Rebel Rabbit
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Rebel Rabbit is a 1949 Bugs Bunny cartoon, directed by Robert McKimson. It is an anomaly in the Bugs Bunny cartoons: In this one, Bugs is the aggressor, and he ends up losing the fight.
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[edit] Plot
It starts out with Bugs noting that there are high bounties on various animals (such as $50 for a fox and $75 for a bear), only to be highly insulted by the two-cent bounty on rabbits. When a supercilious game department official explains to him that "rabbits are perfectly harmless, and the bounty stands at two cents" (making one wonder why a bounty is offered in the first place), Bugs vows to prove that rabbits are the most dangerous animals around and storms out, declaring "You'll be hearing from me!" He starts his rampage by slamming the official's door so hard that the glass in it shatters.
In short order, he pulls stunts like filling in the Grand Canyon, swiping all the locks off the Panama Canal, painting barbershop-pole stripes on the Washington Monument, shutting down Niagra Falls, and sawing Florida off from the rest of the country.
After an angry Congressman demands action, only to be interrupted by Bugs himself, the cartoon then includes live-action footage of the entire War Department mobilizing against Bugs Bunny. Tanks come rumbling out of their garages, soldiers pour out of barracks, and bugles blow. Bugs, now content with the $1 million bounty on his head (although it is for him specifically, not rabbits in general), is snapped out of his daydreams by the whole Army coming after him. A series of shells land in a circle around him and he asks, "Could it be that I carried this thing too far?" After a mighty explosion, he winds up in Alcatraz, where he answers, "Eh, could be!".
[edit] Notes
- Television versions of this cartoon edit out the scene where Bugs trades Manhattan back to the Indians for a set of dishes. It was shown uncut on Cartoon Network for a time until it was reshown with the scene edited. The uncut version is currently released (with picture and sound restored and remastered) on the third Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD set.
