Knighty Knight Bugs

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Knighty Knight Bugs
series = Looney Tunes

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caption = Bugs Bunny attempts to hit Yosemite Sam's head with a hammer.
director = Friz Freleng
story_artist = Warren Foster
animator = Gerry Chiniquy Arthur Davis Virgil Ross
layout_artist = Hawley Pratt
background_artist = Tom O'Loughlin
voice_actor = Mel Blanc
musician = Milt Franklyn
producer = John W. Burton
studio = Warner Brothers Pictures
distributor =
release_date = August 23, 1958
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 6 minutes
preceded_by =
followed_by =
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0051825

"Knighty Knight Bugs" is a 1958 "Looney Tunes" cartoon directed by Friz Freleng and released by Warner Bros. Pictures. Mel Blanc provided for the voices of all the characters in this cartoon.

Bugs Bunny, the court jester of King Arthur, must recover a singing sword from Yosemite Sam (as the Black Knight) and his fire-breathing, and ofttimes sneezing, dragon.

This cartoon is notable as being the only Bugs Bunny cartoon to win an Academy Award, in 1959, for Best Animated Short Film. [cite web |url=http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0148765.html |title=1958 academy awards |accessdate=2007-09-20]

tory

King Arthur is sitting with his Knights of the Round Table, complaining about hard times that have befallen the kingdom ever since the Black Knight has stolen the Singing Sword. He asks his knights - among them Sir Osis of Liver and Sir Loin of Beef - for a volunteer to get the sword back. The knights complain that the Black Knight is 'invincible' and has a fire-breathing dragon guarding the sword. King Arthur angrily demands to know if the knights are all chicken, and is dismayed when he hears clucking and sees chicken feathers flying. Bugs, as the court jester, dances in and tells King Arthur that "only a fool" would be crazy enough to go after the Black Knight. The King agrees - he tells Bugs that he has to get the singing sword, or else face being beheaded (or, as he says, "Put to the rack, burned at the stake, and beheaded"). Bugs at first laughs at the idea, then starts crying.

At the castle of the Black Knight - shown to be Yosemite Sam dressed in black armor - there is a fire-breathing dragon, but the dragon is prone to fits of sneezing, causing jets of flame to shoot from its nostrils. Sam feeds the dragon some coal to feed the dragon's internal fire, then goes back to taking a nap on his chair. Bugs sneaks in to the castle, past Sam and the dragon, and to the chest, where he pulls out the singing sword. He openly wonders why the sword is called the "singing sword" - and finds out when the sword starts humming a tune and vibrating. Sam wakes up and chases Bugs, but Bugs slams the door in Sam's face, causing his armor to fall off. Sam then wakes up the dragon, who breathes fire on him.

Bugs runs outside the castle, chased by Sam on the dragon. Bugs ducks into a hole, and Sam slides off the dragon when trying to stop. Bugs then runs back to the castle and raises the drawbridge as Sam approaches, causing Sam to fall into the moat. When Sam demands that Bugs lowers the drawbridge, Bugs lowers it right onto Sam's head, then raises it back up again. Sam then uses the dragon to pull a catapult in place, gets on it and launches himself to the castle - but misses the window Bugs is looking out of, flattening himself on his front (In a "cramped" voice, Sam declares: "You'll pay for this, varmint!"). Sam next lassos a rope around one of the battlements of the castle, but as he's climbing up, Bugs whacks a mallet at Sam's helmet, causing Sam to side down the rope outside of his armor.

Thinking the coast is clear, Bugs sneaks out of the castle. Sam and his dragon are hidden behind a rock waiting for Bugs, but the dragon sneezes on Sam again, alerting Bugs to their presence. Bugs then runs back into the castle, followed by Sam and the dragon. Bugs runs into a room, Sam and the dragon follow, then Bugs sneaks out and locks the door to what is now shown as the Explosives room. Surrounded by high explosives, Sam tries to keep the dragon from sneezing again. As Bugs walks away from the castle, the dragon sneezes again, and the tower Sam and the dragon were in takes off like a rocket to the moon. Bugs waves goodbye, saying "Farewell to thee". The singing sword picks up on this, and starts humming "Farewell To Thee" as Bugs walks out of sight.

Awards

Among all of the Bugs Bunny cartoons, this is the only one to win the Oscar for Best Animated Short in 1959. In doing so, it beat out cartoons "Paul Bunyan" and "Sidney's Family Tree". [cite web |url=http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0148765.html |title=1958 academy awards |accessdate=2007-09-20] It was also the third Oscar-nominated Bugs Bunny cartoon, after "A Wild Hare" in 1940 [cite web |url=http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0148142.html |title=1940 academy awards |accessdate=2007-09-20] and "Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt" in 1941 [cite web |url=http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0148172.html |title=1941 academy awards |accessdate=2007-09-20] . The Oscar was presented to John W. Burton, the producer of this cartoon.

In the "Tiny Toon Adventures" episode "Who Bopped Bugs Bunny?", the Academy win of "Knighty Knight Bugs" is a major plot point. It is revealed that in 1959, a cartoon of Sappy Stanley (an elephant, voiced by Jonathan Winters) was defeated for the award by "Knighty Knight Bugs". As a result, Stanley scorned the US film industry and relocated to France, where he became a national star (parodying the similar career move of Jerry Lewis), but he still nursed a grudge against Bugs, culminating in the episode's plot. Sappy Stanley is not a pre-existing cartoon character, having been created for the episode, but a parody of Terrytoons character Sidney the Elephant, a.k.a. "Silly Sidney," whose cartoon "Sidney's Family Tree" was indeed nominated for an Academy Award the same year as "Knighty Knight Bugs".

DVD Availability

This cartoon is featured uncut on disc 1 of the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 4" DVD set. [cite web |url=http://www.the-trades.com/article.php?id=4987 |title=Looney Tunes - Golden Collection, Volume Four DVD Review |accessdate=2007-09-20]

Censorship

*On CBS, the part where Yosemite Sam climbs the rope and gets hit by Bugs's croquet mallet was cut.

References

External links

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