The Abominable Snow Rabbit

I liked this. It wasn't the best Looney Tunes cartoon ever, but it was very entertaining. It can be a little too quick, but the story is carefully-constructed in which Bugs makes yet another wrong turn and once again it is Daffy who suffers the consequences. The animation is crisp, colourful and smooth, with some vibrant colouring, and the music is fun. The dialogue has some very entertaining moments to it, especially with the Abominable Snowman when he mistakes Daffy for a rabbit and starts calling him George(a big lol moment), and the sight gags are clever too. Bugs is good here, a little stupider than he usually is but he is still arrogant and funny, and Daffy has some great lines and is easily annoyed here, no wonder come to think of it. The Abominable Snowman steals the cartoon though, he isn't scary but rather dim-witted and cute, and his voice does also remind me of Barney from the Flintstones. Once again, the voice work from Mel Blanc is excellent. Overall, funny and well-animated. 9/10 Bethany Cox

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.

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.

As Bugs and Daffy head for Palm Beach, they make a wrong turn at St. Louis and end up in some snowy climate. Bugs heads out but Daffy, who has some kind of scarf that looks like rabbit ears, is grabbed by the Abominable Snow Man and caressed like Lenny in "Of Mice and Men." This character was frequent in Warner Brothers Cartoons.

One can point to this short as proof that Chuck Jones shorts could succeed without his frequent writing partner Mike Maltese. Here, Tedd Pierce (who at the time was mostly working for Robert McKimson) takes over the reins, and it has a lot of funny dialogue. In particular, he nails Daffy's self-centered personality: "It was me or him, and, obviously, it couldn't be me. It's a simple matter of logic. I'm not like other people. I can't stand pain. It hurts me." Classic!

The animation and music is still full of personality, even though budgets in both departments were slimmer by 1961. The snowman character, a take-off on Lennie from Of Mice and Men, is a fun "antagonist"- I say it in quotes because he's not really a bad guy, he just doesn't know his own strength and is a constant impediment to Bugs and Daffy's vacation.

It definitely holds up; give it a watch, especially if you're convinced Looney Tunes had no bright spots after 1960.