People Are Bunny

Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny are two of my favourite cartoon characters, two of Looney Tunes' most popular and frequently used for a reason as they are funny and charismatic characters with great, unique personalities.

While not one of their strongest cartoons, individually or in collaboration, 'People are Bunny' still provides 6 or 7 minutes worth of good entertainment and anyone who grew up watching 50s television will find themselves feeling nostalgic. Anyone who loves Bugs and Daffy are very unlikely to find themselves disappointed.

'People are Bunny' is not really a cartoon to watch if you're looking for a strong plot. The story is admittedly fun and gives off a real sense of nostalgia, even for those who didn't grow up in the 50s (speaking as one), but it's pretty thin and basically an excuse to string along as many parodies to recognise as possible, complete with a couple of random parts that don't amount to much. Those who don't like Daffy's greedier personality, personally am not really one of them but know a fair few that don't, may be turned off by him (for me it wasn't a problem, though I do prefer his earlier more manic personality, and this side to them has been written far worse in his cartoons with Speedy Gonzales).

However, the animation in 'People are Bunny' is colourful, with colours that are never flat but never overly-saturated, simple but elegant backgrounds and Bugs and Daffy are well designed and move easily. Taking on music composition duty is the always reliable Milt Franklyn. Franklyn's music is vibrantly orchestrated, used cleverly and with boundless characterful energy, adding a lot to the action if not quite enhancing it quite as effectively as Carl Stalling (my personal favourite of the Looney Tunes composers) does, this said at least it fits which is more than can be said for a lot of Bill Lava's work in the late-60s output.

Luckily, 'People are Bunny' does not forget to entertain. All of it actually is very funny to hilarious, with razor sharp dialogue and inventive and suitably painful-looking sight gags (poor Daffy taking the brunt of it). The highlights were Bugs' "If there's anything we rabbits are good at, it's multiplying", the hilarious parody of "People are Funny" and, agreed, one of Daffy's best and most uproarious exit lines. Bugs and Daffy are on terrific form with a great easy-going chemistry, neither overshadowing the other, as are June Foray, Daws Butler and especially the peerless Mel Blanc providing the voice work.

Overall, very good and entertaining. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This cartoon parodies American television in the latter 1950s in general and several shows in particular (like Art Linkletter's "People Are Funny") and provides opportunities for gags galore for Bugs and Daffy in the process. The cartoon pricipally plays on Daffy's greed to set everything in motion and takes off from there. It ends with the best exit line spoken by Daffy ever! Excellent cartoon well worth watching. Highly recommended.

In "People are Bunny," for me it was not the plot that made me enjoy this (which it often is in Looney Tunes) but the jokes, character of Bugs Bunny and random ideas which did not totally connect to the plot. This is also the episode where I have seen Bugs Bunny at his smartest, here he turns into an autistic savant when he answers an incredibly complicated maths sum with no hesitation. The plot was in many ways predictable and when it was not, it was still not very good.

Here, Daffy Duck is watching the TV and when he hears that $1000 will be rewarded to the first rabbit brought to a particular TV studio, he knows just who to look for. He finds Bugs Bunny polishing his gun (?) and various house items in his warren. Daffy Duck forces Bugs Bunny to come along with him, will the rabbit fall victim to the TV company, who want to shoot him..?

In this episode Daffy assumes one of his most greedy roles possible, which is personally my least favourite role of his. I do not recommend this episode for people who prefer the older, crazy Daffy, unless you love Bugs Bunny more/almost as much, as he is particularly good in this episode.

I recommend this episode to people who like strong Looney Tunes characters and to people who love Bugs Bunny. Enjoy "People are Bunny"! :-)