Super-Rabbit

This article is about the Bugs Bunny cartoon. For the Timely Comics character, see Super Rabbit.

Super-Rabbit
Merrie Melodies series
Title Card to Super-Rabbit
Directed by	Charles M. Jones
Produced by	Leon Schlesinger
Story by	Tedd Pierce
Voices by	Mel Blanc Richard Haydn (uncredited) Tedd Pierce (uncredited)
Music by	Carl Stalling
Animation by	Ken Harris
Layouts by	John McGrew
Backgrounds by	Gene Fleury
Studio	Leon Schlesinger Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	April 3, 1943
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	8 min. (one reel)
Language	English

Super-Rabbit is a Merrie Melodies cartoon starring Bugs Bunny who is parodying the popular character Superman. It was released to theaters on April 3, 1943.

Plot

"Look! Up there in the sky! It's a bird!" "Nah, it ain't a bird, it's a divebomber!" "NO! It's SUPER RABBIT!"

The cartoon opens like the 1940s Superman cartoons, radio shows, and later movie serials and television show. "Faster than a speeding bullet" (a cork popped out of a gun), "More powerful than a locomotive" (a "choo-choo" train), "able to leap tall buildings in a single bound" (but Bugs falls, screaming frantically, after he clears the building).

The story begins in the lab of scientist Professor Cannafraz, whose voice seems patterned after Richard Haydn's radio character Edwin Carp on the Burns and Allen radio show. The professor is creating a "super carrot." His test subject, Bugs (aka "rabbitus idioticus") -- , who variously addresses Cannafraz as "Boibank," "Edison," and "Pasture" -- immediately wolfs down the proffered carrot. Now he has super-abilities such as super-strength, invulnerability, and flight, but only temporarily; he must periodically eat another carrot to replenish his powers. Bugs declares this a "cozy" deal, then remembers a newspaper article about "Cottontail Smith", a hunter in Texas who wants to hunt down all rabbits. Seeing a need, Bugs gathers up the super carrots, stashes them in a cigarette case, gives the professor a kiss on the nose, and departs. He flies into the clouds, past a horse who happens to be sauntering in the middle of the air: the horse turns to the camera and shouts, "A rabbit? Up HERE!?"

Bugs flies to Deepinaharta, Texas (a recurring WB gag inspired by the song "Deep in the Heart of Texas"), and assumes a 'disguise' as a "mild-mannered forest creature," complete with oversized glasses and hat. He soon encounters Smith, who bears a striking resemblance to fellow Texan Lyndon Baines Johnson, at that time a U.S. congressman. Smith tries to shoot Bugs, but none of the bullets penetrate. Bugs hands him a cannonball, eats another carrot ("Just a precaution"), then, upon being struck by the cannonball, plays basketball with it, quickly shoving Smith and his horse onto bleachers while he acts as his own cheerleader: "Come on, kids! We'll give 'em the old rickety-rack! Bricka bracka, firecracka, sis boom ba! Bugs Bunny, Bugs Bunny, rah rah rah!" After Bugs returns to the air to "think up some more deviltry," the bemused Smith and his horse fly into the sky with their own airplane. They soon find themselves piloting a control stick and the top window of their plane - and nothing else.

Bugs runs out of power, but when he tries to "recharge" again his carrots fall to the ground. When Bugs lands, he opens his eyes to see a line of eaten carrots. Smith and his horse are now both superheroes. Bugs turns to the camera and says "This looks like a job for a REAL Superman!" He ducks into a phone booth, and both Smith and the horse are ready to attack - until the booth opens and they both snap to attention and salute. Bugs marches out in a Marine uniform, singing The Marines Hymn. "Sorry, fellas, I can't play with you anymore. I got some important woik to do!" Still singing, he marches off past a sign pointing to 'Berlin, Tokyo and points East.'

Reception

The U.S. Marine Corps were so glad that Bugs Bunny decided to become a Marine in this film that they insisted that the character be officially inducted into the force as a private, which was done, complete with dogtags. The character was regularly promoted until Bugs was officially "discharged" at the end of World War II as a Master Sergeant.^[1]

Cottontail Smith later appears as one of Yosemite Sam's sidekicks in Looney Tunes: Back in Action. The character himself has a voice similar to Sam's and Foghorn Leghorn's, only slightly less raucous.

Bugs' acquisition of temporary super-powers by eating special carrots is later duplicated by DC Comics anthropomorphic rabbit super-hero Captain Carrot.

Bugs' "Bricka bracka firecracka" cheer is used in Darrell Hammond and Christopher Snell's "Wappin'," a rap, or "wap," song sung by Elmer Fudd; a chorus of Bugs fans interrupts Elmer's song with the chant, then allows Bugs himself to take over the song.

Production details

This was Bugs Bunny's sixteenth cartoon, as well as the forty-seventh cartoon by Chuck Jones. It is also the first "Superman" parody on Looney Tunes. The second is Stupor Duck, when Daffy Duck is the not-so-superhero looking for a villain who didn't exist. Curiously, Warner Bros. would later acquire DC Comics - publishers of Superman.

Credits

• Distributor: Warner Brothers
• Producer: Leon Schlesinger
• Supervision: Chuck Jones
• Story: Tedd Pierce
• Animation: Ken Harris^[2]
  • Robert Cannon (uncredited)
  • Ben Washam (uncredited)
  • Lloyd Vaughan (uncredited)
  • Basil Davidovich (uncredited)
• Musical Direction: Carl Stalling

Cast

• Mel Blanc: Bugs Bunny, Cottontail Smith, Texas Rabbit
• Kent Rogers: Professor Canafrazz
• Tedd Pierce: Observer

Availability

This cartoon can be found on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3. Available alongside another Superman/Looney Tunes parody Stupor Duck on the Superman: The Ultimate Collection box set

See also

• List of Bugs Bunny cartoons

Notes and references

1. ^ Audio commentary by Paul Dini for Super-Rabbit on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3 (2005).
2. ^ http://www.animationsensations.com/img/warner14.jpg

External links

• Super Rabbit at the Internet Movie Database
• Super-Rabbit at the Big Cartoon Database

Preceded by Tortoise Wins by a Hare

Bugs Bunny Cartoons 1943

Succeeded by Jack-Wabbit and the Beanstalk