Barbary-Coast Bunny

I like how Bugs' speech has improved over the years. Instead of the normal, "You realize this is war" he now says (at least in this cartoon) "You realize that this is not going to go unchallenged!"

Bugs had just gotten stupidly swindled out of his big rock of gold by some unscrupulous bandit, who rode away with this lode. Six months later, in San Francisco (dig the fantastic artwork of The City, by the way), a derby-wearing Bugs looks into a fancy new saloon and sees "one of those new fancy tele-o- phones," which is really a slot machine. The boss of the place is the crook who stole Bugs' gold, but our hero doesn't notice that right away.....or does he?

Suffice to say, Bugs - quite the gambler - finds a way to get even.

"Barbary-Coast Bunny" portrays Bugs Bunny on his way to San Francisco to visit his cousin Herman (he has a cousin Herman?) when he runs into a giant slab of solid gold. When big, ugly thug Nasty Canasta - who previously appeared in the Daffy Duck-Porky Pig vehicle "Drip Along Daffy, although looking a little different - steals the gold, Bugs says something that basically means "this means war".

True, I don't understand why it takes Bugs six months to arrive in San Francisco, or why they just let him win so easily; part of what made these cartoons so great was how he ended up in sticky situations but messed with them. But, as far as I'm concerned, as classic Bugs cartoon is a good one, especially when directed by Chuck Jones. Not the best, but still worth seeing.

I wonder how the San Francisco area got the name "Barbary Coast". That moniker originally referred to North Africa, in reference to the Berbers.

Nasty Canasta steals a gold boulder that would have made Bugs rich. Once Bugs realizes this, he disguises himself as a rube and goes to Nasty's Casino. There are several games of chance where Bugs manages to overcome the cheating and take the guy for everything. How he does it is the fun part of this.

Bugs Bunny is tunneling to see his cousin in San Francisco when he hits his head on a large gold nugget. Bugs doesn't enjoy his gold for long as he's soon swindled out of it by a crook called Nasty Canasta (love that name!). Six months later, Canasta has used the gold to build himself a profitable casino. Bugs shows up and decides to get even with the swindler by taking him for all he's worth. A funny and nicely-animated short from director Chuck Jones. I liked how the action starts during the opening credits, something Jones did quite a bit. Since the cartoon's only 7 minutes or so I appreciate how he tried to get in as much as he could. I liked the villain Nasty Canasta a lot. Aside from having a cool name, he's voiced by the great Daws Butler. Bugs is in top form here, especially when in disguise at the casino. Some hilarious gags like 'draw poker' and 'bigger hand.' Just a fun short.

During the credits we are treated to some nice landscape shots of Bugs tunneling away to visit his cousin Herman in San Francisco. His travels are cut short when he bumps into a big lump of gold. That was the most enjoyable part of "Barbary Coast Bunny". Almost immediately after this Bugs gets coined out of this fortune by a suitable loathsome villain named Nasty Canasta. Next we cut to San Francisco, six months later, where Nasty is about to open a saloon on Barbary coast road. Apparently it has taken Bugs all this time to catch up with Canasca and to set up his revenge. Naturally Nasty fails to recognize the Bugster because of his brilliant disguise: a suit and tie and a bowler hat

Bugs spends the rest of this cartoon winning back his money at Nasty's slot machine, and all subsequent card games Canasta throws at him. But since he simply wins every single time, the games soon become tiresome and the victories hollow. There are no obstacles for Bugs to overcome at all, his disguise is never even blown. This cartoon has only two characters, two locations and two jokes. After the opening, not much effort seems to have been spent on backgrounds and animation, as if they ran out of money after the first minute or so.

3 out of 10