Baby Buggy Bunny is a 1954 Merrie Melodies short directed by Chuck Jones.
Title[]
The title is a play on "Baby Bugs Bunny".
Plot[]
Ant Hill Harry, alias Babyface Finster, a thirty-five-year-old man who resembles a baby, makes a successful robbery of the Last National Bank disguised with stilts, dark clothes, a carriage, and baby clothing.
Finster loses his money down Bugs' rabbit hole and poses as a foundling in order to gain it back, pinning a "Please take care of my little baby" note to himself. Multiple attempts to grab it are interpreted as a baby's typical grabbiness. Finster even pulls and fires a gun, but this still does not fully register with Bugs. Finster beats Bugs with a baseball bat; he assumes the baby is having a nightmare.
Later, Bugs finds Finster is in the bathroom shaving himself, smoking a cigar, and wearing a tattoo reading "Maisie, Singapore, 1932". A brief news story on Bugs' television makes the rabbit understand the situation. He takes the time to torment the man, before trussing him up like a baby. Finster reaches his boiling point and tries to stab Bugs with a large butcher knife, but stabs himself in the rear instead and murmurs inaudible obscenities. An angry Bugs repeatedly spanks him, weapons falling out with each blow of Bugs' hand. "We'll just HAVE to learn NOT TO PLAY WITH KNIVES and NOT to use NAUGHTY WORDS! And BELIEVE me, Finster, this hurts you MORE than it does ME!", Bugs berates him, then leaves Finster, still in baby attire but tied to the basket, on the doorstep of the local police station in the basket, along with the returned stolen money and a "please take care of my little baby" letter, which also describes Finster's crimes. Finster is sent to the state prison and is locked inside a playpen within his cell; he does not take it well, throwing a wild tantrum, to which a visiting Bugs says through a barred window, "Don't be such a crybaby. After all, ninety-nine years isn’t forever."
Availability[]
Guffaw and Order: Looney Tunes Fight Crime
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2, Disc One
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 6, Disc 1
Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny Golden Carrot Collection, Disc 2
Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection, Disc 2 (restored and HD)
Streaming[]
Censorship[]
- On ABC, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and the syndicated version of Merrie Melodies: Starring Bugs Bunny and Friends, the part where Finster draws and fires a gun on Bugs was cut.[1]
- ABC also cut Bugs shaking Baby Finster, sticking him in a washing machine, hurling him into the ceiling, realizing that he has forgotten his fudge, and letting Finster fall to the ground. The ABC-edited version shows Bugs catching Finster climbing the bookshelf and then remembering about his fudge to suggest Finster fell off the bookshelf.[1]
- Some syndicated versions shorten the part where Bugs shakes Finster.[1]
Notes[]
- The 2006 film Little Man employs a storyline similar to this cartoon. For that reason, it received a Razzie nomination in 2007 for "Worst Remake or Rip-off," which it won.[2]
- Finster's shadowy disguise disguise was used throughout The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special with footage of the bank robbery reused. In the end, it was revealed that Porky Pig was wearing the disguise to get the story going.
- This is the first Merrie Melodies cartoon to use the 1954–64 Bugs Bunny mugshot (as "Captain Hareblower" used the regular version, likely as the new mugshot was not finalized yet).
Gallery[]
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TV Title Cards[]
References[]
External links[]
- Baby Buggy Bunny on the SFX Resource