''This Is a Life?'' is a 1955

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. Di ...

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 ...

animated cartoon Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...

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 '' ...

, written by

Warren Foster Warren Foster (October 24, 1904 – December 13, 1971) was an American writer, cartoonist and composer for the animation division of Warner Brothers and later with Hanna-Barbera. Early life He was born in Brooklyn, New York to Marion B. Fos ...

, and produced by

Edward Selzer Edward Selzer (January 12, 1893 – February 22, 1970) was an American film producer and publicist who served as head of Warner Bros. Cartoons from 1944 to 1958. He served in the US Navy and fought as a Golden Gloves boxer. He won a boxing exhibi ...

, with music directed by

Milt Franklyn Milton J. Franklyn (born Milton Julius Frumkin; September 16, 1897 – April 24, 1962) was an American musical composer and arranger who worked on the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes animated cartoons. Career Franklyn was born in New York City Sept ...

. The short was released on July 9, 1955, 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 '' ...

. The voices were performed by

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 ...

, Arthur Q. Bryan, and June Foray. This is one of the few Bugs Bunny cartoons whose title does not contain Bugs, bunny, rabbit/wabbit or hare. This is one of the only two Warner Bros. shorts in the original classic era of ''Looney Tunes'' (the other being ''

A Star Is Bored ''A Star Is Bored'' is a 1956 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon, directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on September 15, 1956, and stars Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. The cartoon expands upon the rivalry depicted between Bugs and Daffy, ...

'') in which Bugs is paired with his main three antagonists. This is also the first time that June Foray provides the voice of Granny, which Foray would then reprise for nearly 60 years.

Plot

In a parody of ''

This Is Your Life This Is Your Life may refer to: Television * ''This Is Your Life'' (American franchise), an American radio and television documentary biography series hosted by Ralph Edwards * ''This Is Your Life'' (Australian TV series), the Australian versio ...

'',

Elmer Fudd Elmer J.''Hare Brush'' (1956) Fudd is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. '' Looney Tunes''/'' Merrie Melodies'' series and the archenemy of Bugs Bunny. He has one of the more disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheo ...

(aping Ralph Edwards) is the host and

is the guest of honor, much to the shock and disgust of Daffy Duck. Granny, who is sitting next to Daffy and trying to watch the program, hits him on the head with the handle of her umbrella to keep him quiet after being irritated with him ranting about not being the "guest of honor". Daffy goes out of his way to try and sabotage Bugs by making irate comments about him and goading Elmer to throw Bugs out. Each time, Granny becomes increasingly annoyed by him and hits Daffy on the head with the handle of her umbrella (angrily telling him to "Shut up!"). Meanwhile, Bugs reminisces about his childhood and then with Elmer and Yosemite Sam about his previous encounters with both of them (reviewed via stock footage from the past Bugs Bunny cartoons '' A Hare Grows in Manhattan'', ''

Hare Do ''Hare Do'' is a 1949 Warner Bros. ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon. The short was released on January 15, 1949, and stars Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. Plot Elmer Fudd is hunting for Bugs Bunny using his "Wabbit Detector". (" Awmy surpwus. Hahahahahahah ...

'' and '' Buccaneer Bunny''), with the last two showing Bugs getting the best of them, as usual. Elmer and Sam plan to finally get even with Bugs by presenting him with a special "gift" — a time bomb wrapped up in a box — in appreciation of their "friendship". However, a jealous Daffy stubbornly refusing to believe that he is NOT the guest of honor, grabs the gift after a bout with the three of them passing it off to each other. Sam, Elmer and Bugs cover their ears as they know what the gift really is-but not Daffy, who says "After all, this should've been MINE anyway! ''I'' really deserve it!"-, and takes the resulting explosion backstage. Naturally, Daffy angrily returns and ends up telling Bugs: "You're... You're... You're despicable!", then leaves the stage in a huff.

Voice cast and additional crew

, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam and Announcer * Arthur Q. Bryan as

(uncredited) * June Foray as Granny (uncredited) * Film Edited by

Treg Brown Tregoweth Edmond "Treg" Brown (November 4, 1899 – April 28, 1984) was an American motion picture sound editor who was responsible for the sound effects in Warner Bros.' ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoons from 1936 to 1963. ...

(uncredited) * Original Story by

Michael Maltese Michael Maltese (February 6, 1908 – February 22, 1981) was an American story man for classic animated cartoon shorts. He is best known for working in the 1950s on a series of ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoons with director Chuck Jones, notably "Wha ...

and Tedd Pierce (both uncredited) * Archive Backgrounds by Paul Julian and Philip DeGuard (both uncredited)

Music

The cartoon uses arranged music for the opening title card and the introductory credits before showing the title of the picture.

Home media

''This Is a Life?'' is featured uncut on the '' Looney Tunes Super Stars''

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 kin ...

set, '' Daffy Duck: Frustrated Fowl'' albeit cropped to widescreen. It was later re-released in its original aspect ratio on the

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 sto ...

set- ''

Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection ''Looney Tunes: Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection'' is a Blu-ray Disc box-set released by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on December 1, 2020. It contains 60 Bugs Bunny shorts and numerous bonus features and supplementary content. The set's ...

''.

References

External links