Knighty Knight Bugs

This cartoon (Oscar winning animated short for that year) is just out and out hilarious. I have a weakness for Yosetime Sam, here as the Black Knight trying to get into Bugs' castle. Of course he fails with hilarious results. If this doesn't make you chuckle, check your pulse.

Bugs Bunny comes across a great castle where he finds the treasure of a singing sword. He attempts to get away with it only to find that the castle is protected by Yosemite Sam and his fierce (?) fire breathing dragon. When Bugs gets control of the castle, Sam has to try and take it back - without too much success.

This cartoon is the only Bugs Bunny effort to have won an Oscar and, while I believe he deserved to have one of his shorts win such an award I don't think that this is the one that he deserved it for. The plot is fairly usual for Bugs fair and is pretty enjoyable all told - he outsmarts Sam as always and it is generally pretty funny. The animation is bright and colourful but the material is not as sharp as one would have hoped and Sam actually hurts himself more often than Bugs causes it directly by being smarter.

Having said that Sam is still a good foil for Bugs and he makes him a stronger character. Bugs is as enjoyable as ever even if he is less active and tricky than he usually is. The dragon is pretty much a non-event and isn't really that good - acting more as a thorn in Sam's side than anything else. Overall this is still an OK cartoon but it is far from Bugs' best and it doesn't deserve to be the one that he won his award for.

This is the only Bugs Bunny cartoon to win an Academy Award. This may seem strange to a lot of people because there were so many better Bugs shorts that weren't even nominated for Oscars, let alone won. But we have to keep in mind this was only up against the rest of the animated shorts from 1958 and the competition that year might have been pretty slim pickings. As a matter of fact there were only three nominees that year instead of the usual four so it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case. I've seen all three nominees and I can say, for my money, this is the best of the three. I can't readily think of another 1958 cartoon but I do know that the quality of animation across the board was declining by the late '50s. There would still be some great stuff to come but the best days of WB, MGM, and even Disney shorts were behind them by this point.

Oscar talk aside, this is a very good Bugs Bunny cartoon. It takes place in the time of King Arthur, here represented as a silly old man. Arthur asks for a volunteer among his knights to retrieve the Singing Sword from the evil Black Knight (Yosemite Sam) and his fire-breathing dragon. All of the knights are chicken so King Arthur orders court jester Bugs to retrieve the sword. If he refuses, he'll be tortured and beheaded! Bugs goes to the Black Knight's castle to complete his task and Sam obviously tries to stop him. Now, reading back over what I just wrote, this sure doesn't sound like a funny cartoon, does it? It actually has a lot of clever bits and great gags. The idea of Arthur and his knights being cowardly is pretty funny, I thought. But the short's strength lies in the Bugs vs Sam stuff. If you've ever seen a Bugs/Sam cartoon before (and I'm sure you have), then you know how much fun these two going toe-to-toe can be. It's very funny with good animation, lively music, and solid voicework from the always reliable Mel Blanc. The scenes of Black Knight Sam trying to get back into the castle are hilarious. Funny stuff with the dragon, too ("Dragons is so stupid!").

Friz Freleng's 'Knighty Knight Bugs' is an Oscar winning cartoon which, though a tad overrated, is solidly entertaining throughout. Jester Bugs Bunny is sent to recover the Singing Sword from Black Knight Yosemite Sam. The set up and ensuing antics immediately bring to mind two other cartoons, Chuck Jones's 'Knight-mare Hare' and Freleng's own 'Sahara Hare'. While Jones's cartoon shares the same medieval setting, 'Sahara Hare' features a similar storyline as Sam pursues Bugs and finds himself attempting to gain entry to a building in which Bugs has barricaded himself. 'Knighty Knight Bugs' is an improvement on both its forerunners, offering a far more charming depiction of medieval times than in Jones's feeble effort and improving on the gags in 'Sahara Hare' with some consistently amusing if hardly uproarious sequences. Also reminiscent of 'Sahara Hare' is Sam's relationship with his beast of burden, a camel in the former cartoon and a dragon in this case. In both cartoons, this relationship is one of the best elements and results in some very funny lines and animations. All in all, 'Knighty Knight Bugs' is an enjoyably pedestrian cartoon in which being able to see the gags coming doesn't hinder the viewer's enjoyment of their good timing. Surely not worthy of its Oscar but certainly worthy of being viewed by any cartoon fan.

I think this cartoon truly did deserve an Oscar it was hilarious. I especially like when Yosemite Sam/The Black Knight shoots himself out of a cannon and crashes into the wall and when he gets flattened by the drawbridge. Classic line: Sam: "Don't sneeze, you stupid dragon, or you'll blow us to the moon." Sure enough, that's what happens. Highly recommended.