The Big Snooze

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = The Big Snooze
series = Looney Tunes/Bugs Bunny


caption = Title Card for "The Big Snooze"
director = Bob Clampett (uncredited)
story_artist = Warren Foster (uncredited)
animator = Rod Scribner
I. Ellis
Manny Gould
J.C. Melendez
layout_artist = Thomas McKimson
background_artist = Philip DeGuard
voice_actor = Mel Blanc
Arthur Q. Bryan
musician = Carl Stalling
producer = Warner Bros. Pictures
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
studio = Warner Bros. Cartoons
release_date = October 5, 1946
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7 minutes (one reel)
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0038356

"The Big Snooze" is a 1946 Warner Bros. "Looney Tunes" cartoon directed by Bob Clampett, his final cartoon for Warner Bros. Its title was inspired by the 1939 book "The Big Sleep", and its 1946 film adaptation, also a Warner release. "The Big Snooze" features Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, voiced as usual by Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan, respectively.

Plot

In this cartoon-within-a-cartoon, Bugs and Elmer are in the midst of their usual hunting-chasing scenario. After Bugs tricks Elmer into running through a hollow log and off a cliff "three" times (a similar version from "All This and Rabbit Stew)", Elmer becomes enraged and frustrated that the writers never let him catch the rabbit "in every one of these cartoons" (thus breaking the fourth wall). He tears up his Warner contract and walks off the set to devote his life to fishing. With a line in the water, and lying against a tree, Elmer quickly falls asleep.

Bugs, stunned by Elmer's walkout, observes Elmer's nap and takes sleeping pills ("Take Dese and Doze") in order to rock Elmer's "dreamboat" by invading his dream and continuing to drive Elmer crazy. Symbolic of his dreamland plight, Elmer appears nearly nude, wearing only his derby hat and a strategically placed loincloth consisting of a garland of flowers. Bugs torments Elmer with constant images of rabbits, including a point where Elmer is tied to railroad tracks and run over by a train of rabbits. After Elmer breaks free, the two resume their chase, through a surreal landscape.

Electing to use Elmer's anger against him, ("what's the matter doc, ya cold? Here, I'll fix dat!") Bugs turns Elmer into a "woman" by making Elmer don a snug-fitting dress (Elmer gains huge breasts and girlish gams ending in dainty female feet clad in high heels), Elmer also winds up with doe eyes, and eyelashes. A ringlet-styled wig is added to the ensemble, and before Elmer can protest, Bugs jabs him in the stomach, which makes Elmer lean forward in a kissing position so Bugs can apply lipstick to his lips, completing Elmer's transformation into "Elmyra."

After Bugs inspects his handiwork, he lifts a backdrop of the dreamscape to reveal the corner of Hollywood and Vine, where a trio of "Hollywood wolves" dressed in zoot suits are lounging.Once they see "Elmyra", one wolf cries out "Howwwwww old is she?", as a lead in to the trio hooting and hollering, demonstrating how much they adore "Elmyra."

The apparently gender-confused Elmer (behaving as if he truly were a damsel in distress) cries "Gwacious!" and runs away from the wolves, pausing long enough to ask the audience, "Have any of you giwls evew had an expewience wike this?". Bugs and Elmer dash toward stage right, as Bugs plays the old gag "run 'this way'!" and puts Elmer through a bizarre series of steps which include him running on his feet and hair, hopping like a frog, as well as yelling and fashion model dancing. Bugs and Elmer jump off the edge of the dreamscape (in a scene similar to "The Heckling Hare"). During the descent, Bugs drinks some "Hare Tonic - Stops Falling Hare" and screeches to a halt in mid-air, while the dream version of Elmer continues to careen toward earth, finally crash-landing into the real Elmer's snoozing body as he wakes up with a start: "Oh, what a howwibwe nightmawe!"

Elmer dashes back to the cartoon's original set, pieces his Warner contract back together, and tells the audience, Oh, Mr. Warner... I'm "ba-ack!" and the chase through the log begins anew. The happy Bugs faces the audience in a closeup, closing with the catchphrase from the "Beulah" character on the radio show "Fibber McGee and Molly", Ah "love" dat "man!" (). [cite web|url=http://africanamericans.com/Beulah.htm|title=The Beulah Show|author=Billy Ingram|accessdate=2006-09-15]

Censorship

Due to concerns about drug abuse (even though the Latin-American dubbing states "non-addictive"), the part where Bugs takes a sleeping pill (from the bottle that reads, "Take Deze and Doze") to invade Elmer's dream was originally edited out when shown on most TV channels. The scene was most often deleted with a jump cut or, as on Cartoon Network, with a fake black-out. This was the method used until it was shown uncut on Cartoon Network's "The Bob Clampett Show" and has been shown uncut ever since on other cartoon shows, networks, and DVDs.

"The Big Snooze" is available in a restored version on the ' DVD set, and as part of the compilation "What's Up, Doc? A Salute to Bugs Bunny" on '.

References

External links

*
* [http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/175-Big_Snooze.html The Big Snooze] at the Big Cartoon Database