''Rabbitson Crusoe'' is a 1956

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'' short directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on April 28, 1956, and stars

Bugs Bunny Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s by Warner Bros. Cartoons, Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and Voice acting, voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring role ...

. The name and part of the story is a direct parody of ''

Robinson Crusoe ''Robinson Crusoe'' () is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. The first edition credited the work's protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a tra ...

''. A

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachi ...

character of the film was intended as a parody of

Moby-Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship ''Pequod'', for revenge against Moby Dick, the giant whi ...

, and is depicted as the nemesis of

Yosemite Sam Yosemite Sam ( /joʊˈsɛmɪti/ ''yoh-SEM-ih-tee'') is a cartoon character in the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of short films produced by Warner Bros. His name is taken from Yosemite National Park. He is an adversary of Bugs ...

for two decades. Towards the end of the film, a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

sinks the islands inhabited by the characters.

Plot

has been shipwrecked on a small

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

for 20 years, and with the

ship A ship is a large watercraft that travels the world's oceans and other sufficiently deep waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research, and fishing. Ships are generally distinguished ...

's supplies used up, the only food source is a coconut tree on an adjacent island. But crossing between the islands is difficult because of a

man-eating A man-eater is an animal that preys on humans as a pattern of hunting behavior. This does not include the scavenging of corpses, a single attack born of opportunity or desperate hunger, or the incidental eating of a human that the animal has kil ...

named Dopey Dick (a parody of

), who persistently tries to catch Sam. However, Sam has gotten used to the wily shark's ways and keeps a few bludgeoning weapons on the islands in hand to drive him off. At first, Sam enjoys eating coconuts and drinking coconut milk, but at some point he finally snaps and gets tired of having to feed on coconuts for two decades. Right at that moment,

, himself shipwrecked, drifts by. When Sam calls out to him, Bugs paddles towards the island, only to be immediately put into Sam's cooking pot. As smart as ever, Bugs douses the flame with water from the pot, so Sam has to go back to his ship to get another match. However, by the time he gets back from the ship, Bugs has left the pot, which is now occupied by the shark, who nearly eats Sam until the latter manages to whack him into flight with a mallet. Bugs has retreated to the shipwreck, singing the song " Secret Love", from where he taunts Sam. The latter tries first to reach him with a surfboard, only to be driven back by the shark. Then, he tries hanging from a balloon, only to be savaged by the shark once again after Bugs lets him sink into the flooded

cargo hold 120px, View of the hold of a container ship A ship's hold or cargo hold is a space for carrying cargo in the ship's compartment. Description Cargo in holds may be either packaged in crates, bales, etc., or unpackaged (bulk cargo). Access to h ...

. As Bugs tries to leave the ship, Sam catches him and puts him back into the pot. Just then, however, a huge tidal wave hits the islands, sinking them along with the ship. Bugs, adrift inside the pot, is soon joined by Sam fleeing from Dopey Dick again. Bugs strikes a deal with him: in return from keeping him out of the shark's reach (by a gaff's length), Sam has to paddle them both 2,736 miles towards

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

Home media

''Rabbitson Crusoe'' has been released on the

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the home video distribution division of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Vide ...

laserdisc ''Wince Upon A Time'', the VHS release ''Bugs Bunny's Hare Raising Tales'', and the

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

release ''Looney Tunes: Parodies Collection''. In 2020 the cartoon was released uncut and digitally restored as part of the '' Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection''

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

References

External links

* * {{Friz Freleng , state=collapsed 1956 films 1956 animated films 1956 short films 1950s Warner Bros. animated short films Looney Tunes shorts Films set in the Pacific Ocean Films set on islands Films based on Robinson Crusoe Films based on Moby-Dick Films based on multiple works Short films directed by Friz Freleng Films scored by Milt Franklyn Bugs Bunny films Yosemite Sam films Films produced by Edward Selzer Films about sharks Films about tsunamis 1950s English-language films

Plot

Home media

See also

References

External links