Unlike
The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, as well as a couple of the other Looney Tunes compilation movies, I have no childhood connection to this one. I'd never even heard of it until it started playing on Cartoon Network's Cartoon Theatre, the first airing of which was in March of 2000. I still vaguely recall the promo, which, like all of the ones during Cartoon Theatre's heyday, had a voiceover by the legendary Don LaFontaine. I remember that it started with him dramatically declaring, "From the director of
Knighty Knight Bugs," but that's about all, and I couldn't find a recording of the commercial to refresh my memory on the rest of it. That said, I can remember how bowled over I was by the title, as it was far more exaggerated and zany than either
The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie or
1001 Rabbit Tales. The first time I saw the movie, I missed the first act and came in during Act 2, specifically in the middle of the Daffy Duck cartoon,
Golden Yeggs. Because of that, I wasn't able to immediately grasp the movie's format, which wasn't alluded to in that promo. That especially sucked for me, since this one isn't as straightforward as the others. Fortunately, Cartoon Theatre always showed their movies twice every weekend, and so, the next morning, I was able to watch the whole thing and not only got the structure, but also understood why that promo alluded to
Knighty Knight Bugs in particular (I had seen that cartoon before, but never remembered its title). But, while I did like the movie, I was never as eager to re-watch it whenever it played as I was with the other two Bugs Bunny movies, or with
Daffy Duck's Quackbusters. It's still entertaining, as all of these movies are, and like the previous one, features a lot of great cartoons from the Golden Age, but I've never loved the approach it took. Having now re-watched it for the first time in
many years, my opinion hasn't changed much, and I also don't think the cartoons themselves always gel with the original material or each other like they did before. And the new animation isn't as accomplished as it was in
The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, which would set an unfortunate precedent for the movies to come. But, the movie still has its moments, and there are some instances where it actually
improves on a few of the original cartoons.
Following a showing of the 1958 short, Knighty Knight Bugs, which Bugs Bunny himself says won director Friz Freleng an Oscar (while he got a carrot), he gives us a short history lesson about how slapstick comedy came about in Hollywood's early years. Then, Warner Bros. unleashed the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of theatrical cartoons, which put "baggy pants comics" out to pasture. Among the cartoon directors, Bugs specifically names Freleng, and how he created, "A warm-hearted, humble little introvert called Yosemite Sam." Act I, Satan's Waitin', centers around him, as he finds himself literally in Hell after Bugs foils his plan to swindle an elderly widow out of her $50 million inheritance. When Sam pleads with the Devil to be sent back to Earth, he agrees, but says that he must find someone to take his place. Naturally, Sam knows exactly who that's going to be, and is repeatedly sent back to try to kill Bugs. In Act II, The Unmentionables, Bugs tells us about the influx of gangster movies during the 1920's and how, in reality, Eliot Ness became a public hero. He adds, "Friz Freleng decided that whatever Ness could do, I could do better," and we then follow Bugs as Agent Elegant Mess, as he attempts to bring the mob boss Rocky and his gang to justice. Though he manages to get Rocky before a judge after successfully infiltrating his birthday party, the gangster is able to go free thanks to his lawyer. After that, Rocky's attempt to profit from Daffy Duck's supposed ability to lay golden eggs, and then his abducting and holding Tweety Bird for ransom, give Bugs other chances to bring him to justice. Act III, The Oswald Awards, centers around an awards ceremony for cartoon characters that Freleng created after Bugs complained about only getting carrots for his hard work. The night of one such awards ceremony, several different cartoon characters, including Bugs, who's also the show's host, are nominated. And when he ends up winning, Daffy, as jealous as ever of Bugs' popularity, challenges him to a duel of talent, intending to go to any lengths to win an Oswald for himself.
While Chuck Jones hadn't been involved with the Looney Tunes for nearly fifteen years when he began producing the TV specials that eventually led to The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, Friz Freleng had remained at Warner Bros. right up until they first closed their animation department in 1963. Afterward, he and David H. DePatie, who oversaw Warner Bros.' cartoon division during its final years, came together and formed their own animation studio, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. They became most well known for creating the Pink Panther cartoons, which began after they did the opening animation for the original Pink Panther movie with Peter Sellers in 1963, and subsequently won an Oscar for the first short starring the character, The Pink Phink. They were also behind some of the Dr. Seuss animated specials, including The Cat in the Hat, which Chuck Jones was involved with, and the short-lived Return to the Planet of the Apes animated series. But, most notably, since they were renting their old cartoon studio, Warner Bros. decided to commission DFE to produce new Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons, which they did from 1964 to 1967. However, these are considered part of the "Dark Age" of the series, due to the cheaper animation, repetitive music, and their often just not being that funny. After the contract expired, DFE wouldn't work with the Looney Tunes again until, like Chuck Jones, they were commissioned to produce some television specials in the late 70's. After DFE went out of business and was bought by Marvel in 1980, Freleng directed, as well as co-wrote with John W. Dunn and David Detiege, The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie, built around his classic cartoons from the Golden Era. And, unlike Jones, he would go on to direct the following two Looney Tunes package films.
Bugs Bunny's overall role here is similar to the one he had in
The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, as he first introduces
Knighty Knight Bugs and mentions how Friz Freleng won an Oscar for it, before giving us a short history lesson on Hollywood comedies and how the introduction of the Looney Tunes revolutionized it. He even recites Charlie Chaplin's famous quote, "How can we compete? These guys don't have to stop to take a breath!" He goes on to mention Freleng's creation of Yosemite Sam, leading into Act I, and gives a similar introduction to Act II, talking about the popularity of gangster flicks and how Eliot Ness became a real national hero, prompting Freleng to put Bugs in a similar role. And finally, at the start of Act III, he introduces the concept of the Oswald Awards, which he also credits to Freleng, saying he came up with it after Bugs complained that, unlike him, he never got any real awards for all his hard work in the cartoons, aside from carrots. However, unlike in the previous movie, Bugs never appears onscreen in this capacity; in fact, there's very little original animation of him in Act I, as the focus is on Yosemite Sam. He does have more new scenes in Acts II and III. Following the use of the cartoon
The Unmentionables at the beginning of former, we get new animation of him as Elegant Mess in his repeated attempts to bring Rocky to justice, and during the latter, he's shown arriving at the Oswald Awards, acting as the host, and dealing with Daffy Duck's jealousy, leading into the cartoon
Show Biz Bugs for much of the rest of the movie.
Since he was Freleng's personal creation and the director used him frequently, as he felt he was a better antagonist for Bugs than Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, naturally, gets a lot screentime, during not just the first act but for almost the movie's entire first half. Not only is he Bugs' foe in
Knighty Knight Bugs, but Act I takes the short
Devil's Feud Cake, which also centered around him and creates a new version of its story as its main plot. This actually section starts up with the short
Hare Trimmed, where Bugs interferes with Sam's plan to swindle Granny out of a big inheritance, eventually leading to Sam literally being knocked down into Hell. He then makes his bargain with the Devil to go back to Earth and have Bugs take his place, leading into the cartoons
Roman Legion Hare,
Sahara Hare, and
Wild and Woolly Hare, albeit with some brief new animation for the openings. I always remembered how I was kind of shocked when, after his first attempt fails, he tells the Devil, "I'll get the critter this time. I'll send him to
Hell!", then immediately shakes his head and goes, "Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, uh, pardon my language." Also, during the final attempt, they leave in the part in
Wild and Woolly Hare where Sam postpones his gunfight with Bugs so he can rob a train. Though this does lead to Sam ending up back in Hell again following the train crash at the end of that cartoon, it causes a bit of a continuity problem, since it doesn't make sense for him to try to rob a train when his goal is to get Bugs as his replacement. Regardless, like at the end of
Devil's Feud Cake, after this, Sam turns down the Devil's offer for one more chance and, putting on his own Devil costume and grabbing a pitchfork, declares that he's staying.
Sam also appears for a little bit during Act III. Not only is his cartoon
High Diving Hare among those played during the ceremony, but when he first arrives, driving a stagecoach, and is interviewed while walking on the Red Carpet, he says he brought along, "A little winner's insurance." He takes out his two six-shooters and shoots down at the floor, the force of the recoil lifting himself up off of the ground, as he heads on down the carpet. And during the showing of
High Diving Hare, Daffy, who'd been running his beak the entire time, comments on how Bugs is making a fool out of Sam in the cartoon, only for Sam to yell at him to shut up. Daffy, jumping into Granny's arms, takes the hint and literally zips his mouth closed.
Daffy Duck's first appearance is in Act II, where his role is confined to the cartoon
Golden Yeggs, save for a new ending where Bugs and the cops bust in and arrest Rocky and his gang, right after Daffy has filled numerous egg cartons with golden eggs, nearly killing himself in the process! He also has a hilarious line as he's being carried out on a stretcher: Bugs asks him, "Is there anything we can get for ya, old chap?", and he answers, "Yes. Get me a p-p-proctologist, right away." But it's during Act III where Daffy has the biggest role, since, as per usual, he's jealous of Bugs' popularity, and feels he's infinitely more talented and deserving of an Oswald. He starts this as soon as he arrives, expecting applause, only to receive complete silence, and then becoming incensed when Bugs arrives and gets nothing but applause, grumbling, "What a scene-stealer! Steppin' on my applause, tryin' to upstage me, as if that were humanly possible." He gets in Bugs' face, gives him the classic line, "You're despicable," and stomps off, adding, "I hate you!" Throughout the actual ceremony, Daffy is confident that he's going to win and is utterly obnoxious about it. When Bugs announces that the first nominee is the Big Bad Wolf for the cartoon,
Three Little Bops, he remarks, "They nominate that wolf for
acting? Ha! He couldn't call his dog and make it believable!" He especially annoys Granny, whom he sits next to, and when he makes another sneering remark about the Wolf while watching
Three Little Bops, she gets fed up and puts a mousetrap on his beak. He's especially incensed when the final nominee turns out to be Bugs, and this is before he gets yelled at by Yosemite Sam when he criticizes his performance in
High Diving Hare. But when Bugs announces the winner, which turns out to be himself, Daffy loses all patience. After accusing the awards of being fixed, he challenges Bugs to a talent contest, declaring that he can do anything he can but better. This leads into
Show Biz Bugs, with Daffy, in the end, literally having to kill himself in order to win an Oswald.
(On a side note, I've never been a fan of the way Daffy's voice sounds in these package films. It's too high-pitched and feels forced, and it's clear that Mel Blanc couldn't do it the way he once did. Honestly, as low in pitch and energy as it is in Daffy Duck's Quackbusters, I actually prefer his voice there.)
Sylvester and Tweety get caught up in Act II, through the cartoon,
Catty Cornered, where Rocky steals the latter and holds him for ransom. Here, Elegant Mess swears in Sylvester as a special agent and puts him on the case to find Tweety. While looking around some back-alleys, he overhears Tweety chirping in his cage in the gangsters' hideout and goes in, ostensibly, to save him. As expected, though, Sylvester tries to eat Tweety, though the naive bird doesn't realize it. He manages to escape with him when the police surround
the hideout and is hailed as a hero, only to attempt to eat Tweety while he's being honored for saving him. The two of them also show up at the Oswald Awards in Act III, with Tweety arriving in a car shaped like a birdcage, only for Sylvester to drive up and barge it out of the way. When they're both on the red carpet, and Tweety, naturally, says, "Ooh, I taught I taw a puddy tat," Sylvester mocks him and growls, "Ha! Isn't it time ya saw something
else?!" He then moves him along, grumbling, "Stupid bird." They're nominated for the cartoon
Birds Anonymous, and
Clarence, the cat character there who tries to help Sylvester kick his bird-eating habit, appears briefly, complimenting Sylvester for his great performance. Also in the audience is Granny (voiced by June Foray), who, besides dealing with Daffy's big mouth, has to, as per usual, keep Sylvester from eating Tweety. In the middle of watching the cartoon, Sylvester gets hungry, goes to the lobby, and comes back with an ice cream cone... and then, gets rid of the ice cream, puts Tweety in the cone, and starts licking him. Granny promptly rescues Tweety, telling Sylvester that he ought to be ashamed of himself. Then, after the cartoon is over, Sylvester sees that Tweety is gone, and notices Clarence quickly walking up the aisle. He chases after him and takes Tweety out of his mouth, telling him, "
You can't be trusted," only for Granny to then take Tweety from Sylvester and add, "And that makes
two of you!" Tweety comments, "That's the story of my life: in one cat, and out the other."
Aside from his short appearance at the beginning of
Golden Yeggs, Porky Pig appears very briefly during Act III, arriving and walking the Red Carpet along with the Three Little Pigs. At the end of the movie, when Bugs beats him to the punch and says his catchphrase, "That's all, folks!", Porky shows up and complains about it. Bugs then tells him to go on and say it, but when he tries to, the hole in the middle of the red rings closes in on; he grumbles, "Dirty guys." Speaking of the Three Little Pigs, they and the Big
Bad Wolf (voiced by Stan Freberg) from
Three Little Bops introduce themselves to the reporter on the Red Carpet as, respectively, being contractors (each of the pigs then names the materials he builds his houses out of) and being in "the demolition business." While in the actual cartoon, the Pigs found the Wolf to just be an annoyance, they're afraid of him while they're watching it in the audience. When Bugs introduces them, the Wolf encourages the Pigs to thank the audience, only for him to immediately tell them to sit back down after they do. And after a moment in the cartoon where one of the Pigs trips him with a banana peel, the Wolf accuses them of thinking it's funny, even though none of them laughed. He tells them to watch themselves, and the Pigs look at him very nervously. And there's a moment where, during his horrendous trumpet-playing in the cartoon, the Wolf comments to the viewer, "Hey, I'm outta sight!"
Even though they're at the center of Act II, Rocky and Mugsy don't have very much new animation. In fact, Mugsy only appears in one brief bit of new material, when he drives off in a getaway car without Rocky after he robs a jewelry store (he doesn't say a word there, either), and he's also only in one of the classic cartoons featured. Rocky does have some very brief new animation but, aside from that little bit with Mugsy, it's only when he appears in court the first time and in a newspaper where it's reported that another loophole led to him being freed again. He also says little other than his, "Heh-heh-heh," laugh, and, as with Daffy, Mel Blanc clearly couldn't do the voice like he once could. (In fact, during the old cartoons, Blanc could never seem to settle on one specific sound and tone for Rocky, so his voice changes throughout this entire section.)
Some other characters who only make brief appearances (no doubt because Friz Freleng wasn't involved in their creation) include Pepe Le Pew, who's the first to arrive at the Oswald Awards ceremony. The reporter describes him as, "The greatest lover to ever appear on the silver screen," and Pepe, in an aside to the viewer, says, "And
off the screen, too, n'est-ce pas?" Needless to say, his musk sends much of the audience running, and the reporter has to put a clothespin on his nose, saying, "I must
say, meeting you has been a...", he then gasps and continues, "breathtakin' experience!" Though he has no lines, Foghorn Leghorn makes a very memorable entrance at the ceremony, dancing down the Red Carpet in a top hat, a curvy female chicken hanging onto each of his arms. This causes some literal chicks in the audience to go wild and faint. Elmer Fudd can be seen briefly in the audience, as everyone waits for Bugs to announce the winner (I don't know why he looks so expectant, as he didn't appear in any of the nominated cartoons), while the only appearance
Speedy Gonzales makes is in a clip from his introductory cartoon in the montage during the movie's opening. And the envelope naming the winner of the Oswald award, as well as the person who gives Bugs the award when he wins, is a female rabbit in a gown who, even though she doesn't say anything, could be seen as something of a bridge between Honey Bunny and Lola Bunny.
In addition to the old-time voice actors like Mel Blanc, June Foray, and Stan Freberg voicing various classic characters, Frank Welker is also here voicing a couple of original ones, like Rocky's crooked lawyer who allows him to walk free during Act II. His most memorable character is this dopey dog reporter at the Oswald Awards, whom Welker voices using his Dynomutt voice. While he gets Pepe Le Pew's name right, he tends to misidentify the other characters, calling Porky "Parker Pig," Yosemite Sam "Wild Bill Hickok," Tweety "Henry Hawk," and even does it to Bugs, whom he refers to as "Bugs Dummy." He's especially bad at guessing the Big Bad Wolf's name, much to the latter's annoyance. He also makes some lame jokes, like when he tells Porky and the Three Little Pigs that they're living, "High on the hog," and, commenting on the Big Bad Wolf's "demolition business," "Hmm, sounds like a good business to be in. No overhead."
Blanc does voice some original characters of his own, specifically in the brief courtroom scene during Act II. He not only voices the judge who prepares to sentence Rocky before his lawyer comes in, but also a pair of stereotypical British cops, Clancy and O'Hara (based on the character of Officer Clancy O'Hara in the Adam West
Batman show). When the judge asks Bugs if he's read Rocky his rights, he says he has and then gets the cops to confirm it. This causes them to begin talking in circles, as Clancy says, "He surely
did,Your Honor. Didn't he, O'Hara?", O'Hara answers, "Aye, he did. I myself heard it. Didn't ya, Bugs?", and Bugs, imitating both their voices and their big upper lips, says, "Aye, that I did. I read him every right the rascal had comin', didn't I, Clancy?" Clancy starts up again, exclaiming, "Ah, that you's did, lad. Ya certainly did, didn't he, O'Hara?", but the judge, thankfully, pounds the gavel before this can go on any longer.
The most memorable original character in the movie is the Devil (voiced by Frank Nelson), whom Yosemite Sam meets when he ends up in Hell while contending with Bugs. Though he doesn't do his trademark, "Ee-yesss," Nelson brings that same sort of feeling in his performance. When he first meets Sam, he looks him up in his ledger and says, "Aah! Here you are. Oh, my. My goodness. You have been a bad body, haven't you?" Sam tries to defend himself by first saying the Devil made him do it, then remembers exactly who he's talking to and tearfully blames Bugs, and the Devil tells him to knock off the waterworks, as, "I can't stand to see a grown man cry." After they make the deal for Sam to be sent back to Earth and get Bugs to take his place, they shake hands, only for Sam's hand to get burned; the Devil chuckles and says, "When you're hot, you're hot!" Later, when Sam ends up in Hell for the third time, opening up every one of a series of doors that Bugs set up, including the booby-trapped last one, the Devil remarks, "You just had to open every door, didn't you?" Sam, in his haste to get back after Bugs, then tries to take an elevator back up to Earth, only for the Devil to comment that it only goes down. Sam comes back up with his butt burning and the Devil suggests he'd best send him back his way. Yeah, if nothing else. he is very generous with the number of chances he gives Sam, even offering him one more after he fails a third time. But that's when Sam gives up and tells him to go get Bugs himself if he wants him.
While
The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie was produced by Chuck Jones Enterprises, this and all of the other Looney Tunes package films were actually done by Warner Bros. Animation. That may sound encouraging, suggesting that they now had enough faith in the brand to put their own money into these films, but, actually, they took the same low effort approach to the movie's original segments that they did with the Looney Tunes TV specials they'd been producing at the time. The new animation, while definitely better than the very stiff, cheap work done
on the made-for-television shorts produced in the late 60's, isn't on the level of the Golden Age cartoons featured here (save for one, which I'll get to), nor does it reach the work Jones and his company did on the previous movie. The same also goes for the backgrounds and settings, as most of them are just recreated from the classic cartoons, like the depiction of Ancient Rome and the desert fort in
Roman Legion Hare and
Sahara Hare respectively, the interiors of Rocky's hideout in
Golden Yeggs, and so on; the
originals, like the exterior and interior of the courthouse where Rocky is brought before the judge, Bugs' office as Elegant Mess, and the theater where the Oswald awards are held, aren't much to write home about, either. In fact, the latter isn't even all that original, since it had to somewhat resemble the stage featured in
Show Biz Bugs (it's close enough, despite how the spot where the projection screen is suddenly becomes an actual stage with an area in back). However, I will say that the animation on the overhead shot of the bustling Hollywood street and all the neon signs lining the buildings at the beginning of Act III do look pretty good.
If there's one thing that this film does do really well, it's the new sequences of Yosemite Sam in Hell and his interactions with the Devil during Act I. In fact, even though these are mainly just recreations of an earlier cartoon, this does it better. For one, the animation, especially on the Devil himself, is a lot better than it was in the original
Devil's Feud Cake, which was made and released during the final years of the Looney Tunes' Golden Age and serves as a prime example of how cheap they were becoming by that point (it was also built around past shorts). For
another, the design of Hell itself is more interesting. In that cartoon, the backgrounds were just some uninspired-looking, red-colored cave-like walls (you never even got an establishing shot of the place), but here, there's a fiery pit behind Sam (there's a quick shot of some literal hellhounds down at the bottom that's actually taken from a cartoon called, like this movie's first act,
Satan's Waitin', which was a Sylvester and Tweety short), the backgrounds are more interesting-looking, there are some added
elements of stalagmite-like structures with holes in them, and the shots of the Devil behind his podium just look better (you never got a wide shot of that podium in the original cartoon, either). Speaking of which, this Devil is far more entertaining and memorable, both in his design and personality, thanks to Frank Nelson's performance. And finally, while this may not seem like something you should worry about with anything Looney Tunes-related, I think the actual plot in this context works a bit better. In the
original cartoon, the Devil, for whatever reason, actively wanted to get Bugs in Hell and sent Sam back to Earth to do so; here, Sam, upon learning that the only way to escape eternal damnation is to get someone to replace him, offers to bring Bugs down as such.
One of the reasons why I'm not the biggest fan of this film is the anthology approach. While it was basically a theatrical clip-show,
The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie's way of incorporating and using its featured cartoons was simple and straightforward, but it also managed to be so much more interesting and fun than a typical compilation film. I also prefer how the cartoons would be tied together by an actual story in the following movies (even if that approach did sometimes create problems of its own). But here, besides their having no narrative connection, aside
from Bugs' voiceover introductions, I've always felt that these different sections never quite fit together thematically. Obviously, they're meant as a showcase for Friz Freleng's work in the Golden Age, starting with his Oscar-winning short,
Knighty Knight Bugs, while the first two acts centered on his creations of Yosemite Sam, and then Rocky and Mugsy. But the third act just feels detached from the other two and, for the most part, seems to have no purpose other than for the characters to watch some of Freleng's cartoons
in the theater, just like the actual audience. If anything, it should've centered entirely on Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck's show-biz rivalry, maybe by also utilizing clips from the cartoon A Star Is Bored along with Show Biz Bugs, rather than sprinkling it in and then only focusing on it for the movie's last five or so minutes. At least then, the third act would've also had a concrete main theme since, despite the core concept being Chuck Jones' idea, it was something Freleng really made his own when he worked with it.
As I said, there are some continuity snarls caused by the meshing together of the old cartoons with the new animation, and one of the major ones has to do with the voice acting. I've already mentioned how it was clear by this point that Mel Blanc couldn't do some of the voices the way he used to, and that's all the more apparent when his new audio is mixed in with that of the classic cartoons, recorded when he was decades younger. I'm not complaining that they kept him around, as back then, the idea of anyone else voicing these characters was inconceivable, but this issue
would only get worse as the movies went on. (Stan Freberg, however, I think still does pretty well in voicing the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs.) A similar problem came up when they had to use a new actor, but still kept the original's audio. While June Foray's voice-acting for Granny meshes well with that of Bea Benaderet in the cartoon
Hare Trimmed (plus, Foray replaced Benaderet during the Golden Age), what doesn't is Frank Welker as the narrator from
The Unmentionables. As amazing of a
voice actor as he is in his own right, Welker just cannot emulate the sound of original narrator Ralph James (who was not only still alive at this time but also still active in the industry), as his voice is way too high. Thus, when his voice comes in during the new scenes with Bugs as Elegant Mess, it's jarring.
Knighty Knight Bugs is shown in its entirety at the start of the movie, albeit with a few alterations, namely the use of the
Merrie Melodies intro music, red rings behind the series' title instead of blue, and no credits or end card. It's also book-ended by white text on black backgrounds that refer to it as, "An Academy Award Winning Cartoon Short," and, "Produced and Directed by Friz Freleng." Notably, this is the only Bugs Bunny cartoon that ever won an Oscar, explaining why Freleng used it to kick things off. Truth be told, I'm not exactly sure why it won an
Oscar to begin with. It's a fine enough short but, aside from the medieval setting, with Yosemite Sam as "the Black Knight", along with his pet fire-breathing dragon, who has a cold and is constantly sneezing out fire, it's a pretty typical Bugs vs. Sam scenario. There were many other Bugs Bunny shorts that were far more deserving but weren't even nominated, like
Rabbit of Seville,
Long-Haired Hare,
What's Opera, Doc?, and any of the entries in Chuck Jones' Hunting Trilogy, just to name a few. In any case, during the short montage that Bugs narrates over
following the credits, you see some brief clips from Little Red Rodent Hood, Speedy Gonzales, and A Pizza Tweety-Pie. When Bugs introduces Yosemite Sam, the film uses a clip from Wild and Woolly Hare, where Sam walks into a saloon and declares, "Any one of you Lilly-livered, bow-legged varmints care to slap leather with me?! In case any
of ya get any idears, ya better know who you're dealin' with. I'm the
hootinest, tootinest, shootinest bob tailed wildcat in the West! I'm the fastest gun north, south,
east, and west of the Pecos!" It then suddenly cuts to the Devil saying, "Well, hello there," seguing into its title card (which is basically the same one used for the Sylvester and Tweety cartoon of the same name, just with the latter's name removed from above it).
Sam's final attempt is the short Wild and Woolly Hare, which plays out pretty much as is. However, they replay Sam's declaration of how tough he is when he walks into the saloon, which they already used when Bugs introduced him at the beginning, and it comes off as redundant. Again, they should've done a small bit of original animation to better segue into it and establish his confrontation with Bugs. Regardless, besides, obviously, removing the cartoon's actual beginning, where everyone in the
saloon dreads the sight of Sam approaching, they also put in new animation of Bugs corking some holes that Sam shoots in a can he tosses up into the air, and shorten the gunfight the two of them have. The only other change is the ending. Like in the cartoon, Bugs and Sam play a game of Chicken on a trestle bridge, with Bugs manning the train Sam was trying to rob, while Sam operates his own locomotive, but when Sam is sent off the end of the bridge, he crashes back down into Hell. After that, he declares that he's done trying to get Bugs and tells the Devil to go get him himself. Like at the end of Devil's Feud Cake, Sam then puts on a Devil costume, grabs a pitchfork, and declares, "I'm stayin'," and laughs evilly.
Act III mostly serves as a compilation, akin to The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, but with some minor interjections from the movie itself. Three Little Bops is mostly intact, save for the Three Little Pigs showing off their individual skills when they're first introduced, a moment where the Big Bad Wolf gets decked in the face while trying to get into the house of bricks, and, following the one where he comes in wearing a fur coat, two more attempts by him to get
inside: one by disguising himself as a potted plant and another as a drummer in a marching band. There are also parts where it cuts to the audience while the cartoon itself can still be heard playing on the screen, like when Granny finally gets Daffy to shut his mouth, and when the Wolf tells the Pigs they better not laugh at any of the comedy at his expense; however, those are mostly just for some filler moments. Birds Anonymous is also basically as is, save for a moment where Tweety writes in his diary, which is replaced by a cutaway to the audience where he calls Sylvester a hypocrite over his performance in the cartoon; another cutaway where Sylvester, after getting an ice cream cone in the lobby, puts Tweety in it instead; and one last one where Clarence pops up from behind a seat to compliment Sylvester on his performance. Also, when Sylvester goes into the lobby, if you listen to the cartoon's audio, you can hear additional dialogue, not in the original cartoon, where he's trying to think of a way to get birds off of his mind. He tries to think of various hobbies he could take up, but each one is a sport that has some sort of a tie to birds: badminton, golf, falconry (he immediately says, "No, no! That's out!" to that), and baseball (to that, he thinks, "What about the Baltimore Orioles? They're birds,"). And finally, there's High-Diving Hare, which is edited quite a bit. Missing is the moment where Bugs describes the stunt that "Fearless Freep" is meant to perform; Bugs trying to explain to Yosemite Sam why he himself can't perform the dive; Bugs freaking out when he looks over the end of the diving board and sees how high up he is; Bugs, after he tricks Sam into falling off the end of the board, sliding down the ladder and taking a seat in the audience to watch; and, save for Bugs tricking Sam into stepping over a line at the end of the board, many of the gags leading up to the ending, which are replaced by the cutaway where Sam yells at Daffy to shut up.
Show Biz Bugs makes up the movie's last few minutes after Daffy challenges Bugs to a talent contest. Aside from the obvious removal of the cartoon's opening, where Daffy complains about Bugs' name being above, and much bigger than, his on the marquee, and him learning that his "dressing room" is actually the men's restroom, it's more or less intact. There are some new moments to better fit it into the plot, such as Daffy telling Bugs about his trained pigeon act before he goes about it, Daffy daring Bugs to do his
own act, expecting him to be booed off the stage, and a backstage moment where Daffy makes a snide comment about Bugs while he's out there juggling. Some of the moments from the cartoon itself are also slightly re-worked, like when Daffy very quickly dances to Jeepers Creepers but gets no applause and he grumbles, "Ingrates," before walking off (they kept Mel Blanc's original audio, but put in new animation of Daffy storming off, since in the original cartoon, it transitioned straight to his pigeon act), and a different moment where Bugs announces that he'll be playing the xylophone after an intermission (in the cartoon, Bugs says he'll sing and then play the xylophone). These additions and everything in the theater beforehand add some new context to the cartoon. Originally, it seemed like Daffy was being shunned by the audience for no reason, but here, after he's acted like an obnoxious jackass for the whole show, it's understandable why nobody's applauding him. And the ending is changed. Like in the original, Daffy,
tired of Bugs upstaging him, decides to perform an act, "I've held back
for a special occasion." Wearing a red Devil suit, he swallows several
different hazardous materials (they remove the first ingredient, which
was originally gasoline, probably because it's something kids could have access to), followed by a lit match, causing him to explode. This gets roaring applause and impresses Bugs, and like at the end of the cartoon, Daffy appears a ghost; here, Bugs gives him the Oswald Award, and Daffy comments, "It just goes to show ya: ya gotta kill yourself to win an Oswald in this town."The music for the new animation was composed by Rob Walsh and Don McGinnis, both of whom would be involved with the next two Looney Tunes movies. Unfortunately, unlike Dean Elliott's work for The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, the original music here is neither all that memorable nor does it entirely fit with the music heard in the classic cartoons. The sole exceptions are the music for the scenes with Yosemite Sam in Hell, although it's hardly memorable in and of itself, and the old-style piano music for the montage of silent comedies in the lead-up to Act I. Otherwise, the main title theme is just generic show biz-type music that's meant to sound glamorous and glitzy, and the same goes for the music that plays over the ending credits, which has one particular motif that Walsh would reuse during the opening credits sequence for 1001 Rabbit Tales, as well as for pretty much the rest of the original score. And speaking of that next movie, the music there would be a little better, but still not great.
