A Star Is Bored

If a long-eared rabbit can be a star, so can a duck," pronounces Daffy Duck as he disgustedly leaves some Hollywood dressing room area after overhearing Bugs being interviewed by a columnist. Daffy wants to be a star, too.

Meanwhile some movie producer is looking for a double for Bugs. He's on the phone asking someone, "Where can I get someone stupid enough to take the job?"

You can guess who applies! The title to this cartoon is similar to Daffy's response, "You can hang up the phone, boss, because a star is born and that star is me!"

The results are predictable when Daffy is called upon, in the middle of various scenes to be a stand-in for Bugs - he gets pulverized in various. A couple of the "stunts" were funny, like the jet plane but most were so-so, at best.

The artwork was very 1950s-ish. It's hard to explain but you know the look, more "modern" than from 1940s to the early '50s.

Cute Daffy and Bugs short with a very funny set-up. This one has Daffy complaining to a Warner Bros. executive about Bugs getting all the attention. It just so happens the exec is having trouble finding stunt doubles for Bugs so Daffy is easily talked into taking on the job. This leads to several scenes where we see the cartoons being filmed like live-action movies. When it gets to the point in the scenes where violence is supposed to be inflicted upon Bugs, Daffy is forced to stand in and take the lumps. This type of cartoon, where the characters are actors acting out their roles, is the kind of thing that is all too common in modern Looney Tunes. It isn't funny anymore but, back then, it was fresh and clever. This is also a rare case where Bugs, Daffy, Yosemite Sam, and Elmer Fudd all appear in the same short. The animation is bright and colorful. The music is lively and fun. Great voice work from Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan, of course. Lots of laughs to be had here, particularly where Daffy is concerned. Love that ending.

For the umpteenth time, Daffy "hubris is my middle name" Duck tries to best Bugs Bunny, with the same success that he's had before. The hardest part here is wondering how a duck is supposed to double a rabbit. But, as has been said, anything can happen in a cartoon. This is a fun and enjoyable cartoon and Daffy gets what he deserves and what I suspect is his karmic birthright. Recommended.

It's no "Duck Amuck" (1953), but "A Star Is Bored" is a passable Looney Tunes cartoon that goes behind the scenes of a movie studio. Bugs Bunny plays an actor and, apparently, screenwriter, while Daffy Duck suffers the indignities and cartoon violence of being the rabbit's stuntman and foil. Neither the final reveal or anything else has the same effect as "Duck Amuck," where animation itself was deconstructed, but this is slightly amusing nonetheless.

The title is a play on that of the Judy Garland version of "A Star Is Born" (1954), but besides both being about filmmaking, this cartoon short doesn't have anything to do with the lengthy, live-action film. I viewed this after reviewing the Garland picture, however, and Bugs, Daffy and company are a good way to cheer one up after that emotionally-devastating feature.

In what must have been the only time that Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam all starred in the same cartoon, Daffy is movie star Bugs's stunt double for every dangerous scene. Suffice it to say, Daffy always believes that he'll end up the top star but always suffers in the worst way possible. Is this his eternal doom?! Anyway, "A Star Is Bored" really shows Friz Freleng's style. While his cartoons didn't usually reach the cleverness attained by Chuck Jones's work, he always kept his cartoons funny. He certainly gives Daffy his just desserts. And he pokes fun at Hollywood just the right amount without the cartoon turning obnoxious. A good one.

I bet that the people in Middle America didn't get the part about Daffy performing at bar mitzvahs. Of course, the Termite Terrace crowd always liked to sneak in things like that (see the kreplach scene in "The Scarlet Pumpernickel").