Monday, 12 March 2018

Bunny Kaye

Bugs Bunny pulls off a Danny Kaye-like scat routine in Hot Cross Bunny, a cartoon directed by Bob McKimson and written by Warren Foster (who had written a similar routine for Daffy Duck in Bob Clampett’s Book Revue).

Bugs thrusts himself at the camera for emphasis in a scene by Manny Gould.



See more about the animators on this cartoon at the Cartoon Research site.
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6 comments:

  1. J Lee12 March 2018 at 10:09

    This was one of the cartoons midway between the more free-wheeling style of the early-to-mi-1940s Bugs cartoons, and the more story-structured ones of the 1950s. Bugs' routines for the hard-to-please roomful of doctors falls on the '40s side of the divide, and is the high-point of the cartoon.

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  2. Steve Bailey12 March 2018 at 12:08

    Great Bugs routine, one of my favorites. This scene was later incorporated into a narrative plot point on TV's Tiny Toon Adventures. Bugs' nephew Buster sees the routine and decides he'll copy Bugs' moves at his upcoming prom.

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  3. Ricardo Cantoral13 March 2018 at 15:55

    I wonder if McKimson was experimenting with Bugs in this and some other cartoons. Bob made him a bit of a dunce that was easily tricked by the antagonists of Bugs' cartoons. I guess Bob eventually decided that Bugs worked best when he was slim and street smart.

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    Replies
    1. Yowp15 March 2018 at 02:59

      I don't know whether that's attributable to McKimson or Foster. The one cartoon where that sort of thing worked was the one with the Easter bunny. But there are some of the McKimson cartoons where I can't picture Bugs behaving the way he does to set up the story.

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    2. Ricardo Cantoral15 March 2018 at 21:41

      Easter Yeggs was executed perfectly. Bugs was a bit of a rube but he was in top form when he was up against Elmer. Rebel Rabbit on the other hand was particularly awful. The cartoon wasn't bad but Bugs was far from his charismatic personality. He just came off as an obnoxious loud mouth.

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  4. Schmoopie17 March 2018 at 22:54

    McKimson and his squatty Bugs legs. Guess I'm the only guy who is annoyed by it.

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