Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bunny is a 1980 Looney Tunes short directed by Chuck Jones and Phil Monroe.
Title[]
The title is a play on James Joyce's 1916 novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and its 1977 film adaptation.
Plot[]
On the last day of school, children emerge from a one-room schoolhouse, gushing with joy about summer vacation. Bugs Bunny separately shares this enthusiasm but then quickly realizes how silly this is, considering he's an adult, and not in school anymore. While wondering aloud how absurd all this is, he crashes into a tree and falls unconscious.
In a dream sequence, a young Bugs is excited about a school-free summer when he runs into a young Elmer Fudd who also got out of school. The young Elmer uses the summer to hunt after rabbits. He meets up with Bugs, who asks what's in it for him. The confused Elmer thinks that he has to pay Bugs a nickel, to which Bugs blames Elmer for bribery. "I wonder if some of you out there would like to contribute to the delinquency of a minor. After all, you wouldn't want me to work my way to reform school. Just send all contributions to Bugs Bunny-" Elmer realizes that he has been tricked and tries to blast him with a popgun rifle. Bugs then fakes out a death which later causes him to ride Elmer like a horse in distance. After Elmer recovers, he tries to fire a cork cannon, which Bugs rides on and turns around back on Elmer. As Elmer runs off a cliff, Bugs tells him that gravity would take effect on him, but Elmer walks safely to the other side as the class hasn't studied gravity yet.
Bugs then places a book about gravity for Elmer. As Elmer is reading, he walks off the same cliff and now knows the effects of gravity. As Elmer falls, Wile E. Coyote sets Elmer aside so Wile E. can fall down first. After seeing the impact, Elmer realizes that the fall is going to "sting", but is saved by Bugs with a spring. "Don't worry, spring is here." Despite being saved, Elmer, being the fanatic he is, still wants to shoot Bugs. As he comes back to Bugs, Bugs says that Elmer's line is his and that Bugs should be shooting him. Although Elmer turns back and says that it is indeed his "wine", this convinces Bugs that Elmer is trying to offer him wine and mockingly tries to tell the authorities. "I'll go to weform school... well, he certainly can't infowm the authowities if he kicks the bucket first." Bugs then slams a bucket on Elmer's head and kicks it.
After being smooched in the nose, have his hat pulled down, and kicked by Bugs, Elmer throws a tantrum before realizing he can cut down and not eat rabbit again. Shortly after, Bugs convince him to eat another rabbit, which causes Elmer to snap and say "That's wight! One wittle wabbit! No one will ever know! I can always quit again!" Elmer obtains a machine gun, which actually fires corkscrews, and shoots Bugs repeatedly after he crashes into a tree. The dream ends, and the adult Bugs - conscious and apparently never having felt the effects of his own injury - remarks about how he and Elmer probably were "the youngest people to ever start chasing each other." Of course, Bugs could be wrong about this claim, however - as a young infant Wile E. Coyote runs by, chasing after a young unhatched Road Runner.
Availability[]
Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5, Disc Four (part of Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over)
Streaming[]
Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over
Notes[]
- The cartoon was part of the television special Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over.
- This is the first time Phil Monroe directed a Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies short since 1964.
- Young Bugs is styled and shares the same mannerisms as Bugs' nephew Clyde.
- The title card uses the opening music cue from "Don't Give Up the Sheep".
- This cartoon bore little continuity with the "real" Bugs and Wile E. canon from the classic Looney Tunes shorts, as in the flashback Wile E. is depicted as a grown adult far older than both Young Bugs and Young Elmer, and in the ending Bugs as depicted as a grown adult far older than both infant Wile E. and prematurely-hatched Road Runner, unlike in the classic shorts where Bugs, Elmer, Wile E. and Road Runner are depicted as roughly the same age. Wile E. also does not speak in both instances.
Gallery[]
TV Title Cards[]
