| Rebel Rabbit | |
|---|---|
| Merrie Melodies/Bugs Bunny series | |
| Directed by | Robert McKimson |
| Story by | Warren Foster |
| Voices by | Mel Blanc |
| Music by | Carl W. Stalling |
| Animation by | Charles McKimson Phil DeLara Manny Gould John Carey |
| Layouts by | Cornett Wood |
| Backgrounds by | Richard H. Thomas |
| Studio | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Release date(s) | April 9, 1949 |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 6:39 |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Mississippi Hare |
| Followed by | High Diving Hare |
Rebel Rabbit is a 1949 animated short starring Bugs Bunny. It is an anomaly in the Bugs Bunny cartoons — in this one, Bugs is the aggressor, and he ends up losing the fight. Having found out that the bounty for rabbits is only 2 cents, Bugs intends to prove that rabbits are tough — even if he has to be 'more obnoxious than anybody'. Some scenes utilize live action stock footage.
Contents |
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, equal to $461 to $691 today), only to be highly offended by the two-cent bounty (equal to $0.18 today) on rabbits. Bugs has himself mailed to Washington DC, where a supercilious game commissioner explains that the bounty is so low because, while foxes and bears are "obnoxious" animals who damage property, "rabbits are perfectly harmless." Bugs vows to prove that "A rabbit can be more obnoxious than anybody!" and storms out, slamming the game commissioner's door so hard that the glass in it shatters.
Bugs begins his campaign by attacking a guard with his own billy club. From there, he pulls stunts like renaming Barney Baruch's private bench as "Bugs Bunny's", painting barbershop-pole stripes on the Washington Monument, rewiring the lights in Times Square to read "Bugs Bunny Wuz Here" (sic), shutting down Niagara Falls, selling the entire island of Manhattan back to Native Americans, sawing Florida off from the rest of the country, swiping all the locks off the Panama Canal, filling in the Grand Canyon, and literally tying up railroad tracks.
An angry Senator Claghorn-esque Congressman demands action against Bugs but is interrupted by Bugs, who emerges from the congressman's hat,slaps him and gives him a mocking kiss. The cartoon then shows live-action footage of the entire War Department mobilizing against Bugs, although the War Department was replaced by the Department of Defense two years before this cartoon. Tanks come rumbling out of their garages, soldiers pour out of barracks, and bugles blow. Bugs, now satisfied with the $1 million bounty (equal to $9,212,885 today) on his head, is snapped out of a Tarzanesque mood ("Bugs Bunny, King of the Beasts!" followed by Blanc's rendition of the "Tarzan yell") by the whole Army coming after him. Bugs then dives into a fox hole as artillery shells surround the foxhole. Bugs then quotes "Could it be that I carried this thing too far" just as the shells explode. It then cuts to Alcatraz Island where Bugs is in a jail cell as he admits "Ehhh, could be."
The missing scene and the sound effects mentioned above are reinstated on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3 DVD set.
| Preceded by Mississippi Hare |
Bugs Bunny Cartoons 1949 |
Succeeded by High Diving Hare |