Bugs Bunny Rides Again

I love Looney Tunes, I love Bugs Bunny and I love Yosemite Sam, so Bugs Bunny Rides Again is one rootin' tootin' cartoon. There may be clichés, but everything else works so superbly it hardly matters. The animation is wonderful, the scenery is luscious and gorgeous, the colours are beautiful and every character is drawn very well. The music brings a real sense of fun flavour to the proceedings, it is rousing and bombastic. The visual gags are hugely entertaining and come by thick and fast and the dialogue is razor sharp and hilarious. The story still entertains, but what makes the cartoon is the chemistry between Bugs and Yosemite Sam, they are both on top form and both have their fair share of hilarious lines and scenes (ie. their first meeting spoofing High Noon and "So Long Sam, see you in Miami"). Both are brilliantly voiced by Mel Blanc, is there anything he cannot do? Overall, just a gem from the Looney Tunes canon, quite possibly my personal favourite of the Bugs-Yosemite cartoons. 10/10 Bethany Cox

It's the wild west with bullets flying down the street like traffic in Manhattan. Over at The Gunshot Saloon - Come In And Get A Slug," Yosemite Sam walks in with two smoking guns. He orders "all you skunks clear out." Of course, the last one is literally a skunk.

Well, there is one varmint left in the bar.....Bugs, who does his Gary Cooper "High Noon" imitation, walking dramatically toward Sam. At the last minute, he pulls a carrot out of his holster and says, "What's up, doc?"

Off we go with another wild Bugs Bunny animated short, filled with funny dialog which includes a lot of puns and clichés from the Old West. The scenery is also spectacular. I laughed continuously throughout this cartoon. The two of them dancing almost had me in tears, laughing so hard. This is just great material.

Bugs Bunny Rides Again (1948)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

The setting is the roughest town in the West where Yosemite Sam will shoot whoever tries to stand in his way of anything. Then Bugs comes to town and the two start their battle. This is yet another winning short to feature Bugs and Sam and this just gives further proof that the two, when working together, were one of the greatest comedy duos out there. There's one great joke after another but my favorite sequence comes at the very end when the two sit down to play cards to determine who leaves town. How the card game ends and everything that follows is just priceless. Another winning sequence happens early on when the two start walking towards one another getting ready to shoot.

When Yosemite Sam comes into town, his reputation comes before him and the majority of the town run in fear of their lives. However Bugs Bunny stands his ground in a saloon stand off which spills out into the street to decide who stays in the town and who goes.

Another of the Bugs cartoons that sets itself in the old west opposite Sam to good effect – and this is easily one of the best cartoons that I've seen with them. The animation is full and looks great, the characters are detailed and the backgrounds aren't just coloured blotches in the rear of the shot! The plot is a good western spoof (Bugs even says `just like Gary Cooper' at one point') and is pretty funny for most of the time.

Bugs is on top form and Sam is pretty sharp. The two work well together and Sam is a good partner for Bugs. The material is pretty clever but still has good physical slapstick too boot. Overall this is a really good Bugs Bunny cartoon with plenty of laughs and a real sense of quality in everything from the animation, the characters and material.

When Yosemite Sam, the roughest, toughest he-man ever to cross the Rio Grande - and he ain't namby-pamby - scares everyone out of an Old West town, Bugs Bunny stays and proceeds to play all sorts of tricks on Sam. Once again, Friz Freleng directed a hilarious, irreverent jab at the ordered world (whether it was Friz Freleng or Chuck Jones directing, they always did a great job; not to mention Mel Blanc's voices). I will say that when Sam said "cut the cards", I knew what was going to happen before Bugs did it, but other than that, everything's a real surprise. "Bugs Bunny Rides Again" is one cartoon that will truly live on forever. Because remember, this town is big enough not only for the two of us, but also for Gary Cooper.