Buckaroo Bugs
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Buckaroo Bugs | |
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![]() Title Card | |
Directed by | Robert Clampett |
Produced by | Leon Schlesinger |
Narrated by | Robert C. Bruce (uncredited) |
Animation by | M. Gould Robert McKimson Rod Scribner |
Layouts by | Thomas McKimson |
Backgrounds by | Philip DeGuard |
Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
Running time | 8 min 44 sec |
Buckaroo Bugs is a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short released in August 1944, directed by Robert Clampett. It was the last Looney Tunes cartoon to be produced by Leon Schlesinger. It was also the first Looney Tunes cartoon to star Bugs Bunny.
Plot
The film is set in a small town of the "San Fernando Alley" (San Fernando Valley).[1][2] According to the narration, "Our story begins when the West was young, and early pioneers settled down to never more roam, and made the San Fernando Alley their home." [3] Despite its Western setting, the short makes references to World War II rationing. A pretend train robbery, lists as "valuable cargo": butter, gasoline, sugar, shoes, and tires – all of them items for which there was a shortage in the War due to rationing.[1] The short also has Bugs stealing all the carrots from a victory garden, which is another World War II reference.[2]
Unlike in most shorts, Bugs Bunny serves as an antagonist. In the cartoon, he plays a carrot thief called the Masked Marauder, whom Brooklyn's "Red Hot Ryder" (a parody of Red Ryder) must bring to justice. The cartoon portrays Red Hot Ryder as a dimwit who cannot distinguish Bugs Bunny from the Masked Marauder, his black horse named Horsey with a mind of its own, and his good-natured slowness is consistently mocked: When Bugs Bunny as the Masked Marauder threatens to shoot Red Ryder, saying, "Stick 'em up, or I'll blow your brains out," the latter treats it like a choice, replying, "Well, now, that's mighty neighborly of you."
In the end, Red Ryder catches on, but is unable to catch the Masked Marauder. Bugs tricks him and his black horse into jumping into the Grand Canyon and they (eventually) crashed down, making a man-and-horse-shaped hole into the ground, Red Ryder finally figures out that Bugs is really the Masked Marauder. Bugs pops up from beneath the ground with a lit candle and says "That's right! That's right! You win the $64 question!" (a reference to the "big prize" on the famous radio quiz show Take It or Leave It). He then kisses him and blows out the candle, with Bob Clampett's "Bey-woop" effect to close the cartoon.
Cast
- Mel Blanc as Bugs Bunny, Red Hot Ryder, Various Villagers
- Robert C. Bruce as Narrator, Various Villagers (uncredited)
Availability
The cartoon has been released on laserdisc in The Golden Age of Looney Tunes by MGM/UA Home Video. It is also featured on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5 DVD set, released on October 30, 2007 and the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2 DVD & Blu-ray sets, released on October 16, 2012.
Sources
- Shull, Michael S.; Wilt, David E. (2004), "Filmography 1944", Doing Their Bit: Wartime American Animated Short Films, 1939-1945, McFarland & Company, ISBN 978-0786481699
- Young, William H.; Young, Nancy K. (2010), "Victory Gardens", World War II and the Postwar Years in America: A Historical and Cultural Encyclopedia, Volume 1, ABC-CLIO, ISBN 978-0313356520
References
External links
- Looney Tunes shorts
- Warner Bros. Cartoons animated short films
- American short films
- 1944 films
- 1940s Western (genre) films
- Animated western (genre) animation
- Films directed by Bob Clampett
- Films set in the 19th century
- Films set in the San Fernando Valley
- Western (genre) comedy films
- 1940s American animated films
- American films
- Films about animals
- Animated films about animals
- Films produced by Leon Schlesinger
- Films scored by Carl Stalling
- 1944 animated films
- American animated short films
- Films about rabbits and hares