El Conejo Equipo

In most Bugs Bunny cartoons, he is pitted against a foe, usually human, while formidable in their own way, are obviously not in his league when it comes to brains. In this particular one, directed by Friz Freleng, he is up against a whole team of them. Bugs calls the Gas House Gorillas "a bunch of dirty cheaters". They then challenge him to a game of baseball where Bugs has to play every position, plus having to catch up where the Tea Totalers left off, behind 96-0 or something close to this score. Many of the jokes aren't up to writer Michael Maltese's usual standards, but anyone who has ever watched this cartoon will never forget the ending sequence where Bugs has to catch the last out of the game to win it.

Bugs is watching a one sided baseball match and is giving the winning team a lot of verbal about their skills or, in his opinion, lack of them. When the team surround him and call his bluff, Bugs is forced to play them himself – in all positions!

Bugs' antics are as good as ever here even if he has no one single foil to battle. The plot sets him up to outwit the baseball team of thugs and win his bet. The jokes are good as they always are, but they do tend to get a little repetitive and it quickly runs out of things to do within the confines of the stadium and the sport.

The characters are all good. The baseball bruisers are the same sort of make up as most of the thuggish characters which populate these cartoons, but Bugs deals with them well in a mix of physical comedy and quick wit!

Overall this is typical of Bugs Bunny's style and will be enjoyed by fans. Only thing to note is that it is a bit lacking in imagination after a short while and is not the best example of a fine Bugs Bunny cartoon.

...if you want to see Bugs in a sports milieu. You'll see Bugs takes care of his own business as opposed to kidnapping a popular, talented athlete to do it for him. You won't see Bugs nabbing Joe DiMaggio, say, to help him against the Gashouse Gorillas. But I digress.

I think the comments on this toon are a bit too analytical. The fact is this is a classic and just plain fun; a toon that I always enjoyed as a kid (and I wasn't even a baseball fan at the time).

Notice how the Gorillas start out as the visiting team, then end up as the home team. Also, note how Bugs, when following the Gorillas' would-be game-ending long fly to try and catch it, gets off the cab that's "going the wrong way" and gets on a bus that appears to be heading in the same direction. These "bloopers" were probably due to error and/or a limited budget but they only add to the hilarious charm of this classic cartoon.

The Tea Totallers is not a good ball team. The average age of the players is about 93--or 93 and a half as one player tells us in his best Lou Costello imitation. The Gas-House Gorillas is not a good ball team either. Everyone on it is an enormous, bullying reprobate. Contemptuous, too. A player grounds an umpire into the ground with his fist. The overconfident jerks even dance a conga line around the bases. Bugs Bunny picks the wrong team to boo. When he shouts that he could take on the Gorillas all by himself with one hand tied behind his back, they take him up on it, except for the hand-tying. Now it's the Gorillas against Bugs on first, Bugs on second, Bugs on third, Bugs pitching, Bugs catching; and it's no match. That is, the Gorillas are no match for our wily Bugs.

Friz Freleng and Michael Maltese give us several unforgettable moments: the screaming liner to left field; Bugs the catcher encouraging Bugs the pitcher with "That's the old pepper, boy"; Bugs's unique method for stealing a base; and even the Statue of Liberty imitating a typical woman fan of the day: "That's what the man said, you heard what he said, he said that!" Mel Blanc's voice talents, as usual, rival Bugs Bunny's one-man show. Treg Brown gives us several hilarious sound effects, such as what accompanies Bugs's wind-up pitch and what we hear when a Gorilla blows cigar smoke in Bugs's face. Carl Stalling writes a score worthy of Bugs and baseball.

This short is available on the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume One," Disc 1.

My description for this Bugs Bunny episode, overall, is fun. The beginning of it is very boring and not very funny, but Bugs Bunny transforms this cartoon completely. If it had been any other cartoon character, this episode would have been a disaster. Bugs Bunny had to come on to enhance the action.

Bugs Bunny is watching a very boring and bad (according to him anyway) baseball match, saying he could do better. Not too surprisingly, the other players of the game challenge him to a game and Bugs Bunny accepts. Can he really do better than the other team..?

I liked this episode for the animation, some of the jokes (which were very original in 1946) and of course, Bugs Bunny. Personally I did not think the subject of baseball would make this episode very enjoyable, but I enjoyed it a great deal.

I recommend this episode to anyone who likes Bugs Bunny and to anyone who likes baseball (or people who can bear it). Enjoy "Baseball Bugs"! :-)