Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals

Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals

Directed by	Chuck Jones
Produced by	Chuck Jones
Story by	Chuck Jones Ogden Nash
Voices by	Mel Blanc
Music by	Camille Saint-Saëns
Animation by	Master animators: Phil Monroe Manny Perez Ben Washam Tom Ray Lloyd Vaughan
Studio	Chuck Jones Enterprises Warner Bros. Television
Distributed by	CBS
Release date(s)	November 22, 1976 (USA)
Color process	DeLuxe Color
Running time	23 minutes
Language	English

Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals (originally aired as Carnival of the Animals) is a combination animation/live action television special, starring Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, and directed by Chuck Jones. Premiering on CBS on November 22, 1976, and consisting entirely of new animation, this prime time TV special represented Bugs Bunny and company's first foray into prime time television since the early 1960s. Carnival of the Animals was purposely cast in the successful mold of Jones' own earlier musical cartoons – Rabbit of Seville, Long-Haired Hare and Baton Bunny – and set the familiar showbiz rivalry between Bugs and Daffy against the orchestral backdrop of musician Michael Tilson Thomas, in a performance based on the music of Camille Saint-Saëns and the poetry of Ogden Nash.

Production

Behind the scenes

Prime-time television would seem to be the natural place for the adult humor of Warner Bros.'s classic cartoons, as was exemplified by the success of The Bugs Bunny Show that aired Tuesday evenings on ABC in the early 1960s. However, in the mid-1960s, the Warner Bros. cartoons had become established as kiddie entertainment. By 1968, executives at CBS were convinced that all animated material, no matter what its original intended audience had been, belonged exclusively on Saturday mornings. However, the popular characters of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies intentionally had enduring adult appeal from the first, and with the success of other prime-time television specials, such as Charlie Brown, in the mid-1970s, network programmers were finally convinced to give the Warner Bros. animated characters another chance in prime time.

According to animation historians Kevin McCorry and Jon Cooke:

Cartoon characters, appearing in holiday-related, half-hour features, could be relied upon to garner respectable ratings and advertising revenue. Further, with the reduction of regular series episodes per season to below 26, specials were needed to fill the gaps in the 52 weeks that constituted a television season.^[1]

This special marked the first time since Warner Bros. had closed their studios in 1964 that Bugs Bunny had appeared on-screen with new material. (Bugs, unlike most of the other regular Looney Tunes characters, had not appeared in any of the outsourced productions distributed under the Warner Bros. banner from 1964 to 1969.)

Credits

Cast

Mel Blanc as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig (voice characterizations)

Michael Tilson Thomas as Himself (the conductor) ^[2]

Crew

Cinematography by Wally Bulloch
Production Design by Herbert Klynn
Animation by:
Produced, written, and directed by Chuck Jones^[2]

Availability

Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals is available on VHS, but this television special was also released on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5 DVD along with Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over and Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales.^[3]

References

External links

Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals on IMDb

Chuck Jones
Short subjects	The Night Watchman (1938) Robin Hood Makes Good (1939) Prest-O Change-O (1939) Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur (1939) Naughty but Mice (1939) Elmer's Candid Camera (1940) Joe Glow, the Firefly (1941) Conrad the Sailor (1942) The Draft Horse (1942) Fox Pop (1942) The Dover Boys at Pimento University, or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall (1942) My Favorite Duck (1942) To Duck or Not to Duck (1943) Fin'n Catty (1943) The Weakly Reporter (1944) Angel Puss (1944) Hell-Bent for Election (1944) Odor-able Kitty (1945) Fresh Airedale (1945) Hare Tonic (1945) Hair-Raising Hare (1946) Fair and Worm-er (1946) A Pest in the House (1947) Little Orphan Airedale (1947) Scaredy Cat (1948) Long-Haired Hare (1949) For Scent-imental Reasons (1949) Fast and Furry-ous (1949) So Much for So Little (1949) Awful Orphan (1949) Bear Feat (1949) Rabbit Hood (1949) Often an Orphan (1949) The Ducksters (1950) Dog Gone South (1950) 8 Ball Bunny (1950) The Hypo-Chondri-Cat (1950) Homeless Hare (1950) The Scarlet Pumpernickel (1950) Caveman Inki (1950) Rabbit of Seville (1950) The "Hunting Trilogy" Rabbit Fire (1951) Rabbit Seasoning (1952) Duck! Rabbit, Duck! (1953) Bunny Hugged (1951) Feed the Kitty (1952) Water, Water Every Hare (1952) The Hasty Hare (1952) Duck Amuck (1953) Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (1953) Bully for Bugs (1953) Punch Trunk (1953) No Barking (1954) Sheep Ahoy (1954) Feline Frame-Up (1954) One Froggy Evening (1955) Double or Mutton (1955) Rabbit Rampage (1955) Heaven Scent (1955) Rocket-bye Baby (1956) Ali Baba Bunny (1956) What's Opera, Doc? (1957) Scrambled Aches (1957) Zoom and Bored (1957) Robin Hood Daffy (1958) Hare-Way to the Stars (1958) Hook, Line and Stinker (1958) Hip Hip-Hurry! (1958) Hot-Rod and Reel! (1959) Wild About Hurry (1959) Fastest with the Mostest (1960) Hopalong Casualty (1960) Who Scent You? {1960) Rabbit's Feat (1960) High Note (1960) Ready, Woolen and Able (1960) Compressed Hare (1961) Zip 'N Snort (1961) Lickety-Splat (1961) Beep Prepared (1961) Now Hear This (1962) Zoom at the Top (1962) A Sheep in the Deep (1962) Hare-Breadth Hurry (1963) To Beep or Not To Beep (1963) Tom and Jerry (cartoon shorts, 1963–1967) War and Pieces (1964) The Dot and the Line (1965) The Bear That Wasn't (1967) Freeze Frame (1979) Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bunny (1980) Spaced Out Bunny (1980) Soup or Sonic (1980) Chariots of Fur (1994) Another Froggy Evening (1995) Superior Duck (1996) From Hare to Eternity (1997)
Television specials	Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966) The Pogo Special Birthday Special (1969) Horton Hears a Who! (1970) The Cat in the Hat (1971, producer) The Cricket in Times Square (1973) A Very Merry Cricket (1973) Yankee Doodle Cricket (1975) The White Seal (1975) Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (1975) Mowgli's Brothers (1976) Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals (1976) Raggedy Ann and Andy in The Great Santa Claus Caper (1978) Raggedy Ann and Andy in The Pumpkin Who Couldn't Smile (1979) Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales (1979) Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over (1980) A Chipmunk Christmas (1981)
Feature films	Gay Purr-ee (1962, screenplay) The Phantom Tollbooth (1970) The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979)
Books	Daffy Duck for President (1997)
Comics	Crawford (1977–1978)
Characters	Bugs Bunny Charlie Dog Claude Cat Daffy Duck Elmer Fudd Gossamer Hubie and Bertie Marc Antony and Pussyfoot Marvin the Martian Michigan J. Frog Pepé Le Pew Porky Pig Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog Sniffles The Three Bears Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner
Other works	Chuck Amuck: The Movie Chuck Jones – Extremes & Inbetweens: A Life in Animation

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