Bugs Bunny Rides Again

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Bugs Bunny Rides Again
series = Merrie Melodies (Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam)


caption = Yosemite Sam, about to get the "shaft"
director = Friz Freleng
story_artist = Tedd Pierce
Michael Maltese
animator =
layout_artist =
background_artist =
narrator =
voice_actor = Mel Blanc
musician = Carl Stalling
producer =
studio = Warner Bros. Cartoons
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
release_date = Start date|1948|06|12
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7 minutes
preceded_by =
followed_by =
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0040192

"Bugs Bunny Rides Again" is a 1947 Warner Bros. "Merrie Melodies" short, released in 1948, directed by Friz Freleng, and written by Tedd Pierce and Michael Maltese. Voice characterizations are performed by Mel Blanc. The cartoon features Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. This is a sequel, of sorts, to the pair's first encounter in 1945's "Hare Trigger". The title is a typical Western reference, as in "The Lone Ranger rides again", and also suggests a reference to the 1940 Jack Benny comedy, " [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032289/ Buck Benny Rides Again] ".

ynopsis

Yosemite Sam is in town and no one dares to challenge him except Bugs. Sam declares "this town ain't big enough for the both of us!" Bugs tries to rectify that by running offscreen and, to sound effects of hammers and saws, quickly constructs a background of modern skyscrapers in the town, but "it's still not big enough!" They square off in a variety of disciplines, such as dancing. In the time-honored western cliché, Sam orders Bugs to "Dance!" while firing at his feet. Bugs grabs a cane and straw hat from offscreen, and goes into the same vaudeville soft shoe routine he first exhibited in "Stage Door Cartoon" (in which a prototype of Sam appeared), then says "Take it, Sam!" The diminutive villain, although startled initially, quickly breaks (rather expertly) into the same dance, and is tricked into dancing into an open mine shaft (nearly getting hurt in the process).

When Sam returns to the surface, Bugs dares him to cross a line drawn with his foot. "OK, I'm a-steppin'!" Bugs continues this schtick all the way out of town to the edge of a cliff, where the unobservant Sam steps over the line and plummets toward the ground far below. Suddenly stricken with guilt, the speedy hare dashes down a roadway, beats Sam to the ground and lays down a mattress, telling the audience, "Ya know, sometimes me conscience kind-a bodders me ... but "not this time!" as he pulls away the mattress. Sam smashes into the ground (offscreen) and the already pint-sized bandit has been vertically flattened to a hat with legs, but he still comes up firing.

A horseback chase scene ensues, to the tune of the William Tell Overture, as the two ride on horses that are proportional to their own sizes (or lack thereof). Bugs leads Sam into a tunnel, and again showing extraordinary construction talents, has time to don a painter's cap and build a brick wall at the other end, which Sam smacks into. After more chasing, they realize they are going nowhere and they're right back where they began. Sam agrees with Bugs.

The two decide to settle their differences by playing cards, with the loser being forced to leave town ("Gin rummy's mah game, Sam"). Sam tells Bugs to "cut the cards", which he does using a meat cleaver, a joke previously seen in a Harpo Marx gag in the 1932 film "Horse Feathers", a Curly Howard gag in 1936's "Ants in the Pantry" - and probably a lot older than that. With a new deck, Bugs tricks Sam into playing a card that gives Bugs the win. Bugs tries to get Sam to take the train out of town, but when the passenger car is revealed to be full of swimsuit-clad women headed for a beauty contest in Miami, Bugs fights with Sam to get "on" the train.

Bugs prevails as usual. In the final shot, he leans out the train window, his face covered with lipstick from kisses, and hollers a line similar to one from "Hare Trigger": "So long, Sammy, see ya in Miami!"

Censorship

*When Sam first introduces himself, walking into the bar "under" the swinging doors, he originally described himself as "the roughest, toughest he-man "hombre" that's ever crossed the Rio Gran-dee -- and I don't mean Mahatma Gan-dee!" The cartoon was released the same year that the pacifist Indian leader was assassinated. For subsequent reissue prints, Blanc redubbed the last line to "And I ain't no namby-pamby!" This cartoon is shown on the second "Golden Collection" DVD set with the "namby-pamby" line instead of the original line, although the original "Mahatma Gandhi" version still exists.
*When this cartoon aired on The WB!, three gun gags were edited out:
**Bullets stopping and going at traffic lights (a similar gag, only using cowboys shooting at each other, would be used in the Chuck Jones cartoon "Drip-Along Daffy").
**One cowboy shooting another at a bar and drinking his beer as the man drops dead.
**Sam shooting a man trying to escape the bar and the man goes back and forth like a duck at a carnival shooting gallery game.

ee also

* Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1940-1949)
* List of Bugs Bunny cartoons

External links

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eo0OY8GOuc A clip with the original "Mahatma Gandhi" Line]
* [http://allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:138103 AllMovie profile]