Bully for Bugs

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = "Bully for Bugs"
series = Looney Tunes; Bugs Bunny


caption = Title card
director = Chuck Jones
story_artist = Michael Maltese
animator = Ken Harris
Lloyd Vaughan
Ben Washam
voice_actor = Mel Blanc
musician = Carl W. Stalling
producer = Edward Selzer
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
release_date = August 8, 1953 (USA premiere)
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7 min., 12 sec. (one reel)
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0045585

"Bully for Bugs" is a 1952 Warner Brothers Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon short released in August 1953. It was directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese.

ynopsis

On his way to the Coachella Valley for the "big carrot festival therein," Bugs Bunny gets lost in a bullring in the middle of a bullfight between Toro the bull and a very nervous matador. Bugs famously declares he "shoulda make a left toin at Albuqoique" . As he asks the matador for directions, the matador escapes into the stands, leaving Bugs to fend for himself against Toro. After irritating Bugs and getting a slap for "steaming up my tail," Toro rams the poor hare out of the bullring, Bugs muttering his famous line, "Of course you realize, "dis" means war".

Toro takes his applause for claiming his latest victim, but it is short-lived because Bugs re-enters the bullring in matador garb. Bugs defeats Toro using an anvil hidden behind his cape. While Toro is still dazed from his collision, Bugs makes the bull follow the cape up to a bull shield where his horns pierce it. Bugs hits the horns like nails and makes fun of Toro using puns ("What a gulli-bull, what a nin-cow-poop"), not knowing the bull can detach his horns and strike back.

While Toro sharpens his horns, Bugs interrupts him by placing an elastic band around the horns and attaching a boulder at the other side, knocking the bull out. Toro charges back at Bugs. Bugs then returns, this time in a large sombrero doing a little dance and slapping Toro on the face to the tune of Las Chiapanecas. Toro tries to punch him twice but is slapped each time. Bugs dances more and then disappears under the sombrero, but not before pinching Toro's nose.

While Toro once again sharpens his horns, Bugs has prepared a booby trap for the bull, composed of a double-barreled shotgun hidden behind the cape. Toro charges towards the cape, and somehow the shotgun previously in Bugs's hand enters Toro's body and stops at his tail, firing a bullet from one of Toro's horn when he flicks his tail (and the shotgun) on the ground. Now having the upper hand, Toro chases Bugs shooting at the hare, but Toro eventually runs out of bullets. Toro "reloads" by swallowing several "elephant bullets" (with explosive heads) but when he attempts to test-fire, he instead explodes, gun and all.

Bugs taunts Toro once again by calling him, among other things, an "ultra maroon," but realizes that he is cornered by the bull behind barred gates. Awaiting certain death (he writes a will and says his last prayers), Bugs miraculuously opens the gates like a garage door, sending Toro out of the bullring and into the horizon. Toro runs back to the bullring, not anticipating that Bugs has laid axle grease, a ramp, and some platforms on the bull's path. The grease and ramp send Toro airborne over some glue, a sheet of sandpaper, a protruding matchstick, and a barrel of TNT which explodes when Toro flies by. Still in the air and in shock, Toro finally crashes into a wooden bull shield.

The cartoon ends with the unconscious bull's hindquarters sticking out of the shield, and the victorious Bugs waving the cape with the words "THE END" on it.

Video game adaptations

"Bully for Bugs" has been adapted into various levels in Bugs Bunny video game.

* has a level where Bugs tricks Toro to run into steel girders.
*Bugs Bunny In Double Trouble level has Bugs searching underground for various items for the booby trap.
*Bugs Bunny Lost in Time features "Bully for Bugs" as a bonus level. Where Bugs in his signature matador outfit faces Toro, forces him to run into anvils hidden behind Bugs' cape.
*Sheep, Dog, 'n' Wolf, also known as Sheep Raider, has placed Toro sleeping amongst newly fallen leaves that, if stepped on by the player, will awake Toro and send him charging after Ralph Wolf. He is also seen guarding a goal needed to progress but is distracted by the red monster Gossamer whose color sends Toro into a charging frenzy.
*The Sega Genesis game ""; Toro appears as the end-of-world boss in Mexico. the video game features Toro in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. Daffy must change into his Duck Danger costume and mount Toro, then driving him into several vases which knocks him out.

Trivia

*In his biography "Chuck Amuck" Chuck Jones claims that he made this cartoon after producer Eddie Selzer burst into Jones' workspace one day and annouced, for no readily apparent reason, that bullfights were not funny, and they were not to make a cartoon about them. Since Selzer had, in Jones' opinion, consistently proven himself to be wrong about absolutely everything, the only possible option was to make the cartoon.
*The sounds of the crowd are recorded from a genuine bull-fighting crowd in Barcelona, Spain.
*Despite the fact that it has carrots, some fans have come to the conclusion that Bugs' reason for his journey to the carrot festival was to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. (This opinion is not supported by the August release date.) It should also be noted that while the Coachella Valley is a major agricultural region which grows some carrots, it does not hold an annual carrot festival. The immediate area's carrot growing region is outside of the valley in the Imperial County town of Holtville which does in fact hold an annual carrot festival.
*The boulder to the face gag was reused from "Rabbit Punch" which was also directed by Chuck Jones five years earlier.
*Toro the bull can be seen in the beginning of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" auditioning with other bulls at the Maroon Cartoon Studios for a part for in a cartoon.
*Toro also appears in "Space Jam" and "".
*In the "Tiny Toon Adventures" episode "Starting from Scratch" Bugs' apprentice Buster Bunny tries the now famous slap dance on a bedbug only to see it backfire on him, prompting Buster to remark, "Well it worked for Bugs Bunny."
*In the "" episode M.A.T.A.D.O.R., the opening scene is similar to "Bully for Bugs".
*The opening segment of the cartoon (prior to Bugs' entry), was reused in the 1963 Speedy Gonzales cartoon "Mexican Cat Dance."

Censorship

*When this cartoon aired on ABC, the part where the bull swallows a box of elephant gun bullets and explodes was cut. Also cut was the end gag where the famous glue-and-sandpaper-and-lit-match-and-dynamite end sequence. The edited version just has the bull go up the ramp and hit the wall.
*The CBS airing of this cartoon in the 1980s edited the famous glue-and-sandpaper-and-lit-match-and-dynamite end sequence as well, but just edited the lit match and dynamite part so now the edited cartoon shows the bull getting slathered with glue and stuck with sandpaper on his underside before hitting the wall. Strangely enough, CBS also retained the bull looking much the worse for wear immediately following the dynamite's explosion.