Rabbit Fire (1951) Cartoon Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. So, today I'm doing a quick review on one of my favourite Looney Tunes cartoons, Rabbit Fire. This cartoon features Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd. I could be wrong about this, but I think this is probably the most well known Looney Tunes cartoon. At least among general audiences. It's the one that has been recreated the most over the years, including in the opening scene of Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003). Let's get into it.

I love that the cover image used for the cartoon on IMDB is of the last scene where Bugs and Daffy are in hunters clothing, telling us to "be very very quiet" because they're hunting Elmers. Speaking of which, I love the looks on their faces when Bugs and Daffy have torn off all of the hunting posters from the tree, revealing the Elmer Season poster, because of everything they went through in this cartoon. Daffy especially. 

I guess some people might call these cartoons formulaic because the same thing happens every time pretty much. Be it Bugs vs. Elmer, Bugs vs. Yosemite Sam, Sylvester vs. Tweety, or Wile E. Coyote vs. Road Runner. But that's what's funny about these cartoons. Look, Elmer has been after Bugs since A Wild Hare came out in 1940 and the entire premise is Elmer chasing Bugs, and Bugs outwitting him. If Elmer caught him, he wouldn't know what to do, similar to how Wile E. Coyote didn't know what to do with Road Runner when he caught him in the 1980 cartoon Soup or Sonic. Plus, the series would be over.

So in the case of every Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoon, it's okay for them to be formulaic, because if they weren't they'd have been short cartoon series. Yes, the Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy cartoons all started earlier than Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, but they also died out alot sooner too, with the last Mickey Mouse cartoon, The Simple Things, coming out in 1953, which was at the height of the Looney Tunes's popularity. In the various histories of the Walt Disney Company this has often been blamed on the cartoon shorts being more expensive to produce than the animated feature films. I suspect though that the real issue is that the animators and story writers felt stale writing these shorts since the slapstick/physical comedy wasn't as prevalent, even in the Goofy and Donald Duck cartoons, as they were in the Looney Tunes cartoons, be it Looney Tunes or Merrie Melodies.

It also helps that the Looney Tunes cartoons were being shown on TV in the various incarnations of what I knew as The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show, and were the show's sole focus, while the Disney cartoons were only a small part of the show that I knew as The Wonderful World of Disney, or were limited to interstitials between shows on premium cable channels like the Disney Channel in the U.S. and Family Channel here in Canada. 

Speaking of The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show, I'm pretty sure I saw Rabbit Fire on that show. I mean I basically saw the entirety of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series cartoons from the late '40s through to the '60s on that show, so chances are pretty good that I saw this cartoon there as well. Especially because I watched it on Global the entire time it aired on that channel, which was from 1990 until 2001. I may have stopped watching it earlier than that, but I know I definitely watched it throughout the '90s.

Overall, this is a fun cartoon to watch. I have it on iTunes along with a few other Looney Tunes cartoons featuring Bugs and Daffy, so that was fun watching it again. It's the first in a trilogy of Bugs, Daffy, and Elmer cartoons that continue the premise of this cartoon with Rabbit Seasoning coming out in 1952 and Duck! Rabbit, Duck! coming out in 1953. Of course, like I said, Looney Tunes: Back in Action opens with a fully animated segment, using this exact premise.

That's it for me for today. I'll be back soon with either a comic book review, or the next installment of my Star Wars Legends novels overview series. I haven't quite decided which one I'm going to do yet. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.