Rabbit Punch

"Rabbit Punch" is a 1948 Warner Bros. cartoon featuring Bugs Bunny.

Bugs finds himself in a boxing match with a brutish and not-very-bright boxer. The title is a play on an actually illegal boxing move, [Sugar, Bert. [http://www.owingsmillsboxingclub.com/boxing.htm Boxing] . "www.owingsmillsboxingclub.com". URL last accessed 2008-02-01.] a punch to the back of the head.

Plot

The World's Championship Fight is about to begin in a gigantic boxing stadium built near Bugs Bunny's hole in the countryside. Tonight's fight features the battle between The Crusher (identified as the Champ "Battling McGook" in this cartoon, and voiced by Billy Bletcher) and his challenger "Dispectic McBlaster". During the fight, Crusher doesn't even give his challenger a sporting chance. This prompts Bugs Bunny (in a sequence reminiscent of a similar such bit in Baseball Bugs) to heckle Crusher enough to come up behind him. When Bugs calls to Crusher to pick on somebody his own size, Crusher decides Bugs will do, and throws him through the Dressing Room (where Bugs gets a pair of boxing gloves and some purple boxing shorts) and into a corner of the ring. Bugs then admits it was a mistake to open his "big fat mouth".

In the ring, Crusher shows off his muscles by bulging his biceps and getting muscles on his muscles. Unimpressed, Bugs tries flexing his muscles, which are only grape sized.

The bell rings to start Round 1. Bugs comes up to Crusher pretending to give him a sporting chance. Amused at Bugs' inexperience, Crusher just punches Bugs back to his corner. Just as the crowd cheers Crusher, Bugs goes back, but gets hit back. He goes up again, only to be hit back a third time. Bugs then decides to pull off a little "stragety." Coming back to the center of the ring, when Crusher is about to punch him again, Bugs fakes fainting. When Crusher looks over him, Bugs punches Crusher up to the ceiling. The bell then rings to finish Round 1.

While Bugs relaxes to a good book, a comfy armchair, and a radio, Crusher (with a yellow face due to hitting the ceiling) decides to cheat by building a brick boxing glove over his right hand. The bell then rings to start Round 2. Just as Bugs and Crusher come towards each other, Crusher punches Bugs with his brick boxing glove, sending Bugs (with a pink mark over his face) back to his corner.

Just as Bugs is "kissing the canvas," the sportscaster starts the count, but Bugs snatches his microphone and immediately starts describing action that's not taking place, confusing Crusher long enough to trip over him. Angered, Crusher pulls off his gloves and comes to the center of the ring, which makes Bugs pull off his gloves (stuffed with horseshoes) and come to the center of the ring. The two of them wrestle, with Bugs picking Crusher up and then getting flattened due to Crusher's weight. Bugs then gets himself flapped out again, and begins trying to pull Crusher's leg, while Crusher plays with cards. Realizing this isn't getting him anywhere, Bugs takes a plank and breaks it, making Crusher think Bugs broke his leg. Bugs comes in disguised as a doctor and, after a fake examination, wraps up Crusher in the bandages. Then, he punches Crusher so that Crusher bounces off the four poles of the ring, making "Tilt" flash up as in a pinball machine.

Before Round 37, Crusher sneaks over to Bugs' corner and puts axle grease in his resin box. While Crusher sneaks back to his corner, Bugs wipes his feet unknowigly in the grease. Crusher sees this, and when the bell rings to start the round, he runs over but stops immediately. Bugs is "ice skating" due to the grease on his feet. He punches Crusher in the face multiple times. After spinning around, Bugs calls "Ta da da," only to have his victory cut short by Crusher punching him in the jaw and back to his corner.

In Round 48, Crusher gets up just as the bell rings, but stops when Bugs comes in disguised as a popcorn vendor. Bugs gives Crusher a box of hot buttered popcorn, which Crusher discovers too late it's a stick of dynamite in disguise. It blows up in his face.

In Round 73, just as Crusher is practicing getting up from his corner, Bugs comes up and asks him to hold a giant slingshot. Just as Crusher wonders what's going on, Bugs stretches the rubber band back to his corner and puts a boulder in it. Then he lets go of the rubber band, so the boulder hits Crusher in the face, knocking him out and sending him falling to the canvas.

Before Round 98, Bugs is in a giant bow from a bow-and-arrow and Crusher is in a cannon. When the bell rings to start the round, Bugs fires himself from the bow and Crusher pulls the cord, firing himself from the cannon. Both just hit each other head on and knock themselves out.

In Round 110, Crusher ties Bugs to a railroad track, which he pulled into the stadium. Then he hurries up the tracks and fetches a steam train. Next, he rushes towards Bugs head on. All Bugs can do is start sweating and watch as the train comes closer and Crusher gloat over his intended victory.

Just when it looks like the train is going to hit Bugs, the film appears to fall out of its sprockets and then it "breaks". Bugs (now not wearing his boxing gear) comes onto a solid-white screen and apologizes to the audience for the inconvenience, but admits the film "didn't exactly break". He then takes out a pair of scissors, indicating he cut the film, and gives the audience a smirk at iris-out.

Facts

*Dispectic McBlaster looks like a stretched version of Private Snafu.

*The gag where Bugs gets hit to the corner and comes back with encouragement for his adversary was last used in 1946's Baseball Bugs and will be used again in 1949's Knights Must Fall.

*First appearance of Crusher and second time Bugs takes on an adversary that's bigger than he is.

*First time Bugs tries his hands at boxing.

*One of many times in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, or any Looney Tune or Merrie Melody for that matter, to use the pinball machine message "Tilt."

*There are two animation errors in this cartoon. During the scene when Bugs flies out of the dressing room in his boxing gear, his boxing gloves look more like his ordinary gloves, before they return to normal when Bugs lands in his corner. During the "ice skating" scene, when Bugs comes up to Crusher, he isn't wearing his boxing gloves, but when he punches Crusher in the face, the boxing gloves appear on his hands and then vanish.

*One of many times we hear a classical piece of symphony music during a cartoon.

*Bugs uses the slingshot gag again on Toro in 1953's Bully For Bugs.

*First time an adversary ties Bugs to the railroad tracks instead of the other way round.

*The cut film gag was last used in the Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Looney Tunes My Favorite Duck, only in this cartoon, Bugs Bunny doesn't tell us how the ending of the cartoon came out, which leaves Looney Tunes fans to picture in their minds how it would end if the film wasn't cut.

*Second time voice actor Billy Bletcher uses his voice in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, and first and last time he voices Crusher.

*This cartoon appears restored on Disc 4 of Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 3 DVD.

*During production of this cartoon, Tedd Pierce and Michael Maltese originally intended to include a referee who could interact with Bugs Bunny and Crusher during the cartoon (it's unknown if he was intended to be as jolly and plump as the one from 1943's To Duck or Not to Duck or different from that character). Chuck Jones, however, decided not to include the referee in order to save production money. This would also prompt Looney Tunes fans to picture in their minds how the cartoon would've played out if it had a referee.

*The steam locomotive (1043) Crusher is driving mirrors the articulated steam locomotives that ran on American railroads during the 1940s and 1950s.

*One level in Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage has Bugs up against Crusher once again. To defeat him, Bugs had to ring the bell so Crusher thinks the match is over, then Bugs had to attack Crusher.

References