Robot Rabbit

Robot Rabbit
Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny) series
Directed by	I. Freleng
Produced by	Edward Selzer (unc.)
Story by	Warren Foster
Voices by	Mel Blanc Arthur Q. Bryan (uncredited)
Music by	Carl Stalling
Animation by	Ken Champin Manuel Perez Arthur Davis Virgil Ross
Layouts by	Hawley Pratt
Backgrounds by	Irv Wyner
Studio	Warner Bros. Cartoons
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date(s)	December 12, 1953 (USA premiere)
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	6 minutes 43 seconds
Language	English

Robot Rabbit is a Warner Bros. animated short of the Looney Tunes series. Originally released to theaters on December 12, 1953, it stars Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd as its main characters.

Summary

Elmer Fudd is shown as a carrot farmer who is happily going about his chores singing "In a Little Red Barn (On a Farm down in Indiana)". Halfway through the song, he realizes Bugs has joined his singing. At the end of the chorus of the song, Bugs dives into his hole, and stumps of half-eaten carrots fly into the air. Elmer angrily laments "Ooh, that wascally wabbit's been in my cawwots again", and then rushes into his house to retrieve a shotgun. After shooting into an empty hole (Bugs had conveniently left the hole, then does his "fake dying" act), Elmer exclaims: "The rabbit kicked the bucket"; then he and Bugs start dancing as a result until Elmer begins to realize Bugs is still very much alive.

That prompts Fudd to call "ACME Pest Control": ("Hewwo? ACME Pest Contwol? Weww, I've got a pest I want contwolled.") for a robot with the express purpose of evicting Bugs. The robot initially confuses a mule and Elmer — who was trying to explain to the robot what a rabbit looks like — for his intended target before getting the early upper-hand. Bugs quickly evens the score by luring his antagonist under a rotating water sprinkler, causing the robot to rust. Elmer however quickly resolves this setback by oiling the robot up.

Later, Bugs disguises himself as a female robot (where he literally throws a wrench into their "relationship"), before finally causing the robot to follow him through a construction site and beneath a pile driver. Back at home, Elmer starts wondering how the robot fared, before Bugs greets him by dumping the robot — or what is left of it — onto the floor; it is presumed that the robot was crushed underneath the pile driver. As Bugs walks off, he comments to himself: "You know, one of these days, these scientists are going to actually invent something that will outsmart a rabbit."

Goofs

• The audio when Bugs remarks that "this cigarette machine" was going to cause him no end of trouble is coupled with animation where Bugs' mouth does not move.

Censorship

• On ABC, the two times that the robot mistakes a mule and Elmer for rabbits and shoots them with his laser gun were cut.
• On CBS, in addition to the ABC cuts, the following scenes were cut:
  • The part where Elmer shoots the rabbit hole where Bugs (presumably) is and Bugs feigning that he's near death (leading to the famous "Wabbit Kicked the Bucket" part) was cut.
  • The part where Bugs and the robot chase each other back and forth under an active pile driver at a construction site was cut (but not the end where Bugs stops by Elmer's house to dump the pounded remains of his robot).
• The syndicated Merrie Melodies Show only edited the part where the robot shoots Elmer after Elmer imitates a rabbit by replacing it with a still shot of the mule after it's been blasted in the face.

Trivia

• Elmer Fudd's cover of "In Old Indiana" was featured in Bugs vs. Daffy: Battle of the Music Video Stars.

Preceded by Duck! Rabbit, Duck!

Bugs Bunny Cartoons 1953

Succeeded by Captain Hareblower