Le lapin est en prison

Bugs Bunny is on the run from hunters during rabbit season. He digs and ends up inside Sing Sing Prison. Prison guard Sam Schultz assumes him to be a prisoner. It is a constant battle as Bugs keeps escaping.

Sam Schultz is basically Yosemite Sam in design. He does act slightly differently like not shooting guns randomly. I like the two battling characters, but I expected a hulking prisoner as the third. I do wonder if Sam shouldn't be thrown into prison right after hitting the Warden. The stool pigeon joke is kinda funny, but I did take a beat to get it. I'm also not sure which crime is his serving.

Of course, Bugs is one of the few characters who manages to always win in the end. To escape hunters, he tunnels his way out of danger, right into a prison year where Yosemite Sam (Schultz) is waiting for him. Soon he is unfairly incarcerated. What transpires are a series of tricks played on the guard as our bunny remains aloof. Quite good, actually.

Big House Bunny is not among the best but I enjoyed it a lot. Bugs is still witty and likable, but he is somewhat predictable at the same time. Yosemite Sam works really well with him and utters some of the best lines, and the warden is a great surprise with an even bigger temper than Sam! The animation once again is crisp, colourful and lively. All the characters are drawn more than adequately, the jail is a suitably foreboding setting and the use of colours and backgrounds make Big House Bunny a pleasure for the senses. The music is energetic and rousing, the dialogue is fresh with a lot of wit, the sight gags all work with some hilarious and some surprisingly morbid(not a bad thing) and the story while simple doesn't fall into the predictability area too much. Mel Blanc does a wonderful job once again with the voices.

Overall, a great cartoon. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Bugs Bunny escapes hunters by leaping into his rabbit hole and tunneling to safety. Unhappily he tunnels into Sing Song prison where a sadistic prison guard named Sam Schultz refuses to accept that he's anything but one of the prisoners. Soon Bugs is in stripes, but it's the guard who will find prison life to be hell when Bugs Bunny is around to trick him into a cell, the hangman's noose, an electric chair and even into the warden's office, where Bugs will put a severe strain on the relationship between boss and underling. Finally, Sam decides that enough is enough.

Some rather shockingly morbid gags highlight this very funny confrontation between Bugs and Yosemite Sam, who has dropped the "Yosemite" from his name in order to vary his roles beyond that of the Western outlaw.

This cartoon is available on the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume One," Disc 1.

Big House Bunny (1950)

**** (out of 4)

Hilarious Looney Tunes short has Bugs Bunny accidentally digging into a prison where guard (Yosemite) Sam Schultz plans on keeping him. The hard trying Sam doesn't know who he's up against though. This here is one of my favorite shorts as it contains non-stop action, rather violent scenes and one hilarious moment after another. I think this is one short where every sequence could be considered classic and that's saying a whole lot considering how great the series was. There are countless great moments here but I'd have to say my favorite is the scene where Bugs dresses up like Sam's boss and of course this goes badly for Sam in two ways. Another great sequence is Bug's first prison escape.