''Bonanza Bunny'' is a 1959
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
''
Merrie Melodies
''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animation, animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. starting in 1931, during the golden age of American animation, and ending in 1969. Then some new cartoons were produced from the late 197 ...
'' cartoon directed by
Robert McKimson
Robert Porter McKimson Sr. (October 13, 1910 – September 29, 1977) was an American animator and illustrator, best known for his work on the ''Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons from Warner Bros. Cartoons and later DePa ...
.
The short was released on September 5, 1959, and stars
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s by Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring roles in the '' Looney Tunes'' and '' ...
.
In the cartoon, Bugs faces off with the French-Canadian claim jumper
Blacque Jacque Shellacque
The ''Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' series of animated shorts released by Warner Bros. feature a range of characters which are listed and briefly detailed here. Major characters from the franchise include Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer F ...
during a fictionalized version of the
Klondike Gold Rush.
Plot
Set in 1896 in
Dawson City
Dawson City, officially the City of Dawson, is a town in the Canadian territory of Yukon. It is inseparably linked to the Klondike Gold Rush (1896–99). Its population was 1,577 as of the 2021 census, making it the second-largest town in Yuko ...
,
Yukon
Yukon (; ; formerly called Yukon Territory and also referred to as the Yukon) is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It also is the second-least populated province or territory in Canada, with a population of 43,964 as ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
,
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s by Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring roles in the '' Looney Tunes'' and '' ...
walks into the
saloon with a bag full of gold nuggets. Bugs has no use for these yellow rocks, admitting that he confused "karats" with the
vegetable
Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems, ...
when he traveled to the area (having actually heard about the Klondike Gold Rush). The men in the saloon look suspiciously at Bugs, who requests a glass of
carrot juice
Carrot juice is juice produced from carrots.
Overview
Carrot juice has a particularly high content of β-carotene, a source of vitamin A, but it is also high in B complex vitamins like folate, and many minerals including calcium, copper, magnes ...
, to which an eager bartender give Bugs his best serving of carrot juice, complimenting the stone, to which Bugs pays him with it, apparently naive as to what they are. Abruptly, Bugs is almost shot at by a man who identifies himself as Blacque Jacque Shellacque—a criminal wanted for
claim-jumping; pogo-sticking and square dance calling.
Jacque is oblivious to Bugs' naivety in regards to the gold and demands he hand it over. When Bugs refuses to cooperate, Jacque engages in a series of tricks to seize the gold. Bugs and Jacque play
blackjack
Blackjack (formerly Black Jack and Vingt-Un) is a casino banking game. The most widely played casino banking game in the world, it uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as Twenty-One. This fami ...
, during which Bugs stands on one card and to Jacque's shock the one card is the "21 of hearts". Bugs, seemingly unaware of the danger he is in, recovers his wagered bag of gold and calmly begins to leave, but is stopped by an enraged Jacque.
Right after Jacque openly states how dangerous he is, Bugs convinces Jacque that there is someone in another room who claims to be twice as dangerous. As Jacque goes in to confront this stranger, whom we see is Bugs in disguise, he sees Bugs pull out a
pop gun. Just as Jacque pulls out the cork, the gun blasts him in the face. Bugs then pretends to have a phone call for Jacque from "Fifi from Montreal"—with the receiver being a lit stick of dynamite; Jacque takes the bait and the dynamite explodes. A dazed Jacque remarks on how his girlfriend "FiFi" was always a "blast."
In the final scene, Jacque corners Bugs in a back storeroom and in a form of
armed robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...
, holds a pistol to Bugs Bunny and demands the gold. Bugs then pretends to cower and "surrenders" the gold, actually handing him a bag filled with
gunpowder
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). ...
that begins to leak, leaving a trail behind Jacque, who proceeds to run off into the mountains shouting "I'm rich, I'm rich! 90%
bracket
A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...
!" while Bugs lights the trail of gunpowder. This creates a large and colorful explosion off in the distance, to which Bugs remarks, "Gee, those
Northern Lights are pretty this time of year." Bugs reveals that the 'gold' was merely rocks painted yellow, and he departs on his huskie dog.
Production
This short marks the first appearance of Blacque Jacque Shellacque.
Gags are reused from ''
Bunker Hill Bunny
''Bunker Hill Bunny'' is a 1950 Warner Bros. '' Merrie Melodies'' theatrical cartoon short directed by Friz Freleng and written by Tedd Pierce. The short was released on September 23, 1950 and stars Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam as a Hessian merc ...
'' (1950) and ''
Bugs Bunny Rides Again
''Bugs Bunny Rides Again'' is a 1948 Merrie Melodies animated short directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on June 12, 1948, and stars Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam.
The animated short is both a Western and a parody of the genre's conve ...
'' (1948). Animation of the gamblers fleeing when Blacque Jacque Shellacque arrives at the saloon is re-used from ''
Drip-Along Daffy
''Drip-Along Daffy'' is a 1951 Warner Bros. '' Merrie Melodies'' theatrical cartoon short, directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. The cartoon was released on November 17, 1951, and stars Daffy Duck and Porky Pig.
This cartoon ...
'' (1951).
This marks the final time a cartoon is narrated by actor
Robert C. Bruce
Robert Cameron Bruce Jr. (October 6, 1914 – August 24, 2003) was an American voice actor and the son of Robert Cameron Bruce (1887–1948) who was a cinematographer and documentary producer. He was the narrator for a number of Warner Bros. ca ...
before his retirement.
See also
*
List of American films of 1959
The American films of 1959 are listed in a table of the films which were made in the United States and released in 1959. The film '' Ben-Hur'' won the Academy Award for Best Picture, among winning a record-setting eleven Oscars.
A–B
C–D ...
References
External links
*
*
{{Robert McKimson
1959 films
1959 animated films
1959 short films
Merrie Melodies short films
Warner Bros. Cartoons animated short films
Films directed by Robert McKimson
Films set in 1896
Films set in Yukon
Films scored by Milt Franklyn
Bugs Bunny films
1950s Warner Bros. animated short films
1950s English-language films