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Super-Rabbit is a 1943 Merrie Melodies short directed by Chuck Jones.
Plot
"Look! Up in the sky! It's a boid!" "Nah, it ain't a boid, it's a dive bomba!" "NO! It's SUPER RABBIT!" "Faster than a speeding bullet" (in this case, a cork popped out of a gun), "More powerful than a locomotive" (a "choo-choo" train), "able to leap tall buildings in a single bound" (of course, this being Bugs Bunny, Bugs trips when he reaches the top and falls frantically as soon as he clears the building). Bugs is "Super Rabbit- The Rabbit of Tomorrow!"
Professor Cannafraz is in his lab creating a "super carrot". Bugs is his test subject, and immediately wolfs down the carrot, which now gives him super-abilities, such as invulnerability and flight... but only temporarily. He must eat another one from time to time, to replenish his powers. Bugs pulls out a newspaper article about "Cottontail Smith", a hunter in Texas who wants to hunt down all rabbits. Seeing a need, Bugs gathers up the super carrots, stashes them in a cigarette case, gives the professor a kiss on the nose and flies off. Bugs flies past a horse who happens to be sauntering in the middle of the air, with the horse turning to the camera and going, "A rabbit? Up HERE!?"
Bugs flies to "Deepinaharta Texas", and assumes a disguise as a "mild-mannered forest creature" complete with oversized glasses and hat. He soon encounters Smith and starts to have fun with him, switching Smith with his horse. When Smith tries to shoot Bugs, he finds than none of the bullets penetrate him. Bugs hands him a cannonball, eats another carrot, "Just a precaution," then plays basketball with the cannonball. The bemused Smith and his horse are soon outwitted by Bugs, but they don't give up. The pair fly into the sky in an airplane, try swooping in on Bugs, but soon find themselves piloting a control stick and the top window of their plane - and nothing else.
Bugs runs out of power, but when he tries to recharge by eating another carrot, he fumbles his cigarette case and the carrots all fall to the ground. When Bugs lands on the ground, he opens his eyes to see a line of eaten carrots - both Smith and his horse are now superheroes. Bugs then says "This looks like a job for a REAL Superman!" He ducks into a phone booth, and both Smith and the horse are ready to attack - until the booth opens and they both snap to attention and salute. Bugs marches out in a Marine uniform, singing the Marines' Hymn, pausing to say, "Sorry, fellas, I can't play with you anymore. I got some important work to do," before marching off towards a sign pointing to "Berlin, Tokyo and points East" while finishing the Hymn.
Availability
- VHS - Viddy-Oh! For Kids Cartoon Festivals: Bugs Bunny Cartoon Festival Featuring "Hold the Lion, Please"
- VHS, LaserDisc - Cartoon Moviestars: Bugs and Daffy: The Wartime Cartoons
- VHS - Bugs Bunny Collection: Bugs Bunny on Parade
- LaserDisc - The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 3, Side 2: Bugs Bunny
- VHS - Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition, Vol. 2: Running Amuck (1995 USA Turner Dubbed Version)
- DVD - Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3, Disc Four
- DVD - Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition, Disc 13 (1995 Turner dubbed version)
- Blu-ray - The Superman Motion Picture Anthology, Disc 1 (same print as Golden Collection: Volume 3)
Notes
- The United States Marine Corps were so glad that Bugs Bunny decided to become a Marine in this film that they insisted that the character be officially inducted into the force as a private, which was done, complete with dogtags. The character was regularly promoted until Bugs was officially "discharged" at the end of World War II as a Master Sergeant.[1]
- The cartoon opens with a similar opening to the 1940s Superman cartoons by Max Fleischer.
- "Professor Cannafraz" is patterned in part after Richard Haydn's radio character Edwin Carp on the Burns and Allen radio show.
- "Deepinaharta, Texas" refers to the song, "Deep in the Heart of Texas".
- Cottontail Smith bears a striking resemblance to fellow Texan Lyndon Baines Johnson, at that time a United States congressman. He later appears as one of Yosemite Sam's sidekicks in Looney Tunes: Back in Action. The character himself has a voice similar to Yosemite Sam's and Foghorn Leghorn's, but with a slightly less raucous voice put into the character.
- The engine on the train is a 4-2-0 (four leading wheels, two driving wheels, and no trailing wheels), commonly called a "Jervis" type.
- The copyright was renewed in 1971, shortly before the short would have eventually fallen into the public domain in the United States.
- This was Bugs Bunny's sixteenth cartoon, as well as the forty-seventh cartoon by Chuck Jones.
- This is the first Superman parody in Looney Tunes. The second is Robert McKimson's 1956 cartoon Stupor Duck, where Daffy Duck is the not-so-superhero looking for a villain who didn't exist.
- Warner Bros. would later acquire DC Comics - publishers of Superman.
Gallery
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- ↑ Audio commentary by Paul Dini for Super-Rabbit on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3 (2005).
External Links
- Super-Rabbit at SuperCartoons.net
- Super-Rabbit at B99.TV
- Super Rabbit at the Internet Movie Database
- Super-Rabbit at the Big Cartoon Database
