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Rebel Rabbit is a 1949 Merrie Melodies short directed by Robert McKimson.

Plot[]

Bugs notes that there are high bounties on various animals, such as $50 for a fox and $75 for a bear, and gets highly offended by the two-cent bounty on rabbits. Bugs mails himself to Washington, DC. "Foist class, you know," he remarks to the postmaster. "I never travel with common bundles!" There, a supercilious game commissioner explains that the bounty is so low because, while foxes and bears are "obnoxious" animals who damage property, "rabbits are perfectly harmless," prompting Bugs to remark, "He don't know me very well, do he?" And when the game commissioner claims that the bounty for rabbits stays at two cents, Bugs vows to prove that "A rabbit can be more obnoxious than anybody!" and storms out, warning "You'll be hearing from me!" and slamming the official's door so hard that the glass in it shatters.

Bugs begins his campaign by attacking a guard with his own billy club. From there, he pulls stunts like renaming Barney Baruch's private bench as "Bugs Bunny's", painting barbershop pole stripes on the Washington Monument, rewiring the lights in Times Square to read "Bugs Bunny Wuz Here" (sic), shutting down Niagara Falls, selling the entire island of Manhattan back to Native Americans ("Dey wouldn't take it til I trew in a set of dishes!"), sawing Florida off from the rest of the country ("South America, take it away!"), swiping all the locks off the Panama Canal, filling in the Grand Canyon, and literally tying up railroad tracks.

An angry Senator Claghorn-esque Congressman demands action against Bugs, but is interrupted by him, who emerges from the congressman's hat, annoys the congressman with the "hair dye" joke, and gives him a mocking kiss. Live-action footage shows the entire United States Department of War mobilizing against Bugs. Sherman tanks come rumbling out of their garages, soldiers pour out of barracks, and bugles blow. Bugs, now satisfied with the million-dollar bounty on his head, though not on rabbits in general, is snapped out of a Tarzan-esque mood by the whole Army coming after him. Bugs then dives into a foxhole as artillery shells surround the foxhole. Bugs then says, "Could it be that I carried this thing too far?" just as the shells explode. On Alcatraz Island, Bugs is in a jail cell, as he admits, "Mm, could be."

Caricatures[]

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Censorship[]

  • Versions of this cartoon shown on The WB and the FOX version of Merrie Melodies Starring Bugs Bunny and Friends cut the scene during the montage of Bugs destroying America where Bugs trades Manhattan back to the Native Americans and is shown walking through it wearing a feathered headband and smoking a peace pipe.[4]
  • Cartoon Network aired this uncut for a time (specifically, during an after-midnight showing of Bugs and Daffy in the early 2000s) until it aired with the scene where Bugs gives Manhattan back to the Indians edited as it was on The WB and FOX.

Notes[]

  • Financier and political consultant Bernard Baruch was famous for spending time on park benches in New York and Washington, an exceptionally obscure reference by today's standards.
  • Several barrels are revealed behind the waterfall when the water stops in reference to the fad stunt of going over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
  • City stock footage from "Lights Fantastic" (1942) is used when Bugs rewires Times Square.

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. https://archive.org/details/boxofficebaromet00boxo_7/page/152/mode/2up
  2. https://archive.org/details/catalogofcopyrig3291213libr/page/n119/mode/1up?view=theater
  3. Webb, Graham (2011). The Animated Film Encyclopedia: A Complete Guide to American Shorts, Features and Sequences, 1900-1999, 2nd ed., McFarland, page 298. ISBN 978-0786449859. 
  4. http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-q-r.aspx

External Links[]

Preceded by
Mississippi Hare
Bugs Bunny Cartoons
1949
Succeeded by
High Diving Hare
Bugs Bunny Shorts
1938 Porky's Hare Hunt
1939 Prest-O Change-OHare-um Scare-um
1940 Elmer's Candid CameraA Wild Hare
1941 Elmer's Pet RabbitTortoise Beats HareHiawatha's Rabbit HuntThe Heckling HareAll This and Rabbit StewWabbit Twouble
1942 The Wabbit Who Came to SupperAny Bonds Today?The Wacky WabbitHold the Lion, PleaseBugs Bunny Gets the BoidFresh HareThe Hare-Brained HypnotistCase of the Missing Hare
1943 Tortoise Wins by a HareSuper-RabbitJack-Wabbit and the BeanstalkWackiki WabbitFalling Hare
1944 Little Red Riding RabbitWhat's Cookin' Doc?Bugs Bunny and the Three BearsBugs Bunny Nips the NipsHare Ribbin'Hare ForceBuckaroo BugsThe Old Grey HareStage Door Cartoon
1945 Herr Meets HareThe Unruly HareHare TriggerHare ConditionedHare Tonic
1946 Baseball BugsHare RemoverHair-Raising HareAcrobatty BunnyRacketeer RabbitThe Big SnoozeRhapsody Rabbit
1947 Rabbit TransitA Hare Grows in ManhattanEaster YeggsSlick Hare
1948 Gorilla My DreamsA Feather in His HareRabbit PunchBuccaneer BunnyBugs Bunny Rides AgainHaredevil HareHot Cross BunnyHare SplitterA-Lad-In His LampMy Bunny Lies over the Sea
1949 Hare DoMississippi HareRebel RabbitHigh Diving HareBowery BugsLong-Haired HareKnights Must FallThe Grey Hounded HareThe Windblown HareFrigid HareWhich Is WitchRabbit Hood
1950 Hurdy-Gurdy HareMutiny on the BunnyHomeless HareBig House BunnyWhat's Up Doc?8 Ball BunnyHillbilly HareBunker Hill BunnyBushy HareRabbit of Seville
1951 Hare We GoRabbit Every MondayBunny HuggedThe Fair Haired HareRabbit FireFrench RarebitHis Hare Raising TaleBallot Box BunnyBig Top Bunny
1952 Operation: RabbitFoxy by Proxy14 Carrot RabbitWater, Water Every HareThe Hasty HareOily HareRabbit SeasoningRabbit's KinHare Lift
1953 Forward March HareUpswept HareSouthern Fried RabbitHare TrimmedBully for BugsLumber Jack-RabbitDuck! Rabbit, Duck!Robot Rabbit
1954 Captain HareblowerBugs and ThugsNo Parking HareDevil May HareBewitched BunnyYankee Doodle BugsBaby Buggy Bunny
1955 Beanstalk BunnySahara HareHare BrushRabbit RampageThis Is a Life?Hyde and HareKnight-Mare HareRoman Legion-Hare
1956 Bugs' BonnetsBroom-Stick BunnyRabbitson CrusoeNapoleon Bunny-PartBarbary-Coast BunnyHalf-Fare HareA Star Is BoredWideo WabbitTo Hare Is Human
1957 Ali Baba BunnyBedevilled RabbitPiker's PeakWhat's Opera, Doc?Bugsy and MugsyShow Biz BugsRabbit Romeo
1958 Hare-Less WolfHare-Way to the StarsNow, Hare ThisKnighty Knight BugsPre-Hysterical Hare
1959 Baton BunnyHare-abian NightsApes of WrathBackwoods BunnyWild and Woolly HareBonanza BunnyA Witch's Tangled HarePeople Are Bunny
1960 Horse HarePerson to BunnyRabbit's FeatFrom Hare to HeirLighter Than Hare
1961 The Abominable Snow RabbitCompressed HarePrince Violent
1962 Wet HareBill of HareShishkabugs
1963 Devil's Feud CakeThe Million HareHare-Breadth HurryThe UnmentionablesMad as a Mars HareTransylvania 6-5000
1964 Dumb PatrolDr. Devil and Mr. HareThe Iceman DuckethFalse Hare
1979 Bugs Bunny's Christmas CarolFright Before Christmas
1980 Portrait of the Artist as a Young BunnySpaced Out Bunny
1990 Box Office Bunny
1991 (Blooper) Bunny
1992 Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers
1995 Carrotblanca
1997 From Hare to Eternity
2004 Hare and Loathing in Las VegasDaffy Duck for President
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