Stuff I Grew Up With: The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (The Great American Chase) (1979)

If I were to say, "I grew up with the Looney Tunes," I'm sure nearly all of you would be like, "No! Really?!" I say "nearly" because it does seem like they're not quite as important or even familiar to more recent generations, for various reasons (some kind of understandable and others just ridiculous). Regardless, whether it was watching The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show on ABC on Saturday mornings, or the various blocks they had on Cartoon Network (The Bugs and Daffy Show, The ACME Hour, their annual June Bugs marathons, etc.), these cartoons were one of the biggest parts of my childhood, and to this day, a lot of them can still make me laugh, sometimes to the point of tears. Also, while I didn't see them as often as the actual cartoons, I have fond memories of some of these sort of "package films" that were produced in the late 70's and 80's, too. I saw bits of at least two of them, including this one, when I was really young, but didn't see them in full until they began airing on Cartoon Network's Cartoon Theatre. In the case of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, I saw some of it at my paternal grandmother's house, I believe when we were over there for Thanksgiving one year. I always remembered the wraparound, with Bugs at home, walking around in his fancy robe and talking to the audience, introducing each of the cartoons, giving his own personal perspectives, and such, and I also remembered some of the featured cartoons themselves, as this was where I first saw some of them. But I didn't know the movie's title or see it in full until, again, it aired on Cartoon Theatre, the first time being in January of 2000. I always tried to watch it, as well as these other Looney Tunes movies, whenever they aired, not only because they were really fun, but also because I thought it was cool how they would take a group of cartoons I'd seen many times and put them into some kind of new context. Here, it's very rudimentary, as this is little more than a feature length clip show, with the only new animation being Bugs' many interludes and introductions, and there's no denying that the advent of home video and especially streaming services have made these kinds of movies irrelevant. However, that doesn't make this one any less enjoyable to revisit, as it's an absolute delight, even if you have seen the actual cartoons numerous times, due to Bugs' wit and sarcastic remarks, as well as the memorable design of his mansion and some other, more unexpected sections of animation that are thrown into the mix.

Relaxing at his opulent, Fallingwater-style home, which comes complete with a carrot juice waterfall, Bugs Bunny introduces himself to the audience and takes them on a tour of the place. He mentions Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam as two people who are always constantly chasing him, and then, decides to give the audience a history lesson on how the concept of chases began, going all the way back to the dawn of mankind. According to Bugs, it was all born out of a way to stave off boredom, which he said initially gave rise to motion pictures, and, when man became bored of that, the invention of comedy, which then naturally led to chases. And eventually, this resulted in the creation of the Looney Tunes and how Bugs himself. After introducing his various "fathers" (the directors and writers of his cartoons, as well as voice actor Mel Blanc), he proceeds to introduce and comment on a series of cartoons by one in particular: Chuck Jones.

The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie came about shortly after Chuck Jones had returned to Warner Bros. for the first time since 1962, when the studio had fired him after they learned he'd violated an exclusive contract with them. Not too long after he was fired, the studio shut down their animation department, marking the true end of an era. But Jones had hardly been idle since then, as he'd directed a new series of Tom and Jerry cartoons, as well as some other shorts, over at MGM, and had also done the classic TV special How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, which he'd followed up Horton Hears a Who! (he also produced the special based on The Cat in the Hat), and much of the animation for 1970's The Phantom Tollbooth. Re-teaming with Warner Bros. in 1976, he directed the TV special, Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals, and followed that up with 1978's Bugs Bunny in King Arthur's Court, as well as several other such specials and new theatrical shorts during this period. While many of the shorts featured in this movie were solely directed by Jones, also included are some that were co-directed by two longtime associates: Maurice Noble and Tom Ray. He also co-wrote the movie with Michael Maltese, who'd written a number of his cartoons during his heyday at Warner Bros., including some of his most beloved. And, as expected, all of the cartoons featured here were written by Maltese, who died just two years later.

Doing this movie also allowed Jones what he felt was an opportunity to get a bit of payback against fellow animation director Bob Clampett, whom he'd disliked for many, many years. His biggest beef with Clampett was that he felt he'd taken too much credit in the creation of a number of Looney Tunes characters, including Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck themselves. This was especially exacerbated after the release of the documentary, Bugs Bunny: Superstar (which I actually rented on VHS when I was a kid), in 1975, which not only heavily featured Clampett, but had him implying major involvement in the creation of Bugs, which many others disputed. Thus, in the early scene here where Bugs lists some of the directors who could be considered his fathers, he names not only Jones but also Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, and Bob McKimson, but there's no mention of Clampett. (There's also no mention of Ben "Bugs" Hardaway, who has been deemed especially instrumental in Bugs' creation, including being the source of his name, but Jones later said that was merely a mistake.) On a more tender and poignant note, Jones dedicated the movie to his wife, Dorothy, who died in 1978. And though it proved commercially successful, he had no involvement with the other Looney Tunes compilation movies that followed in its wake.

Co-directing was Phil Monroe, who worked frequently as an animator in Jones' unit at Warner Bros. during the 1940's. Moreover, after Jones was fired in 1962, Monroe finished some of the cartoons his unit had been working on at that point. He re-teamed with Jones again in the 70's when he set up his own studio, Chuck Jones Enterprises (his second independent studio following Tower 12 Inc., under which he produced his 60's Tom and Jerry shorts, before it was absorbed into MGM). And unlike Jones, Monroe would be involved with some of the following Looney Tunes movies, acting as a sequence director for Friz Freleng on both The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie and Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island.

While he has often been depicted as cool, collected, and in control, especially when Chuck Jones was at the helm of his cartoons, Bugs Bunny's portrayal here is especially laid back and mellow. He comes across as an older, more worldly version of the character we saw in all those cartoons, as if he's lived this amazing life, had this enviable career in show business, and is now spending his golden years in absolute luxury (Mel Blanc's aged voice adds to this feel). His taking the audience through, first the general history of how chases became a comedic art-form, and then his own personal part in it, telling us at the beginning that he's from Brooklyn (he claims to be from Back Bay, even though the only Back Bay I know of is in Boston), about his various "fathers," friends and enemies, and the various adventures he and his associates have had under Jones' direction, all while wearing this elegant robe and carrying around a carrot like a cigar, reinforces this notion that he's reminiscing on all these awesome experiences he's had throughout the years.

While the later Looney Tunes movies, like 1001 Rabbit Tales and Daffy Duck's Quackbusters, each had a collection of classic cartoons that were strung together by an all new storyline, this one, as I said, mainly serves as a compilation, with Bugs simply introducing them, rather than their being events in the story he gets caught up in. However, there are segues from one cartoon to the next that have him reacting to them in some way. Following Duck Dodgers in the 24th 1/2 Century, Bugs is in his mansion's

observatory, looking through his telescope; at the end of Duck Amuck, he's sitting at an animator's desk, as per that cartoon's ending, even having removed his robe in order to make it match, and then walks over to a moviola and looks through the viewfinder as the next cartoon, Bully for Bugs, begins; and, at the end, following the ending of Beep Prepared, where Wile E. Coyote ends up as a constellation in the sky, Bugs is out on his terrace, looking up at the night sky, and, during a new gag involving said constellation, brings the movie's main theme about chases and comedy to its conclusion.

Bugs' comments on the subject matter of the various cartoons he introduces are a big reason why all the original animation sequences are so enjoyable because, as expected, he injects his trademark dry wit and sarcasm into it. At the beginning, when he takes us back to before the origin of mankind, and we're peering into the vastness of space, he says, "In the beginning, all was peaceful and quiet. Quite dark, too. Oh, once in a while, a star exploded, but usually, it was just a small one, only a million miles or so in 

diameter. Anyway, nobody complained, which was odd, until you realized that there wasn't nobody around to complain. So, for about 15 to 20 billion years, things went along smoothly and pleasantly, until one day, very deep in a sixth-rate galaxy called the Milky Way, circling around a fourth-rate star called the Sun, on a tenth-rate planet, a strange creature appeared. A strange creature called Man." Getting to the actual cartoons, Bugs, before the first one that's played in its entirety, Hare-Way to the Stars,

notes how Chuck Jones, "Seemed determined to get poor little old me into outer space, too." In a similar vein later on, Bugs comments on a common running gag in his cartoons. He notes how animators, "Can't ever seem to tell the difference between a rabbit and a mole. Very humiliatin' havin' to burrow your way wherever you wanna go. And somehow, I always forgot to take that left turn at Albuquerque," which is followed by two cartoons in a row that start out with him doing exactly that. Before the second, Ali Baba Bunny, which has him traveling in 

that manner with Daffy Duck, he says that if he had his druthers, his traveling companion would be, "Some foxy little rabbit chick," using a picture of one named Sophia to emphasize his point. But, more often than not, he had to travel with Daffy, a picture of whom the camera pans up as Bugs describes him in very contrasting details.

Speaking of Daffy, Bugs spends a good chunk of time early on ribbing on him. Before the second full cartoon, Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century, Bugs motions towards a painting of him in his Duck Dodgers uniform and comments, "Other people, uh, if you want to call a duck 'people,' had close encounters with that little Martin, too." After that cartoon, he comments, "I don't remember just how Daffy got down from Planet X. Maybe that had to shoot him down." He adds, "He's back at his old stand as the 

Errol Flynn of duckdom. I remember well the first time he tried to sell himself as the logical successor to Errol," which leads into the credits for the next cartoon, Robin Hood Daffy. And during the opening to the following one, Duck Amuck, Bugs, playing on how that one begins and also how it ends, comments "Well, Daffy decided to have one more shot at the Musketeer business. But, uh, this time, he got involved with a very mysterious opponent. Namely... uh, well, see for yourself." Around the halfway point,

Bugs introduces Elmer Fudd as one of the numerous people in the world, "Who wanna shoot, fry, dice, or parboil rabbits and/or ducks," going on to describe him as a "brave sportsman" who feels happiest when he's, "Protecting innocent citizens by shooting dangerous forest animals, like rabbits and ducks." When introducing the Pepe Le Pew cartoon, For Scent-imental Reasons, Bugs says that Pepe lives in France, "Where all good Americans go when they die," and is also where, "The onliest reason for chasing is for love." One of the most interesting

introductions starts with Bugs nearly kills himself in order to play the Minute Waltz in thirty seconds and establish a new record. Serving as the intro for Long-Haired Hare, where Bugs runs afoul of a temperamental opera singer, he says, "There are people who just don't like music, as I found out one day." And before What's Opera, Doc?, he confesses his love for opera, saying it inspired him to take, "The entire eighteen hours of Richard Wagner's Ring of Nibelung [he gets a bit tongue-tied on the latter], and squashed it down to seven minutes."

When we get to Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner during the movie's last quarter, Bugs introduces the former as someone who, unlike Elmer Fudd, who only hunts for the sport of it, does so out of hunger, adding that he'll, "Eat anything, includin' me!" Following a little bit of the cartoon Operation: Rabbit, where Wile E. goes after Bugs, he tells us that the coyote realized eating rabbit, "cooked or raw," wouldn't be to his benefit (Bugs then stops in his tracks and shudders at the thought of the latter,

commenting, "What a revoltin' idear!"). He then introduces the Road Runner, a type of prey that Wile E. decided was more worth pursuing, leading into the final montage of clips.

In addition to his main role as host, Bugs also appears during both the opening and ending credits, in a bit of a Duck Amuck or, in his case, Rabbit Rampage, fourth-wall breaking scenario. The movie opens with the classic sign off, "That's all folks!", much to Bugs' irritation. He pushes aside the background, then gets in-between the first and second words, and puts a big, underlined "NOT" there. The movie then begins in the style of the classic Looney Tunes shorts, with Bugs sitting atop his name, munching on a carrot, but

when the movie's title comes up, it initially reads The Chase Movie, only for "Road-Runner" to come in and knock "Chase" out of center. However, Bugs, not one to stand for being upstaged, goes, "Oh, no you don't," and his name comes in and takes its place above the Road Runner's. Then, at the end, when it, once again, tries to say, "That's all folks!", Bugs comes in and stops it. Giving it another disapproving look, he goes, "Yes?", then backs it up all the way to the quotation marks, asking, "Well?" This time, it spells, "That's not quite all folks," and Bugs explains, "Well, after all,

credits... where credit is due!", leading into the ending credits. And finally, it truly ends with him, as often he did, riding the Warner Bros. shield, commenting, "Eat your heart out, Burt Reynolds" (this was the first time I ever heard Burt Reynolds' name), as the sign off now reads, "That's really all folks!"

The only other character who appears in new animation here is the Road Runner himself, and even then, it's very brief, when Bugs introduces him near the end of the movie. Everyone else appears only in the actual cartoons or are represented by their paintings in Bugs' home, including Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam and Charlie Dog (neither of whom appear in any of the cartoons, although you do get a snippet of Sam's voice when Bugs briefly imitates him), Daffy Duck, both as himself and as Duck Dodgers, Marvin the Martin, Pepe Le Pew, and Wile E. Coyote.

Animation-wise, while not quite up to par with the classic shorts it features, the movie does still feature some great work, with Bugs' movements and facial expressions all fluid and on point. Some of the more notable examples include when he jumps and gestures like Yosemite Sam while imitating his voice, when he tries to play the Minute Waltz in thirty seconds, and when he shudders at the idea of Wile E. Coyote eating rabbit raw. The same also goes for his sections at the beginning and end of the movie, where he's fiddling with the credits. But what's most eye-catching about

his segments is the design of his sprawling mansion, the exterior of which, as I said earlier, is based on Fallingwater, a house in Bear Run, Pennsylvania designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, down to its very unique look and its being cantilevered over a waterfall. In this case, however, said "waterfall" is, according to a small sign beside its base, made up of "pure ACME carrot juice," just one of many interesting details to the outside area. The first thing you see when the movie truly begins is a shot of the 

front gate, which is shaped like a carrot, as is the mailbox, with a large "BB" on both the ground in front of the gate and on the box's side. Beyond the gate is the carrot juice waterfall, in a spot that seems to be something of a garden, with a bench and what appears to be a section of wall covered with grape vines over to the left. When we first see Bugs, he's sitting out on a terrace, the guardrail of which is made up of "B's," overlooking an area with a large, carrot-shaped swimming pool, as well a similarly-shaped 

diving board, and what looks like a carrot-shaped gazebo in the background. And when we see him in close-up on the terrace, he's got a pot full of carrots in front of the chair he's relaxing in, as well as a patio table with an umbrella that, again, is made up of carrots.

You get plenty of beauty shots of the mansion's interior throughout the movie, which has just as much of a modern art design to it as the exterior, with uniquely-shaped furniture and architecture, not to mention various paintings of modern art hanging on the walls. You see various different parts of the house when, following For Scent-imental Reasons, the camera pans through various rooms and hallways, before entering the room where Bugs keeps his grand piano, as he tries to set his record with the Minute Waltz. On top of the piano is a candelabra that has

carrots in it instead of actual candles (unless they're candle-shaped carrots). Some other notable rooms and parts of the house include the observatory at its highest point, and where Bugs has his animation desk and moviola. Sometimes, the backgrounds get a little sparse in terms of detail, coming off as just a colored void, but that's hardly unusual for animation, and it was a style Chuck Jones tended to gravitate towards. Speaking of which, some especially interesting details of the mansion's interior include the aforementioned 

paintings of Bugs' costars, some of which are found in a section designated, "WILD VILLAINS I HAVE KNOWN," and the caricatured drawings of directors Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, and Bob McKimson, writers Tedd Pierce, Warren Foster, and Michael Maltese, and Mel Blanc.

Speaking of setting and background designs, you get to see some from the featured cartoons during the opening and ending credits. The former consist mostly of drawings based on the shorts, though you do get a background that seems to be an unused one from Duck Dodgers, as well as a couple of empty shots of the inside of Bugs' mansion, like his animation desk and the spot where you have a portrait of his ancestor, "Admiral Hareration Hare-Blower. The latter, however, contain a handful of the very beautifully-designed environments and backgrounds from What's Opera, Doc?, and you also see some of Bugs' home at the bottom of bis rabbit hole at the beginning of Hare-Way to the Stars 

I always remembered the beginning, where Bugs gives us a history lesson on chases, from when I was a kid, as it was unlike what you'd expect from a Looney Tunes movie. It starts with a Star Wars-style text crawl that takes the iconic opening blurb of, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away," substitutes "universe" for "galaxy," and extends the blurb to a ridiculous extreme, with 48 "longs" and 37 "fars" (yeah, I counted). It even acknowledges this with a "WHEW!" at the end of the crawl, accompanied by a matching sound effect. You then look at this huge

expanse of outer space, with glowing stars in the distance, occasional explosions, and a comet streaking by, as Bugs tells us how quiet and dark things were in the beginning. Then, as it transitions to the Earth, we see the Milky Way pass by, followed by the camera heading towards the sun until it envelops the screen, and finally, towards the Earth itself, as Bugs talks about the appearance of man. It transitions to a rocky, barren landscape, as a caveman with a long beard walks up, carrying a club. He stops, looks around, and remarks, "I'll take it." He walks

offscreen, and then, in the background, chases after a small dinosaur, as Bugs tells us that Neanderthal man invented the first chase. He adds that Neanderthal also invented, "The first competition, and the first love, and the first Woman's Lib," with respective accompanying moments like the caveman chasing after another one, dragging a woman by her hair, and another woman dragging the second caveman by his hair. Cutting to the initial caveman and his wife, sitting in a cave, Bugs says that Neanderthal 

also invented, "The first domesticity, and the first boredom." It then cuts to paintings on the wall, which Bugs says was Neanderthal's way of alleviating boredom. The cavewoman asks her husband, "What's on the wall tonight, dear?", and he answers, "Same old stuff: westerns, sitcoms, soaps." (The satire on the public's boredom with television programming is obvious, and this was before cable came along and at least quadrupled the issue.) The two of them begin moving their heads in a way that, from their POV,

makes it seem as though the paintings themselves are moving, as Bugs says the "invention of boredom led to the invention of moving pictures." And by this point, one painting of a man chasing a mastodon with a spear has literally become animated.

It transitions to the same characters, now in the early 20th century, watching an old silent movie in a theater, but once again, they're bored. The guy says, "I'm kinda tired of documentaries," and his wife adds, "Frankly, I wouldn't mind a few laughs myself." With that, Bugs declares, "And so, it came to pass, that comedy was invented," leading into a montage of clips from various silent comedies (I don't know what any of these films are), showing off tropes such as, "Pratfalls, and custard pies, and double-takes." Bugs adds, "But, most of all, comedy begat chases! And

chases begat chases, and chases, and chases, and chases, until the mind boggledeth." Finally, it transitions to a clip from the cartoon, Rabbit Seasoning, as Bugs notes that he eventually came onto the scene.

Because of how much of a major theme the concept of "the chase" is to it, it might not be too surprising to learn that the movie was originally titled The Great American Chase, and even briefly released as such (some early VHS releases also retained that title at the start of the ending credits). It was probably re-titled The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie to cash in on the ongoing success of The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show, the, at the time, latest incarnation of The Bugs Bunny Show. However, it also possibly

could've been because Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner were two particular cartoon series that Chuck Jones excelled at, with the latter having been his and Michael Maltese's own creation. Either way, you have to love how the title change is alluded to at the beginning, with it starting out as The Chase Movie, only for Bugs and the Road Runner to put their names in place of the middle word. It also explains why, despite his name being part of the title, the Road Runner doesn't come into play until the movie's final

quarter. Though, even then, save for the plethora of Road Runner clips that make up much of the movie's last twenty or so minutes, as well as Hare-Way to the Stars and For Scent-imental Reasons, many of the featured cartoons either don't fit into that motif or, if they do, it's only partially, like Duck Dodgers, Bully for Bugs, Ali Baba Bunny, and What's Opera, Doc?. Not that I'm complaining, but it's just something I've always thought about, even as a kid.

I'm not going to go into too much detail about the cartoons themselves, save for noting which ones are used and if they were altered in some way. (While I haven't done it yet, I'm planning on creating a new blog soon devoted entirely to all manner of shorts, from theatrical short subjects like these to short films and everything in-between. So, if that sounds interesting to you, be on the lookout for that in the future.) But what I will say is that I pretty much love all of them, particularly Robin Hood Daffy (Porky laughing at him at the beginning, the scene with the

quarterstaff, and Daffy nearly killing himself by swinging into one tree after another are all freaking hilarious), Duck Amuck (probably my absolute favorite of this bunch, as it never fails to crack me up), Ali Baba Bunny, Rabbit Fire, Long-Haired Hare, Operation: Rabbit, Fast and Furry-ous, Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z, and To Beep or Not to Beep. While I was never that big on Pepe Le Pew as a kid, mainly because, even then, I didn't like how he wouldn't leave Penelope alone, I do like the ending of For

Scent-imental Reasons, where the tables are turned and he's the one getting chased. And I do believe this is where I first saw What's Opera, Doc?, as I always remembered the ending, with Elmer crying in remorse over having "killed" Bugs and carrying him off in his arms.

A brief clip from Rabbit Seasoning, where Bugs walks over to Elmer Fudd as he fires his rifle into a rabbit hole, sticks his head after him, and asks, "Eh, what's up, doc?", is the first bit of classic animation here. After that, Hare-Way to the Stars and Duck Dodgers in the 24th 1/2 Century are shown in their entirety, while Robin Hood Daffy is missing one of Daffy's failed attempts to rob the wealthy traveler of his gold. Duck Amuck, Bully for Bugs, Ali Baba Bunny, and Rabbit Fire are all kept intact, but For Scent-imental Reasons is missing a moment early on 

where Penelope tries to wash Pepe's stink off her in the bathroom, while Pepe thinks she's making herself "dainty" for him and decides to wait a few seconds, filing his nails as he does. Long-Haired Hare is also considerably shortened, as it cuts Bugs' first few attempts of messing with Giovanni Jones at his concert and goes straight to Bugs showing up disguised as Leopold Stokowski and getting his final revenge. What's Opera, Doc? is, naturally, shown in its entirety, including its title card (it's considered Chuck Jones' masterpiece, so why wouldn't it?), whereas Operation: Rabbit, by contrast, shows only Wile E. Coyote's first and last attempts to get Bugs.

Once we get into the Road Runner section, we're treated to a montage of clips from various cartoons, strung together as if they're one long pursuit. We get the standard intro scene, with the fake Latin names for the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, taken from Hip-Hip-Hurry!, but it immediately segues into the opening of Zoom and Bored (you can tell because Wile E. is now holding a knife and fork, which he wasn't before), where the Road Runner, twice, causes Wile E. to fall off a cliff, then startles him and causes him to jump and smash his head up through a rocky 

ledge. His first failed plan to catch the Road Runner from that short is also used, and the montage goes on from there. Counting those two, clips from seventeen cartoons are used in total, many of them one-off gags. Some of my personal favorites are two attempts from Zip 'N Snort, where Wile E.'s attempt at a "human" bow and arrow fails completely, and where his attempt to blast the Road Runner with a giant cannon, while he's eating some bird seed on the road below, backfires in a spectacular manner; the ACME super outfit from Fast and Furry-ous, mainly for 

how stupid Wile E. is to think he could actually fly in that thing; in a similar vein, the ACME "Batman" outfit from Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z (which looks nothing like Batman's suit, as this before Warner Bros. bought DC Comics), which actually works initially, only for Wile E. to get overconfident and slam into a cliff-face, before falling down to the ground below; and the ACME Earthquake Pills from Hopalong Casualty, as this was where I first saw this gag and it's amazing to behold, as it's one of the most glorious backfires in 

the series' history. I also like this one from There They Go-Go-Go!, where Wile E. tries to dump a bunch of enormous rocks onto the Road Runner from up above. When the trap doesn't work, he gets frustrated and starts poking them from beneath with a long pole, trying to loosen them up, even though it's pointless now (another moment from this gag, where he jumps on top of the packed in rocks, was left out). Just as the rocks slowly but surely begin to fall, Wile E. realizes what he just did and holds up a sign that reads, "IN

HEAVEN'S NAME-- WHAT AM I DOING?" By that point, though, it's too late, and he holds up that tiny umbrella of his that he always seems to think will make a difference, as all the rocks come tumbling down on him.

There are also a couple of running gags from some cartoons that are sprinkled throughout the montage, such as one from Stop! Look! And Hasten!, where Wile E. constructs a huge wall to pop up in the middle of the road, only for it to not work when the Road Runner comes by. Then, in another gag from that cartoon, he takes some ACME Leg Muscle Vitamins, which give him the ability to run as fast as the Road Runner. But, when they run across the spot where that wall is, it now decides to pop up and Wile E. runs into it. The most notable is from To Beep or Not to Beep,

where Wile E. repeatedly tries to launch boulders at the Road Runner using a catapult, only for it to backfire on him in some manner. Like that rock trap in There They Go-Go-Go!, when the final attempt doesn't work at all, he stupidly tries to make it fire despite the time for it having long since passed, with disastrous results. The only thing is, they cut the very last joke, where it's revealed that these catapults were made, not by ACME, but by the Road Runner Manufacturing Company. (There are also two 

moments here involving a trampoline that I thought were from the same cartoon but are actually from two separate ones.) And the final gag, from Beep Prepared, where Wile E.'s attempt to catch the Road Runner using an ACME "little-giant do-it-yourself rocket sled" launches him up into space, where he becomes a constellation in the vein of Sagittarius, is built upon at the end of the movie, where he chases after a Road Runner constellation.

Music-wise, you have plenty of classic Looney Tunes compositions in the cartoons themselves, by various composers like Carl W. Stalling, Milt Franklyn, Jim Seely, and William Lava; for the movie itself, the music was done by Dean Elliott, who worked a lot with Chuck Jones during the latter part of his career, scoring many of his Tom and Jerry cartoons, as well as The Phantom Tollbooth. His music here does have a similar feel to his Tom and Jerry scores, especially the music that opens the movie, when Bugs fights with the sign-off, and the main title theme, the frantic, fast-paced sound of which emphasizes the main theme of chases. You also hear various versions of the familiar Looney Tunes themes, including The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down, and even an instrumental of This Is It, the theme song from The Bugs Bunny Show, over the ending credits. Sometimes, though, Elliott gets a little unexpected with the music, most notably when, as the camera slowly pans up that portrait of Daffy Duck, he plays a soft guitar bit, which leads off from a more exotic piece when Bugs was talking about his preference to travel with a female rabbit.

In spite of all the streaming services we now have at our disposal, The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie makes for a quick and easily accessible set of some really good Looney Tunes shorts by Chuck Jones, with a good chunk of them played in their entirety. Even if you've seen or have access to the cartoons featured here, I'd still suggest giving this flick a watch just for the fun new animation with Bugs, which helps make this, in my opinion, one of the best Looney Tunes feature films that have ever been made, both at the time and overall. On top of that, you get other sections of original animation that are not what you expect to see in a Looney Tunes movie, some great-looking environment and background work for the interiors of Bugs' mansion, and entertaining music for these segments, along with the already classic pieces from the cartoons. Nothing else to say except that, if you're a fan like me, this is a very enjoyable way to kill 97 minutes.