The Abominable Snow Rabbit

The Abominable Snow Rabbit is one of those Bugs & Daffy travel cartoons, in which the left turn at Albuquerque is always forgotten. This time, they go further than usual, ending up in the Himalayas. Here they inevitably meet the abominable snowman, a successful one-shot for many years until he made a second appearance on Mars - of all places - in Chuck Jones' TV production, Spaced Out Bunny. For such an insufferable analyst as me, I can watch, rewind and watch again my tape of this cartoon just to study how Bugs and Daffy are drawn in Jones' unique style in the 60's and beyond. Daffy is once again the heel of the picture, trying to cook Bugs' goose but repeatedly getting squashed himself. An excellent cartoon for all fans.

In their tradition of coming up with any crazy plot, the Termite Terrace crowd sticks Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in the Himalayas, where the two characters run into the Abominable Snowman (named Hugo). The big guy immediately tries to adopt Daffy as a pet rabbit, and Bugs helps with this. "The Abominable Snow Rabbit" brings up an interesting point. It seems like for years, our stereotype of the Himalayas was the Yeti - it's anyone's guess as to whether or not such a being really exists. Nowadays, there's of course the issue of the Dalai Lama. I wonder whether or not the cartoon's creators knew about the Dalai Lama.

Oh well. That's just what I notice. The point is, this is a pretty funny cartoon. It's not abominable at all.

In this very funny Looney Tunes episode, Bugs Bunny has taken Daffy Duck somewhere or other and has ended up miles from home in the Himalayas. Bugs Bunny is pretty anxious and Daffy is also very annoyed. Just when things start to become better, a very mad yeti arrives on the scene. He likes bunny rabbits and thinks Daffy is one...

I was surprised this episode was so funny, as usually I do not particularly enjoy episodes where Daffy duck is greedy. However, I very much enjoyed this episode for his and Bugs' brilliant quotes, the mad yeti, the layout of the episode and the turn-out.

One theme about this episode to consider is that here, Bugs Bunny is quite stupid, taking Daffy Duck to a place a thousand miles from Palm Springs (where the pair originally wanted to go). Bugs Bunny is usually thought of as a clever character, although a great deal of the time he can be almost as stupid as Daffy. Hmm...

This is well worth spending seven or so minutes for, recommended to the average Looney Tunes fans and people who like mad yetis.

8 and a half out of ten.

This is one of the cartoons where we meet the Abominable Snowman, a parody of Lenny from Of Mice and Men, which became a staple joke at both Warner Brothers and MGM (courtesy of Tex Avery for the latter studio) and virtually every less than bright secondary character was modeled to some degree after Lenny. Daffy is his usual charming and affable self and much chaos follows. Good to see that it's available. Well worth watching. Recommended.

Bugs and Daffy are headed to Palm Springs but take a wrong turn and wind up in the Himalayas. Before they can leave they run into the Abominable Snowman. He's a hulking white creature with a blue nose who delivers bonecrushing hugs. Despite how dangerous he is, I found him terribly cute. In typical Looney Tunes fashion, the Snowman is modeled after Lenny from "Of Mice and Men." Daffy's reactions when this big brute manhandles him are hilarious. It's a simple but very funny short from Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble. This was the last original theatrical Daffy Duck short Jones did. The animation is nice and the script is a hoot.