Operation: Rabbit

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Operation: Rabbit Looney Tunes series
Directed by	Charles M. Jones
Produced by	Eddie Selzer
Story by	Michael Maltese
Voices by	Mel Blanc
Music by	Carl W. Stalling
Animation by	Lloyd Vaughan Ben Washam Ken Harris Phil Monroe
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	January 19, 1952
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	7 min (one reel)

Operation: Rabbit is a Looney Tunes animated cartoon first released theatrically in 1952. It was directed by Chuck Jones and features Bugs Bunny and Wile E. Coyote^[1].

This was the second cartoon to feature Wile E. Coyote (following 1949's Fast and Furry-ous), and the first in which he is identified by his full name. It is also the first in which the Coyote speaks; his voice, like Bugs's, was provided by Mel Blanc. The two characters would reappear together in the cartoons To Hare Is Human (1956), Rabbit's Feat (1960), Compressed Hare (1961), and Hare-Breadth Hurry (1963).

[edit] Plot

As the cartoon opens, Wile E. Coyote runs up to Bugs Bunny's hole and constructs a door. He knocks on the door and Bugs, slightly bemused by the addition to his property, opens it. The Coyote advises Bugs of he being a rabbit and himself a genius, and he will eat Bugs as he is faster and smarter than him. Bugs, unimpressed, says "I'm sorry mac, the lady of the house ain't here. And besides, we mailed you people a check last week." The Coyote leaves (with the door), asking himself, "Why do they always want to do it the hard way?"

At his cave hideout, the Coyote's first plan then follows: he builds a pressure cooker and takes a cook book and ingredients for preparing "Rabbit stew" in the rabbit's hole. Bugs (in another hole) looks at his work and asks him what he is preparing. The Coyote says the hole has a rabbit inside, but it does not. He looks into the hole and Bugs pushes him and traps him in the hole. He then picks up a bat, goes back down the second hole, and clobbers the Coyote at the other hole, prompting the Coyote to remark, "Well, back to the old drawing board."

Afterwards, the Coyote prepares a second plan: the use of a chute for firing a cannon ball into Bugs's hole. After the ball arrives in the hole via the chute from a cannon, Bugs uses a second chute to return the ball to the Coyote, exploding on target.

The Coyote then returns to his cave and builds one explosive lady rabbit and activates her, the explosive inside on a timer. Shortly thereafter, the Coyote encounters one coyote lady (also an explosive) and Bugs detonates that robot. The Coyote (now charred from Bugs's exploding coyote) suddenly hears the timer inside his temporarily forgotten robot rabbit going off. He tries to throw her out the window, but she explodes.

A few hours later, Bugs goes to the Coyote's cave to sign what appears to be a will (Bugs claiming he's giving up, but needs a witness for his will). He puts one contract for the Coyote to sign and one pen (of TNT) for him to write on with. Coyote knows its a TNT stick and puts out the fuse. While gloating, it is revealed there is a fuse at the other end of the TNT stick, which explodes just as Coyote realises it.

The Coyote then creates an exploding flying saucer with a radarscope mechanism able to target various animals (such as Birds, Mice and Rabbits). The disc flies to Bugs's hole and encounters a chicken (Bugs disguised). The saucer is at first suspicious of the Chicken-Bugs, almost catching Bugs peeking out from under his mask. When it finally turns away and ignores him, Bugs then writes in "Coyote" on the radarscope's target options and moves the dial to the new target. The saucer speeds back to the Coyote's home, blowing up not only Coyote's home - but the whole mountain.

The Coyote makes one last plan: He puts explosive liquid nitroglycerin in a line of carrots in a rack inside his alternate home, a ramshackle shack (This plan being seemingly desperate, as in logic, Bugs would not be in any edible pieces after the explosion). Bugs, using a tractor, drags the shack to the desert's railroad track (previously seen in Stop, Look and Hasten). Meanwhile, Coyote is admiring his new self-given title "Super Genius" (Which he comments "I like the way that rolls out - Wile.E.Coyote: Suuuper Geeenius"). All the while, a train rushes toward the shack. Coyote realises this and - in vain - puts the window blind down. The train hits the shack, and the impact causes a great explosion (what with the shack being filled with many explosive items), launching Coyote high into the air onto a branch.

Coyote (still dazed and covered in ash from the previous scene) returns to Bugs's hole, rebuilds his door, knocks on it and says "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mud." and abruptly passes out. Bugs then looks into the camera and says to us, "...And remember, MUD spelled backwards is DUM!" (dumb)

[edit] Quotes

Wile E. Coyote: Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Wile E. Coyote...Genius. I am not selling anything nor am I working my way through college, so let's get down to cases. You are a rabbit and I am going to eat you for supper. (Bugs feigns surprise) Now don't try to get away! I am more muscular, more cunning, faster and larger than you are...and I'm a genius. Why you could hardly pass the entrance examinations to kindergarten. So I'm going to give you the customary two minutes to say your prayers.
Bugs Bunny: I'm Sorry, Mac, the lady of the house ain't home and besides, we mailed you people a check last week.
Bugs Bunny: (singing) I'm looking over a three-leaf clover that I overlooked be-three...
Bugs Bunny: I have come to give myself up on account of I cannot compete no more against such genius.
Wile E. Coyote: A wise decision, my friend. You have saved yourself from a fate worse than the frying pan.
Bugs Bunny: I just have one last request. I have made my last will and testament, and need a witness to make it official. (hands Wile E. the will and a lit dynamite stick for a pen)
Wile E. Coyote: Why certainly! I'll be glad to! Such an amateurish attempt upon my person.
(Wile E. extinguishes fuse, throws stick up in the air repeatedly - not noticing the lit fuse on the other end)
Wile E. Coyote: Being a genius certainly has its advantages. (notices the lit fuse, dynamite explodes)
Wile E. Coyote: (while preparing his explosive carrots) Wile E. Coyote, Supergenius. (he hears the sound of a train whistle in the distance, but he ignores it) I like the way it rolls out. Wile E. Coyote, Sup-er-gen-i-us.
(The train whistle is heard louder than before. Wile E. turns and sees a train heading directly at his shed. He pulls down a window shade right before the train hits his shed, blowing it up. The Coyote is then seen holding onto a branch high above the tracks, charred dark gray and speaking groggily.)
Wile E. Coyote: Wile E. Coyote... Supergenius!
Wile E. Coyote: Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Mud.
Bugs Bunny: And remember, Mud spelled backwards is Dum.