''Bugs and Thugs'' is a 1954

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 ...

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series ''Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation.

'' cartoon directed by

Friz Freleng Isadore "Friz" Freleng (August 21, 1905May 26, 1995), credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, director, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and '' ...

. The short was released on March 13, 1954, 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 '' ...

, with

Rocky and Mugsy 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 ...

. The film is a semi-remake of the 1946 cartoon ''

Racketeer Rabbit ''Racketeer Rabbit'' is a 1946 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on September 14, 1946, and features Bugs Bunny. In the cartoon, Bugs duels with a pair of racketeers or gangsters, Rocky and H ...

''. It is also the first Warner Bros short to feature Milt Franklyn as a musical director. In the film, Bugs mistakes the

getaway car A crime scene getaway is the act of fleeing the location where one has broken the law. It is an act that the offender(s) may or may not have planned in detail, resulting in a variety of outcomes. A :crime scene is the "location of a crime; e ...

of a

bank robber Bank robbery is the criminal act of stealing from a bank, specifically while bank employees and customers are subjected to force, violence, or a threat of violence. This refers to robbery of a bank Branch (banking), branch or Bank teller, tell ...

for a taxi, and enters it uninvited. He is then held prisoner at gunpoint.

Plot

Bugs emerges from his hole in a city park, reading the newspaper on his way to his bank to make a withdrawal from his personal depository of carrots. Leaving the bank, Bugs flags down what he thinks is a taxi, but which is actually Mugsy pulling up to let Rocky out to rob the bank. As Bugs settles in the back seat, Rocky returns amidst a shootout with bank security, leaps into the car and orders Mugsy to drive off. Bugs emerges from beneath the many bags of cash. Rocky pulls his gun and asks Bugs, "How much do you know bout the robbery rabbit?" Bugs misinterprets this and reels off a list of random facts, until Rocky shuts him up by placing a gun in his mouth and threatening to pull the trigger. Bugs asks Mugsy to stop at a gas station. Bugs gets out of the car and, after receiving a

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow to ...

from Mugsy, uses a pay phone to call the police to report the bank robbers, before Mugsy removes Bugs from the phone booth and takes him back to the car. As the car takes off, the policeman on the other end is yanked out through the phone and bounced along the road some distance behind, until the wire snaps. Soon, the car stops at a railroad

grade crossing A level crossing is an intersection where a railway line crosses a road, path, or (in rare situations) airport runway, at the same level, as opposed to the railway line crossing over or under using an overpass or tunnel. The term also ...

with a "wigwag" signal warning of an approaching train. Rocky tells Bugs to get out and let them know if the coast is clear. Bugs checks the tracks and shouts "all clear". Mugsy drives forward and the car is struck by a train. Bugs repairs the car at gunpoint but one of the wheels is missing, so Rocky makes Bugs act as the wheel, by running alongside the car while holding the right front axle. Soon, they arrive at their hideout, which is perched on a cliff. Once inside, Rocky instructs Mugsy to take Bugs into the other room and "let him have it". Once there, Bugs easily convinces him that Rocky meant for him to let Bugs have the gun. When Mugsy relents, he gets shot by Bugs, stumbles back into the front room and passes out on top of Rocky, who quickly punches him off. Rocky heads for the room to take care of Bugs himself. As he approaches the door, Bugs imitates both a police siren and the voice of an officer arriving and ordering other policemen to surround the house. Bugs tears out of the room, seemingly panicked about the cops showing up. Rocky is running around in the main room, desperate to find a hiding place. Bugs hides the robbers in the stove, then pretends to be the police pounding on the front door. Then, he pulls off acting as both the policeman with an Irish accent ''and'' himself trying to hide Rocky and Mugsy. While "interrogating" himself, Bugs denies hiding them in the stove, turning on the gas heat of the stove and throwing a lit match inside to "prove" his innocence. The stove explodes, and the "policeman", convinced, leaves. Rocky and Mugsy crawl out of the stove, somewhat scorched and dazed. Not even five seconds after emerging, the ''real'' policemen come and, in an almost exact match of Bugs' previous ruse, one of them (with an Irish accent) asks where Rocky and Mugsy are. When Bugs is about to throw another lit match into the stove, Rocky and Mugsy quickly run out of the stove and beg the policeman to arrest them. The next day, Bugs becomes a criminal-catching detective talking on the phone, as a member of ''Detectives Guild: Local 839'' (a pun on the cartoonists' union), styling himself as "Bugs Bunny, private eyeball – thugs thwarted,

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

ists arrested,

bandits Banditry is a type of organized crime committed by outlaws typically involving the threat or use of violence. A person who engages in banditry is known as a bandit and primarily commits crimes such as extortion, robbery, and murder, either as an ...

booked, forgers found,

counterfeit To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...

ers caught and chiselers

chisel A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge (such that wood chisels have lent part of their name to a particular grind) of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, stone, or metal by hand, stru ...

ed."

Reception

Jerry Beck Jerry Beck (born February 9, 1955, in New York City) is an American animation historian, author, blogger, and video producer. Beck wrote or edited several books on classic American animation and classic characters, including ''The 50 Greatest C ...

writes, "A remake of director Friz Freleng's earlier crime classic ''

'' (1946), which featured caricatures of Edward G. Robinson and

Peter Lorre Peter Lorre (; born László Löwenstein, ; June 26, 1904 – March 23, 1964) was a Hungarian and American actor, first in Europe and later in the United States. He began his stage career in Vienna, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, before movin ...

as the gangsters, ''Bugs and Thugs'' is faster and funnier, has a great modern design (thanks to Hawley Platt's layouts), and introduces two great new foils — Rocky and Mugsy — for Bugs Bunny."

Home media

''Bugs and Thugs'' is available on the following DVDs: * '' Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1'' * '' Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3'' * ''Looney Tunes Centerstage: Volume 2'' The short is also available to stream on

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...

Cast

•

Mel Blanc Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for comedy ra ...

, Rocky, Mugsy and police officers

References

External links