Baton Bunny

Baton Bunny
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Airdate:	10 January 1959 Blue Ribbon reissue: 20 April 1968
Series:	Looney Tunes
Production Number:	1466
Copyright Renewed:	18 February 1986
Starring:	Bugs Bunny
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc
Director:	Chuck Jones Abe Levitow
Written By:	Michael Maltese
Producer:	John W. Burton (uncredited)
Animated By:	Ken Harris Richard Thompson Ben Washam
Layout Artist:	Maurice Noble Samuel Armstrong
Background Artist:	Tom O'Loughlin
Film Editor:	Treg Brown
Musician:	Milt Franklyn

Baton Bunny is a 1959 Looney Tunes short directed by Chuck Jones and Abe Levitow.

Plot

Bugs is getting ready to conduct The Warner Bros. Symphony Orchestra. When he finishes his elaborate preparation, he starts to conduct. However, several problems plague Bugs' conduction, notably a bothersome Fly and some awkward cuffs that keep falling off. Bugs attempts to kill the fly, crashing into the orchestra and the instruments as he does so. As the music comes to a stop, Bugs bows for the crowd, and instead of applause, hears only silence. Bugs looks around to see that the seats are empty, though he does hear some faint clapping coming from the fly. Bugs bows to the fly.

Caricatures

• Leopold Stokowski - silhouette at the beginning

Availability

(1984) VHS
The Looney Tunes Video Show Volume 16

(1993) VHS
Bugs Bunny's Hare-Brained Hits

(1993) LaserDisc
Looney Tunes Curtain Calls: Classic Music and Show Business Cartoons

(1996) VHS
Special Bumper Collection (Vol. 3)

(1998) VHS
Looney Tunes Presents Bugs Bunny: Big Top Bunny (1998 dubbed version)

(1999) VHS
Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Volume 5: Musical Masterpieces (1998 dubbed print, without dubbed notice)

(2001) DVD
I Love Tweety: Volume 2 (1998 dubbed print, without dubbed notice)

(2003) DVD
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1, Disc Three (1998 dubbed print, without dubbed notice)

(2003) DVD
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 1, Disc 1 (1998 dubbed print, without dubbed notice)

(2004) DVD
Looney Tunes Collection All Stars Volume 1

(2004) DVD
Looney Tunes Collection All Stars Volumes 1 & 2, Disc 1

(2009) DVD
Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1960s Volume 2, Disc 1 (part of The Porky Pig Show, without the opening and closing titles)

(2010) DVD
3 Spooky DVD Treats

(2011) DVD
Looney Tunes Super Stars' Bugs Bunny: Wascally Wabbit (1998 dubbed print, without dubbed notice) (Region 4 only)

(2014) DVD
Looney Tunes Center Stage Volume 1

(2015) DVD
Looney Tunes Center Stage

(2016) DVD
Looney Tunes Triple Feature

(2018) DVD
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volumes 1-3 Repack

Streaming

Boomerang App (2017 - ) ((1998 dubbed print, without dubbed notice, low-pitch version)

HBO Max (2020 - 2020) (low-pitch version, restored, removed)

iTunes ( - ) (low-pitch version, restored)

Notes

• This is the first short to be directed by Abe Levitow, as well as it being the Looney Tunes short to be directed by Abe Levitow, although it was also directed by Chuck Jones.
  • Eventually Levitow would begin directing a few Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts either by himself or with Chuck Jones, and Maurice Noble, around 1959 to 1962.
• Bugs conducts, and in part, plays the overture to "Ein Morgen, ein Mittag und ein Abend in Wien" (A Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna)", a composition by Franz von Suppé.
• This short was used in the TV Special, Bugs Bunny's Overtures to Disaster.
• George Daugherty made use of the cartoon for his special concerts, Bugs Bunny on Broadway and Bugs Bunny at the Symphony.
• Though Mel Blanc was credited for the voices of all characters, there is no dialogue in the short. The only vocal effects made are when an audience member is heard coughing, and Bugs makes a 'shooshing' noise. This is the only Bugs Bunny short (other than "A Corny Concerto") where Bugs is silent (apart from the 'shoosh').
• Although not a direct remake, the short is similar in concept to "Rhapsody Rabbit", where it features Bugs as a concert musician, in this case as an orchestra conductor, upstaged by a pesky little creature, in this case, a fly. The fly from this short, as well as Cecil Turtle, the Gremlin from "Falling Hare", and the unnamed mouse from "Rhapsody Rabbit" are the very few characters who managed to outsmart Bugs.
• Bugs Bunny doesn't speak in this short.
• This short was blue ribbon reissued, however, the Color Rings were never altered, only the production code was.
• A music fragment for the final scene was left unused on the theatrical release. It appears on Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1, Disc Three as a special feature as part of this cartoon's music-only audio track.
• The closing variant of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" plays just as the cartoon irises out, earlier than expected.

Gallery

Lobby card

Preliminary lobby card, signed by Willie Ito

Concept drawing by Mike Maltese

Concept drawing by Mike Maltese

Concept sketch signed by Willie Ito

Layout drawing

Cropped screenshot of 2020 re-restoration

Baton Bunny (1959) - 2020 restoration - Intro and Outro + 60-seconds clip

External Links

• "Baton Bunny" at SuperCartoons.net
• "Baton Bunny" at B99.TV
• "Baton Bunny" at the SFX Resource Wiki