Wackiki Wabbit

Bugs Bunny lives on a tropical island paradise and meets two castaways voiced by Mike Maltese and Tedd Pierce, who are also renowned writers of Bugs' cartoons. I loved the part where Bugs is speaking some island language to them and then doing some crazy hula dance!!! These cartoons are ageless. They are far funnier today than anything new!!!

We see something unusual right off the bat in this cartoon: a quick picture of something that isn't animated. In this case, it's a giant hamburger. That's what one of two starving guys on a raft out in the ocean sees, instead of his partner. The other guy soon is hallucinating, too, seeing food where human body parts are! Thankfully, they are spared from these gruesome things as they spot an island and race there in their suddenly-speedy raft.

Bugs Bunny, probably the only living thing on the small island, spots this ravenous duo and quickly sets his brain in motion. How he does NOT become dinner is the focus of this story. Along the way are some funny bits with graphics regarding language translations. It's also interesting that the two LT writers are the guys characterized in the cartoon! Good for them! It's always good to be able to laugh at yourself, so kudos to Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce.

I agree with the reviewers here: this is a classic cartoon, full of inventive sights that are guaranteed to make you laugh. No sense describing all of them. Suffice to say all three main characters are good in here. The ending's a little sappy, but it's hard to get everything perfect.

This one is a cartoon classic. The two castaways are not only voiced by Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce, they are caricatures of the two writers as well. Now, you'd think the rabbit would know which side his carrots were buttered on and be nice to two of the writers putting words in his mouth, but they get the same treatment he gives Elmer. Of course, they ARE trying to cook and eat him, so I guess it is understandable that he treats them rather badly. Excellent short. Well worth watching. Most recommended.

If you're a stranded castaway on a desert island and you find your nearest neighbor is Bugs Bunny...maybe it's time to build a getaway boat.

The two seagoing saps in "Wackiki Wabbit" don't take the hint, though, and make the mistake of trying to make Bugs part of their regularly balanced diet after days of starvation and considering each other as main courses ("...and hold the onions", one mutters).

Bugs holds his own well as if there were a doubt, and the big and little castaways make like a disheveled version of Abbott and Costello (even looking the part) and are voiced by Bugs' regular writers Maltese and Pierce (hey, at least they didn't have to hire out for new voices!) with a penchant for sing-songy tunes of joy ("We're gonna have roast rabbit!" and "We're going on a boo-ooat!" are their favorites).

Chuck Jones again proves why he is such a pro at this kind of thing with the breath-taking island vistas and Mel Blanc makes smart-aleck repartee a work of art. And creating a marionette out of a roast chicken never looked so easy before.

Ten stars and an authentic hula dance from Bugs for "Wackiki Wabbit". You can't get more "Wackiki" than this.

Two shipwrecked shipmates are aimlessly floating about at the mercy of the waves before being washed up on a tropical island, where they find Bugs Bunny. They think they'll have roast rabbit, but Bugs objects (what would you do?).

The two shipwrecked sailors are voiced by Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce, and they look like them, too. In case you didn't know, they're two of the three chief Bugs Bunny writers. Imagine humiliating them so blatantly in theaters! I'm not surprised they ended up wanting to get away from the rabbit.

I saw this cartoon yesterday on the Looney Tunes marathon on Cartoon Network, and it refreshed my memory. Mel Blanc, of course, is excellent as the rabbit, but the bunny is quite basic. He'd only been around for three years, you know. The layouts are detailed and interesting, including a panoramic view of the tropical island, and the detailed jungle environment. Some sequences are truly hilarious, but it doesn't really stick in the memory. The concept is original, and the jokes are fresh and new. Bugs was never seen as a puppeteer before was he?

WACKIKI WABBIT (1943) is a great second or third cartoon to show in a Bugs Bunny history, since it's the first cartoon in my memory to show the rabbit at his best in an under-developed form.