Bugs Bunny Rides Again

I love Looney Tunes, I love Bugs Bunny and I love Yosemite Sam, so Bugs Bunny Rides Again is one rootin' tootin' cartoon. There may be clichés, but everything else works so superbly it hardly matters. The animation is wonderful, the scenery is luscious and gorgeous, the colours are beautiful and every character is drawn very well. The music brings a real sense of fun flavour to the proceedings, it is rousing and bombastic. The visual gags are hugely entertaining and come by thick and fast and the dialogue is razor sharp and hilarious. The story still entertains, but what makes the cartoon is the chemistry between Bugs and Yosemite Sam, they are both on top form and both have their fair share of hilarious lines and scenes (ie. their first meeting spoofing High Noon and "So Long Sam, see you in Miami"). Both are brilliantly voiced by Mel Blanc, is there anything he cannot do? Overall, just a gem from the Looney Tunes canon, quite possibly my personal favourite of the Bugs-Yosemite cartoons. 10/10 Bethany Cox

It's the wild west with bullets flying down the street like traffic in Manhattan. Over at The Gunshot Saloon - Come In And Get A Slug," Yosemite Sam walks in with two smoking guns. He orders "all you skunks clear out." Of course, the last one is literally a skunk.

Well, there is one varmint left in the bar.....Bugs, who does his Gary Cooper "High Noon" imitation, walking dramatically toward Sam. At the last minute, he pulls a carrot out of his holster and says, "What's up, doc?"

Off we go with another wild Bugs Bunny animated short, filled with funny dialog which includes a lot of puns and clichés from the Old West. The scenery is also spectacular. I laughed continuously throughout this cartoon. The two of them dancing almost had me in tears, laughing so hard. This is just great material.

It is the wild wild west and bullets are flying. Yosemite Sam arrives in town and squares off against Bugs Bunny. This is fine Bugs Bunny. Bugs elevates everything and makes this better. I would still make a few changes. When Sam orders him to dance, I want Bugs to put on a dress and twirl Sam around. The line thing is funny, but it needs to end with Bugs walking on air and Sam unable to. Of course, the card game needs to be poker and Bugs needs to push all in. In that, he needs to put everything and the literal kitchen sink on top of the table. As for the ending, it is great although I figured on Hollywood instead of Miami.

Friz Freleng's 'Bugs Bunny Rides Again' is a sequel to Bugs' first Western battle with Yosemite Sam in 'Hare Trigger'. Cautiously breaking Sam in as a character by opting for another Wild West setting, Freleng was also risking just retreading old ground. Fortunately, 'Bugs Bunny Rides Again' is a magnificent cartoon in all respects. Extremely handsome to look at, it also benefits enormously from one of the great scripts by Tedd Pierce and Michael Maltese. Shoot-outs, horse chases, dance routines and a hilarious card game are all crammed into this very fast paced short. Notable amongst the many great gags is the scene in which Bugs and Sam persistently one up each other with bigger and bigger guns which may well have inspired Chuck Jones to take this gag to the next step two years later in the famous scene from 'Rabbit of Seville'. For all those people who accuse Friz Freleng of being a boring director, 'Bugs Bunny Rides Again' is ample retort. Packed with incident and perfectly timed jokes, it not only proved that Yosemite Sam worked as a character but also ensured that his rivalry with Bugs would become a constant.

I particularly enjoyed this Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny cartoon for the following reasons: 1. Not only were there the slapstick jokes typical of cartoons with these two main characters, but there were also an unusual (for this type of cartoon) amount of witty speeches, coming from Bugs, which I really liked. This may not be a highlight to Looney-Tunes-Slapstick fans, but I LOVE wittiness in this cartoon series. 2. The slapstick jokes were generally unexpected, fast-paced and amusing and even the farce was enjoyable (which occurs in about the middle of the episode). 3. Bugs Bunny did well, as he usually does in YS+BB cartoons, he provided most of the humour in this one, including slapstick and speaking humour. 4. There are a few memorable scenes in this cartoon which you can watch and enjoy without seeing the whole thing (e.g the dancing scene and the card scene).

I cannot rate this a 9 or a 10 because a select few of the jokes were predictable and slapsticky, but this is little to quibble over.

Anyway, in "Bugs Bunny Rides Again," there is a huge gunfight going on in a town (reminiscent of the later "Drip Along Daffy") and Yosemite Sam steps into a bar with seemingly tough criminals, however they all cower when Yosemite Sam speaks. The newcomer manages to make everyone flee out of the bar, except for a bunny who is willing to oppose him. Will Bugs Bunny succeed in outsmarting Yosemite Sam..? I recommend this cartoon to people who enjoy Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny cartoons in general and to people who usually find YS+BB episodes too slapsticky and would prefer watching one with more witty jokes. Enjoy "Bugs Bunny Rides Again"! :-) 8 and a half out of ten.