El Acróbata

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.

If you love Bugs Bunny and Looney Tunes then you will love Acrobatty Bunny. While it starts off a little rocky, with some disappointingly blocky animation, the cartoon gets better and better, and the animation does as well so by halfway through it is much more colourful and solid. The music throughout is absolutely great, I loved the dialogue and the sight gags were both hilarious and awe-inspiring. What I also loved about Acrobatty Bunny was how quickly it went, it didn't feel rushed, but it skipped along with consummate ease. As for Bugs I had no problem with his performance whatsoever, he's still the funny, arrogant and charming rabbit I fell in love with when I was six years old. Mel Blanc does a stellar job with the vocals, so overall I don't think other than the rocky start that you will be disappointed. 9/10 Bethany Cox

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.