Baby Buggy Bunny

Baby Buggy Bunny (1954)

*** (out of 4)

Cute, if not exceptionally funny short, has Bugs Bunny becoming a father but what he doesn't know is that his new "kid" is actually a gangster who just got done robbing a bank. I know many cartoon buffs considering this a masterpiece but to me it's only a good film that just doesn't have enough laughs to be considered a classic. The biggest problem for me is the kid, Finster. I just don't find him cute, tough or even funny. The early stuff with his acting the part of the child was incredibly dull to me and the short doesn't really pick up until Bugs realizes who he is and makes him pay for it. The sit of Bugs shaking the baby is somewhat deranged to watch but that's what makes it funny.

Chuck Jones' 'Baby Buggy Bunny' is a funny cartoon with a nice concept which never quite reaches the levels of hilarity you feel it should. Bank robber Baby Face Finster disguises himself as a real baby in order to retrieve his stolen money from Bugs Bunny's rabbit hole. Adopted by an unwitting Bugs, he goes to violent lengths to liberate his cash from the rabbit. The best part of 'Baby Buggy Bunny' is the first section in which a surprisingly easily duped Bugs is brutalised by Finster who reverts back to baby mode whenever Bugs questions it. However, the sequence where Bugs turns the tables after catching Finster shaving is far too short and unfunny. By the time Bugs catches Finster shaving, it's already too late in the cartoon for him to do much in retaliation. His revenge really needed to be as brutal as Finster's treatment of him had been to achieve a satisfactory laugh level. Instead, he quickly turns him over to the police and the cartoon simply peters out with a below par wisecrack. 'Baby Buggy Bunny' was one of my favourite cartoons as a child and I still enjoy it today, only now it also leaves me with a sense of dissatisfaction.

This is one of my all-time favorite Bugs Bunny cartoons, if not cartoons period. BABY BUGGY BUNNY opens with a bank being robbed by a tall man in a long coat and snap-brim hat. As he's making his getaway, he reveals that he is actually "Anthill" Harry, a midget(dwarf, little person, whatever the short are calling themselves these days) who disguises himself as a baby to make his escape. He fools the police, but his loot ends up falling down the whole of Bugs. Harry gets into a bastinette and puts a note on himself saying that he is a baby named "Finster" and that Bugs should take him in and give him a good home. As anyone who knows me can attest, I always refer to little babies as "Finster" (especially bad ones). NOW you know where I got it from. Anyway, the bulk of the cartoon consists of "Finster" trying to get to the money (that "Daddy" Bugs has warned him not to play with because it's dirty). BABY BUGGY BUNNY is fun because, at least for a little while, it shows Bugs on the receiving end of torture for once before becoming the wise-ass Bugs that we all know and love when he learns the truth about "Finster". The fate of "Baby-faced Finster" is sure to bring a smile, if not an outright laugh, to anyone who watches it. And you DEFINITELY should be one to do that.

I liked the dramatic opening in here, with a huge, nasty-looking guy robbing a bank but then disrobing afterward and turning out to be a two-foot midget on stilts. He then disguises himself as a baby, laying innocently in his carriage as police race by to the scene (nobody cared if a baby was left all alone?). Anyway, the crook pops out of the carriage and the latter starts rolling down a steep hill, banging up against something and the bag of money goes flying. It's lands far away in Bugs Bunny's rabbit hole. Soon, Bugs is singing "We're In The Money!"

"Finster," the name the cigar-chomping midget adopts for himself, soon parks outside the rabbit hole and puts on his abandoned baby act, complete with a note to "the kind bunny."

I liked Finster's second quick note; Finster bouncing around in the high chair; Bugs getting shot with the "toy pistol" and Bugs discovering a tattooed Finster shaving.

The ending was so-so, not as funny as the other material but overall it was fun. This was part of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two DVD.

Ilove this cartoon, but the last time I saw it on BOOMERANG, the part where Baby Faced Finster pulls out a gun at Bugs was edited out. It says that Finster is going to shoot Bugs with his toy gun. BLAM! And Bugs, after Finster shoots him with his "toy gun," says, "Some toy!" I wonder why this was edited out, just like Daffy Duck's final act in 1957's "Show Biz Bunny?" Or where Bugs and Yosemite Sam put the gun to their heads when both of them lose the mayoral race in another cartoon, and Yosemite Sam comments, "I HATE that rabbit!" My sister claims that these scenes were too violent for kids. And I was told that these cartoons were not really made for kids, and yet I've seen them on kiddie shows in the 1960's and 1970's. I guess that BOOMERANG and Warner Brothers claim that kids will imitate these things. But I never did, and here I am, at 46, and I still enjoy watching them, and I never did these things when I was a little kid.