Robot Rabbit

Robot Rabbit
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Airdate:	12 December 1953
Series:	Looney Tunes
MPAA Number:	15829
Production Number:	1281
Vitaphone Number:	2326
Runtime:	6 minutes, 45 seconds
Copyright Renewed:	15 January 1980
Starring:	Bugs Bunny Elmer Fudd
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Mel Blanc Arthur Q. Bryan
Director:	I. Freleng
Written By:	Warren Foster
Producer:	Eddie Selzer
Animated By:	Virgil Ross Arthur Davis Manuel Perez Ken Champin
Layout Artist:	Hawley Pratt
Background Artist:	Irv Wyner
Film Editor:	Treg Brown
Musician:	Carl Stalling

Robot Rabbit is a 1953 Looney Tunes short directed by I. Freleng.

Plot

Elmer Fudd is a carrot farmer who spots Bugs' rabbit hole, claiming that Bugs has raided his carrot farm, "Ooohh, that wascal wabbit's in my carrots again!" and decides to shoot him with a rifle, "I'll fix that wabbit for good this time!" After shooting into an empty hole. Bugs had conveniently left the hole, then attempts his "fake dying" act. Elmer exclaims "The rabbit kicked the bucket," then he and Bugs start dancing and celebrating until Elmer begins to realize Bugs tricked him, as the rabbit is still very much alive. Elmer Fudd realizes that was the last straw.

This action prompts Fudd to call "ACME Pest Control" ("Hewwo? ACME Pest Contwol? Weww, I've got a pest I want to contwowd.") for a robot with the express purpose of evicting Bugs. The robot initially confuses a mule for a rabbit and Elmer — who was trying to explain to the robot what a rabbit looks like — for his intended target before getting the early upper-hand. Bugs quickly evens the score by luring his antagonist under a rotating water sprinkler, causing the robot to rust. Furious at the robot's incompetence, Elmer oils the robot (restoring its original color), and warns it to get Bugs or else he will sell it for old scrap iron.

Later, Bugs disguises himself as a female robot (where he literally throws a wrench into their "relationship"), before finally causing the robot to follow him through a construction site and beneath a pile driver. Back at home, Elmer starts wondering how the robot fared, before Bugs greets him by dumping the robot "Does this answer your question?" — or what is left of it — onto the floor; it is presumed that the robot was crushed underneath the pile driver. Bugs then leaves the house and says, "You know, someday these scientists are gonna invent something that will outsmart a rabbit."

Availability

(1993) VHS
Elmer Fudd's School of Hard Knocks

(1994) LaserDisc
Bugs Bunny: Hare Beyond Compare: 14 More Bugs Bunny Classics

(2000) VHS
Mil-Looney-Um 2000 - Bumper Collection

(2003) VCD
Wideo Wabbit

(2020) Blu-ray
Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection, Disc 2 (restored and HD)

Streaming

Boomerang (2017 - 2024)

HBO Max (2020 - 2022) (restored)

Max (2024 - ) (restored)

Censorship

ABC, CBS, and Merrie Melodies Starring Bugs Bunny & Friends (the syndicated version as well as the FOX version) edited a few scenes:

• ABC's version on The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show cut the robot mistaking both a mule and Elmer mimicking a rabbit for Bugs and blasting the two of them with his laser gun.
• CBS' version on The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show also cut the robot shooting the mule and Elmer. In addition, the part where Elmer fires his rifle in Bugs' rabbit hole and Bugs faking being shot and kicking a nearby bucket (with Elmer exclaiming, "The wabbit kicked the bucket" and singing it along with Bugs until he realizes he has been duped) was also cut, as well as the part near the end where the robot and Bugs go back and forth underneath a pile driver at a construction site (though the aftermath/punchline to that joke, where Bugs returns with a bucket containing the remnants of Elmer's robot after Elmer wonders to himself what happened to it was not cut).
• The syndicated and FOX-run versions of Merrie Melodies Starring Bugs Bunny & Friends cut the part where the robot blasts Elmer with his laser gun (though the robot doing the same thing to the mule was not cut or altered) by replacing it with a paused shot of the mule looking off-screen.

Goofs

• When Bugs says, "I see this cigarette machine's gonna cause me no end of trouble," as he gets chased by the robot, his mouth does not move.

Notes

• The opening song is "In a Little Red Barn (On a Farm down in Indiana)".
• The part where the robot sifts the ground on a large sieve to catch Bugs is recycled animation from "Rabbit Every Monday".
• This short contains a unique version of the "What's Up Doc" theme sounding more robotic and futuristic than the other versions.
• A similar-looking robot would later appear in the 1964 Speedy Gonzales and Sylvester short, "Nuts and Volts".
• This is the last cartoon to use the original Bugs Bunny mugshot and curtain pulling transition, due to being the last Bugs Bunny cartoon to use the original, larger color rings. The mugshot is absent in the first Bugs Bunny cartoon to use the smaller color rings, "Captain Hareblower", and a new mugshot would be used starting with "Bugs and Thugs".
• This cartoon was originally slated to be included on the Looney Tunes Super Stars' Bugs Bunny: Hare Extraordinaire DVD, but was replaced early in development due to executive backlash from Warner Home Video.

Gallery

TV Title Cards

The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show

The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show (Final Season)

The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show

External links

• "Robot Rabbit" on the SFX Resource