Bugs Bunny Rides Again

Bugs Bunny Rides Again is a 1948 Merrie Melodies short directed by I. Freleng.
== Title ==
The title is a typical Western reference, as in "The Lone Ranger rides again", and also suggests a reference to the 1940 Jack Benny comedy, Buck Benny Rides Again. It could also be a reference to the Western film “Destry Rides Again”, in which James Stewart, as Destry, cleans up the fictional town of Bottleneck. Coincidentally, a minor character in the film is nicknamed “Bugs”.
== Plot ==
After opening credits underscored by the "William Tell Overture", the music segues into a lively instrumental of "Cheyenne" as the action begins. In a typical Old West frontier town with the self-contradictory name of Rising Gorge, bullets are firing from every window across the street into every other window across the street. A hail of bullets flies down one street until a stop signal turns red and the bullets hover in mid-air while a second hail of bullets shoot by on the perpendicular street. The light changes back and just as the first hail of bullets is about to start, a lone bullet "runs the red light" at even higher speed, holding up the first stream. After it passes, the first hail continues.
Inside the Gunshot Saloon with the slogan of 'Come in and get a slug', two men are standing at a bar. One man is about to drink a shot of whiskey; the second man takes out his gun and shoots the first man. The first man throws his glass into the air and the second man catches it. A scream is heard and Yosemite Sam enters the bar. All of the patrons are afraid of Sam, yelling his name in terror while the underscore plays stereotypical "villain music". Sam says, "Yeah, Yosemite Sam. The roughest, toughest, he-man stuffest hombre whose ever crossed the Rio Grande... And I don't mean Mahatma Gandhi! (See "Censorship" below for more information about this line.) Now all of you skunks clear out of here!" After firing his guns, all the patrons run out, followed by a real skunk with a bindle who retorts, "My, weren't there a lot of skunks in here?" Sam shoots at the skunk to scare him away. Sam turns around to see a man trying to sneak out. Sam fires his guns at the man, who then turns into a firing range walking dummy, making a "ding" every time he is hit, with a score board above keeping tally. After that, Sam asks, "Be there any livin' varmint who aims to try to tame me?" Spying Bugs Bunny, he asks again, "Well, be there?"
No one dares to challenge Yosemite Sam except Bugs, sporting a cowboy hat and rolling a cigarette. After a brief silence, Bugs replies ... "I aims ta ..." The two slowly walk towards each other. Bugs asides, "Just like Gary Cooper, huh?" Sam declares "this town ain't big enough for the both of [them]!" Bugs tries to rectify that by running off-screen and, to sound effects of hammers and saws, quickly constructs a background of modern skyscrapers in the town, but "it still ain't big enough!" Bugs and Sam then face off threatening each other with bigger guns. After Bugs pulls out the pea shooter by accident, he flicks it at Sam, but Sam corners him and tells him "All right now, you wise guy! Dance!" while firing at his feet. Bugs grabs a cane and straw hat from off-screen, and goes into a vaudeville soft shoe routine, then says "Take it, Sam!" The diminutive villain, although startled initially, quickly breaks into the same dance, and is tricked into dancing into an open mine shaft. Bugs expresses sympathy for Sam. "Poor little maroon. So trusting, so naive." 
When Sam returns to the surface and orders him to "start walking", Bugs dares him to cross a line drawn with his foot. "OK, I'm a-steppin'!" Bugs continues this schtick all the way out of town to the edge of a cliff, where the unobservant Sam steps over the line and plummets toward the ground far below. Suddenly stricken with guilt, the speedy rabbit dashes down a roadway, beats Sam to the ground and lays down a mattress, telling the audience, "Ya know, sometimes me conscience kind-a bodders me ... but not this time!" as he pulls away the mattress. Sam smashes into the ground, and the already pint-sized outlaw has been vertically flattened to a hat with legs, but he still comes up firing.
A horseback chase ensues to the tune of the "William Tell Overture", as the two ride on horses that are proportional to their own sizes. Bugs leads Sam into a tunnel, and again showing extraordinary construction talents, has time to don a painter's cap and build a brick wall at the other end, into which Sam and his pony smack into. After more chasing, Bugs stops the chase and points out that they are getting nowhere and are right back where they began. "Hey, wait a minute, Sam! We ain't gettin' nowheres! We're right back where we started!" Sam agrees.
The two decide to settle their differences by playing cards "just like in the Western pictures", with the loser being forced to leave town. "Gin rummy's mah game, Sam." Sam tells Bugs to "cut the cards", which he does using a meat cleaver. With a new deck, Bugs tricks Sam into playing a card that gives Bugs the win. "GIN! You lose!!" Bugs tries to get Sam to take the train out of town, but when the passenger car is revealed to be full of swimsuit-clad women headed on the Miami Special, Bugs fights with Sam to board the train.
Bugs prevails as usual. He leans out the train window, his face covered with lipstick from kisses, and hollers, "So long, Sammy, see ya in Miami!"
== Caricatures ==
* Gary Cooper - Bugs imitates and mentions him.
* Mahatma Gandhi - mentioned by Yosemite Sam in the original version.
== Music Cues ==
* William Tell Overture (March of the Swiss Soldiers) - Gioachino Rossini [Credits, horseback chase]
* "Cheyenne" - Harry Williams and Egbert Van Alstyne [Opening scene, Bugs wins the card game]
* "Navajo" - Harry Williams and Egbert Van Alstyne [Establishing shot of the Gunshoot Saloon and the interior]
* "Erlkönig", Op. 1, D 328 -Franz Schubert [plays when Yosemite Sam enters the saloon]
* "Yosemite Sam" - Carl W. Stalling [Bugs Bunny challenges Yosemite Sam]
* Stabat Mater, 8. Inflammatus - Gioachino Rossini [Bugs and Sam begin a duel]
* Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13, I. Grave, Allegro di molto e con brio - Ludwig van Beethoven [Sam tells Bugs that the town is not big enough for the two of them]
* "Wise Guy" - Carl W. Stalling [Sam falls into an open mine shaft]
* Götterdämmerung, WWV 86D - Richard Wagner [Sam demands Bugs start walking]
* "Fighting Words" - Carl W. Stalling [plays when Bugs Bunny leads Yosemite Sam out of town.]
* "The Loser" - Carl W. Stalling [Bugs and Sam agree to play a card game.]
* "My Little Buckaroo" - Jack Scholl and M.K. Jerome [Sam and Bugs play cards.]
* "Oh, You Beautiful Doll" - Seymour Brown and Nat D. Ayer [Sam and Bugs see the women in the train car.]
* "Aloha 'Oe" - Lili'uokalani [Ending]
== Availability ==
Note: All of the home media releases of this short have Yosemite Sam's introductory boast end with, "...and I ain't no namby-pamby" instead of the original line "...and I don't mean Mahatma Gandhi". This was most likely edited out as Gandhi had been assassinated five months before the short's release. As of May 2024, the original version is yet to be released on home media or shown on television.
Jfjhfhjjfh.jpg|8mm (Associated Artists Productions print)
BBfdsghfdsiughdsfbox.jpg|Super 8
Screenshot 2021-02-07 at 7.53.41 PM.png|Super 8
76ri6ri876ru.jpg|Super 8
Hdfgjhgjfh.jpg|Super 8
Ytryreyert.jpg|Super 8
Cartoon Moviestars 3.jpg|(1989) VHS Cartoon Moviestars: Bugs Bunny Classics: Special Collector's Edition
LT Laserdisc 3.jpg|(1989) LaserDisc Cartoon Moviestars: Bugs Bunny Classics: Special Collector's Edition
Golden Age LT Vol 1.jpg|(1991) LaserDisc The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 1, Side 10: The Art of Bugs
Lt galt vhs 10.jpg|(1991) VHS The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 10: The Art of Bugs
LTCE VOL 1 ALL-STARS.jpg|(1999) VHS Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition, Vol. 1: All-Stars (1995 USA Turner Dubbed Version)
Golden Collection box 2.jpg|(2004) DVD Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2, Disc One
lt cbobb2.jpg|(2005) DVD Looney Tunes Collection Best of Bugs Bunny Volume 2
LooneyTunesSpotlightVol8-210x300.jpg|(2014) DVD Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 8 Disc 1
Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny Golden Carrot Collection.png|(2020) DVD Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny Golden Carrot Collection
Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection.jpg|(2020) Blu-ray Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection, Disc 1 (restored)
=== Streaming ===
Lt hbo max.jpg|HBO Max (2020 - 2023)
Lt max.jpg|Max (2023 - )
Lt itunes.jpg|iTunes ( - ) (restored)
== Censorship ==
* On The WB, the beginning gun- and bullet-related gags are cut: the bullets stopping and proceeding at traffic lights, one cowboy shooting another and then drinking his beer as he drops dead (a similar scene in "Wild and Woolly Hare" (1959) would also be cut when aired on The WB), and Sam shooting at a cowboy like a wooden duck in a shooting gallery. The WB version also cut the shot of Bugs rolling a cigarette when Sam challenges the cowboys to fight him.http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-b.aspx
* Originally, Yosemite Sam's introduction line when he entered the saloon was, "Yeah, Yosemite Sam. The roughest, toughest, he-man-stuffest hombre to ever cross the Rio Grande. And I don't mean Mahatma Gandhi!" The line was replaced with "And I ain't no namby-pamby!" in the finalized theatrical version. The reason for the change is presumably due to Gandhi's assassination, which occurred that year on 30 January, before the cartoon's release on 12 June.
** When distribution rights were sold to Associated Artists Productions, most, if not all, 16mm prints made for television had the original "Mahatma Gandhi" line. However, all copies since the 1980s, including television airings, home media releases, and on streaming services, have used the "namby-pamby" version.https://cartoonlogic.libsyn.com/cartoon-logic-episode-30-the-bugs-bunny-birthday-blu-ray-blow-out-part-1 As of 2023, Warner Bros. has never acknowledged the original version.
* Cartoon Network's Arabian/Middle Eastern channel cuts out the shot near the end of the interior of the Miami Express Train, which features beautiful women in swimsuits. Other Cartoon Network stations, including in the United States, left this scene uncut.
== Notes ==
* The 1947–48 Merrie Melodies dubbed ending card is said to come from this cartoon, as the dubbed Looney Tunes card came from "Haredevil Hare" (1948).
* This is the next-to-last Bugs Bunny release in the a.a.p. package, with the last such cartoon being "Haredevil Hare" (1948) - also the overall latest-released Warner Bros. cartoon in the a.a.p. package. It is also the last cartoon directed by Friz Freleng in the a.a.p. package.
* This is the first cartoon to use "COLOR BY TECHNICOLOR" instead of "IN TECHNICOLOR", but it was shortly changed to "Color By TECHNICOLOR" starting with "Haredevil Hare" (1948).
* When Bugs first appears, standing in a doorway, there are several references to production staff carved into the framework: 
** "Mike" and "Tedd" are references to writers Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce respectively.
** "P.J." Is a reference to background artist Paul Julian.
** "Friz" is a reference to director Friz Freleng.
** "Ken Champin Veterinary" is a reference to animator Ken Champin, a longtime animator in Freleng's unit.
** "G. Chiniquy Blacksmith" is a reference to animator Gerry Chiniquy.
** "J.C. Melendez Pulqueria" is a reference to animator Bill Melendez. He worked for directors Bob Clampett and Arthur Davis.
** "Hadley Pert & Co. Feed & Grain" is a reference to layout artist Hawley Pratt. However, right before Sam emerges from the mineshaft, the name is changed to just "Food & Grain".
* This is the last Yosemite Sam cartoon to be sold to the a.a.p. package.
* Yosemite Sam's character design in Looney Tunes Cartoons is based off his design from this short.
== Gallery ==
BugsRidesAgainCredits1.png
BugsRidesAgainCredits2.png
Pub-BB-Rides.gif|Lobby card
Ed87ea0fe796c584190ff5175ad279f0.jpg|Lobby card
Tumblr n1fi7q74kv1s92nono1 1280.png|Lobby card sketch
Bugs Bunny Rides Again Yosemite Sam sequence Original soundtrack vs release Comparison
== References ==
== See also ==
* List of Bugs Bunny cartoons
* List of Yosemite Sam cartoons
Category:Bugs Bunny Cartoons
Category:Yosemite Sam Cartoons
Category:Cartoons directed by Friz Freleng
Category:Bugs Bunny Friz Freleng
Category:Shorts
Category:1948
Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Robert C. Bruce
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Tedd Pierce
Category:Cartoons written by Michael Maltese
Category:Cartoons written by Tedd Pierce
Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer
Category:Cartoons with layouts by Hawley Pratt
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Paul Julian
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons in a.a.p. package