Super-Schlappohr

This 1943 Merrie Melodies cartoon transforms Bugs Bunny into Superman, with big ears.In Charles M. Jones' Super-Rabbit Professor Cannafraz gives Bugs Bunny a super carrot, that gives him incredible strength and a flying ability.He flies out to fight Cottontail Smith, whose plan is to hunt down all the rabbits.The voice artists here are Mel Blanc, Tedd Pierce and Kent Rogers.This short is the most hilarious Superman parody.Like in the scene where Bugs passes by a horse in the air, who shouts, "a rabbit? Up HERE!?"Or Bugs playing basketball with a cannonball.In the end Bugs becomes a Marine, which made the U.S. Marine Corps so glad they wanted the character to be officially inducted into the force as a private.What a hero, that Bugs Bunny!

People would find it hard to believe that "Superman" was around in the early '40s, early enough to be parodied in this 1943 cartoon. George Reeves made the character famous on television but that wasn't for about another eight or nine years. Before that, there were two serials. I was shocked myself that they were imitating Superman this early on in a cartoon.

Superman began on the radio in 1941 and Bud Collyer, who became famous years after as host on TV's "To Tell The Truth" voiced the title role!

Anyway, in this cartoon we get the tale of "Bugs Bunny: Super-Rabbit" and what "caused this extraordinary metamorphose of a timid woodland creature into the super-dynamic rabbit of tomorrow!"

It seems a wild-looking scientist (aren't they all in classic movie era?) has an experimental rabbit which has a scientific name: rabbitus idiotus americanus. I wonder if the Road Runner cartoon writers got their inspiration for that watching this? Anyway, Richard Haydn's unmistakable voice plays "Professor Canafrazz," so that's an unexpected bonus. Haydn was always fun to hear in regular movies. Eating a special carrot gives Bugs his new super powers. Looking a newspaper headline about a guy who wants to wipe out all the rabbits gives Bugs his first assignment as the new superhero.

For an early BB cartoon, this was great stuff and not far off his wise guy character of the next decade which brought him super fame. True, it has that early '40s cornball humor that is more stupid than the better material of the '50s, but it's still Bugs and it's still pretty clever and unpredictable most of the time. Bugs' disguise with the Clark Kent-glasses and the phone booth out in the middle of Texas was hilarious!

Still in his relative infancy, Bugs Bunny becomes a superhero out to fight an anti-rabbit cowboy. I really liked the scene of the two of them on the horse. Maybe the wartime themes make us cringe a little bit nowadays, but they're not vicious by any stretch (although I hear that some Looney Tunes cartoons were). Maybe this wasn't the greatest Bugs Bunny cartoon in history, but it's definitely worth seeing. Anyone can plainly see why the Looney Tunes cartoons from the '40s and '50s were some of the best cartoons in cinema history (I can't say the same for their modern cartoons; for starters, no more Mel Blanc). A real classic.

Professor Canafrazz cooks up a carrot to turn Bugs Bunny into Super-Rabbit. He just needs to keep eating those special carrots to maintain his superpowers. He reads that rabbit-hating Cottontail Smith has been wiping out rabbits in Texas. Now he has a mission.

This is a reference to Superman. I wish that they go full out with doing a Superman rabbit. Why not have an advanced alien planet of rabbits? That would be loads of fun. Nevertheless, this is Bugs Bunny and it's good as most Bugs episodes are. I would still make Bugs an alien. He could be battling a wolf from a wolf planet. That would be better.

I found this an enjoyable Bugs Bunny cartoon with story written by Tedd Pierce. Normally I don't really like parody; in fact I hate it! Also I'm not too crazy about Superman either because I'm rooting for Batman. But I do love it when Bugs becomes "SUPER RABBIT!" defending the rabbits of "Deepinharta," Texas from Cottontail Smith the rabbit hater. I mean, dude! What have you got against rabbits huh?

One more thing to point out is that I really against animal testing - in real life that is. Like Bugs was a test subject in the laboratory of a scientist who has invented a "super carrot," which when eaten by Bugs gives him Superman-like powers. Overall I give this short an 6/10 stars for a mediocre story-line.