Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals

Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals is a combination animation/live action television special, starring Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, and directed by Chuck Jones. Premiering 22 November 1976 on CBS and consisting entirely of new animation, this prime time TV special represented Bugs Bunny and company's first foray into prime time television since the early 1960s. Carnival of the Animals was purposely cast in the successful mold of Jones' own earlier musical cartoons "Rabbit of Seville", "Long-Haired Hare", and "Baton Bunny", and set the familiar showbiz rivalry between Bugs and Daffy against the orchestral backdrop of musician Michael Tilson Thomas, in a performance based on the music of Camille Saint-Saëns and the poetry of Ogden Nash.
== Description ==
=== 1989/1991 VHS ===
Wacko virtuosos Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck take to the stage in this delightful musical fantasy based on composer Camille Saint-Saenś salute to feathers, furs and fins, The Carnival of the Animals.
The buck-toothed rabbit and the screwloose duck unite to perform as co-hosts and dual pianists in a special cartoon concert, playing to a full house of... well, you'll find out. With poetry courtesy of Ogden Nash and delightful full melodies courtesy of a well-tuned live-action orchestra, Bugs and Daffy illustrate the actions of a menagerie of animals - lions, elephants, birds, roosters, donkeys - providing a lively evening of magical, all-family entertainment.
Academy Award-winning animator/director Chuck Jones collaborated with celebrated composer Michael Tilson Thomas to create this enchancing fantasia - blending well-loved classic music with a cornucopia of various animated art styles. The result presents two of the world's looniest characters in top form, making Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals the funniest performance of the season!
- Jerry Beck
== Production ==
=== Behind the Scenes ===
Prime-time television would seem to be the natural place for the adult humor of Warner Bros.'s classic cartoons, as was exemplified by the success of The Bugs Bunny Show that aired Tuesday evenings on ABC in the early 1960s. However, in the mid-1960s, the Warner Bros. cartoons had become established as kiddie entertainment. By 1968, executives at CBS were convinced that all animated material, no matter what its original intended audience had been, belonged exclusively on Saturday mornings. However, the popular characters of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies had intentionally enduring adult appeal from the beginning, and with the success of other prime-time television specials, such as Charlie Brown, in the mid-1970s, network programmers were finally convinced to give the Warner Bros. animated characters another chance in prime time.
According to animation historians Kevin McCorry and Jon Cooke:
Cartoon characters, appearing in holiday-related, half-hour features, could be relied upon to garner respectable ratings and advertising revenue. Further, with the reduction of regular series episodes per season to below 26, specials were needed to fill the gaps in the 52 weeks that constituted a television season.THE LOONEY TUNES TELEVISION SPECIALS
== Clips ==
Carnival Of The Animals 1.mpg
Carnival Of The Animals 2.mpg
Carnival Of The Animals 3.mpg
== Availability ==
lt badcota vhs.jpg|(1988) VHS Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals
Time-Life Looney Tunes Collection Carnival of the Animals.jpg|(1997) VHS Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals Time-Life edition
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 5.jpg|(2007) DVD Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5, Disc Four
The Essential Bugs Bunny.jpg|(2010) DVD The Essential Bugs Bunny, Disc 2
== Notes ==
* This special was the first Warner Bros. - commissioned work featuring Bugs Bunny following the release of the cartoon False Hare, as well as their first Looney Tunes production following the second closure of their original animation studio on October 10, 1969.
*On the wall of the dressing room are lobby cards of "Robin Hood Daffy", "Deduce, You Say", "One Froggy Evening", and "Beanstalk Bunny".
* During the "Aquarium" poem recital, when Bugs recites the line, "But every fishwife fears for her fish. What we call mermaids...", he says it in Daffy's voice, and when they both recite the final line "...they call merfish", they both speak in only Daffy's voice as well.
* The opening scene of the dressing room (with Daffy arguing with Bugs on pronouncing Saint-Saëns' name) was used at the beginning of original ZDF broadcasts of the 1983 German-dubbed version of The Bugs Bunny Show (titled Mein Name ist Hase) right before the series' theme song. The dialogue was changed from the original to fit with the series, and every episode featured a different exchange between the two.
** Additionally, this version of the show featured a special closing theme sequence at the end ("Das Publikum war heute wieder wundervoll") which re-used footage from the "Aquarium" poem recital with superimposed German production credits. Later airings replaced the German credit shots with footage from the "Elephants" poem. Occasionally, the "Elephants" footage would also be used for in-between segments of the cartoons.
*This is one of the few Looney Tunes productions to feature a variant of the usual end card. At the very end, Bugs types the 'That's all folks' phrase on what seems to be a calculator, then the phrase morphs into its usual script form on the color rings. During all this, we hear a reorchestrated version of the Merrie Melodies closing theme.
=== Credits ===
==== Cast ====
* Mel Blanc as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig (voice characterizations)
* Michael Tilson Thomas as Himself (conductor)
==== Crew ====
* Cinematography by Wally Bulloch
* Production Design by Herbert Klynn
* Animation by:
** Phil Monroe
** Manny Perez
** Tom Ray
** Lloyd Vaughan
** Ben Washam
* Produced, written, and directed by Chuck JonesCarnival of the Animals - IMDb
== Gallery ==
File:0 0 3989 6835.jpg|Newspaper Ad (also promoting "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving", 1976)
== References ==
 
Category:Cartoons directed by Chuck Jones
Category:Looney Tunes TV specials
Category:1976
Category:Cartoons written by Chuck Jones