Buckaroo Bugs

Buckaroo Bugs
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Airdate:	26 August 1944
Series:	Looney Tunes
Production Number:	LT-7-14
Vitaphone Number:	1264
Runtime:	8 minutes, 44 seconds
Copyright Renewed:	3 March 1972
Starring:	Bugs Bunny Red Ryder
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc Robert C. Bruce (uncredited)
Director:	Robert Clampett
Written By:	Lou Lilly
Producer:	Leon Schlesinger
Animated By:	M. Gould Basil Davidovich (uncredited) Robert McKimson (uncredited) Rod Scribner (uncredited)
Layout Artist:	Thomas McKimson (uncredited)
Background Artist:	Michael Sasanoff (uncredited)
Film Editor:	Treg Brown (uncredited)
Musician:	Carl W. Stalling

Buckaroo Bugs is a 1944 Looney Tunes short directed by Bob Clampett.

Plot

A small western town has just had its victory garden robbed by the Masked Marauder (Bugs Bunny), 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, and his good-natured slowness is consistently mocked: When Bugs Bunny as the Masked Marauder threatens to shoot Red Hot 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 Hot Ryder catches on, but is unable to catch the Masked Marauder, in the end he tricks him into jumping into the Grand Canyon, when underground Red Hot Ryder finally figures out that Bugs is 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 dollar question!" He then kisses him and blows out the candle.

Caricatures

• Red Skelton

Availability

8mm
(Associated Artists Productions print)

(1986) VHS
Viddy-Oh! For Kids Cartoon Festivals: Bugs Bunny Cartoon Festival Featuring "Hold the Lion, Please"

(1987) VHS
Bugs Bunny No 1

(1990) VHS
Bugs Bunny Collection: Bugs Bunny on Parade

(1992) LaserDisc
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 2, Side 5: Bob Clampett

(2000) VHS
Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Volume 7: Welcome to Wackyland (1995 Turner dubbed version)

(2007) DVD
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5, Disc 3 (with two commentary tracks: one by Michael Barrier and the other by Spumco workers John Kricfalusi, Eddie Fitzgerald, and Kali Fontecchio)

(2011) DVD
Looney Tunes Super Stars' Bugs Bunny: Wascally Wabbit (Region 2 only)

(2012) Blu-ray
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2, Disc 1 (with two commentary tracks: one by Michael Barrier and the other by Spumco workers John Kricfalusi, Eddie Fitzgerald, and Kali Fontecchio)

(2012) DVD
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2, Disc 1 (with two commentary tracks: one by Michael Barrier and the other by Spumco workers John Kricfalusi, Eddie Fitzgerald, and Kali Fontecchio)

Streaming

Boomerang App (2017 - 2024)

HBO Max (2020 - 2023)

Max (2023 - )

Censorship

• Some syndicated versions of this cartoon cut the scene of Red Hot Ryder being shown naked from the waist down (with only a fig leaf covering him) after the Masked Marauder has his belt and diaper pin taken off by a magnet.

Goofs

• Twice, Bugs uses a magnet to strip Red Hot Ryder of every metal object on his person. This includes objects made of metals that don't conduct electromagnetism (gold tooth fillings, cartridges with brass cases and lead bullets, coins made from various precious metals). In addition, when Red Hot Ryder has been pantsed three times by Bugs in this cartoon, the first and third time revealed a pair of boxer shorts inside Red's pants, while the second time revealed a diaper inside Red's pants.
• When Red Hot Ryder is pantsed by Bugs for the third time, the desert background changes abruptly.

Notes

• This cartoon lacks a visible MPDAA number on the credits card.
• While only Manny Gould was credited as an animator, Robert McKimson, Rod Scribner, and Basil Davidovich also aided in the process. Other uncredited 'staff' includes the composers of several uncredited bits of non-original music—Sanford Faulkner ('Arkansas Traveller'), M.K. Jerome ('My Little Buckaroo', where the title ostensibly takes its name), Gioacchino Rossini ('William Tell Overture'), Franz Schubert ('Der Erlkönig'), and J.S. Zamecnik ('In the Stirrups').
  • This is also the first cartoon animated by Basil Davidovich. He was given no on-screen credit until "A Gruesome Twosome" (1945).
• This was Bugs Bunny's second appearance in the Looney Tunes series. His first was a short cameo in "Porky Pig's Feat", but was not a starring role, therefore making "Buckaroo Bugs" Bugs' first starring role in a Looney Tunes short.
• This short and "Hare Conditioned" are the only two Looney Tunes cartoons to feature Bugs Bunny in a starring role to use the Looney Tunes bass drum ending with Porky Pig. While the Looney Tunes shorts "Hare Tonic" and "Baseball Bugs" feature Bugs Bunny in the bass drum ending replacing Porky Pig as both cartoons featured him in the starring role.
• This is the only short in which Bugs Bunny served as a bona fide villain; while his shorts often portray him as mischievous and violent, he is never actually malicious and is, for the most part, acting as such in self-defense against an aggressor.
• This was the last cartoon release to bear Leon Schlesinger's name, as he sold his cartoon studio to Warner Bros. around the time of its release.
• The older version of Bugs Bunny would be used again in the next Bugs short, "The Old Grey Hare".
  • This and "The Old Grey Hare" use the same fonts for the opening credits.
• "Red Hot Ryder" serves as a spoof of Red Ryder, borrowing the image of the popular Western serial's cowboy hero Don Berry. He was also based on the Red Skelton character Sheriff Deadeye.
• Victory gardens were a wartime civilian resource initiative, whereby civilians were encouraged to plant food crops in their gardens to supplement scarce wartime food resources. The fact that Bugs was stealing carrots from a victory garden would have added to his villainy in this cartoon.
• The "$64 question" is a reference to the "big prize" on the famous radio quiz show Take It or Leave It.
• Bugs' final line of the cartoon, "Goodnight, sweet prince," is a quote from William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Gallery

Lobby card

Lobby card

"A fugitive from the funny papers."

"Well, now that's might neightborly of ya."

"Hey! That was the Masked Marauder!"

"Which one of you characters is Red Hot Ryder?"

"That's right! That's right! You win the $64 question!"

Expression sheet drawn by Robert McKimson, signed by Virgil Ross