Lumber Jack-Rabbit

Interesting Bugs Bunny short, directed by Chuck Jones, that's notable for being the first Warner Bros. cartoon produced in 3-D. The story for this one has Bugs finding Paul Bunyan's garden. Weird, I know, but bear with me. The vegetables in the garden are, like Bunyan, gigantic. So when Bugs finds giant carrots he thinks he's hit it rich. But then Bugs must contend with Bunyan's dog Smidgen (also a giant), who is in charge of watching over the garden. What follows are some funny lines and gags as Smidgen tries to chase Bugs away and save his master's carrots. The animation is really good and the 3-D trick shots are minimal so, even though the impact of those effects is diminished with normal viewing, it doesn't take you out of the cartoon enough to affect your enjoyment. It's a fun cartoon despite a somewhat abrupt ending. I'll give it points for being a little odd in a good way.

Just watched this Bugs Bunny cartoon on YouTube. This is the one Warner Bros. made in 3-D as evidenced by the beginning which has the familiar WB shield going further in front when it moves forward. I hope to one day see it in the format it was meant to be seen originally but I enjoyed it just the same. I mean, look at the many gags that emphasized the small size of Bugs and the big size of the giant dog Smidgen who happens to be Paul Bunyan's pet here. Oh, and he also looks like Porky Pig's usual dog Charlie. Since this animated short is helmed by Charlie's creator Chuck Jones, that seems to be more than a coincidence. Anyway, this was a very funny short though I didn't get the ending. Still, Lumber Jack-Rabbit comes highly recommended. P.S. It's always nice whenever Mel Blanc sings something in character like here with "Blue Tail Fly".

So I understand that "Lumber Jack-Rabbit" was the only Looney Tunes cartoon filmed in 3-D. Why didn't they film "Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century" like that? But no matter what got filmed like that, the format unfortunately doesn't show up on TV. I guess that you just can't try to transpose anything from one format to another! No matter, I still thought that this was a funny cartoon, as Bugs Bunny stumbles onto Paul Bunyan's farm and has to contend with Bunyan's over-sized dog Smidgen. As always, despite being a tiny fraction of the size, Bugs somehow always has the upper hand.

So, this is far from the best cartoon that they ever produced. After "Duck Amuck" and "What's Opera, Doc?", I really expect a lot from Chuck Jones. But this one's OK in a pinch.

The 3d effects are an afterthought in this cartoon, and so I think it's harsh to judge it based on that. The studio had shut down and everyone but friz had left, including Jones. This cartoon was left to be released, but as the 3d craze started, they had friz rework it in the format, so none of the effects were planned to be made thus suffering a lack of flexibility for creative use.

My favorite effects are the dog showing up on the horizon being a much more pronounced effect how large the dog is in 3d. Seeing bugs behind the dog's eyes in 3d space is another good use of the technique.

I can't fault them for the lack of profound effects, but having a closed studio it's amazing that such a gem of a bygone era on the big screen is so much more captivating than in the flat of television. These cartoons are for a theater audience and nothing shows that better than a whole room full of cartoon fans with their dorky 3d glasses on laughing as the moose comes to meet the call and a 50' dog, then turning tail and running.

If you ever get the chance to see this is the stereo projection it was designed for, don't miss!

"Lumber Jack Rabbit" is the only Warner Brothers cartoon filmed in 3-D. It's also further proof that Chuck Jones is the most overrated figure in the history of animation. Jones utterly fails to take advantage of the possibilities of 3-D, and this movie falls flat in every sense.

"Lumber Jack Rabbit" begins promisingly. In the opening credits (which are now cut out when this cartoon is shown on television), we see the familiar Warner Brothers logo surging towards the camera, as in so many Looney Toons. But this time, the logo passes its usual stopping-place and it keeps on coming, until it's nearly in our laps.

Viewed in the 3-D process, this is unexpected and truly impressive. It's also the LAST time this cartoon will impress us.

A dull narrator briefly recaps the legend of Paul Bunyan, the giant lumberjack. (By the way, there are no authentic folktales about Paul Bunyan: he was actually created in the 20th century as part of an advertising campaign for a timber company.) We see gigantic Bunyan (from the chest downwards) striding across his land, on which everything is many times normal size ... including Bunyan's giant dog Smidgen. (Is this name meant to be funny?) Chuck Jones brings nothing new to Smidgen; except for his gigantic size, Smidgen is drawn and animated to look exactly like every Chuck Jones dog in every Chuck Jones cartoon, including Jones's boring canine character Charlie Dog.

Into this valley of the giants comes a normal-sized Bugs Bunny, who must have taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque. From Bugs's perspective, Paul Bunyan's giant carrots look like redwood trees. Bugs immediately starts harvesting the giant carrots, only to run afoul of Smidgen the giant dog. Nothing funny happens. More critically, NOTHING happens to take advantage of the 3-D aspects of this cartoon.

Carl Stalling does his usual excellent work with the musical soundtrack. Throughout this cartoon, Bugs Bunny sings "Blue Tail Fly", a folksong made popular by Burl Ives. Most people don't realise that "Blue Tail Fly" is actually a song about a black slave who murders his master and then fools the coroner's jury into returning a verdict of accidental death. I can't help wondering if Jones (or scriptwriter Michael Maltese) knew how truly subversive this song is. Stalling provides a jazzy syncopated flute line in counterpoint to Bugs's vocals. Very nice!

"Lumber Jack Rabbit" was originally shown in cinemas in 3-D format, with parallel filmstrips and those goofy cardboard glasses. It's now shown on TV in conventional "flat" format, which is no loss as the 3-D effects are negligible. By 1954, when this cartoon was made, all of Warners' best animators (Avery, Clampett, Tashlin) had already gone elsewhere, so this prestige project went to Chuck Jones by default. I wish that the opportunity to make a Bugs Bunny cartoon in 3-D had been given to Friz Freleng or Robert McKimson instead. McKimson's contributions to animation have been sorely underestimated, just as Chuck Jones's have been severely overestimated. Robert McKimson's cartoons were always funny and pleasing to the eye, and he could have done much better work with "Lumber Jack Rabbit" than Chuck Jones has done here.