Buccaneer Bunny
Tags: psychedelic

Plot synopsis:
The cartoon opens with titles featuring an instrumental of "The Sailor's Hornpipe" (also one of the theme songs to the Popeye cartoon series), seguéing to a scene of Sam digging a hole to bury his treasure on a beach. Sam is singing the stereotypical pirate shanty "Dead Man's Chest"—on the second strain, Sam switches from the typical "yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!" to a decidedly more original "yo-ho-ho and a bottle of... Ma's old fashioned ci-der" with a conga kick on the last syllable and a parody of "Dad's Old-Fashioned Root Beer", a well-known radio advertising jingle at that time.
In attempting to bury his treasure, Sam has encroached on Bugs' domain, as Bugs happens to have his rabbit hole there on the beach. When Bugs asks him who he is, he responds in his typical way: "What's up, doc?! I ain't no doc! I'm a pirate! Sea-Goin' Sam, the blood-thirstiest, shoot-'em-first-iest, doggone worst-iest buccaneer has ever sailed the Spanish main!"
To protect the location of his treasure, Sam prepares to shoot Bugs, claiming "Dead rabbits tell no tales!" Bugs then temporarily tricks Sam into trying to shoot himself in the head by saying: "Now, just a minute, Red. Ain't you got that wrong? You mean dead men tell no tales." After realizing he's been tricked, Sam grounds his teeth together so hard they shatter before he fires at Bugs.
Bugs escapes in a tied lifeboat, at one point rowing himself towards a ship without the boat. Following, Sam swims towards the ship to retrieve the paddles from where Bugs left them (oblivious that he doesn't even need them since he already made it to the ship without them), then returns to the lifeboat, which he then rows back to the ship.
As Sam searches for Bugs on the ship, he sees Bugs disguised as Captain Bligh (effecting the voice and thick-lipped appearance of Charles Laughton in his portrayal of Bligh in Mutiny On The Bounty). Sam takes criticism from "Captain Bligh" before being ordered a bunch of chores. Sam soon realizes he's been tricked (again), and follows a fleeing Bugs, but crashes into the mast while doing so.
In a side gag, Bugs is trying to hide and a pesky parrot keeps crowing to Sam, "He's in there! He's in there! Awk!" Finally, Bugs asks the parrot, "Polly want a cracker?" The parrot changes his tune, "Polly want a cracker! Polly want a cracker! Awk!" Bugs hands him a lit firecracker, which promptly explodes, blasting all of the parrot's feathers off, leaving him dazed and smoldering. His last words before he faints are, "Me and my big mouth!" For the next part, Bugs poses as the now-unconscious parrot to lead Sam into a cannon. Bugs lights the fuse, and then, KABOOM! The cannon explodes and Sam falls out of the barrel.
In a series of gags that mildly anticipate the Road Runner series, Bugs is in the crow's nest and Sam tries various unsuccessful attempts to get to him; for example, setting up a see-saw, standing on one end and tossing a cannonball on the other end, he springs straight up, crashes into the underside of the crow's nest, and falls back to the deck after his attempt to climb with trick rope given to him by Bugs failed as well. In another one, that skirts the laws of physics, Bugs tells Sam he's going to jump. Instead, Bugs drops a convenient anvil over the side of the crow's nest, Sam catches it, and the entire ship (except for the crow's nest) submerges. Sam mouths some apparent curses, then tosses the anvil over the railing and the ship resurfaces.
When Bugs comes down to check on Sam, Sam proceeds to attack him with his sword, making Bugs mad that he's "sore again". Bugs crawls in a hatch in the ship's side, with Sam following with his sword: "Ooooh, I'll keelhaul you for this!". When he opens the board, he is blasted by a cannon. Bugs opens the hatch to Sam's left and calls: "Yoo-hoo! Mr. Pirate!". Sam opens that board and, again, gets blasted by a cannon. Bugs opens another hatch and calls: "Oh, uh, Redbeard!". Sam, trying to avoid getting blasted again, decides to open up the hatch with his sword from a safe distance. Nothing there. Suddenly, another hatch opens in his face and a cannon blasts Sam once more, much to his annoyance.
Sam now chases Bugs again, and is now subjected to the famous lots-of-doors in-and-out routine (previously used in Little Red Riding Rabbit), which ends with Sam getting blasted by a cannon again. Sam confronts Bugs, who throws a match into the powder room, which a panicking Sam swiftly retrieves (a gag that would later be recycled into 1954's Captain Hareblower). This is repeated until finally, Sam is too late to retrieve the match that ends up exploding the pirate ship's powder magazine when he refused to go after another match again, reducing the ship to splinters. On his last nerve, Sam furiously chases Bugs with his gun: "Oooooh, I'll blast your head off for this!" until he seemingly has Bugs defeated ("Alright, now! I got ya cornered! Come out and meet your doom!") until a cannon blasts him once more. Finally, defeated, Sam raises the white flag. Bugs turns to the audience, puts on an old-style ship captain's hat, and paraphrases John Paul Jones, "I have not even begun to fight!"

Review: The Highest Explosive Effects in a Looney Tunes episode.
Buccaneer Bunny features Yosemite Sam's second encounter with Bugs after their premiere in Hare Trigger(1945).
In Hare Trigger Sam was more advantageous to Bugs, as a train robber, where Bugs was a passenger.
Provided that with Buccaneer Bunny, Sam as a pirate, he has a lot to worry about.
Sam's sore points give Bugs a chance to twit him every time.At the beginning, Sam was burying his pirate treasure to a deserted island, where he comes across to Bugs putting on the jewels taken out of the treasure chest.
When Sam takes back his treasury from Bugs, he tends to carry the treasure to a different island.
But Bugs never lets him to do so.
Leaving Sam alone in the island, Bugs takes the oars of Sam's rowboat, and swims to the pirate ship.
Following him, Sam swims for the oars.
He takes back the oars, then swims back to the island to take the rowboat and to row it back to his ship.
It was Sam's prevailing mastermind that he cares more about his rowboat than his treasure chest.
Later on, Sam starts to worry about his pirate ship; he leaves the treasure in the island, and goes to ship for not allowing Bugs to cause any trouble.First stealing his treasure, then blowing up his pirate ship; Bugs plays Sam's biggest menace in a masterly manner.
He takes Sam into his service as a call-boy, masquerading a famous captain.
The memorable moments of this episode are how Bugsy hides cannon fires behind doors, behind cabinets, above conning towers, within rabbit holes...
Wherever Sam looking for Bugs, he's having detonating cannon balls to his face over and over again.These must be the highest explosive effects in a Looney Tunes episode.
More than half the length of the time Sam appears in charcoal dust.
Every explosive effect brings a laughter effect beside it.
This episode is available in the MGM/UA video of Starring Bugs Bunny and Friends (1990)..
Classic Looney Tunes fun.
I have made no secret of loving Looney Tunes.
Ever since I was a little girl, I loved watching them, laughing at the jokes and marvelling at the animation and music.
At 18 I still watch them, and a vast majority of them are classics.
While not the very best, and not quite top 20 standard, Buccaneer Bunny is simply classic Looney Tunes fun.The story may be a tad predictable, but it doesn't matter that much to me, as everything else works.
The gags work wonderfully, all of them range from amusing to hilarious.
True, one or two of them can be seen as predictable or repetitive, but again for me that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
The writing is top notch, Buccaneer Bunny contains some of my all-time favourite Yosemite Sam quotes.Visually, Buccaneer Bunny is just great.
While the characters are very well-drawn and the backgrounds excellent to look at, the colours are the real delight, whether you watch it on DVD or TV, the whole cartoon looks incredible.
I also love good music in cartoons, films and the like; Buccaneer Bunny has plenty of that.
It is rousing and energetic, fairly similar in style to Captain Hareblower.The characters are still likable and interact very well together.
Yosemite Sam is a great foil, while Bugs is always entertaining and I loved the spoof on Charles Laughton.
Another outstanding asset is the voice work- Mel Blanc rarely disappointed and had the gift of elevating even the weakest of material, and once again he is stellar.
Overall, Buccaneer Bunny is a most excellent cartoon and a must-see really.
9/10 Bethany Cox.
"The bloodthirstiest, shoot 'em firstiest, doggone worstiest buccaneer that's ever sailed the Spanish main!".
Terrific Bugs Bunny cartoon, directed by Friz Freleng, with Yosemite Sam as the cutest pirate you're likely to ever see.
While burying his treasure on the beach, Sam disturbs Bugs in his rabbit hole.
What follows is Bugs and Sam fighting it out on the high seas in hilarious fashion.
It's a wonderful short with the legendary Mel Blanc having a blast doing the voices of Bugs and Sam. He even gets to do a Charles Laughton impersonation.
The animation is beautiful with rich colors and well-drawn characters and backgrounds.
The music is energetic and fun.
It's a classic, plain and simple.
Anybody who enjoys Bugs and Yosemite Sam will get a kick out of this one..
'Seagoin' Sam' Blasted By 'Bligh," er Bugs.
Yosemite Sam is in his element here, playing a pirate called "Seagoin Sam." He describes himself as "the blood thirstiest, shoot-'em-firstiest, doggone worstiest buccaneer as ever sailed the Spanish Main."Most of this cartoon takes place on a big ship where, by the way, there is no crew - just Bugs and Sam. Where is everyone?
Anyway, we get one chase scene after another, like a Tom and Jerry or a Roadrunner cartoon, and most of the gags are good and Sam gets blown up time after time.
Along the way, Bugs does an imitation of Charles Laughton doing "Captain Bligh," while also taking care of the stool pigeon "Polly."Good laughs, all around and, once again, Warner Brothers has done a beautiful restoration job on this cartoon.
The colors in here are tremendous..
for once, Bugs looks like a pimp.
If Gilligan and the other castaways had ever had to battle pirates, the result probably would have looked like what "Buccaneer Bunny" portrays.
Specifically, Seagoin' (Yosemite) Sam is burying his treasure, when Bugs Bunny pops up.
Sam's subsequent efforts to get rid of the long-eared varmint usually result in him getting blasted by the cannon every few seconds.Anytime that Bugs and Sam co-star in a cartoon, you know that you're in for something good, and this one is no exception.
As it is, when Bugs first appears through Sam's treasure, he looks like either a disco pimp or a rapper pimp (or both) with all the jewels.
But no matter how either character looks, it's always a hoot to hear Sam going off on his angry rants ("barnacle-bitten landlubber"), and see Bugs imitate Charles Laughton as Capt.
Bligh.
Really funny..
Not too bad at all..
Before I first watched this Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam episode, I already expected some of the jokes, because I had watched the remake, "Captain Hareblower".
The remake is quite funny and very slapsticky, but not quite as good as "Buccaneer Bunny" which includes slightly better jokes among the slapstick and farce.Anyhow, in this episode, Yosemite Sam, starring, as he phrases it, "The best buccaneer on the Spanish Main", is digging a hole to bury a trunk-full of treasure.
However, it turns out he has dug into the burrow/warren of Bugs Bunny, who, from another supply of treasure buried before, is adorned in expensive earrings, necklaces and bracelets: in other words, jewellery.
The buccaneer is not pleased with having this bunny before him, especially as Bugs tells him he will know where Sam will bury his treasure.
Cartoon chaos ensues...I like this episode because of the animation and the jokes in it, even some of the slapstick ones are quite funny and good to watch.
Bugs Bunny is as good as he usually is, tricking Yosemite Sam a great deal of times.I recommend this episode to people who like/ do not mind cartoon slapstick, Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. Enjoy "Buccaneer Bunny"!
Yosemite ("Sea-Goin') Sam is caught in the act of burying treasure by Bugs Bunny.
Sam is predictably agitated, and the race ensues..
So many of the B.Bunny toons are nothing short of miraculous: I don't know how this one rates in the pantheon of B.B. cartoons, but it is definitely hard to top as far as pacing---absolutely brilliant.
The comic timing, blending of the music (hard to imagine how anyone could score a B.B. cartoon--the painstaking detail!) And the clincher, for me, is how my son roars with laughter when Yosemite Sam panics and dives for the matches that Bugs nonchalantly tosses down into a shaft filled with explosives--doesn't every ship have an explosives shaft--(wink-wink) Again, the pacing: frenetic from beginning to end, perhaps not one of the more cerebral B.B. tunes, but worthy of Keystone cops or Buster Keaton for sure..
Broadening Sam's Horizons....and Warners' Cartoon $$$$.
HAVING ONLY TWO characters on screen for the entire 6 or so minutes would likely seem to be problematic to most animators and their production teams.
"Fritz" Freleng in this mini masterpiece of the Art of the Theatrical Cartoon Short.
All they needed in this Warner Brothers' LOONEY TUNES release was Bugs Bunny and their then new "Hot Property" of a comic foil, YOSEMITE SAM.IN THIS PICTURE, Sam is cast as a Pirate.
Instead of a Western Cowboy-type Desperado, 'Yosemite' Sam, he is dubbed 'Seagoing' Sam. This is truly a minor point.
as the character's quick temper, loud voice and manic discharge of energy ate all well served in his going to sea.ALTHOUGH ITS LENGTH and running time are about 6 1/2 minutes, it manages to cram in a good deal of gags which are representative of many categories.
Multi cannon discharges (with Sam always being on the receiving end), a sequence of Sam's attempting to launch himself to the Crow's Nest seems borrowed fro the ROAD RUNNER & COYOTE Series and even a reference to MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY & Charles Laughton's characterization of CAPTAIN BLIGH abound.AS WITH MOST entrants in the LOONEY TUNES & MERRIE MELODIES series, there are plenty of nyuks inside.
Just remember to suggest offering to share the titles with others; be they toddlers, teen-agers or grumpy old guys like m'self!.
I haven't even begun to fight!.
Hilarious cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, the best Looney Tunes director next to Chuck Jones.
This short is somewhat inspired by the Three Stooges and the gimmicks work great.
It's funny to see Sam getting blown up the cannon every three seconds..
Amusing Bugs fare.
Bugs is resting on a tropical island when fearsome pirate Redbeard comes along to bury his treasure.
Realising that Bugs now knows where he has hidden the treasure, Redbeard decides to kill bugs to keep it a secret leading to a chase on board his own ship.Despite placing traditional cowboy Sam in the role of a pirate without actually changing his accent or dress, this cartoon works out quite enjoyable.
My initial worries about the character worked out and Sam actually fitted into the role pretty well.
The plot is basically a big chase with Bugs doing his usual smart-alecky stuff and outsmarting his foil.Bugs is as good as always and I enjoyed his antics, Sam is better than I thought he would be, the only downside being the pirate dialogue they occasionally put in his mouth.
The two work well together and the material is funny.Overall this is an enjoyable short that contains plenty of nice jokes (including a spoof of Charles Laughton) and funny action with imagination..
Incredibly funny Bugs short with a great running gag!.
This is a Bugs Bunny short directed by Friz Freleng.
There will be spoilers ahead:This short is an incredibly funny and well crafted cartoon.
If I were to sum it up in a sentence, that sentence might well be, "HOO-WHEE, that blowed up real good!", because of all the explosions.
Yosemite Sam (aka, "Redbeard") is the perfect foil in this one.Sam is a pirate burying a treasure chest and he happens to try to bury it over Bugs.
Sam should have stayed in bed.
There's a solid bit with a series of four doors and a running gag involving cannons which ultimately takes the wind out of Sam's sails.Here's a tip-gunpowder and matches make for an interesting combination.
Sam tries to call Bugs's bluff, but he's not bluffing.
The looks on Sam's face as Bugs tosses one lit match after another into the hold are priceless.This short is available on a number of DVDs and at least one Blu Ray (it looks very good on the Blu Ray).
The short is well worth watching.
Recommended..
CAST: "Bugs Bunny", "Yosemite Sam" (Sea-going Sam, the blood-thirstiest...
pirate).
Director: I.
FRELENG.
Story: Michael Maltese, Tedd Pierce.
Animation: Manuel Perez, Virgil Ross, Ken Champin, Gerry Chiniquy.
Lay-outs: Hawley Pratt.
Backgrounds: Paul Julian.
Voice characterizations: Mel Blanc.
Music director: Carl Stalling.
Technicolor.
Producer: Edward Selzer.
Accidentally copyrighted twice, on the 31 March 1948 and again on 24 October 1948, both by The Vitaphone Corp.
(In notice: 1947).
Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny Special) Warner Bros.
Cartoons, Inc. U.S. release: 8 May 1948.
1 reel.
7 minutes.
COMMENT: Justly selected by Steve Schneider as one of the best of both the Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam cartoons, this is admirably fast-moving, full of wonderful jests and japes, including a Bugs impersonation of Charles Laughton's Captain Bligh.
The visual invention never falters from go to whoa, and there are some nice verbal paradoxes too, including Sam's pirate song in which rum turns into cider, plus a squawky stool-pigeon parrot ("He's in there!
He's in there!") who meets a suitable comeuppance..
"Batten down the hatches!
Man the bow Sprits .
stow the mizzen mast!
Hoist the main sail!
Lower the tatter sail!
Look sharp, man!
Pipe the starboard hatch on the leeward thwarts!
Trim the scuppers on the port poop deck!
(What a maroon!)" Bugs Bunny says these last three words to the camera, in the bloated guise of the Bounty's infamous Captain Bligh, as Yosemite Sam, a.k.a., Sea-Going' Sam, a.k.a., The Pirate Redbeard, a.k.a. Fletcher Christian, runs around like a French Queen with her head cut off, in this dramatization of the last minutes of Sam's ship, La Marie Douce.
When Sam finally realizes that Bugs-as-Bligh's string of nautical gibberish has no purpose (other than to give him the run-around), Sam calls out the BUCCANEER BUNNY, cursing, "Blast your scuppers, you barnacle-bitten Landlubber!" Though most animation aficionados agree that "Popeye" is the best series of sea-going cartoons in film history, BUCCANEER BUNNY holds its own in the ranks of humorous salty tales (being much funnier than Warner's earlier Porky Pig outing, KRISTOPHER KOLUMBUS, JR., for instance).
"Jibe the jib boom!" indeed!.
"Jibe the jib boom!" indeed!.
Truly remarkable!.
"Buccaneer Bunny" is one of the funniest Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam cartoons under the helm of my favorite animation director Friz Freleng.
Yosemite Sam is a pirate ("Seagoin' Sam") who secretly intends to bury a large chest full of jewels, but with that long-eared galoot Bugs Bunny hanging around, Sam can be certain that his treasures will no longer be a secret.Highlights from this wonderful cartoon include the following (DON'T read any further until after you have actually seen this film).
After Bugs blasts him a few times with cannons, Sam chases Bugs up and down a flight of stairs (aided by Carl Stalling's music, of course), only to get creamed by one more cannon shot.
Sam's rowboat has no oars, so he swims towards his gigantic ship, grabs a pair of oars, and swims back towards his rowboat!
Bugs is very funny with his big-lipped Captain Bligh disguise.
And Sam adds a little rumba beat to his opening song."Buccaneer Bunny" is a cartoon that is so good, I was wondering how long it would take for it to show up in a Looney Tunes Golden Collection; you can now find it on Volume 5 Disc 1.
When watching this cartoon, it is a REQUIREMENT that you laugh out loud!