Episodes that suck and have no reason to be made

[Brandon Pierce]

Rabbit Ransit - I always hated this one. The gags were chiche-ish. Bugs acts like the angry Daffy Duck. Bugs goes to jail at the end of the cartoon. WHAT WAS FRIZ FRELENG THINKING?! I prefer Tortise Beats Hare and Tortise Wins By a Hare.

Rebel Rabbit- Bugs going to jail recked this cartoon. I don't like a lot of the early Robert Mckimson Bugs Bunny cartoons. It seems like Rob tried to make Bugs act like the angry Daffy Duck.

Spaced Out Bunny- I know Marvin Martian is funny, the abominible snowman was okay, but Spoot, this cartoon sucks! Besides there's a horrible animation mistake at the start of the cartoon.

Count Me Out- One of the rare Egghead cartoons I don't really enjoy. I like the Joe Penner voice, I like the Tex Avery gags, but this cartoon seemed slow-moving. Even the Tex Avery ref doesn't save it.

[lislebartman]

I agree on all accounts, Matthew. "Rabbit Transit" is the weakest of the Bugs/Cecil Turtle trilogy. "Rebel Rabbit" puts me off (toons w/live action shots usually do, "Senor Droopy" being the exception) and yes, I think McKimson tried to have Bugs be like his mean Daffy. "Spaced-Out Bunny" I don't even like to watch, so enough said about that. For a better non-Avery Egghead toon, watch "A Lad In Bagdad". Egghead is pretty good in this one.

[PorkyandDaffy]

Hey, what's wrong with REBEL RABBIT? That cartoon is good.

Any, some other really bad cartoons that have no reason to be made:

Just about all of the cheater cartoons, especially DEVIL'S FEUD CAKE.

THE BIRD CAME C.O.D.

I WAS A TEENAGE THUMB

Most of the post-65 WB stuff.

[Brandon Pierce]

Are there any more cheater cartoons?

[PorkyandDaffy]

This is a Life, His Hare-Raising Tale, Feather Bluster (?).

[PlopKat]

From Warner Brothers:

-- His Hare-Raising Tale
-- This Is A Life?
-- Freudy Cat
-- Muchos Locos

From MGM:

-- Smarty Cat
-- Matinee Mouse
-- Shutter Bugged Cat

I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting. It seems like the Popeye series had a cheater cartoons every year, both at Fleischer and at Famous. Casper and Herman & Katnip had at least one each.

-PlopKat

[Joe Tully]

I really like Rebel Rabbit. It shows more of Bugs' jerkier side, like the one we see going out of his way to annoy gold prospector Elmer in The Wacky Wabbit, which kind of faded away as the years went on. It makes him seem a little more real, since I think everybody likes to act like a jerk sometimes. And later on, we always had to see Bugs be antagonised first, which isn't really a bad rule, but there's only so many ways to do that. And Bugs turns into mostly a nice guy, who only retaliates to protect himself, which IMO weakens his personality. I don't like it as much when, for example, he's teamed up with Daffy in People are Bunny, where he starts the cartoon as Daffy's friend, tolerates Daffy's behavior (old Bugs wouldn't have let him sit there and watch that TV) and doesn't react much to Daffy until he has to.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I like jerky Bugs, I like it when he annoys people for little/no reason, it makes him seem more real and gives him more personality. Also, this was kind of a unique cartoon, in that no one comes along to tick Bugs off, and there isn't really any enemy. I like that uniqueness.

[Brandon Pierce]

We can add this one to the MGM cheater cartoons.

[Matt Yorston]

Count me in as one of those people who likes "Rebel Rabbit". I don't know why; I've always found this cartoon appealing. I think Bugs' personality works nicely in this short; as Joe mentioned, it is unique in that Bugs has no enemy, instead, he makes an enemy out of himself! His motivation is clear (this is probably the only cartoon in which he is fondly proud of his own species) and each of the attempts he makes to prove "a rabbit can be more obnoxious than anybody" are all hysterical (literally tying up the railway, filling up the Grand Canyon, giving Manhattan back to the Indians, etc.). IMHO, one of McKimson's best Bugs cartoons. And no matter if Bugs *does* act like a jerk, he still gets his comeuppance in the end ("Could it be that I carried this thing too far?", "Hmmm... could be!").

[Sveven Dvorking]

Basically anything post-1969 qualifies for that, especially the poorly animated Portrait of the Artist as a Young Bunny . When the 40-year run of classic WB cartoons ended, there should have been no more cartoons to feature the classic characters.

[Jack]

Well, even though this thread is sort of old, I'd like to guve my ten cents about Rebel Rabbit. I like it, but it's not really my favorite "frustrated Bugs" cartoon (my favorites are are the Turtle cartoons, all three of them).

I think making Bugs get frustrated a little, and even making him lose at times makes him that much more real. Nobody can be a winner all the time, even if they are right, and not everyone can keep cool. Bugs is hardly perfect, but he's a nice guy who tries to do the right things (even if, like in 8 Ball Bunny or Easter Yeggs, it causes him more trouble than it's worth), but he also likes to have a good time.

I think of Bugs as a proud outspoken individual who isn't really a sophisticate, but has a lot of street smarts. I think it's unrealistic to say he can't be mean or lose sometimes. That's also the reason I have trouble grasping the evil Daffy personality of the late 50s, too unrealistic. People sometimes actually act surprised when the duck wins, and I think that's because they've always been told that Daffy is a greedy loser. No one is that shallow or nasty, and no one is that much of a loser. I think Daffy is a happy antagonist, an unknowing annoyance, and a dreamer much of the time, even if he goes over the deep end sometimes.



Jack:D

[Mibbitmaker]

I'm also a fan of Rebel Rabbit. The fact that he does BIG things to get even for his bounty being low(and who couldn't love "South America, take it away!" during our election fiasco last year?) I rank it up there for McK's Bugs with What's Up, Doc? and Hot Cross Bunny.------------ About cheaters, I generally hate them, but Popeye had a couple that are good enough to me to enjoy. There's the first one(I know, live action mix). The live action bits make it more interesting. Then there's(I think it's the title) I'm in the Army Now, allowing voicework on the clips to be redone during the peak of the mumbling ad-libs. And the first color one, where Popeye loses the boxing match... the fact that, in THIS one, the original soundtrack is left IN...ALSO from the adlib hights. And Olive still had her old character design, too!

[Joe Tully]

I think that first cheater must be The Adventures of Popeye. It features a kid reading a Popeye comic book. That is a pretty good cheater, it's amusing to see the dubbed live-action kid, esp. when he beats up the bully.

[Thad Komorowski]

There's one T&J cheater that was left out, "Smittin' Kitten". Also, I think the MGM remakes should all be considered cheater cartoons. They all reuse the animation, music, sound effects, from the original,so it's basically the same short, only under a different name.

-Thad:D

[hippety hopper]

How about "Jerrys diary" thats another T&J cheater toon.

There are loads of Popeye cheater toons I've noticed,and I've also seen quite a few Casper cheaters.

Even the Simpsons got in on the act and have had 4 cheater cartoons.

[Crazy Tom]

Originally posted by Mibbitmaker
I'm also a fan of Rebel Rabbit. The fact that he does BIG things to get even for his bounty being low(and who couldn't love "South America, take it away!" during our election fiasco last year?)

It's one of my favorite Bugs' cartoons as well, which, of course, CN destroyed. Now if they can give back the scene where Bugs gives Manhattan Island back to the Indians, we can finally throw out the set of dishes instead of throwing them AT CN!

[Crazy Tom]

Originally posted by Thad Komorowski
I think the MGM remakes should all be considered cheater cartoons. They all reuse the animation, music, sound effects, from the original,so it's basically the same short, only under a different name.

Now if only the MGM studios had more money to produce quality animation...that's why there was such a flurry of "re-used" animation from 1949 onward. Look at "Feedin' The Kiddie"...it's the re-copy of the 1948-winning The Little Orphan. Same music soundtrack...just different oil and paint drawings.

[Jack]

They had more money, but in the 50s, like all cartoons studios, the budgets were smaller. To keep the new cartoons looking first rate, they had to cheat a little. Earlier on they made arround one cheater cartoon a year, reusing stuff from old cartoons. I guess later on, when they couldn't use the old stuff to make cheater cartoons, due to Cinemascope, they just remade the whole thing, saving time and money because most everything had been planned already.

or they ran out of new ideas


Jack:D