Buccaneer Bunny

Buccaneer Bunny
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Airdate:	8 May 1948
Series:	Looney Tunes
MPAA Number:	11895
Production Number:	1047
Vitaphone Number:	1598
Runtime:	7 minutes, 29 seconds
Copyright Renewed:	21 November 1975
Starring:	Bugs Bunny Yosemite Sam
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc
Director:	I. Freleng
Written By:	Michael Maltese Tedd Pierce
Producer:	Eddie Selzer (uncredited)
Animated By:	Manuel Perez Ken Champin Virgil Ross Gerry Chiniquy
Layout Artist:	Hawley Pratt
Background Artist:	Paul Julian
Film Editor:	Treg Brown (uncredited)
Musician:	Carl Stalling

Buccaneer Bunny is a 1948 Looney Tunes short directed by I. Freleng.

Plot

Sam is digging a hole to bury his treasure on a beach. He is singing the stereotypical pirate shanty "Dead Man's Chest"—on the second strain, Sam switches from the typical "yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!" to a decidedly more original "yo-ho-ho and a bottle of... Ma's old-fashioned ci-der" with a conga kick on the last syllable.

In attempting to bury his treasure, Sam has encroached on Bugs' domain, as Bugs happens to have his rabbit hole there on the beach. When Bugs asks him who he is, he responds, "I'm a pirate, Sea-Goin' Sam, the blood-thirstiest, shoot-'em-first-iest, doggone worst-iest buccaneer that ever sailed the Spanish main!" After taking back the jewels from Bugs, Sam pulls out his flintlock pistol saying, "Dead rabbits tell no tale!" But when Bugs corrected him that Sam means "Dead men tell no tales", Sam claims that he "reckons that he ain't got no alternative". Bugs walks away while peeling his carrot like a banana leaving Sam realizing that he was tricked. Sam grit his teeth so hard to the point of making them crumble, and then starts shooting at Bugs. Bugs takes the rowboat, but accidentally left it behind while continuing to row to Sam's ship. Sam swims to his ship to retrieve the oars, swims back to the island, gets in his rowboat, and returns to his ship.

Bugs torments Sam in the usual way, taking advantage of Sam's short temper and blustery personality. Bugs disguises himself as Captain Bligh and puts the gullible seaman through a whirlwind of shipboard chores. Then Sam realizes another one of Bugs's tricks and chases him again. Bugs is trying to hide, and a pesky parrot keeps crowing, "He's in there! He's in there! Awk!" Finally, Bugs asks the parrot, "Polly want a cracker?" The parrot changes his tune, "Polly want a cracker! Polly want a cracker! Awk!" Bugs hands him a huge, lit firecracker, which promptly explodes, reducing the bird to a featherless state. His last words before he drops are, "Me and my big mouth!"

Bugs is in the crow's nest and Sam tries various unsuccessful attempts to get to him; for example, Bugs tells Sam that the elevator is out of order and instead tosses him a rope, Sam climbs up but, climbs back down and crashes on the ground below. Sam tries making a seesaw, but, that fails too. Bugs tells Sam he's going to jump. Instead, Bugs drops a convenient anvil over the side of the crow's nest, Sam catches it, and the entire ship except for the crow's nest submerges. Sam mouths some apparent curses, then tosses the anvil over the railing and the ship resurfaces.

Later on, Sam is tricked by Bugs into playing a "dare" game with matches that ends up exploding the pirate ship's powder magazine, reducing the ship to splinters.

At various times, Sam gets blasted by cannon fire. First he gets tricked into a cannon by Bugs who acted just like the parrot. Then he hunts for Bugs through the ship's window's but he always gets blasted. Next he is subjected to the famous lots-of-doors in-and-out routine and it ends with Sam getting blasted, again. And finally after the ship blew up, when he thought Sam had Bugs cornered in his hole, Sam gets blasted one more time.

Finally, defeated, Sam raises the white flag. Bugs turns, puts on an old-style ship captain's hat, and paraphrases John Paul Jones, "I had not even begun to fight!"

Caricatures

• William Bligh
• Charles Laughton - as William Bligh
• John Paul Jones

Availability

8mm
(Associated Artists Productions print)

Super 8

(1986) VHS
Bugs Bunny Cartoon Festival Featuring "Hair Raising Hare"

(1991) VHS
Bugs Bunny Collection: Bugs Bunny's Zaniest Toons

(1992) VHS
Cartoon Network Presents Classic Capers

(1993) LaserDisc
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 4, Side 1: Bugs Bunny

(1996) VHS
Further Adventures of Bugs Bunny

(2007) DVD
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5, Disc 1

(2007) DVD
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 5, Disc 1

(2011) Blu-ray
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1, Disc 1

(2012) DVD
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 1, Disc 1

(2012) Blu-ray
Looney Tunes Showcase: Volume 1

(2014) DVD
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volumes 4-5 Repack

(2020) DVD
Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny Golden Carrot Collection, Disc 5

Streaming

Boomerang App (2017 - 2024)

HBO Max (2020 - 2023)

Max (2023 - )

Censorship

• The WB channel edited this cartoon to remove the part where Bugs tells Sam that "Dead men tell no tales," and Sam almost shoots himself in the head before realizing he's been tricked. This scene was also edited when shown on Cartoon Network's Latin American channel (but left intact on other Cartoon Network channels, including ones in the United States, Australia, and United Kingdom, and on Cartoon Network's spin-off channel, Boomerang, both in the United States and overseas) and the cartoon channel Tooncast. In contrast to the WB! version, Tooncast and Cartoon Network Latin America left in the scene of Bugs telling Sam "Dead men tell no tales" and Sam realizing that Bugs is right, but cut the scene of Sam saying, "Well, doggone it, I reckon I ain't got no alternative," and pointing a gun on his head before realizing he's been tricked (making it obvious that there's something missing).^{[dead link]}

Notes

• Though this cartoon is in the Looney Tunes series, the Merrie Melodies rings are seen in the first opening title. When Bugs pulls down the Looney Tunes title, the rings go back to normal.
• The titles feature an instrumental of "The Sailor's Hornpipe", also one of the theme songs for the Popeye cartoon series produced by rival studio Famous Studios.
• Sam's "Ma's Old-Fashioned Cider" song is a parody of "Dad's Old-Fashioned Root Beer", a well-known radio advertising jingle at that time.
• A similar sequence where Bugs throws a lit match into the powder magazine of Sam's ship would later be used in "Captain Hareblower" (1954).
• This is one of the few shorts in the a.a.p. package to still air as a non-dubbed print on Cartoon Network/Boomerang USA airings, although 1995 dubbed version prints do exist. The version that airs is the LaserDisc print from The Golden Age of Looney Tunes.
  • The USA dubbed print airs on CN/Boomerang Latin America and Tooncast, but is censored unlike CN/Boomerang USA (see "Censorship" for more details).
  • The EU dubbed print airs on various European CN/Boomerang stations, completely uncensored like CN/Boomerang USA.
  • As with most of the cartoons on the channel, MeTV airings are restored, using the same print as on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5.

Goofs

• During the door scene the knobs are all on the left. When Sam approaches the door that Bugs went in last, the knob moves right.

Gallery

Lobby card

Lobby card

Model Sheet

External links

• Buccaneer Bunny on the SFX Resource

also see the List of Bugs Bunny cartoons