cartoon, he plays a carrot thief called the Masked Marauder, whom Brooklyn's Red Hot Ryder must bring to justice. The cartoon portrays Red Hot Ryder as a dimwit who can't distinguish Bugs Bunny from the Masked Marauder, and his good-natured slowness is consistently mocked: when Bugs Bunny as the Masked Marauder threatens to shoot Red Hot Ryder, saying, "Stick 'em up, or I'll blow your brains out," the latter treats it like a choice, replying, "Well, now, that's mighty neighborly of you." In the end, Red Hot Ryder catches on, but is unable to catch the Masked Marauder. It's one of the few cartoons that rewards the antagonist for bad behavior.

The cartoon has been released on VHS in anonymous 'Bugs Bunny' collections, but has not, been released on DVD. Red Hot Ryder serves as a spoof of Red Ryder, borrowing the image of the popular Western serial's cowboy hero, Don 'Red' Barry.