Operation: Rabbit

Operation: Rabbit is a 1952 Looney Tunes short directed by Chuck Jones.
== Plot ==
Wile E. Coyote runs up to Bugs Bunny's hole and erects a door. He knocks on the door and Bugs opens it, saying his usual line, "What's up, doc?" The Coyote advises Bugs of he being a rabbit and himself a genius, and he will eat Bugs and he is faster, bigger and smarter than him, even berating Bugs for his stupidity by claiming that the rabbit "could hardly enter the entrance examinations to kindergarten". Bugs, unimpressed, says "I'm sorry, mac, the lady of the house ain't home. And besides, we mailed you people a check last week." and rudely slams the door right in his face. The Coyote leaves with the door, asking himself, "Why do they always want to do it the hard way?"
At his cave hideout, the Coyote's first plan follows: he makes one thermal tamp and takes a cook book and ingredients for preparing "Rabbit stew" in the rabbit's hole. Bugs, in another hole, looks at his work and asks him what he is preparing. The Coyote says the hole has a rabbit inside, but it does not. He looks into the hole and Bugs kicks him and traps him in the hole. He picks up a bat, goes back down the second hole, and clobbers the Coyote at the other hole, prompting the Coyote to remark, "Well, back to the old drawing board."
The Coyote prepares a second plan: the use of a chute for shooting a cannonball in Bugs's hole. As he drafts out the plan, a mechanical lump massager is on the bump on Coyote's head from the previous plan. After the ball arrives in the hole via the chute from a cannon, Bugs uses a second chute for returning the ball to the Coyote, which explodes right at the Coyote. The Coyote returns to his cave along with the blown-out pipes.
As the Coyote drafts his upcoming third plan, Bugs goes to the Coyote's cave to sign what appears to be a will. Bugs claims he's giving up, but needs a witness for his will, and that he finally surrenders to the Coyote's super-intelligence. He proffers the will for the Coyote to sign and one "pen", actually a lit stick of TNT with which to sign it. Coyote realizes this and extinguishes the fuse, asiding that it was "a rather amateurish" move on Bugs' part. While gloating about his intellect, Coyote fails to see the other side of the TNT stick has another fuse that is lit, and it promptly explodes in his face.
The Coyote builds one explosive lady rabbit to send to Bugs' residence. Just after he activates it, the Coyote encounters one coyote lady, over whom he swoons. The female coyote is also an explosive robot, which Bugs detonates. The Coyote is charred, singing to himself "Here comes the bride". He returns to his senses when he sees the time bomb on the lady rabbit is about to detonate. He grabs the robot to try and throw it out his window, but fails to make it in time, and it detonates on him.
The Coyote makes an exploding bird-hunting disc, usually used for road runners, mice, and rabbits, with a "hunter options" mechanism. The disc flies to Bugs's hole and encounters Bugs disguised as a chicken, who writes "Coyote" on the "hunter options" mechanism, twisting the dial to the new target. The disc returns to Coyote's home, blowing up not only Coyote's home, but the whole mountain.
The Coyote makes one last plan: he puts nitroglycerin in a line of carrots in a rack inside an explosives shack. Unbeknownst to the Coyote, Bugs is using a tractor to pick up the entire shack and set it on the railroad track. Meanwhile, the Coyote is admiring his new self-given title "Super Genius", "I like how that rolls off the tongue- Wile E. Coyote: Suuuper Geeenius". All the while, a train rushes toward the shack. When the Coyote fails to realize this when the first time the train sound is heard, he finally realizes this is the moment when he hears the same train sound for the second time, and in vain pulls the window blind down. The train hits the shack, and the impact causes a great explosion, launching Coyote high into the air onto a branch.
The Coyote, still dazed and covered in ash, returns to Bugs's hole, rebuilds his door, knocks on it and says "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mud." and abruptly passes out. Bugs says, "...And remember, MUD spelled backwards is DUM!"
== Availability ==
Lt rrvwec.gif|(1985) VHS Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote: The Classic Chase
Lt rrwc beta.jpg|(1985) Beta Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote: The Classic Chase
ROAD RUNNER VS WILE E COYOTE.jpg|(1994) LaserDisc Road Runner Vs. Wile E. Coyote: If at First You Don't Succeed...
CHARIOTS OF FUR.jpg|(1996) VHS Chariots of Fur
Rrltcollectionfhafuawf.jpg|(1996) VHS Looney Tunes Collection Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner
lt ccmns.jpg|(1997) VHS Looney Tunes Classic Collection (Marks and Spencer UK VHS)
lt wecarr 2003.jpg|(2003) VHS Wile E Coyote and Road Runner (2003)
Wile E. Coyote & Road Runner Speedy Gonzales UK VHS.jpg|(2003) VHS Wile E Coyote & Road Runner Speedy Gonzales
LTGC Vol.4.jpg|(2006) DVD Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4, Disc One
LTSC4.jpg|(2006) DVD Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 4 Disc 1
lt cbobb4.jpg|(2007) DVD Looney Tunes Collection Best of Bugs Bunny Volume 4
Best of Warner Bros. 50 Cartoon Collection- Looney Tunes.jpg|(2013) DVD Best of Warner Bros. 50 Cartoon Collection: Looney Tunes
LTPC Volume 3 Cover.png|(2014) Blu-ray Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3, Disc One
LT Platinum Collection VOL 3 DVD Cover.png|(2014) DVD Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3, Disc One
lt spotlight df2.jpg|(2014) DVD Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volumes 4-5 Repack
Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny Golden Carrot Collection.png|(2020) DVD Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny Golden Carrot Collection, Disc 4
=== Streaming ===
Lt hbo max.jpg|HBO Max (2020 - 2022)
Lt max.jpg|Max (2024 - )
File:Lt itunes.jpg|iTunes ( - ) (restored)
== Goofs ==
* When Wile E. closes the hatch on the back of the explosive female rabbit, his left leg disappears for a split second.
== Notes ==
* This short was used in The Bugs Bunny Road-Runner Movie and The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special, both instances edited for time. In the former, when introducing the short, Bugs states that compared to Elmer Fudd, who hunts because he's a sportsman, Wile E. goes hunting because he's really hungry. After the short, Bugs wonders what would Wile E. do to him if he ever caught him. He then goes to a portrait of Roadrunner saying that Wile E. eventually found a prey that was more his size but difficult to catch. Prior to the short being used in Bugs Bunny Mystery Special, Coyote is in his residence sitting in his armchair. He hears a radio announcement of how Bugs Bunny is a national fugitive. When the DJ says "A reward has been offered; eaten or alive". When Coyote hears the words "eaten", he tracks down Bugs with the intent of making him his next meal.
* This is Wile E. Coyote's (following 1949's "Fast and Furry-ous") second appearance. This is the first in which he is given a name and the first in which the he speaks. His voice, like Bugs', was provided by Mel Blanc, albeit with a smooth, upper-class accent, in contrast to Bugs' Bronx-Brooklyn city slicker accent.
* Wile E. would unsuccessfully attempt to catch and eat Bugs Bunny four more times: "To Hare Is Human" (1956), "Rabbit's Feat" (1960), "Compressed Hare" (1961) and "Hare-Breadth Hurry" (1963). After the classic shorts, Wile E. would be pitted against Bugs Bunny (and talks) once more in Season 1 of New Looney Tunes.
* Wile E.'s eyebrows are brown in this cartoon, unlike other cartoons where they are cream-colored like his jaw and chest. Also, beginning from this cartoon, Wile E. is redesigned to be taller in height and thinner in physique with a more refined look, in contrast to his shorter height and scruffier appearance in his debut cartoon three years earlier.
* The scene where Wile E. introduces himself to Bugs was used as a bumper for Cartoon Network, with the 1992-2004 CN logo in place of Wile E.'s name courtesy of digital editing.
* The gag where Bugs gives the Coyote a pen in the form of a TNT stick was previously used in "Long-Haired Hare" (1949), except that Bugs' victim is Giovanni Jones instead of Wile E., and Bugs did cross-dress in that scene unlike this cartoon (in fact, Bugs did not cross-dress in drag in any of the Bugs/Wile E. cartoons at all).
* Bugs' final remark of "Mud spelled backwards is dum" may have been a reference to Serutan vegetable oil, which had sponsored multiple TV shows of that era. A commercial for the product said "Remember, Serutan spelled backwards is Natures".
* The version of this cartoon released on the Road Runner LaserDisc set Road Runner Vs. Wile E. Coyote: If At First You Don't Succeed... in 1994 has the 1946-1955 renditions of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" used for the Looney Tunes opening and ending music cues replaced by the 1955-1964 renditions of the same cues. The original opening and ending music cues of this cartoon's same video transfer however does exist, on both the Chariots of Fur VHS tape and on TV airings such as Tooncast and various Cartoon Network/Boomerang feeds, albeit with notable audio splices in both the opening and closing soundtracks (much like the cartoon's 1985 Golden Jubilee VHS transfer previously released on the Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote: The Classic Chase VHS tape). It is the only Bugs Bunny cartoon released on that LaserDisc set entirely dedicated to both Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.
** The restored version of this cartoon released on DVD and Blu-ray on the other hand retains its original opening and ending music cues, albeit without any audio splices in both the opening and closing soundtracks.
*American rapper Kendrick Lamar sampled a portion of this short in his 2012 song, "Cartoon & Cereal".
== Gallery ==
OperationRabbitCredits1.png
OperationRabbitCredits2.png
Operation rabbit-1.png
IMG 2160.png
Screenshot 20210331-034110.png
Screenshot 20210617-104230.png
Operation Rabbit - Pressure Cooking.jpg
File:Operation Rabbit 1953 - Cook Book.jpg
File:Lola in operation rabbit 1.jpg
File:Lola Bunny in operation rabbit 2.jpg
File:Lola Bunny operation 3.jpg
Screenshot 2021-05-23 at 18.01.50.png|Lobby card
== External links ==
* Operation: RABBIT at the SFX Resource Wiki
== References ==
Category:Cartoons directed by Chuck Jones
Category:Bugs Bunny Cartoons
Category:Shorts
Category:Wile E. Coyote Cartoons
Category:1952
Category:Looney Tunes Shorts
Category:Bugs Bunny Chuck Jones
Category:Cartoons written by Michael Maltese
Category:Cartoons with layouts by Robert Gribbroek
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Philip DeGuard
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer