(Blooper) Bunny

**(Blooper) Bunny** is a 1997 *Merrie Melodies* short directed by Greg Ford and Terry Lennon.

## Plot

After a special 51½ Anniversary Celebration of Bugs Bunny, what happened earlier that day is shown, with a backstage look at Bugs, Daffy, Yosemite Sam, and Elmer Fudd (featuring 3D rendering of the scenery). They attempt a performance, which results in a series of animated "bloopers."

1. Bugs Bunny begins to dance, but the music is slightly out of tune and skips like a broken record. He then dryly looks at the camera and says his trademark phrase, "What's up, Doc?" The director and producers laugh as Bugs walks off stage. He then peeks back in to say, "Monotonous, isn't it?", which gets the director and producers saying, "CUT!" while a bleep plays after he is swiped.
2. Bugs stops the music midway through dancing, as a result of noticing a loose floorboard on the stage. He then suggests moving the action back and readjusting the camera.
3. Bugs comes out of the curtain, but he is distracted when the cane flies out after the music stops; otherwise, he failed to catch it.
4. The cane is thrown before Bugs is ready to catch it, much to his annoyance.
5. After Bugs enters the stage, he is distracted by the cane and loses it, in which Daffy Duck refuses to throw it to him. According to Daffy, his contract says that he is *not* supposed to throw canes to rabbits, resulting in the director reluctantly agreeing to have someone else throw it in Daffy's place.
6. Daffy enters the stage at the exact time that Bugs does, claiming that he thought that it was the best improvement as he walks away, only to bump his head on the boom mike.
7. Daffy does not come on stage when he is supposed to. While Bugs, the director, and the producers wait, Daffy is heard telling them to wait, followed by the sound of a toilet flushing. As Daffy then rushes onto the stage, the director yells "Cut! CUT! *CUT!!*"
8. Elmer Fudd fires a real gun as opposed to a prop. Bugs scolds him, but Elmer responds that he thought that it would be "a gweat, big birthday surpwise" if he finally shot Bugs "after 51½ years of twying." Daffy starts yelling at Elmer for using a real gun instead of a prop gun and neglects Bugs's insistence on cutting. He then walks away as he tells Elmer to expect his lawyers to call him and gets struck in the face by the loose board Bugs had noticed by accident, with the board going through his beak. When Bugs asks if they can cut **now**, Daffy says, "You smug son of a--" and is then cut off.
9. Daffy dances onto the stage with the board still smashed into his face. When he pulls it off, he yanks his beak off as well in the process, but continues speaking, failing to notice it.
10. Everything plays out correctly until Yosemite Sam emerges from the cake frowning. The director instructs him to act cheerful for the next take. He then goes back into the cake mumbling "But I hates rabbits."
11. The spectacular performance is done perfectly, except for one thing, as Bugs puts it - there were supposed to be **five** rockets. A fifth rocket attached to Sam's belt sends him flying about before crashing into the camera. He then yells at Bugs, calling him a "low down flop-eared son of a kangaroo", along with his usual cursing (which lasts throughout the credits) before being knocked-out by an unseen glass object. Bugs then suggests that what had just happened be taken out in the editing before one of the producers asks "Can we go to lunch now?"

## Caricatures

* Jerry Colonna - "Monotonous, isn't it?"

## Production

"(Blooper) Bunny" was produced at a time when newer *Looney Tunes* shorts were being released to introduce the Warner cartoon characters to a younger, more modern generation — a process that, thanks to the tepid reception of 2003's *Looney Tunes Back in Action*, was discontinued for some time from 2004 to 2009 (and is said to be the reason why Cartoon Network has stopped airing classic Warner Bros shorts). The film was animated using a combination of both new computer technology and traditional cels — a first for a Warner Bros. cartoon — with three-dimensional rendering distorting the background in the "backstage" scenes to give the appearance of a handicam being used. The first "backstage" scene in the film, a sequence that goes on for nearly a minute and a half without a cut, is, according to co-director Greg Ford, one of the single longest uninterrupted shots ever attempted in animated cartoons.

The short features several direct references to some of the previous output of Warner Bros. animation department. During the first, aforementioned "backstage" scene, the name of Bosko, the first true *Looney Tunes* star, can be seen on one of the dressing room doors for a few frames. Midway through the film, there is also a deliberate homage to the "Hunting Trilogy" made by Chuck Jones, of whom Ford reportedly holds great admiration. Additionally, during the end credits, an instrumental rendition of "Hello My Baby", the theme song of "One Froggy Evening" and the Michigan J. Frog character, another Chuck Jones creation, plays.

## Rediscovery

"(Blooper) Bunny" is a self-parody of some of the specials produced for Bugs Bunny's 50th anniversary the previous year, 1990. The short, however, never received its intended theatrical release and was shelved for several years. Albeit "one of the things the studio apparently disliked was the sound of a toilet flushing", critics speculate the true reason for the film's initial suppression was Daffy's rant towards the beginning of the cartoon, in which he is overheard lamenting his role and complaining that "Warner Bros. doesn't have an original bone in its [body]", while making a backward crack at Disney by claiming: "The next thing you know they'll stick me with three snot-nosed nephews" (*a la* Donald Duck). Jonathan Rosenbaum, in a review for *Chicago Reader*, noted: "Ironically, *Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers*, another Bugs Bunny cartoon directed at the same time by the same rebellious duo, Greg Ford and Terry Lennon, is even more directly critical of studio greed, yet it got a pass and wound up in the TV special *Bugs Bunny's Creature Features*, perhaps because it was less formally transgressive."

"(Blooper) Bunny" would not receive a television premiere until 1997, after Cartoon Network discovered the film sitting unseen in the vaults. During the years since its rediscovery, the cartoon has garnered a tremendous cult following among animation fans because of its edgy humor, *Chicago Reader* and is featured on the *Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1,* along with an optional audio commentary by co-director Greg Ford.

Jules Faber, in a review for DVD.net, lauded the cartoon as a "highlight" and elaborated further: "*Blooper Bunny: Bugs Bunny’s 51½ Anniversary* is a clever little blooper reel created in 1991 and utilizing some brilliantly conceived early 3D rendering making a very funny behind the scenes mockumentary." *Chicago Reader* also gave the film a positive mention, saying:

Dawn Taylor, in a review for *The DVD Journal*, said: "It has some very funny moments, and falls completely flat in others."

## Censorship

The version shown on the former WB network as part of its Kids WB! line-up has two edits:

* Daffy getting smacked with the board (after ranting about Elmer using a real gun instead of a prop one and walking off the set in a rage) had his line "You smug son of a --" before the camera cuts off edited down to "You smug --" (surprisingly, this wasn't censored when aired on Cartoon Network or Boomerang, despite both channels editing mild swearing in such shorts as "The Rebel Without Claws" and "I Was a Teenage Thumb").
* The entire end credits with Yosemite Sam ranting after the failed firework stunt and Bugs munching a carrot and saying to the camera that everything that happened will be fixed in editing.

## Notes

* The short was originally produced in 1991 by Warner Bros. Animation.
* The short is a parody of some of the specials produced for Bugs Bunny's 50th anniversary the previous year. The short never received its intended theatrical release and was shelved for several years. It was finally given a television premiere on June 13, 1997, after Cartoon Network discovered the film sitting unseen in the vaults (though, according to the "Censorship" notes, it has aired edited on The WB, though it could have aired following Cartoon Network's discovery of the short and not prior to it).
* During the years since its rediscovery, the cartoon has garnered a huge cult following among animation fans because of its edgy humor.
* The music playing in the Bugs Bunny's 51½ Anniversary Celebration is "Untitled Soft Shoe Number", an original music score by Carl Stalling previously heard in the classic Bugs Bunny cartoons "Stage Door Cartoon" and "Hot Cross Bunny".
* Among the star doors for Bugs, Elmer, and Sam, there is also a door for Bosko. His name can be seen on one of the dressing room doors for a few frames, but very briefly. Despite the fact that WB didn't have the rights to Bosko at the time.
* There's also a door for another character, but their name is never fully on screen, their name ends with either the letters "ody" or "ddy", perhaps it could be for Buddy.
* This is one of the only two *Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies* short to have a post-credits scene, the other one being "Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers" produced the following year.

## Credits

**Key Assistant:** Michael Wisniewski
**Xerox:** Chris Carrington
**Animation Checking:** Rose Eng
**Production Manager:** Bill Exter

```
This One Is a Gift For Ariyana La Fey!

```