Release Date:

July 21, 1956

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny, Nasty Canasta

Summary:

On his way to San Francisco to visit his cousin Herman, Bugs Bunny accidentally tunnels headfirst into a large rock that turns out to be a gold boulder. Nasty Canasta swindles him out of it, leaving Bugs vowing revenge. He does so six months later by arriving at the grand opening of Canasta’s new gambling casino dressed as a southern hick and outwitting Canasta by repeatedly beating him in several games.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1389 and was released as a Looney Tune.

This is the third and final appearance of Nasty Canasta and the only time he doesn’t appear with Daffy and Porky. For this cartoon, he has been redesigned and is also a lot less menacing and more goofy (but is still very much an outlaw). He is also voiced by Daws Butler in this one rather than Mel Blanc, and has a lot more dialogue than in his previous appearances (Butler voicing him as well as Canasta scatting to “Oh, My Darling, Clementine” at one point is a foreshadowing of Huckleberry Hound, one of the many iconic characters that Butler would voice at Hanna-Barbera starting in the late 1950’s).

This is the final Jones cartoon written by Tedd Pierce until 1961’s “The Abominable Snow Rabbit”.

Robert Gribbroek did the layouts for this one.

This is one of the few Bugs Bunny cartoons where he is not seen munching a carrot at any point.

Carl Stalling scored this one.

The opening of this cartoon subverts the usual “Bugs getting lost because of wrong turn” trope. Here, his traveling gets interrupted with the gold boulder in the way.

Bugs says a substitute for “Of course, you know, this means war!” after Canasta swindles him at the start of the cartoon.

Favorite Scene:

Bugs’ literal “bigger hand” in draw poker, which causes Canasta to absentmindedly end his explanation with, “You win, see” upon seeing that Bugs blew his left glove up very large. Canasta then pauses a few seconds with his mouth gaping open in disbelief before losing it, “CUT IT OUT, CAN’T YA!?”

What Happens in This One:

After Bugs is shown tunneling across the desert during the title card and credits and through the snow during the director credit, the action immediately begins as Bugs burrows his way right into a seemingly ordinary boulder. “Wow! What a bump!”, Bugs remarks as he comes up. He then attempts to push the boulder out of the way, “Well, me bucko! No rock’s gonna prevent ME from meeting me cousin Herman in San Francisco!” The boulder only lands on its other side revealing it to actually be a large gold boulder. Bugs becomes delighted at this discovery and after saying, “Gold!” several times- with each becoming louder-, he starts dancing around happily, “I’m rich! I’m rich! I’m fabulously wealthy! Yahoo! I’m independent beyond the realm of near avarice! Yahoo!” Unaware that Canasta is watching him- with Canasta’s puff of smoke from his cigar forming into a dollar sign-, Bugs is heard assuring the gold as if it’s animate, “Don’t you worry! Daddy will protect you!” (animated by Ken Harris)

Bugs then realizes how hard that’s going to be, “But how!? How am I gonna protect it?” He soon sees a shadow above him, which turns out to be Canasta having set up a phony bank out of cardboard and with poor spelling, “Bank and Safty Depossits. Nasty Canasta Prez. 70% Intrust. Pade Quarterly”. From his window, Canasta asks, “Hey, uh, uh, you care to make a small deposit?” Struggling to carry the gold, Bugs walks over to the “bank” with it, “Boy! Am I glad YOU happened along! I was worried about what to do with this!” Canasta instead ties the gold to his mule while scatting to “Oh, My Darling, Clementine”. Bugs, still at the “window”, informs, “Eh, uh, pardon me, sir, but, eh, I-I think I’ll reconsider and-and withdraw me gold. I, uh, uh, uh, I have a few minor purchases to make”. Canasta only responds, “Uh, I’m really sorry, bud. But this bank is folding” as he literally folds the cardboard on Bugs, trapping him in it by putting an ordinary rock on top of it. As Canasta rides off with the gold on his mule into the distance, a clearly annoyed Bugs vows from inside the cardboard, “You realize that this is NOT going to go unchallenged!” (animated by Harris)

In San Francisco six months later, old-fashioned saloon-like piano playing is heard as a few citizens have stopped in front of a building that Canasta has bought with the gold boulder as “Nasty Canasta’s Saloon and Gambling H-L” with a banner reading, “Grand Opening Tonight” seen above the entrance. Inside, Canasta is deviously in the middle of a dishonest act- painting the backs of cards with invisible ink. Bugs, seen in his southern clothes for the rest of the cartoon, passes by and after looking under the swinging doors, spots a slot machine inside. “Well, by Huckleberry!”, he remarks as he enters, “If’n it don’t look like one of them newfangled eh, uh, uh, telly-o-phones! Eh, uh, pardon me sir (chuckles like stereotypical hick). But uh (does same chuckle briefly), could I use your eh, uh, telly-o-phone”. Putting on a friendly facade, Canasta agrees, “Why, uh, uh, certainly, stranger. Uh, help yourself to the use of my, uh, telly-o-phone!” (animated by Richard Thompson)

Bugs reads the instructions on the slot machine, “Insert Coin and Pull Lever (pronounces the latter word as “leever”)”. After doing so, he begins to talk into the machine as if it’s a telephone, “Eh, hello? I wanna speak to my mom please. Eh, eh, hello, Mom? Eh, eh, I can’t hardly hear ya at all! Eh, look, Ma, I’m broke again! Uh, could you let me have a few bucks to tide me over?” He gets three jack pots on the machine, which pours out a large pile of gold coins atop him as Canasta stares at this in disbelief, complete with his cigar dropping out of his mouth. With his head sticking out of the coin pile, Bugs replies into the machine, “Gee, thanks, Mom! (chuckles) What a wonderful old gal!” (animated by Thompson)

As Bugs begins to leave with his handbag full of the coins he just received, he is stopped by Canasta at the door, who offers, “Uh, just a moment, friend. Uh, how about you and me having a friendly little game?” Playing along, Bugs agrees, “Hey! That’s a wonderful idea! Uh, uh, how about marbles?” Initially confused, Canasta approves, “Marbles? Eh, uh, oh, oh, yeah! Oh, oh, sure! Marbles!” He then walks Bugs over to play it, “Eh, we’ll go have a nice game of marbles. Eh, Frisco style” (animated by Abe Levitow). It turns out Canasta is actually having them play Roulette. Sitting down at the roulette wheel, Canasta explains while tossing a marble, “Now, uh, in this kind of marble game, see, I spin the marble and you bet on the number you think it’ll land on, y’know?” Bugs replies, “Hey, that sounds great! Uh, let’s see now, I’ll, uh, I’ll bet a penny on number 23!” Canasta: “Alrighty! A penny on 23!” He puts the marble on the wheel after spinning it, pushes the button labeled 23 so the marble goes there and then pulls a brake under the table, resulting in the wheel coming to a stop and the marble going into the “23” spot on the wheel. Canasta: “And, uh, the little marble falls on 23!” Seeing a quarter and a dime pushed toward him by Canasta, Bugs is amazed, “35 cents!? You mean I win ALL that!?” Canasta explains, “Certainly! In my place, the customer ALWAYS wins!”, with Bugs letting out a high-pitched, elated “Really!?” (animated by Thompson)

After a while, Bugs has bet on 23 numerous times and received a towering stack of gold coins as a result. Bugs declares, “Okay! I’m ready to win again!” Canasta has nailed a wooden board over the 23 spot on the wheel so the marble can’t go in there again. When Bugs looks at it confused, Canasta makes an excuse as to why he did that, “A mere formality. Eh, eh, so nobody ELSE can bet on 23!” He pushes the button labeled “00” and pulls the brake for the marble to go into the “00” spot. Canasta begins chortling over this, but makes the mistake of pounding the table in the midst of laughing causing the marble to fly out of “00” and repeatedly bounce on a loose spot in the middle of the boarded-up 23, so it lands in 23 once more. Canasta again stares in disbelief as his cigar drops out of his mouth again and Bugs wins more gold coins (animated by Levitow).

Bugs pushes the latest amount of gold coins he collected out the door in a wheelbarrow before Canasta appears in the doors to ask, “Uh, uh, eh, just a minute, little friend. Eh, uh, how’s about us playing some OTHER type game?” Bugs: “Like?” Canasta: “Like maybe, uh, eh, draw poker?” Bugs admits, “Well, uh, I ain’t too familiar with it, but, uh, I’ll try anything once!” He dashes off and takes this literally as he draws a picture of a fireplace poker. “Draw poker, huh? How’s that? Do I win?” Canasta stares at the camera with a “Seriously?” expression (animated by Harris).

Sitting down at the table to play the actual draw poker, Canasta begins shuffling the cards while explaining the idea of the game, “Now then, eh, the idea in draw poker is for you to try and get a bigger hand than I got. So, I deal five cards to the each of us”. In the midst of Canasta talking, Bugs takes his left glove off and blows it full of air to the point that it actually becomes very large. Canasta continues as Bugs puts his now enormous glove back on, “And we choose the best ones and draw some more cards, and whoever has the biggest hand wins. You win, see?” Canasta then pauses for a few seconds with a shocked open-mouthed expression upon seeing Bugs’ literal bigger hand, before he loses his temper and angrily yells at Bugs, “CUT IT OUT, CAN’T YA!?” (animated by Harris)

Offended at Canasta’s outburst, Bugs leaves again with the wheelbarrow full of gold coins as Canasta attempts to apologize, “Honest and for truly, I-I did not mean it”. Bugs replies, “It isn’t any fun playing with you when you act like that! However, I’m willing to let bygones be bygones if ya promise not to do it again!” Canasta nods, “I-I promise. Honestly. I-I promise” (animated by Levitow).

Back at the table once more and with his large amount of gold coins next to him, Bugs requests, “I’ll draw three cards please”, to which Canasta gives him that much. Canasta says, “Two for the dealer”, before sweating nervously upon looking through his cards before this turns into a gleeful smile. He then laughs while bragging, “I-I got a full house! What YOU got, sucker?” Bugs reveals while asking, “Gee. Does that beat me? All I got is two pair. A pair of ones. And uh, another pair of ones”, with these being four aces total. This causes Canasta to give a sad, lip-quivering expression to the camera as if he’s about to cry. Noticing Canasta’s expression, Bugs asks, “Hey! Do you mean I win again?” Canasta points his pistol at him while answering, “Yeah! You win! But now, we’re gonna PLAY another little game!” Bugs acts enthusiastic about it, “Another game? Hey, that’s great! Uh, what do ya do, uh, spin this little gadget?” The “gadget” he was referring to is the gun’s cylinder, which upon Bugs spinning it, causes several gold coins to deposit out of the barrel (animated by Harris).

As Bugs leaves with his wheelbarrow once more, now with more than enough gold coins to leave Canasta unable to pay for the casino’s funds, a dumbfounded Canasta spins the cylinder on the pistol in hopes to get gold coins this way. Once he points it at himself, expecting the coins to come out, the pistol instead blasts him in the face, charring it and causing Canasta to fall backwards. Bugs ends the cartoon with, “The moral of this story is, ‘don’t try to steal no 18 karats from no rabbit!’” before fluttering his eyebrows in Canasta’s direction (animated by Harris).

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½