My Bunny Lies Over the Sea

Bugs Bunny is going to the LaBrea Tar Pits in LA and takes another wrong turn at Albuquerque. He ends up somewhere in Scotland. He spots a Scotsman playing bagpipe and thinks that it is a monster attacking an old lady. He grabs the bagpipe and destroys it. Bugs is surprised that the old lady is actually a man with no pants. He slaps a barrel on the Scotsman. The two gets off on the wrong foot and the Scotsman challenges Bugs Bunny to a game of golf.

The first half is a lot of jokes at the expense of Scotland and its people. Some of them hit a bit differently today. The kilt as a skirt is a weak joke nowadays. There is an allusion to the Scots being cheap. The second half golfing works a lot better in modern terms. It would have been more specific for them to go to St Andrews. This is fine for Bugs.

1948's My Bunny Lies over the Sea, an amusing six-minute Loony Toons animated short that sees our long-eared hero Bugs Bunny once again not taking that left turn at Albuquerque and finding slap dab in Scotland, where comes into confrontational conflict with Angus McRory, finer and funnier over-the-stop Scottish caricature as one could find, with his red hair and beard just a being as firey as his temperament. Of course, we get the usual kind of tropes here, with at one point Bugs disguising him as a fellow Scot in an attempt to outwit Angus, which all then culminate in them playing golf in order to settle their dispute.

It's decent fun although the pacing is so breakneck a pace that it does overtake itself so that it arrives at its denouement a bit too abruptly. While not all the gags land quite as well as others. However, the voice work as ever is a first-rate job for not only Bugs but Angus as well. It's astonishing to think that he provided both, and one wonders if he delivered both of these simultaneously, in which case it's a sheer bloody genius that he could switch between the two so effortlessly. Solid, but not one of the absolute classics, My Bunny Lies Over the Sea as a comedic distraction gets the job done and is a pretty good way to waste some time.

I wouldn't put My Bunny Lies Over the Sea among the best of the Looney Tunes canon, but it was an enjoyable and entertaining cartoon. Even with its predictable game of golf and I wouldn't have minded it being a minute or so longer as well.That said, it goes at a cracking pace, has some fine sight gags and dialogue, beautiful crisp animation and an energetic music score. Also Mel Blanc as he always does does a fantastic job with all the voices. Bugs is still the witty and likable rabbit that I fell in love with, and the support characters work well too. I loved the title too, almost poetic like a love song.Overall, an entertaining cartoon. 8/10 Bethany Cox

In perhaps Bugs's first reference to that "wrong turn at Albequerque," he instead finds himself in Scotland where he encounters a Scottish bagpipe player (whom he mistakenly presumes is an old lady being attacked by a monster - if that makes sense to you). After Bugs unknowingly destroys the Scotsman's bagpipes, he decides to settle the dispute by challenging the rabbit to a game of golf. Wackiness ensues.

Although nothing above the ordinary, this is still a pretty amusing Bugs Bunny short. The interplay between him and the Scotsman at the beginning is funny (particularly Bugs's portrayal of a Scottish landowner). As are several of the tricks Bugs plays on him when on the links. As far as characterization is concerned, Bugs is his usual tricky self (but no more) while the Scotsman is the stereotypical foreigner complete with a deliberately funny Scottish accent. With no other characters to speak of, this may be one of Bugs's most simplistic cartoons ever (not to be confused with "worst" mind you). The surprise ending is pretty funny too as it finally gives the Scotsman a fair come-uppance.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this short is its animation. Despite being released in 1948, the cartoon both looks and sounds more like a 1950s short. By contrast, later shorts like High Diving Hare and Rebel Rabbit look and feel more like 1940s shorts. This just goes to show how ahead of his time Chuck Jones really was as his less cinematic style of animation was in the 70s and 80s imitated by almost every cartoonist in one way or another.

Overall, this is a fairly average Bugs Bunny cartoon. But understand that an average Bugs cartoon is still better than a top cartoon with most other cartoon characters. That alone makes it well worth watching.

Maybe "My Bunny Lies Over the Sea" stereotypes the Scots as kilt-clad, bagpipe-playing grouches, but it is a hilarious cartoon. After Bugs Bunny forgets that left turn at Albuquerque, he ends up on the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond in Scotland, where he and a local settle a dispute by playing golf. Needless to say, Bugs turns the whole thing on its head.

Among other things, this cartoon makes one nostalgic for the days - which may have been well over 100 years ago - when golf represented Scottish heritage and wasn't just something that rich snobs did to waste time (especially given that Jack Abramoff took Tom DeLay and Bob Ney on the golfing trip in Scotland a few years ago). But mostly, it's a classic cartoon plain and simple. Or, to say it like they would in Scotland: Ay, 'tis a wonderful wee cartoon, ya blasted Englishman! I wonder if that was the Wallace plaid during the opening credits. As a descendant of William Wallace (Scotland's greatest patriot and the subject of "Braveheart"), I hope that it was.