Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid

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.

This cartoon may be slow moving and dull for some, but personally I found it very entertaining and is one of my new favourites. This cartoon is one of the first with Bugs Bunny (this was made two years after his official debut) and the debut of a minor-ish Looney Tunes character named Beaky Buzzard.

This cartoon was a good surprise for me for the following reasons: 1. I was not expecting this to be nearly so old and I enjoyed the old-fashioned humour you have in a few WB cartoons, featured here. I think that the plot along with "old" jokes would work better than the plot along with new jokes.

2. I was expecting this to be quite a fast paced, slapstick cartoon, instead I found that hardly any of the jokes featured slapstick (as a whole, all WB cartoons have some slapstick in them) and there were some good verbal jokes inserted in too. It certainly kept my interest going! The other good things about the cartoon were the ever familiar Bugs Bunny in his trick mode (escaping baddies using clever ways) and the introduction of Beaky Buzzard and this was also my first cartoon with him in as well. I will certainly look out for more with him in. The animation was pretty good and overall, I found it a great episode. :-)

The cartoon starts with a mother buzzard (vulture to my fellow British) instructing each of her offspring to go and bring some meat back to the nest. She gives her babies serious challenges, such as horse and deer. However, one of her babies does not want to hunt at all (Beaky Buzzard), but he is pushed out of the nest anyway to go and find something. He ends up finding Bugs Bunny, who he is ready to hunt...

I recommend this cartoon to people who do not mind old, slightly slow-moving Looney Tunes. Enjoy "Bugs Gets the Boid"! :-) 8 and a half out of ten.

WE HAVE JUST watched this one on video; as a bonus feature on the special 2 disc DVD release of YANKEE DOODLE DANDY. Although the cartoon has been around and available on television for well over the half century point, it seemed to be new.

THE SHORT BECAME familiar to us as one of those "Associated Artists Productions" TV releases. In our case, we saw it (often) on the old BUGS BUNNY & FRIENDS local kids TV show on WGN TV, Channel 9, in Chicago. As was the custom, there was a host; in this case, it was one Dick Coughlin. He always sported a sort of "Lumberjack Wardrobe"; featuring dungarees and flannel shirts (always).

THE SET WAS done up to look like a farm or woodland locale. A puppet version of Bugs would interact with the host in comic sketches; between the screening of the 2 or 3 cartoons that were shown each evening, from 6:30 to 7:00 PM. (there were some other character puppets, such as "Radcliffe Racoon" and others, whose names we can't recall). Mr. Coughlin provided the voices, although no ventriloquist himself.

AT THE TIME of seeing BUGS BUNNY GETS THE BOID, we found it to be funny and would have rated it at or near to the top of the pack. The gags were energetic and genuinely tickled the funny bone. The animation was smooth and the short storyline had not a wasted frame of film.

AS WITH ALL Warner Brothers Looney Tunes & Merry Melodies, a hallmark identifier is its music. This was no exception; as its soundtrack has the lively and totally customized Carl Stalling original score. Although the sound era animated shorts are visual, with the advantage of having snappy dialog & comical voices as an adjunct, just try viewing & listening to the same cartoon; but without the music.

ONE ASPECT OF the humor, that was not readily apparent to us as kids in the 1950's was that Warner's cartoons often time parodied some of the then popular entertainers or Radio characters. In this case, the young vulture, "Killer" is a spoof of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's Mortimer Snerd. The buzzard, his brothers and Italian accented mother would be reprised for other, recurring appearances.

ON THE PARTICULAR DVD that we viewed, the cartoon must have been remastered. The color is brilliant and the images are crystal clear. (Clever, these Americans!)

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.

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.