Sunday, February 1, 2009

Racketeer Rabbit


Racketeer Rabbit is a 1946 animated short film in the Looney Tunes series produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. It stars Bugs Bunny, who duels with a pair of racketeers or gangsters, Rocky and Hugo forerunners who resemble Edward G. Robinson (Rocky, not to be confused with the aforementioned Rocky) and Peter Lorre (Hugo). Directed by Friz Freleng; written by Michael Maltese; animated by Manuel Perez, Virgil Ross, Gerry Chiniquy and Ken Champin; music by Carl Stalling, and voices by Mel Blanc.


In a typical example of the Warner cartoonists "getting away" with something, after an explosion that partly disintegrated his clothing, the "Rocky" character dives out the window, and for a fleeting second is seen to be "bare-bottomed". However, in the next scene, running down the street, the seat of his pants is intact.
On the now defunct WB! channel, all of the gun gags (specifically Rocky shooting his pistol at the police out the window of the house, Hugo needing a board to keep himself standing while firing his machine gun, and Bugs walking under a line of gunfire and saying, "Low bridge" while getting some water from the kitchen [unaware of what's transpiring]) were edited from the cartoon's beginning. Also cut was the scene where Rocky points a gun at Bugs to get him to confess and Bugs begins babbling auctioneer-style.

In the car chase, they pass a sign advertising Hotel Friz, a reference to director Friz Freleng.
Audio/visual unsynchronized: During Rocky's attempt to interrogate Bugs, there are several occasions where they each talk but their lips don't move.

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