Bully for Bugs

Famed cartoon director Chuck Jones has said that this cartoon came about because his then-producer, Edward Selzer, caught him doodling a drawing of a bull one day and told Jones that he was *not* to make cartoon about bullfighting. Of such defiant acts are great cartoons made. This is one of the all-time great Looney Tunes, with great camera angles (note the ant's-eye view of a confident Bugs as the bull gains ground on him), hilarious give-and-take between Bugs and his adversary, and a gut-busting ending (beautifully scored by Carl Stalling). For years, CBS was stupid enough to broadcast this cartoon with its fantastic climax cruelly edited. You can now find the whole thing intact in Jones' The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie and on the Jones compilation videocassette From Hare to Eternity, as well as in intermittent broadcasts on Cartoon Network

This is one of my all-time favourite Bugs Bunny cartoons -- it contains everything that sets the classic Warners animation stuff apart from the stuff that's mass produced today. I especially love the way that the fortunes of Bugs and the bull waver back and forth; I also love the synchronization with the "La Cucaracha" music (see also "Rabbit of Seville (1950)") and the elaborate contraption that Bugs builds.

If you're trying to show someone a classic WB cartoon, this is a great one to start with.

I could watch this one a hundred times over and still laugh myself to tears. It is incredibly funny, perfectly timed and just when you expect it to become formulaic, the Jones crew start to throw in some comical curveballs (which I refuse to spoil here) My personal favorite Bugs Bunny short and one of the jewels of the WB catalog.

Bugs Bunny finds fun and hi-jinks at the big Carrot Festival in the Coachella Valley—or he would have had he not taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque. Instead, he ends up in a Mexican bullring during what can only be described as a bull-flight: the matador is a coward and the bull is one mean machine. Bugs is less impressed, but when he slaps the bull's face for steaming up his tail, the bull butts him out of the ring. "Of course you realize this means war." It will be a war of wits fought with such tools as an anvil; a slingshot; a rifle, elephant bullets; axle grease; and a crude Rube Goldberg device that employs TNT. Think the bull's brawn is a match for Bugs's brain? "What an ultra maroon!"

Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese made a bullfighting picture because their boss told them never to make bullfighting pictures; and we end up with this funny, memorable short that gives Bugs one heck of an intimidating opponent. This huge black bull is scary; and he seems to be forever posing for a toro edition of Muscle Magazine. Bugs has more nerve than I do. Give me Elmer Fudd as an adversary any day.

This short is available on the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume One," Disc 1.

Fun Bugs Bunny short, directed by the great Chuck Jones and written by the also great Michael Maltese. Bugs, after failing yet again to make that left turn at Albuquerque, winds up in a bullfighting arena with a particular nasty bull named Toro. Excellent voice work from the incomparable Mel Blanc. Lively music from Carl Stalling. The animation is crisp and colorful. There's plenty of funny gags and lines, including the classic "Of course you know, this means war." It's a textbook Bugs cartoon from the '50s in many ways. About the only thing missing is that Bugs never dresses up as a female bull. This cartoon is part of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner movie, which was how I first saw it as a kid. Nostalgia may be affecting my opinion a little but I think this is a great Bugs cartoon and ranks high on the list of those shorts he did without any of his usual nemeses like Elmer, Yosemite Sam, and Daffy.