Show Biz Bugs
 |
This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (September 2009) |
| Show Biz Bugs | |
|---|---|
| Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck) series | |
 Lobby card. |
|
| Directed by | Friz Freleng |
| Story by | Warren Foster |
| Voices by | Mel Blanc |
| Animation by | Gerry Chiniquy Arthur Davis Virgil Ross |
| Layouts by | Hawley Pratt |
| Backgrounds by | Boris Gorelick |
| Studio | Warner Bros. Cartoons |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
| Release date(s) | November 2, 1957 (USA premiere) |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 7:00 |
| Language | English |
Show Biz Bugs is a Warner Bros. animated short originally released to theaters on November 2, 1957. It is billed as a Looney Tunes cartoon and stars Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck as its main characters. Show Biz Bugs is notable for portraying the modern interpretation of Daffy in a more sympathetic light: In this film, Daffy is a jealous and arrogant competitor to Bugs, but his shabby treatment by the theater management and audience is depicted as being unfairly out of proportion to the genuine talent he possesses.
The basic setting and conflicts of this film were reprised for the linking footage for The Bugs Bunny Show television series.
Contents |
[edit] Censorship
The scene at the end of this cartoon where Daffy performs his final act by drinking dangerous chemicals is almost always edited on TV, but in different ways:
- The BBC version of the cartoon ends with a fake fade-out on the shot of Daffy black and smoldering after getting frustrated by Bugs missing the final note on the booby-trapped xylophone and deciding to do it himself. The BBC version also adds applause after the exploding xylophone gag just before the cartoon ends.
- Cartoon Network has, at times, aired the original ending uncensored. When Cartoon Network began airing the censored version, the scene of Daffy drinking the gasoline and nitroglycerine was removed and replaced with a frozen shot of Bugs staring at Daffy from off-stage. In 2003, another censored version aired. It was similar to the version that aired on the BBC (with the cartoon ending after the xylophone gag), only there was no applause added. As of 2011, the ending has been shown in full.
- The syndicated Merrie Melodies version, several local station airings, and the version that aired on ABC's "Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show" left in the ending, but cut Daffy drinking the gasoline, so that way it looks as if he drinks the nitroglycerin first. That is also how the short is shown on the Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie ("The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie" version of this cartoon also adds the sound effect of someone laughing after the xylophone explodes).
- Nickelodeon's version aired this cartoon with the original ending, but cut the part where Daffy strikes the match, asides to the audience "Girls, you better hold on to your boyfriends," and swallows the match (making it seem as if he exploded from "shaking well" after swallowing the uranium 238).
- When The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (which includes clips from this cartoon as the climax) aired on The Disney Channel, Daffy's death defying act was edited so severely that the only scenes left were Daffy holding the bottle of nitroglycerin and the explosion from after the match swallowing (making it seem as if Daffy's holding the nitroglycerin caused the explosion).[1]
[edit] Previous Film References
The xylophone gag was previously used in the Private Snafu short Booby Traps and the Bugs/Yosemite Sam short Ballot Box Bunny (and later in Rushing Roulette), only in both cases the instrument used was a piano. The song used in each case, as in Show Biz Bugs, is Believe Me, if All Those Endearing Young Charms.
This final act has been used in an earlier Porky Pig cartoon called Curtain Razor in which a fox does the same act Daffy does attempting to show Porky he is a star, and, much like "Show Biz Bugs", the final act in Curtain Razor has been censored on Cartoon Network to remove him ingesting gasoline (the syndicated version of The Merrie Melodies show also cuts the gasoline-drinking and edits it even further by cutting out the fox swallowing a match).
[edit] Availability
- Show Biz Bugs is available (uncensored and uncut) on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2, Disc 4.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Bugsy and Mugsy |
Bugs Bunny Cartoons 1957 |
Succeeded by Rabbit Romeo |
