Ballot Box Bunny

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Ballot Box Bunny
series = Merrie Melodies (Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam)

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caption = The title card of "Ballot Box Bunny".
director = I. Freleng
story_artist = Warren Foster
animator = Ken Champin Virgil Ross Arthur Davis Manuel Perez
voice_actor = Mel Blanc
musician = Carl Stalling
producer = Eddie Selzer
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
release_date = October 6 1951 (USA)
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7 min (one reel)
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0043315

"Ballot Box Bunny" is a 1950 animated Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoon short released in 1951, directed by Friz Freleng and written by Warren Foster.

Plot

Yosemite Sam is running for mayor of a small town. Bugs Bunny happens to be underneath the podium, drinking carrot juice, when Sam makes a pledge to make good on his previous promise to rid the town "of "every last rabbit" if elected. Bugs then decides he needs to fight against Sam the only way possible — by running against him for mayor.

Bugs proceeds to quickly try and win the townspeople over (including referencing Theodore Roosevelt's famous "I speak softly, but carry a BIG stick!" quote). However, Sam, declaring that he speaks "loud" and carries "a "BIIIIIIIIIIGGER" stick — and I use it too!" has more than a few tricks up his sleeve. He steals Bugs' cigar stand, sends a boxful of army ants to steal all of Bugs' food, and rigs explosives (in, for instance, a piano and by the front door of Bugs' campaign office), all of which backfire on him. A campaign slogan seen on a pro-Bugs banner says that the candidate is "Loyal, Lovable, Literate." (Bugs switches his "SMELLO" cigars with five-cent ACME Explosive Cigars ("You Will Get A BANG Out Of This"), hides a dynamite stick in his watermelon, pretends that a pretty girl called Emma who loves Sam is at his door, and misplays the piano tune on purpose to infuriate Sam, who plays it right and falls for his trap for the fourth time.)

In the end, because they were too busy fighting with each other, they don't notice until it is too late that the mayorship has been won by a literal "dark horse" candidate — a chestnut-coloured mare! The two then play a game of Russian Roulette. Bugs shoots himself, but misses and Sam get shot in the head.(See "Censorship" note below about this ending.)

Censorship

* The ending of the cartoon where Bugs and Yosemite Sam play Russian Roulette after both losing the mayoral race to a horse is almost always cut on American television broadcasts on both network (WB, FOX, ABC) and cable TV (Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network).
*Nickelodeon also edited the part where Sam shoots at Bugs playing his "jukeybox" by showing an extended shot of Bugs marching while playing the instruments in his one-man band and only having Sam yelling, "Shut off that jukeybox! I can't hear myself a-speechin'!" before cutting to the next part of Sam's speech. Not only does the edit imply that Bugs actually listened to Sam and stopped playing his one-man band, but it also contradicts Bugs's personality in the 1950s Warner Brothers cartoons.

Trivia

*Sam has the piano wired to explode when a particular key is played. Bugs purposely misses the rigged key by misplaying. The tune is the melody line from "(Believe Me) If All Those Endearing Young Charms". This gag was previously used, with the same tune and a bomb on the same note, in the Private Snafu short "Booby Traps," and would later be used in the 1957 Freleng-directed Bugs cartoon "Show Biz Bugs" (using a xylophone instead of a piano, and the adversary is the desperate-for-glory Daffy Duck), as well in the 1965 Road Runner cartoon "Rushing Roulette". The gag is also revisited (with a twist) in a Slappy Squirrel cartoon in Animaniacs.
*The sheet music shows the correct notes in Key of C for the melody line with the rigged note ( [the C above middle C] clearly pointed out in red). Bugs actually plays that key (C) but on the piano the rigged key is the *B* above middle C. It actually says "Endearing Young Charms" on the sheet music.
*In the later cartoon, Daffy says "I speak medium or carry a BIGGEST Stick."

ee also

*List of Bugs Bunny cartoons

References

External links

*imdb title|0043315
* [http://video.aol.com/video/ballot-box-bunny/1853681 Ballot Box Bunny] at AOL Video uncensored