| "Bugs Bunny's Zaniest Toons" includes five classic Warner Bros. Looney Toons from the Fabulous Forties featuring the epic Tortoise versus the Hare races between Bugs and Cecil and a couple of early encounters between Bugs and Yosemite Sam: We begin with "Tortoise Wins by a Hare" (Supervisor Bob Clampett, 1945), a sequel to the third Bugs Bunny cartoon, "Tortoise Beats Hare" (which comes next on the tape, go figure). This time around when Bugs challenges Cecil to a rematch, he designs an airflow chassis that looks just like a turtle's shell. They would be a pretty good idea if the local gamblers had not bet on the "rabbit" to win; "constructing, on his suggestion, an airflow chassis like the turtle's. But this makes him look like a turtle, and the gambling ring has bet everything on "the rabbit" to win; "Tortoise Beats Hare" (Fred Avery, 1943) shows the first race between Bugs and Cecil. You will never guess who wins; "Rabbit Transit" (Fritz Freleng, 1947) features the third race between the duo, which involves a rocket propelled tortoise shell; "Hare Trigger" (Freleng, 1945) goes in a totally different direction with the first Yosemite Sam cartoon. Bugs is on the Superchief and Sam is trying to rob the train. Poor Sam; "Buccaneer Bunny" (Freleng, 1948) has Sam as a pirate, who is trying to get the location of a buried treasure out of Bugs. Yosemite Sam looks a bit out of place on a pirate ship, but this is probably my favorite of his cartoons with all the slapstick using the ship (my cannon is bigger than your cannon). All things considered, this is an excellent collection of cartoons and you would have thought that Warner Bros. would have done a better job of letting you know what is on this tape in terms of the title. |
