Apes of Wrath

OK, it's true: "Apes of Wrath" is basically a combination of two previous cartoons. There was "Gorilla My Dreams", in which Bugs Bunny gets adopted by a gorilla family (and the father wants to rip him to shreds), and "A Mouse Divided", in which the inebriated stork delivers some parents - in that case Mr. and Mrs. Sylvester - the wrong kind of baby (in that case a mouse) and the father wants to eat him. But it's still a really funny cartoon, just because of what happens to the father.

I originally saw this cartoon in the compilation film "Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales", and I simply laughed at the events portrayed. Now that I'm old enough to analyze it, here's what I notice: the father is named Elvis. For me at least, that's weird to think about. I remember in "8 Mile", one of the rapper wannabes calls Eminem's character "Elvis" as an insult; after all, Elvis Presley sang the sort of music originally created by African-Americans. So now, we see a gorilla named Elvis in Africa, the land identified by Muhammad Ali as the home of the black man. Go figure!

I know, it makes no sense to mention Elvis Presley, Eminem and Muhammad Ali in a review of a Bugs Bunny cartoon. But no matter. It isn't the best cartoon, but still worth seeing.

And yes, I dream - or, more specifically, fantasize - about Jeannie from "I Dream of Jeannie". You gotta admit, she is REALLY HOT!

The Looney Tunes are a Great Franchise that has several of the most Iconic Cartoon Characters and Bugs Bunny is no Exception! This short was one of the Last Great Loaney Tunes Cartoons since in 1962 they began to decline Very Horrible way since in the shorts after 1962 the Animation became Mediocre and the Music was in charge of William "Bill" Lava who did not have the Same Magic as Mylt Franklin or Carl Stalling and the music felt Generic and without Grace , but we are not here to talk about the Looney Tunes Decline, today we are going to talk about Apes of Wrath!.

Apes of Wrath is a 1959 Short Film Featuring Two Gorillas waiting for their Child but the Stork (who seemed to be drunk) misses the baby gorilla and therefore Attacks Bugs and Passes him off as the Son of the Gorillas and after delivering it many funny scenes begin!.

The animation is quite inferior to the previous short films but despite this Virgil Ross and the other animators give quality animation from time to time, the backgrounds are somewhat empty but elegantly colored and the movements of the characters look quite good.

The Music is Great, as always Milt Franklin makes top notch music that fits perfectly in the short.

Voice Acting is Decent, Mel Blanc as always does a Masterful Performance as Bugs.

In itself, Apes of Wrath is not the best of the Looney Tunes but it is one of the Last Great Short Films that the Looney Tunes Produced before their Inevitable Decline in 1962 that ended the Merrie Melodies with a lousy short in 1969 the Infamous "See ya Later Gladiator" but in another review we will talk about that, for everything I said earlier this short gets an 8!.

The stork has been too accepting of hospitality when delivering babies and loses a baby gorilla. Eager to make his delivery on time he kidnaps Bugs Bunny and tries to pass him off as a baby gorilla.

I'm struggling to remember the name of the short, but this basic plot (Bugs as an apes' baby) has been done before and done better. In this cartoon a drunken stork is to blame for the situation, which leads to some reasonably funny jokes. The actual cartoon is an amusing battle of wills between Bugs and the ape father (who's first reaction to seeing his `son' is to get a club!). It is funny but it suffers from comparisons with the other one (that I only saw a few weeks ago).

The animation is poorer for a start. Here it is quite blocky and the apes really lack any real sense of effort in their creation. This is not a major problem because the material is amusing enough to get by, but it does take away from the thing overall.

Bugs is good enough to get by even with a weak foil, but here the gorilla, despite not being that great, is good enough to do what he needs to do - be able to get hit on the head by Bugs. The mother is OK but has a strange voice.

Overall, this is amusing enough to watch but it suffers when compared to an earlier Bugs cartoon which did the same basic plot but did it better.

While this isn't the best Bugs Bunny cartoon I've seen, it has a lot going for it. The Stork, seen drunk throughout, is one of the funnier Warner Bros creations (if babies really *were* delivered by a stork, it occurs to me that he probably would have to face temptations of "toasting to" the babies he delivers, thus his drunkenness). The main body of the cartoon, where Bugs has to pretend to be the gorilla's baby and mischievously tortures the father gorilla, is ok, but the final act of the short is the best. It's hilarious the first time you see it, mildly funny the next few times, and you become immune to it after that. Which is a shame because back when I was recording Boomerang's daily block of Looney Tunes films, this was one they played ad nauseum...

After seeing this cartoon on 1001 Rabbit Tales, my overall impression was that I really liked it. Apes of Wrath isn't the best Looney Tunes cartoon admittedly, but it was enjoyable enough. The animation on the whole is decent, the backgrounds and colours are handsome, however the character animation especially on the apes is rather blocky occasionally. A bigger fault though is that the story is somewhat predictable, it has been done many times and I agree it has been done better, and for me there wasn't really anything story wise that caught me by surprise. That said the music is energetic, the dialogue is witty and the sight gags are well delivered. Bugs is the star of the show, while the apes are good and the drunken stork while limited in presence faring better. And Mel Blanc is wonderful as always. Overall, very good but not exceptional. 8/10 Bethany Cox