Release Date:

June 28, 1947

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd

Summary:

Bugs Bunny substitutes for the Easter Rabbit who claims to have sore feet, but unbeknownst to him, is actually lazy. Bugs finds out that it’s impossible to “keep smiling” when delivering Easter eggs to either a brat called “Dead End Kid” who attacks him without provocation and Elmer Fudd, who is hungry for “Easter wabbit stew”.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1027 and was released as a Looney Tune.

This cartoon is the official halfway mark of the Warner cartoons. That’s right, folks, today marks the day where I have officially done reviews for the first 500 Warner Bros. cartoons, and I now have 500 cartoons left to review.

This is the only Warner cartoon from the Golden Age to be fully centered around Easter. In 1980 (for those who don’t know, the Golden Age ended in 1969), there was a half-hour special called “Daffy Duck’s Easter Egg-Citement”, which was one of five Looney Tunes TV specials from the 1970’s and 1980’s to be made of entirely new animation; the other four were 1976’s “Bugs and Daffy’s Carnival of the Animals”, 1978’s “A Connecticut Rabbit in King Arthur’s Court”, 1979’s “Bugs Bunny’s Looney Christmas Tales” and 1980’s “Bugs Bunny’s Bustin’ Out All Over”. Like the latter two, this one contains three all-new cartoons that were specifically made for it, all of which star Daffy: “The Yolks on You” costarring Sylvester and with minor roles from Foghorn Leghorn and Miss Prissy, “The Chocolate Chase”, costarring Speedy Gonzales, and “Daffy Flies North”, the latter of which is strangely not Easter-centric.

This is McKimson’s first Elmer cartoon.

This is also the first McKimson cartoon to have animation by Robert’s younger brother, Charles, who was mostly responsible for animating closeup shots. Charles animated for his brother up until he left in 1955 (and in order to avoid confusion with the McKimsons whenever I point out if Charles animated a scene in his brother’s cartoons, I’m going to refer to him by his first name. The other animators will still be referred to by their last names).

This is the last Warner cartoon to have animation by Richard Bickenbach, who after leaving Warner Bros., became the layout artist for William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at MGM and would continue being their layout artist when they opened their own studio at the end of the 1950’s.

The Easter Rabbit is based off of Mel Blanc’s radio character, “The Happy Postman”, a name that is supposed to be ironic, considering the Easter Rabbit is never shown to be happy in this cartoon.

The title is an obvious pun for “Easter eggs”. “Yegg” is a slang term for a safecracker.

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

You can find out who animated what scene here.

The gag where someone’s watch is destroyed in an amateur magic trick would be reused in Freleng’s “Heir Conditioned” (1955) and McKimson’s “Good Noose” (1962) (in the former cartoon, Elmer is the victim to this again as one of Sylvester’s friends posing as a salesman does this trick. In the latter cartoon, Daffy is a stowaway on a ship and does various amateur tricks to avoid getting hanged. One of these includes destroying the captain’s watch in his hat).

In his second appearance, “Elmer’s Pet Rabbit”, Bugs at one point refers to himself as a potential Easter Bunny. This one contradicts this when Bugs expresses his disgust at this being a job: “Phooey! I’m glad I don’t have to do this for a living!”

What I Like About This One:

We start off with an adult joke as Bugs is seen reading a book called “How to Multiply”. As a kid, I thought it literally meant math, but I get the joke now (animated by Fred Abranz).

Seeing the Easter Rabbit sitting down and sobbing, Bugs asks him if he’s sitting on a tack. The Easter Rabbit says he’s supposed to be “happy and gay” (gay as in happy, not the other term) when he delivers the eggs “but my feet are killing me”. Since Bugs isn’t doing anything, he offers to deliver the “Technicolor hen fruit” instead. After reminding Bugs to “keep smiling”, the Easter Rabbit explains to us, “Every year, I get some dumb bunny to do my work for me” (animated by Richard Bickenbach; little does he know, however, that Bugs is the exact opposite of dumb).

Bugs sings an original tune: “Here’s the Easter Rabbit, Hooray” (which is actually sung to the same tune as the song the rabbit in “Hare-um Scare-um” sung) and remarks, “Phooey! I’m glad I don’t have to do this for a living!” (animated by Izzy Ellis)

Arriving at Dead End Kid’s house, Bugs offers him an egg but Dead End Kid simply smacks it in Bugs’ face while chanting “I wanna Easter egg!” over and over. He then chomps Bugs’ leg and starts fighting him (animated by Ellis). After getting thrown down, Bugs angrily grabs Dead End Kid’s arm and threatens, “Now look it here, you juvenile delinquent!” Dead End Kid starts wailing like Red Skelton: “Oooh, he bwoke my wittle arm! He bwoke my wittle arm! (animated by Abranz) Oooh, the bad wabbit bwoke my wittle arm!” Three giant thugs appear with guns to which Bugs runs out and their bullets shoot the words, “AND STAY OUT” in the door (animated by Anatolle Kirsanoff).

Back with the Easter Rabbit, Bugs keeps giving him back his basket as the Easter Rabbit pleads, “But you CAN’T quit. You’ll give the Easter Rabbit a bad name” (animated by Kirsanoff). Bugs claims, “I already HAVE a bad name for the Easter Rabbit! But I’ll try once more” (animated by Charles McKimson). This time, Bugs sings the Easter Rabbit song very agitated after his previous experience (animated by Ellis).

The next stop is Elmer’s house, with welcome banners expecting the Easter Rabbit’s arrival. Elmer explains his plans, “When he comes in wooking so fwuffy and cute with his wittle basket of Easter eggs…. BANG! Easter wabbit stew!” He disguises as a baby while hiding his rifle in a blanket (animated by Abranz). Assuming this is another mischievous kid, Bugs gets the jump by smashing an egg in Elmer’s hands before leaving (animated by Charles).

Elmer goes out of his house and goes a different way than Bugs, digging a trap for him to fall into. “I can’t miss with my Dick Twacy hat!” Once Bugs falls in the trap (animated by Kirsanoff), Elmer attempts to drown him with a garden hose but Bugs comes out floating in a raft that goes into a hollow log (animated by Abranz). Elmer goes in after him, but when they come out the log has turned into a “Tunnel of Love” (animated by Kirsanoff). In a feminine voice, Bugs tells Elmer, “I’ll bet you say that to ALL the rabbits!” (animated by Charles) Elmer gets angry upon realizing this so Bugs takes his hat and decides to perform a magic trick to get him to calm down (animated by Ellis).

Bugs first pulls out the Easter Rabbit who reminds him, “You’ve got to deliver a lot more eggs”. Since that’s not the trick, Bugs gets Elmer to give him his watch to put in a handkerchief and then smashes it to pieces. Elmer sweats in horror as Bugs puts the watch’s remains in to the hat and then pushes him away with, “Stand back, son. I might hit your fingers”. Bugs claims he will create a new watch with magic words a wandering gypsy told him on the night of a full moon. Bugs peeks in and silently finds the trick didn’t work (animated by Charles).

Seeing Bugs running in to view (animated by Charles), the Easter Rabbit trips him up with a rope (animated by Ellis). In a daze, Bugs asks in a different voice, “Eh, which way did he go? Which way did he go?” The Easter Rabbit responds while giving him his basket back, “He went thataway and don’t forget your Easter eggs” (animated by Abranz).

Coming to his senses, Bugs goes up to a random house and upon opening the door finds Elmer angrily glaring at him. The next house has Elmer confronting Bugs with his rifle. At the third house, Dead End Kid suddenly reappears still chanting, “I wanna Easter egg!” Bugs quickly pushes him back in (Kirsanoff animated all shots of Bugs going up to the houses while Ellis animated all shots of him opening the doors) and opens the door to the fourth house and goes out of sight as Elmer runs up to the front door with his rifle. Bugs shuts the door on Elmer and then paints his head to look like an Easter egg, using “Easter Egg Paint”. After Bugs whistles to get his attention (animated by Charles), Dead End Kid repeatedly pounds Elmer’s now blue with yellow polka dots head with a hammer as Elmer runs off into the distance (animated by Bickenbach).

Pleased to no longer be “finagling with Easter eggs”, Bugs hides behind a tree as the Easter Rabbit begins to fall for a trap Bugs left for him: a seemingly large egg that the Easter Rabbit believes Bugs forgot to deliver. Deciding to do it himself, the Easter Rabbit fails to notice Bugs lighting a fuse attached to the egg, which reveals it’s actually an explosive egg. “It’s the suspense that gets me!”, Bugs confides. After the explosion, the Easter Rabbit is left hanging in a tree with a dazed expression (animated by Bickenbach). Bugs reminds him, “Remember, doc, keep smiling!” (animated by Charles)

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕