Bully for Bugs

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"Bully for Bugs" Looney Tunes series

Directed by	Charles M. Jones
Produced by	Edward Selzer
Story by	Michael Maltese
Voices by	Mel Blanc
Music by	Carl W. Stalling
Animation by	Ken Harris Lloyd Vaughan Ben Washam
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	August 8, 1953 (USA premiere)
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	7 min., 12 sec. (one reel)
IMDb profile

Bully for Bugs is a 1952 Warner Brothers Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short released on August 1953. It was directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese.

1 Synopsis
2 Video game adaptations
3 Trivia
4 Censorship

[edit] Synopsis

Bugs performs the now immortal Slap Dance to the tune of "Las Chiapanecas" on a confused Toro.

On his way to the Coachella Valley for the "big carrot festival therein," Bugs Bunny gets lost in a bullring in the middle of a bullfight between Toro the bull and a very nervous matador. Bugs famously declares he "shoulda make a left toin at Albuqoique". As he asks the matador for directions, the matador escapes into the stands, leaving Bugs to fend for himself against Toro. After irating Bugs and getting a slap for "steaming up my tail," Toro rams the poor hare out of the bullring, Bugs muttering his famous line, "Of course you realize, dis means war".

Toro takes his applause for claiming his latest victim, but it is short-lived because Bugs re-enters the bullring in matador garb. Bugs defeats Toro using an anvil hidden behind his cape. While Toro is still dazed from his collision, Bugs makes the bull follow the cape up to a bull shield where his horns pierce it. Bugs hits the horns like nails and makes fun of Toro using puns ("What a gulli-bull, what a nin-cow-poop"), not knowing the bull can detach his horns and strike back.

While Toro sharpens his horns, Bugs interrupts him by placing an elastic band around the horns and attaching a boulder at the other side, knocking the bull out. Toro charges back at Bugs. Bugs then returns, this time in a large sombrero doing a little dance and slapping Toro on the face to the tune of Las Chiapanecas. Toro tries to punch him twice but is slapped each time. Bugs dances more and then disappears under the sombrero, but not before pinching Toro's nose.

While Toro once again sharpens his horns, Bugs has prepared a booby trap for the bull, composed of a double-barreled shotgun hidden behind the cape. Toro charges towards the cape, and somehow the shotgun previously in Bugs's hand enters Toro's body and stops at his tail, firing a bullet from one of Toro's horn when he flicks his tail (and the shotgun) on the ground. Now having the upper hand, Toro chases Bugs shooting at the hare, but Toro eventually runs out of bullets. Toro "reloads" by swallowing several "elephant bullets" (with explosive heads) but when he attempts to test-fire, he instead explodes, gun and all.

Bugs taunts Toro once again by calling him, among other things, an "ultra maroon," but realizes that he is cornered by the bull behind barred gates. Awaiting certain death (he writes a will and says his last prayers), Bugs miraculuously opens the gates like a garage door, sending Toro out of the bullring and into the horizon. Toro runs back to the bullring, not anticipating that Bugs has laid axle grease, a ramp, and some platforms on the bull's path. The grease and ramp send Toro airborne over some glue, a sheet of sandpaper, a protruding matchstick, and a barrel of TNT which explodes when Toro flies by. Still in the air and in shock, Toro finally crashes into a wooden bull shield.

The cartoon ends with the unconscious bull's hindquarters sticking out of the shield, and the victorious Bugs waving the cape with the words "THE END" on it.

[edit] Video game adaptations

Bully for Bugs has been adapted into various levels in Bugs Bunny video game.

Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage has a level where Bugs tricks Toro to run into steel girders.
Bugs Bunny In Double Trouble level has Bugs searching underground for various items for the booby trap.
Bugs Bunny Lost in Time features Bully for Bugs as a bonus level. Where Bugs in his signature matador outfit faces Toro, forces him to run into anvils hidden behind Bugs' cape.
The Sega Genesis game Taz: Escape from Mars; Toro appears as the end-of-world boss in Mexico.

[edit] Trivia

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Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008)

Chuck Jones said that he made this cartoon after producer Eddie Selzer told him that bullfights were not funny. Eddie, Jones notes, had an unerring sense for audience appeal: Anything he didn't think was funny, the audience inevitably would. Eddie was also responsible for the camel in Sahara Hare, which he inspired by asserting that camels were not funny.
The sounds of the crowd are recorded from a genuine bull-fighting crowd in Barcelona, Spain.
Despite the fact that it has carrots, some fans have come to the conclusion that Bugs' reason for his journey to the carrot festival was to celebrate Cinco de Mayo (This opinion is not supported by the August release date). It should also be noted that while the Coachella Valley is a major agricultural region which grows some carrots, it does not hold an annual carrot festival. The immediate area's carrot growing region is outside of the valley in the Imperial County town of Holtville which does in fact hold an annual carrot festival.
The boulder to the face gag was reused from Rabbit Punch which was also directed by Chuck Jones five years earlier.
Toro the bull can be seen in the beginning of Who Framed Roger Rabbit auditioning with other bulls at the Maroon Cartoon Studios for a part for in a cartoon
Toro also appears in Space Jam, Looney Tunes: Back in Action and the video game "sheep raider" also known as "sheep dog and wolf.
In the Tiny Toon Adventures episode "Starting from Scratch" Bugs' apprentice Buster Bunny tries the now famous slap dance on a bedbug only to backfire on him. Prompting Buster to remark "Well it worked for Bugs Bunny."
In the Codename: Kids Next Door episode M.A.T.A.D.O.R., the opening scene is similar to Bully for Bugs.

[edit] Censorship

When this cartoon aired on ABC, the part where the bull swallows a box of elephant gun bullets and explodes was cut. Also cut was the end gag where the famous glue-and-sandpaper-and-lit-match-and-dynamite end sequence. The edited version just has the bull go up the ramp and hit the wall.
The CBS airing of this cartoon in the 1980s edited the famous glue-and-sandpaper-and-lit-match-and-dynamite end sequence as well, but just edited the lit match and dynamite part so now the edited cartoon shows the bull getting slathered with glue and stuck with sandpaper on his underside before hitting the wall. Strangely enough, CBS also retained the bull looking much the worse for wear immediately following the dynamite's explosion.