Bugs in der Manege

A savage, undisciplined lion has been put behind bars for a circus carnival. He suddenly notices a hole on the floor of his cell, then sticks his nose into this hole to snuff it. At first he thinks Bugs Bunny's home is belong to a camel; yet when he wakes Bugs up from his sleep hoisting him up to the ground, there he meets with Bugs, his next trainer.

If you ever wonder how Bugs would turn a savage lion into a Hawaiian hula dancer with traditional skirts on, you should watch this cartoon. Director Bob McKimson offers endless laughters by means of absurd and unexpected demonstrative humour.

The signature scenes include:

1/ the look of Bugs Bunny's home, cross-referencing to Donald Duck with the B.B. name acronym on the headboard of Bugs's bed

2/ Bugs Bunny's short journey with the mine hoist climbing up to the ground floor

3/ When Nero the Lion calls his friend the Elephant for help, Bugs uses a toy mouse to scare the Elephant; since the Elephant needed a broom to outpower that toy mouse, he uses Nero as a broom!

4/ Bugs becoming a clown with the proper costume and make-up and the practical clown jokes that he makes

5/ the trapeze scene while Nero chasing after Bugs

6/ the famous Human Cannonball scene after which Nero the Lion starts dancing Hawaiian Hula

The magic moments which keep Acrobatty Bunny fresh at all times in our memory:

1/ When Bugs comes out of his bunny hole, he thinks he's in the Pinocchio tale; and starts acting to save Pinocchio out of the giant whale's stomach

2/ When the Lion roars to scare him, Bugs replies back to him with roaring

3/ Bugs arguing with the Lion for he's making so much noise, then finding a piece of wood to rub it against the iron bars while singing in order to make more noise than him

4/ Wearing rubber heels at the circus, Bugs starts to bounce like toy rabbits and causes Nero to bounce!

Those are the 10 main reasons that keeps Acrobatty Bunny as a Bugs Bunny classic and can be found in the "Bugs Bunny Classics' MGM/UA Video (1989)"

You've got a good point there, Nero.

Perhaps best known for being the first Looney Tune to end with "That's All, Folks!" combined with the Looney Tunes theme music, this 1946 cartoon, in which Bugs Bunny takes on a lion and briefly an elephant at a circus, might not exactly have me in stitches, but it is perfectly amusing and well-made all the same. Overall, I do derive a strange amount of pleasure from watching Bugs torment the poor lion, and Acrobatty Bunny has several highlights, such as Bugs' lawbreaking elevator to the surface, and the scene in which he dresses as a clown and, indeed, puts the lion in the stitches that he failed to put me in.

The "good news" is that the circus is in town. The "bad news" is that's right over Bugs Bunny's underground home. He wakes up as his place shakes like an earthquake hit it, when workers pound stakes into the ground and elephants stomp by, etc.

To be more specific, the lions' cage is place exactly over Bugs' hole. The lion sniffs food, and by process of elimination, figures out it's a rabbit. Bugs, curious what all the racket is about, winds his way through the tunnel and winds up in the lion's mouth.

I'll say for thing for BB: he is totally fearless, at least in this cartoon, and at least for 30 seconds. When he comes to his senses, he runs like crazy and we get a lion-versus-a rabbit battle the rest of the way. Once again, Bugs faces dumb opponent, one he calls "Nero," but lion is fierce and Bugs will need all his wits and somewhat-fake bravado to fend off this beast.

About half the gags are stupid and the other half funny, but always fast-moving, colorful and good enough to recommend. I mean, it's not everyday you can see a lion on a trapeze, or doing a hula dance!

When the circus moves in to the area, all the banging above ground wakes Bugs up. However, when he comes up to the surface to complain he finds that a lion cage has been placed right on top of his burrow hole, complete with one hungry lion.

This short starts really badly and it put me on guard for some time in regards the quality of the overall product. The problem is the low grade animation; the people in the circus look blocky and Bugs himself is not drawn with as much care as he has been at times – here he looks very simplistic and lacking quality.

The comedy however works well despite the shaky start. Bugs does his usual stuff and the lion is capable for quite a few good laughs – better than I expected actually! The film raises a few laughs and I was glad that this film managed to have had more effort put into it's material than it had into it's animation.

Overall this cartoon is not classic Bugs but it is still funny enough to be worth watching despite the animation lacking the care and attention that it should have.

Robert McKimson's 'Acrobatty Bunny' is one of the director's finest shorts. Although the circus-based setting may evoke hideous memories of McKimson's dreadful 'Big Top Bunny', 'Acrobatty Bunny' is in fact nowhere near as dull as that travesty. Pitting Bugs Bunny against a ferocious lion, 'Acrobatty Bunny' is fresh and funny from the outset, not to mention extremely attractive to look at. There's a classic scene in which Bugs takes a strangled elevator ride out of his hole only to emerge directly into the jaws of the lion. In a brilliant Disney parody, he hollers "Pinocchio" down the lion's throat! This brilliant opening is a sign of things to come. There are some expertly choreographed antics in and around the lion's cage to begin with, followed by a hilariously grotesque and irritating rendition of 'Laugh Clown Laugh' which, as a child, I used to impersonate regularly! All this culminates in a short acrobatic sequence which gives the cartoon its name. I've never been fond of the circus as a setting for cartoons and find it usually makes for a dull and predictable set of gags but 'Acrobatty Bunny' breaks from the mould and the result is an exhilaratingly funny short which stands amongst McKimson's best.