Release Date:

July 8, 1950

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny, Playboy Penguin

Summary:

The Ice Frolics unknowingly leaves its star performer, Playboy Penguin, when they close and drive off to someplace else. Trying to catch up with them, Playboy ends up falling into Bugs Bunny’s hole. Making a promise, Bugs goes on a grand mission to get Playboy back to his supposed home in the South Pole.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1123 and was released as a Looney Tune (you could say this number is a bit similar to my birthday, which is November 23).

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue.

The cartoon is a follow-up of sorts to “Frigid Hare”. One notable difference is that Playboy (who gets his name here) is shown crying actual tears a few times in the cartoon, due to it being too warm for them to freeze into ice cubes (he does cry ice cubes near the end, though).

The title alludes to the fact that for most of the cartoon, Bugs ends up behind the 8 ball, which makes this one stand out among most of Jones’ Bugs Bunny cartoons (the title card also shows him leaning against a large 8 ball with an annoyed expression while a smiling Playboy is seen sitting on it).

Speaking of 8, it is VERY coincidental that we are talking about this cartoon today on October 8 (we ARE going in chronological order after all), and even MORE coincidental, this cartoon was released exactly 26 years before my mom was born (on July 8, 1976).

This is one of the few Warner cartoons where the title starts off with a number in its number form rather than word form. The other examples include “14 Carrot Rabbit” (1952) and “3 Ring Wing Ding” (1968). If you were to list every Warner cartoon in alphabetical order, however, all of these would be listed in as if the numbers in the titles would be spelled out (for example, this cartoon would be in the E’s. In a similar way, if you had listed every Beatles song in alphabetical order, “Eight Days a Week” (1964) would also be placed in the E’s).

Humphrey Bogart appears throughout the cartoon as a running gag dressed as to how he appears in “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1948), asking, “Say, pardon me, but could you help out a fellow American who’s down on his luck?” Dave Barry, who voiced Bogart in “Slick Hare”, also voices him here.

The cartoon is in the 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons book.

During the scene where Bugs and Playboy are captured by a tribe of Natives, said Natives are spooked by “a bwana” who turns out to be Bogart showing up a second time. From when I first got into these cartoons in 2013 up until when I got the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons for my 11th birthday in 2015, I had misinterpreted them saying “iguana” rather than “a bwana”.

Peter Alvarado does both the layouts and backgrounds for this one (in a similar case, Robert Gribbroek would do both layouts and backgrounds for several of McKimson’s cartoons from the early 1960’s).

What I Like About This One:

The really fun rendition of “Don’t Sweetheart Me” over the opening credits.

As the Ice Frolics is closing and moving to a new location, it’s shown that Playboy is their star performer, “The Skating Penguin”. Having been mistakenly left behind, Playboy hurries out the stage entrance and attempts to catch up with the trucks driving off to no avail (animated by Ben Washam).

Running down a hill to try and catch up with them again, Playboy ends up falling into Bugs’ hole to which Bugs, who was asleep, wakes up with Playboy on his head when he emerges and sleepily asks, “What’s up, doc?” Seeing nobody to his left or right, he assumes “must’ve been a nightmare” but lets out a “What the-?” upon descending into his hole, having found out Playboy’s presence. “It’s a bird! A bird in a tuxedo!” He then scolds, “Listen, Playboy. What’s the idea crashin’ in in the middle of the night and disturbin’ an honest rabbit’s slumber? Why don’t you give up this night life and fly south or something?” Seeing Playboy crying, he feels guilty: “Huh? Oh, all right. I’m sorry. Hey, what’s the matter, ya lost or somethin’?” When Playboy nods, Bugs promises, “Well, stop cryin’. I’ll take ya home. Honest and truly. Cross my heart”. Playboy happily jumps up and down at this as Bugs decides, “Uh, now, then, uh, all we have to do is find out where ya came from” Looking in a book, Bugs realizes, “Hey, what do you know? You’re a pen-goo-in!” After Playboy nods, Bugs continues before making a shocked take upon realizing how far it is: “And, uh, pen-goo-ins it says here comes from the South Pole. South Pole!? Oooooh, I’m dyyyyin’!” (animated by Washam)

Bugs and Playboy are seen in a boxcar on a train headed to the “Deep Deep South” as Bugs sulks, “Me and my big fat promises”. Playboy starts tearing up again before Bugs exclaims, “Alright, alright! If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s to see a pen-goo-in cry!” A hobo who’s also in the boxcar agrees: “Me neither. Penguins is practically chickens. And I hates to see chickens cry so much (smacks lips), that I has to put ‘em out of their misery”. Irritated at the hobo for wanting taking Playboy for a meal, Bugs informs him, “Eh, pardon me, mac, but, uh, rabbits is bigger than penguins” before he daintily walks away. The hobo decides, “So they are, AND I LOVE RABBIT STEW” as he runs toward Bugs who trips him and then kicks him when he runs back from the other side. The hobo attempts to run towards Bugs once more, but Bugs opens the boxcar’s side door so that the hobo ends up zooming out the door and off the train (animated by Ken Harris).

In New Orleans, Bugs has Playboy get on the ship, the “Admiral Byrd”, and tells him, “Well, Playboy. I think from here on, you can make out by yourself. Here’s some nice ice cubes I brung ya to munch on the way”. After sending him up the gangplank, Bugs calls to him, “Bon voyagee. Don’t take any wooden igloos”. Deciding to stick around for the Mardi Gras (pronouncing it as “Madree Grass”), Bugs drinks some carrot juice (with an actual carrot sticking out of it like a lemon), before he hears one man telling another, “There goes the old Admiral Byrd, bound for Brooklyn”. Bugs does a spit take and shouts in horror, “BROOKLYN!?” before jumping into the water and swimming after the Admiral Byrd as fast as he can (animated by Emery Hawkins). Getting onboard, Bugs asks Playboy where he is, and realizes something’s wrong when he smells something cooking in the galley. He finds that Playboy is hanging upside down along with several headless chickens. Rescuing him, Bugs asks Playboy, “I leave ya alone for a few minutes and what happens?” He answers his own question after they jump off the Admiral Byrd into the water, “Ya end up on the menu!” They then swim to a nearby island (animated by Harris).

On the island, while Playboy chops some wood into a small boat for them, Bugs, dressed in a Calypso-like outfit, plays a catchy Calypso number that is an original tune written by Michael Maltese for this cartoon specifically, and with Mel Blanc having Bugs speak in what is presumably a Caribbean accent: “Bugs Bunny came to Martinique; when he arrived he was pretty weak. His knees look like they would buckle in, his tribulations caused by a pen-goo-in. Now he’s built a boat on which they both can leave. He hope that fickle fate have nothing up her sleeve-”. He’s interrupted by Bogart appearing and asking, “Say, pardon me, but could you help out a fellow American who’s down on his luck?” Bugs tosses him a coin and yells in his normal voice, “Hit the road!” before switching back to the accent and finishing the song: “If he should accomplish this daring thing, a miracle to Martinique, Bugs did bring” (animated by Phil Monroe).

The next scene reveals that Bugs and Playboy have been out at sea in their boat for a while as Bugs starts to lose his mind as he talks in his head: “Ten days without food. And I’m starvin’!” He then remembers what the hobo on the train said earlier, “Penguins is practically chickens!” before looking over and imagining Playboy as a roast chicken. Bugs starts to creep towards him before realizing, “What am I doin’!?” He apologizes, but Playboy happily points to something instead. Bugs is overjoyed to see that it’s land (animated by Hawkins). They end up in the toll gate of the Panama Canal to which Bugs tells the toll there, “25 cents to go through THIS thing!? Eh, we’ll WALK first!” (animated by Monroe)

Their walk through the jungle into South America ends with them having been caught by a tribe of Natives, who after having Bugs and Playboy in their pot, dance around doing some sort of tribal chant. “You and your shortcuts”, Bugs sulks at Playboy. Suddenly, one of the natives comes running in and repeatedly informs in terror, “A bwana!” The Natives all run off frightened upon hearing this news. Said “bwana” turns out to be Bogart. Bugs hands him a coin after Bogart again asks, “Pardon me, but could you help out a fellow American who’s down on his luck?” (animated by Lloyd Vaughan)

A montage is then shown where Bugs and Playboy swing through trees, frantically swim away from a hungry crocodile in the river, climb a mountain, sailing across the big waves in the ocean, before they finally end up at the South Pole (animated by Vaughan). Tired, Bugs tells Playboy, “Well, here ya are, kid. At last” and then becomes irritated. “I brung ya home like I promised. Now I’m leavin’. Goodbye!” Playboy begins to cry ice cubes as Bugs realizes, “Oh, no. NOW what?” Playboy shows him a certificate in his hat, which reveals that Playboy is the only Hoboken-born penguin in captivity, meaning that this trip was all for nothing and Bugs could have easily returned him at the start! “Hoboken!? Ooooooh, I’m dyyyyin’ again!” Bogart shows up one last time and begins to ask, “Say, pardon me, but-”, before Bugs interrupts him and finishes the sentence himself, handing Playboy over to Bogart, “-but could you help out a fellow American who’s down on HIS luck? Here”. Bugs then runs into the distance, laughing in insanity (animated by Monroe).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕