Operation: Rabbit

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Operation: Rabbit

Directed By: Charles M. Jones Produced By: Eddie Selzer (uncredited) Released: January 19, 1952 Series: Looney Tunes Story: Michael Maltese Animation: Lloyd Vaughan Ben Washam Ken Harris Phil Monroe Layouts: Robert Gribbroek Backgrounds: Philip DeGuard Film Editor: Treg Brown (uncredited) Voiced By: Mel Blanc Music: Carl Stalling Starring: Wile E. Coyote Bugs Bunny Preceded By: Who's Kitten Who? Succeeded By: Feed the Kitty

Operation: Rabbit is a 1952 Looney Tunes short directed by Chuck Jones.

Plot

Wile E. Coyote runs up to Bugs Bunny's hole and constructs a door. He knocks on the door and Bugs opens it, saying his usual line, "What's up, doc?" The Coyote advises Bugs of he being a rabbit and himself a genius, and he will eat Bugs and he is faster, bigger and smarter than him, even berating Bugs for his stupidity by claiming that the rabbit "could hardly enter the entrance examinations to kindergarten". Bugs, unimpressed, says "I'm sorry mac, the lady of the house ain't here. And besides, we mailed you people a check last week." and rudely slams the door right in his face. The Coyote leaves with the door, asking himself, "Why do they always want to do it the hard way?"

At his cave hideout, the Coyote's first plan then follows: he makes one thermal tamp and takes a cook book and ingredients for preparing "Rabbit soup" in the rabbit's hole. Bugs (in another hole) looks at his work and asks him what he is preparing. The Coyote says the hole has a rabbit inside, but it does not. He looks into the hole and Bugs kicks him and traps him in the hole. He then picks up a bat, goes back down the second hole, and clobbers the Coyote at the other hole (off-screen), prompting the Coyote to remark, "Well, back to the old drawing board."

Afterwards, the Coyote prepares a second plan: the use of a chute for shooting a cannonball in Bugs's hole. As he drafts out the plan, a mechanical lump massager is seen on the bump on Coyote's head from the previous plan. After the ball arrives in the hole via the chute from a cannon, Bugs uses a second chute for returning the ball to the Coyote, which explodes right at the Coyote. The Coyote then returns to his cave along with the blown-out pipes.

As the Coyote drafts out his upcoming third plan, some time later, Bugs goes to the Coyote's cave to sign what appears to be a will (Bugs claiming he's giving up, but needs a witness for his will), claiming that he finally surrenders to the Coyote's super-intelligence. He proffers the will for the Coyote to sign and one "pen" (actually a lit stick of TNT) with which to sign it. Coyote knows its a TNT stick and puts out the fuse. While gloating about his own intelligence, it is revealed there is a fuse at the other end of the TNT stick, which explodes just as Coyote realizes it.

The Coyote builds one explosive lady rabbit and activates her, but nothing happens. Shortly thereafter, the Coyote encounters one coyote lady (also an explosive) and Bugs detonates that robot. The Coyote (now charred from Bugs's exploding coyote) looks at the robot rabbit he failed to ignite and tries to push her out the window, but she explodes.

The Coyote then makes an exploding bird-hunting disc shaped like a UFO (usually used for Road Runners, Mice and Rabbits) with a "hunter options" mechanism. The disc flies to Bugs's hole and encounters a chicken (Bugs disguised), who then writes "Coyote" in on the "hunter options" mechanism, twisting the dial to the new target. The disc returns to Coyote's home, blowing up not only Coyote's home, but the whole mountain.

The Coyote makes one last plan: He puts nitroglycerin in a line of carrots in a rack inside an explosives shack. Unknown to the Coyote, Bugs is using a tractor to picks up the entire shack and sets it on the railroad track. Meanwhile, Coyote is admiring his new self-given title "Super Genius" (Which he comments "I like how that rolls off the tongue- Wile.E.Coyote: Suuuper Geeenius"). All the while, a train rushes toward the shack. When the Coyote fails to realize this when the first time the train sound is heard, he finally realizes this the moment when he hears the same train sound for the second time, and - in vain - puts the window blind down. The train hits the shack, and the impact causes a great explosion, launching Coyote high into the air onto a branch.

Coyote, still dazed and covered in ash, returns to Bugs's hole, rebuilds his door, knocks on it and says "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mud." and abruptly passes out. Bugs then says, "...And remember, MUD spelled backwards is DUM!", hence admitting that Wile E. isn't really as smart as he thinks he is.

Availability

• (1985) VHS - Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote: The Classic Chase
• (1994) LaserDisc - Road Runner Vs. Wile E. Coyote: If At First You Don't Succeed...
• (2003) VHS - Wile E Coyote and Road Runner (2003)
• (2006) DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4, Disc 1
• (2006) DVD - Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 4, Disc 1
• (2014) Blu-ray, DVD - Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3, Disc 1

Quotes

• Bugs Bunny: What's up, doc?
• Wile E. Coyote: Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Wile E. Coyote, genius. I am not selling anything nor am I working my way through college, so let's get down to basics: you are a rabbit and I am going to eat you for supper. Now don't try to get away, I am more muscular, more cunning, faster and larger than you are and I am a genius, while you could hardly pass the entrance examinations to kindergarten, so I'm going to give you the customary two minutes to say your prayers.
  Bugs Bunny: Sorry, Mac, the lady of the house ain't home and besides, we mailed you people a check last week.
• Wile E. Coyote: Why do they always wanted to do the hard way?
• Bugs Bunny: (singing) I'm looking over a three-leaf clover that I overlooked be-three...
• Bugs Bunny: I have come to give myself up, on account of I cannot compete no more against such genius.
  Wile E. Coyote: A wise decision, my friend. You have saved yourself from a fate worse than the frying pan.
  Bugs Bunny: I have only one last request. I have made my last will and testament, but I need a witness to make it official. Would you sign it with this fountain pen? (hands Wile E. the will and a lit dynamite stick for a pen)
  Wile E. Coyote: Why certainly, my boy! Delighted to be of service! Very amateurish attempt upon my person.
  (Wile E. extinguishes fuse, throws stick up in the air repeatedly - not noticing the lit fuse on the other end)
  Wile E. Coyote: Being a genius certainly has its advantages. (notices the lit fuse, dynamite explodes)
• Wile E. Coyote: Brilliance! That's all I can say. Sheer, unadulterated brilliance!
• Bugs Bunny: Fight fire with fire, I always say.
• Wile E. Coyote: (while preparing his explosive carrots) Wile E. Coyote, Supergenius. (he hears the sound of a train whistle in the distance, but he ignores it) I like the way it rolls out. Wile E. Coyote, Supergenius!
  (The train whistle is heard louder than before. Wile E. turns and sees a train heading directly at his shed. He pulls down a window shade right before the train hits his shed, blowing it up. The Coyote is then seen holding onto a branch high above the tracks, charred dark grey and speaking groggily.)
  Wile E. Coyote: Wile E. Coyote... Supergenius!
• Wile E. Coyote: Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Mud. (Faints)
  Bugs Bunny: And remember, Mud spelled backwards is Dum!

Notes

• This short was used in The Bugs Bunny Road-Runner Movie and The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special, both which were edited for time.
• This is Wile E. Coyote's (following 1949's "Fast and Furry-ous") second appearance. This is the first in which he is given a name and the first in which the he speaks. His voice, like Bugs', was provided by Mel Blanc.
• Wile E. would unsuccessfully attempt to catch and eat Bugs Bunny four more times: "To Hare Is Human" (1956), "Rabbit's Feat" (1960), "Compressed Hare" (1961) and "Hare-Breadth Hurry" (1963). After the classic shorts, Wile E. would be pitted against Bugs Bunny (and talks) once more in Season 1 of New Looney Tunes.
• Wile E.'s eyebrows are brown in this cartoon, unlike other cartoons where they are cream-colored like his jaw and chest.
• The scene where Wile E. introduces himself to Bugs was used as a bumper for Cartoon Network, with the 1992-2004 CN logo in place of Wile E.'s name courtesy of digital editing.
• The gag where Bugs gives the Coyote a pen in the form of a TNT stick was previously used in "Long-Haired Hare" (1949), except that Bugs' victim is Giovanni Jones instead of Wile E., and Bugs did cross-dress in that scene unlike this cartoon (in fact, Bugs did not cross-dress in drag in any of the Bugs/Wile E. cartoons at all).
• The version of this cartoon released on the Road Runner laserdisc set Road Runner Vs. Wile E. Coyote: If At First You Don't Succeed...in 1994 for some reason has the 1946-1955 Looney Tunes opening and ending music cues replaced by those of the 1955-1964 Looney Tunes opening and ending music cues . The original opening and ending music cues of this cartoon's same video transfer however does exist , on both the Chariots Of Fur VHS tape and on TV airings such as Tooncast and various Cartoon Network/Boomerang feeds, albeit with notable audio splices in both the opening and closing soundtracks (much like the cartoon's 1985 Golden Jubilee VHS transfer previously released on the Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote: The Classic Chase VHS tape) . It is the only Bugs Bunny cartoon released on that laserdisc set entirely dedicated to both Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.
  • The restored version of this cartoon released on DVD and Blu-Ray on the other hand retains its original opening and ending music cues, albeit without any audio splices in both the opening and closing soundtracks .

Gallery

External Links

• Watch Operation: Rabbit on Supercartoons.net
• Operation: Rabbit at B99.TV
• Operation: RABBIT on the SFX Resource Wiki

References

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