Buccaneer Bunny

Buccaneer Bunny
Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny) series
Sam cowers under withering criticism by "Captain Bligh"
Directed by	I. Freleng
Produced by	Eddie Selzer
Story by	Michael Maltese Tedd Pierce
Voices by	Mel Blanc
Music by	Carl W. Stalling
Animation by	Manuel Perez Ken Champin Virgil Ross Gerry Chiniquy
Layouts by	Hawley Pratt
Backgrounds by	Paul Julian
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s)	May 8, 1948
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	7:25
Language	English

Buccaneer Bunny is a 1947 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Looney Tunes series, released in 1948, directed by Friz Freleng. It features Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam, the latter known in this picture as "Sea-Goin' Sam", a pirate. All voice characterizations in this cartoon are by Mel Blanc. This cartoon is found on Disc 1 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5.

Plot

The cartoon opens with titles featuring an instrumental of "The Sailor's Hornpipe" (also one of the theme songs to the Popeye cartoon series), seguéing to a scene of Sam digging a hole to bury his treasure on a beach. Sam is singing the stereotypical pirate shanty "Dead Man's Chest"—on the second strain, Sam switches from the typical "yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!" to a decidedly more original "yo-ho-ho and a bottle of... Ma's old fashioned ci-der" with a conga kick on the last syllable and a parody of "Dad's Old-Fashioned Root Beer", a well-known radio advertising jingle at that time.

In attempting to bury his treasure, Sam has encroached on Bugs' domain, as Bugs happens to have his rabbit hole there on the beach. When Bugs asks him who he is, he responds in his typical way: "I'm a pirate, Sea-Goin' Sam, the blood-thirstiest, shoot-'em-first-iest, doggone worst-iest buccaneer that ever sailed the Spanish main!"

To protect the location of his treasure, Sam prepares to shoot Bugs, claiming "Dead rabbits tell no tales!" Bugs then temporarily tricks Sam into trying to shoot himself in the head by saying "You got it all wrong, doc. You mean dead men tell no tales." After realizing he's been tricked, Sam grounds his teeth together so hard they shatter before he fires at Bugs.

Bugs escapes in a tied lifeboat, at one point rowing himself towards a ship without the boat. Following, Sam swims towards the ship to retrieve the paddles from where Bugs left them, then returns to the lifeboat, which he then rows back to the ship.

As Sam searches for Bugs on the ship, he sees Bugs disguised as Captain Bligh (effecting the voice and thick-lipped appearance of Charles Laughton in his portrayal of Bligh in Mutiny On The Bounty). Sam takes criticism from "Captain Bligh" before being ordered a bunch of chores. Sam soon realizes he's been tricked (again), and follows a fleeing Bugs, but crashes into the mast while doing so.

In a side gag, Bugs is trying to hide and a pesky parrot keeps crowing to Sam, "He's in there! He's in there! Awk!" Finally, Bugs asks the parrot, "Polly want a cracker?" The parrot changes his tune, "Polly want a cracker! Polly want a cracker! Awk!" Bugs hands him a lit firecracker, which promptly explodes, blasting all of the parrot's feathers off, leaving him dazed and smoldering. His last words before he faints are, "Me and my big mouth!" For the next part, Bugs poses as the now-unconscious parrot to lead Sam into a cannon. Bugs lights the fuse, and then, KABOOM! The cannon explodes and Sam falls out of the barrel.

In a series of gags that mildly anticipate the Road Runner series, Bugs is in the crow's nest and Sam tries various unsuccessful attempts to get to him; for example, setting up a see-saw, standing on one end and tossing a rock on the other end, he springs straight up, crashes into the underside of the crow's nest, and falls back to the deck. In another one, that skirts the laws of physics, Bugs tells Sam he's going to jump. Instead, Bugs drops a convenient anvil over the side of the crow's nest, Sam catches it, and the entire ship (except for the crows nest) submerges. Sam mouths some apparent curses, then tosses the anvil over the railing and the ship resurfaces.

Bugs crawls in a hatch in the ship's side, with Sam following. When he opens the board, he is blasted by a cannon. Bugs opens the hatch to Sam's left and calls "Yoo hoo, Mister Pirate!". Sam opens that board and, again, gets blasted by a cannon. Bugs opens another hatch and calls "Oh, Redbeard!". Sam, wanting to avoid getting blasted again, decides to open up the hatch with his sword from a safe distance. Nothing there. Suddenly, another hatch opens and a cannon blasts Sam once more, much to his annoyance.

Sam now chases Bugs again, and is now subjected to the famous lots-of-doors in-and-out routine (previously used in Little Red Riding Rabbit), which ends with Sam getting blasted by a cannon again. Sam confronts Bugs, who throws a match into the powder room, which a panicking Sam swiftly retrieves (a gag that would later be recycled into 1954's Captain Hareblower). This is repeated until finally, Sam is too late to retrieve the match that ends up exploding the pirate ship's powder magazine, reducing the ship to splinters. On his last nerve, Sam furiously chases Bugs until he seemingly has Bugs defeated ("Okay, rabbit! I got ya cornered! Come out and meet your doom!") until a cannon blasts him once more. Finally, defeated, Sam raises the white flag. Bugsy turns to the audience, puts on an old-style ship captain's hat, and paraphrases John Paul Jones, "I had not even begun to fight!"

Edited versions

When this cartoon aired on the now-defunct The WB channel, the scene where Bugs tells Sam that, "Dead men tell no tales," which caused Sam to almost shoot himself in the head with a pistol before realizing that he has been tricked is cut.

See also

• Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1940–1949)
• List of Bugs Bunny cartoons
• List of Yosemite Sam cartoons

External links

• The cartoon

Preceded by Rabbit Punch

Bugs Bunny Cartoons 1948

Succeeded by Bugs Bunny Rides Again