Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid

Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid (1942)

**** (out of 4)

A mama buzzard sends her four children out to get food but the dimwitted one, named Beaky Buzzard, is unlucky as he has to bring home a rabbit and he just happens to run into Bugs Bunny. This here has always been one of my favorite animated shorts because Bugs and Beaky just make the ultimate duo because both are just so damn cute here. The animation is perfectly done and the story contains enough great moments for two films. The best sequence is when Bugs goes to "take a shower" before going with Beaky who finally starts to realize a joke is being played on him. What happens next is just priceless. The final joke with Bugs also gets a big laugh just for the wonderful voice. To me what works best is actually Beaky because he's just so adorable and stupid at the same time. The voice work is downright brilliant and in itself brings a lot of laughs.

Classic Merrie Melodies short, directed by Bob Clampett, that introduced Beaky Buzzard to the world. Beaky is a shy, somewhat slow-witted buzzard who is not very good at catching prey, unlike his brothers. When his mother sends him out to catch a rabbit, Beaky meets Bugs. I won't spoil what follows but it's hilarious and even adorable in spots. Beaky is a wonderful character, one of the best Clampett created and certainly one of the more underrated. He's impossible to dislike. It's a well-animated cartoon with rich colors and some great action. Lots of funny gags and lines. Solid voice work, sound effects, and music. One of the earliest Bugs classics. The "Gruesome, isn't it?" scene alone makes this a must-see for Bugs fans.

This was Clampett's third Bugs Bunny cartoon, but it marks the first time Bugs Bunny looks like the rabbit we all know. Prior to this Bugs had a more oval head giving him a rat-like appearance. It was as an animator in Clampett's unit that Robert Mckimson developed the model sheet of Bugs that all the other units eventually used. In the cartoons of the other directors at this time Bugs looked pretty ugly while he kept getting better looking in the Clampett cartoons. This is also the first appearence of Beaky Buzzard, a Mortimer Snerd caricature. This cartoon is funnier than Clampett's first two Bugs films and the animation is pretty solid, especially Mckimson's. However, Clampett would go far beyond this one with such cartoons as What's Cookin', Doc?, The Old Grey Hare, The Big Snooze, and Tortoise Wins By A Hare. Overall, a good cartoon, though.

"Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid" may be partly famous for giving that wascawwy wabbit the form that we know and love today, but even if you don't know that, it's still great to watch. Featuring loopy Beaky Buzzard trying to capture Bugs Bunny as food, they come up with everything here. Probably the coolest part is when Beaky drops Bugs onto a skeleton and Bugs thinks that he personally has gone the way of the dodo! Overall, it's a really neat cartoon. A true classic.

I just try to imagine if Beaky Buzzard had appeared in "The Birds". Then again, that doofus didn't stand a chance at scaring the people in Bodega Bay. But he was good for getting knocked silly by Bugs Bunny.

Mama buzzard directs her kids to go get their own food. The runt doesn't want to go. So his mother tells him to at least get a rabbit and kicks him out of the nest. That is exactly what he encounters, a rabbit named Bugs Bunny.

The buzzards look like vultures and I assumed that they are vultures. As vultures, the design is fine. It doesn't make senses since vultures eat dead animals. It doesn't matter that it has good gags. I just thinking that a vulture wouldn't eat a live rabbit. Second, the skeleton is gruesome and morbid. It is too morbid to be truly funny. In that one, I'm always thinking about the skeleton and not the gag. This is not my favorite Bugs Bunny cartoon.