Wackiki Wabbit

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Yankee Doodle Daffy	Porky Pig's Feat

Airdate:
3 July 1943

Series:

Merrie Melodies

Production Number:
1051

Starring:

Bugs Bunny

Crew

Animated By:

Ken Harris
Ben Washam (uncredited)
Robert Cannon (uncredited)^[1]
Phil DeLara (uncredited)
Lloyd Vaughan (uncredited)^[2]

Layout Artist:

John McGrew

Background Artist:

Gene Fleury
Bernyce Polifka

Film Editor:

Treg Brown

Musician:

Carl W. Stalling

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Commentary

Wackiki Wabbit is a 1943 Merrie Melodies short directed by Chuck Jones.

Title

The title is a double play on words, with "Wackiki" suggesting both the island setting, as in "Waikiki", as well as suggesting "wacky", along with the usual Elmer Fudd speech pronunciation of "rabbit", although Elmer does not appear in this picture.

Plot

Two castaways are adrift on a small raft in the middle of the ocean, underscored with "Asleep in the Deep". Delirious from hunger, they start imagining each other, or even their own limbs, as food items. They spot an island in the distance and rush ashore, underscored by "Down Where the Trade Winds Play", where they meet Bugs Bunny. To his friendly, "What's the good word?" they answer "FOOD!" and start after Bugs, who swings away on a vine with a Tarzan yell.

Chasing Bugs through the jungle, they spy him dancing, semi-disguised as one of the "natives." Bugs welcomes them with "Ah! White Men! Welcome to Humuhumunukunukuapua'a'a'a island." He then proceeds to speak in Polynesian-accented nonsense, a long stretch of which is subtitled simply "What's up Doc?" and a very short segment is subtitled, "Now is the time for every good man to come to the aid of his party." The tall and skinny man says, "Well, thanks!" and the short, fat man, actually seeing the peculiar subtitle, "Ofa eno maua te ofe popaa", says "Gee, did you say that?" The skinny man shrugs.

Bugs tricks them by substituting a skinned chicken for himself in the large cooking pot. He taunts them with the chicken, using it as a marionette, until the strings become tangled and he has to make a quick escape.

As the castaways sob in frustration, they hear a steam whistle from a ship. The men leap for joy at the prospect of being saved and trot toward the gangplank. Bugs kisses them goodbye and presents them with leis, then pulls his time-honored switcheroo trick and boards the ship himself. The boat pulls out, leaving the two men on the island, still waving goodbye to Bugs. The Skinny Man slaps the Fat Man for still yelling "Goodbye!" The two once again imagine each other as a hot dog and a hamburger, chasing each other into the distance as "Aloha Oe" plays.

Availability

Streaming

Notes

"Wackiki Wabbit" uses experimental strongly graphic, nearly abstract backgrounds.
The castaways are caricatures of Michael Maltese and Ted Pierce.
This cartoon has fallen to the public domain after United Artists (successor to Associated Artists Productions) failed to renew the copyright in time.
A few clips from this, "Fresh Hare", and "Case of the Missing Hare" were used in the documentary Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob SquarePants.
During the sequence where Bugs, dressed in a Hawaiian outfit, speaks Hawaiian to the castaways, subtitles appear in this scene. In the 1995 dubbed version prints (both USA and EU) a blue border appears in this sequence. While the USA dubbed print has the video properly scaled to fit the border in this sequence, the EU dubbed print (pictured at the bottom of the image below) has the video not scaled properly to fit the border in this sequence, resulting in part of the subtitles in this sequence to get cropped off.

USA print (top) and EU print (bottom) of the scene

Gallery

References

External Links

Wackiki Wabbit at SuperCartoons.net
Wackiki Wabbit at B99.TV

Bugs Bunny Shorts
1938	Porky's Hare Hunt
1939	Prest-O Change-O • Hare-um Scare-um
1940	Elmer's Candid Camera • A Wild Hare
1941	Elmer's Pet Rabbit • Tortoise Beats Hare • Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt • The Heckling Hare • All This and Rabbit Stew • Wabbit Twouble
1942	The Wabbit Who Came to Supper • The Wacky Wabbit • Hold the Lion, Please • Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid • Fresh Hare • The Hare-Brained Hypnotist • Case of the Missing Hare
1943	Tortoise Wins by a Hare • Super-Rabbit • Jack-Wabbit and the Beanstalk • Wackiki Wabbit • Falling Hare
1944	Little Red Riding Rabbit • What's Cookin' Doc? • Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears • Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips • Hare Ribbin' • Hare Force • Buckaroo Bugs • The Old Grey Hare • Stage Door Cartoon
1945	Herr Meets Hare • The Unruly Hare • Hare Trigger • Hare Conditioned • Hare Tonic
1946	Baseball Bugs • Hare Remover • Hair-Raising Hare • Acrobatty Bunny • Racketeer Rabbit • The Big Snooze • Rhapsody Rabbit
1947	Rabbit Transit • A Hare Grows in Manhattan • Easter Yeggs • Slick Hare
1948	Gorilla My Dreams • A Feather in His Hare • Rabbit Punch • Buccaneer Bunny • Bugs Bunny Rides Again • Haredevil Hare • Hot Cross Bunny • Hare Splitter • A-Lad-In His Lamp • My Bunny Lies over the Sea
1949	Hare Do • Mississippi Hare • Rebel Rabbit • High Diving Hare • Bowery Bugs • Long-Haired Hare • Knights Must Fall • The Grey Hounded Hare • The Windblown Hare • Frigid Hare • Which Is Witch • Rabbit Hood
1950	Hurdy-Gurdy Hare • Mutiny on the Bunny • Homeless Hare • Big House Bunny • What's Up Doc? • 8 Ball Bunny • Hillbilly Hare • Bunker Hill Bunny • Bushy Hare • Rabbit of Seville
1951	Hare We Go • Rabbit Every Monday • Bunny Hugged • The Fair Haired Hare • Rabbit Fire • French Rarebit • His Hare Raising Tale • Ballot Box Bunny • Big Top Bunny
1952	Operation: Rabbit • Foxy by Proxy • 14 Carrot Rabbit • Water, Water Every Hare • The Hasty Hare • Oily Hare • Rabbit Seasoning • Rabbit's Kin • Hare Lift
1953	Forward March Hare • Upswept Hare • Southern Fried Rabbit • Hare Trimmed • Bully for Bugs • Lumber Jack-Rabbit • Duck! Rabbit, Duck! • Robot Rabbit
1954	Captain Hareblower • Bugs and Thugs • No Parking Hare • Devil May Hare • Bewitched Bunny • Yankee Doodle Bugs • Baby Buggy Bunny
1955	Beanstalk Bunny • Sahara Hare • Hare Brush • Rabbit Rampage • This Is a Life? • Hyde and Hare • Knight-Mare Hare • Roman Legion-Hare
1956	Bugs' Bonnets • Broom-Stick Bunny • Rabbitson Crusoe • Napoleon Bunny-Part • Barbary-Coast Bunny • Half-Fare Hare • A Star Is Bored • Wideo Wabbit • To Hare Is Human
1957	Ali Baba Bunny • Bedevilled Rabbit • Piker's Peak • What's Opera, Doc? • Bugsy and Mugsy • Show Biz Bugs • Rabbit Romeo
1958	Hare-Less Wolf • Hare-Way to the Stars • Now, Hare This • Knighty Knight Bugs • Pre-Hysterical Hare
1959	Baton Bunny • Hare-abian Nights • Apes of Wrath • Backwoods Bunny • Wild and Woolly Hare • Bonanza Bunny • A Witch's Tangled Hare • People Are Bunny
1960	Horse Hare • Person to Bunny • Rabbit's Feat • From Hare to Heir • Lighter Than Hare
1961	The Abominable Snow Rabbit • Compressed Hare • Prince Violent
1962	Wet Hare • Bill of Hare • Shishkabugs
1963	Devil's Feud Cake • The Million Hare • Hare-Breadth Hurry • The Unmentionables • Mad as a Mars Hare • Transylvania 6-5000
1964	Dumb Patrol • Dr. Devil and Mr. Hare • The Iceman Ducketh • False Hare
1979	Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol • Fright Before Christmas
1980	Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bunny • Spaced Out Bunny
1990	Box Office Bunny
1991	(Blooper) Bunny
1992	Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers
1995	Carrotblanca
1997	From Hare to Eternity
2004	Hare and Loathing in Las Vegas • Daffy Duck for President

also see the List of Bugs Bunny cartoons

[1] ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F63qxxztsHc&ab_channel=DowntheInkwell

[2] ttps://archive.org/details/animationbreakdowns16

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