Release Date:

February 14, 1953

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny

Summary:

Bugs Bunny mistakenly receives a draft notice intended for his neighbor, Bertram Bonny (due to the letter being addressed to “B. Bonny”), and not only proves that rabbits don’t belong in the US Army, but also keeps getting the Drill Sergeant gradually demoted.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1243 and was released as a Looney Tune.

Notably, Bugs is dumbed down a bit in this cartoon. Firstly, he can’t tell the difference between “bonny” and “bunny”, and does things like bathing in the Colonel’s helmet, taking the orders to “clean and dress” chickens literally, and nails a pin-up above his bunk by using an artillery shell as a hammer.

A military-themed arrangement of “What’s Up Doc” plays under the opening credits.

This is one of the few cartoons where Bugs’ antagonist- the Sergeant- in this case isn’t really an antagonist, since he doesn’t intend to harm him and is only trying to do his job, only to suffer from Bugs’ antics.

The Sergeant is also one of the few characters voiced by John T. Smith who isn’t a villain.

The title is a play on words for “forward march” and “march hare”.

Starting with this cartoon, Maurice Noble officially becomes Jones’ layout artist.

Despite being released on Valentine’s Day, the cartoon has nothing to do with love and romance whatsoever.

Bugs' line, “Why, I’ll murder that bugler!” is likely a reference to the 1918 song, “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning”. This song appears in the 1942 film, “This Is the Army”, whose title is actually said in the cartoon (first by Bugs in question form, then by the sergeant in response form).

“The Penguin” plays during the opening scene up until Bonny’s letter flies into Bugs’ hole.

The soldier who stares at Bugs before chuckling awkwardly at the camera looks a bit like Ken Harris.

This is the only postwar cartoon to utilize the catchy wartime song, “We Did It Before and We Can Do It Again” (which plays in several Warner cartoons released during World War II). In this case, it plays during the scene where Bugs salutes the Sergeant with, “Private Bugs Bunny reporting your Majesty, sir” up until the point where he accidentally knocks the Colonel down when the latter commands, “About- -face!”

Favorite Scene:

Bugs not only aces an eye test chart, but also reads the microscopic printing information at the bottom!

What Happens in This One:

The mailman drives along in his jalopy-like vehicle that has “U.S. Mail” printed on its door, intending to deliver a letter to Bertram Bonny. As he drives away after putting it in Bonny’s mailbox, smoke from the exhaust pipe backfires so hard that it causes the letter to fly out of the mailbox and float into Bugs’ hole just as Bugs is doing a morning wake-up exercise. He is doing the “1, 2, 3” stretching routine and when he stops to yawn at one point, his ears do the stretching instead. When he begins doing a “1, 2” routine while moving his body from the right side and the left side, he notices first the letter addressed to “B. Bonny” and and then his bed which has “B. Bunny” on it (animated by Ben Washam).

Bugs finally stops to take notice of the letter, “What’s this? A letter. ‘B. Bunny’. For me! Now where’d that come from? Oh, well” He opens it and reads that it’s from “the president of the United States” and comments, “Hmm, that’s nice” before reading the rest of it, with only a few certain words being heard clearly, “Hereby notified… been selected… training therein… report local board e-”, and realizes this is a draft notice as he exclaims, “Holy cats! I’ve been drafted!” before the scene irises out (animated by Washam)

The next scene irises in at the “U.S. Army Induction Center” as Bugs asks the officer at the bottom of the stairs, “Meh, pardon me, mac, but, uh, where does a fella go to take his physical?” The officer absentmindedly replies, “Right up these stairs, buddy”. Upon seeing Bugs walk up the stairs with his packed bag, the officer watches him in shock and then turns to the audience in a calm, flat manner, “So they’re inducting rabbits” (animated by Lloyd Vaughan).

Bugs is then seen in line with several shirtless soldiers about to be x-ray’ed with the soldier behind him looking down at him suspiciously before chuckling awkwardly at the camera. When the doctor checking the soldiers’ bones at the X-ray calls “Next!”, Bugs happens to be next in line. Upon seeing Bugs’ skeleton, the doctor’s hair sticks up in fright before he checks his temperature and believes that what he saw is caused by “Overwork” (animated by Ken Harris).

At an eye test chart, the optometrist tells Bugs, “Now then, I want you to read as much of this chart as you can”. Bugs reads every letter present correctly, “A, T, W, R, K, L, N, O, C, W, O, D, R, K, G, S, O, L, T, Y, K, L, O, N, D, C, R, P, L, D”, but then takes the instructions of reading as of much of it as he can literally as he proves how sharp his vision is when he reads the microscopic print label at the bottom, “ACME Eye Test Chart, printed by the United States Printing Office, Washington DC, Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.” Astounded, the optometrist takes out a magnifying glass to look at the printing info and upon seeing that it does indeed say that, he responds with, “Uh…..yeah” (animated by Vaughan).

After all of the soldiers and Bugs have dressed into their uniforms, with Bugs being the shortest and with his uniform being over-sized for him, he asks, “THIS is the Army?” The Sergeant replies, “Yeah, this is the Army!” before he calls, “Attention!” and “About face!”, with the latter resulting in Bugs’ over-sized shoes knocking all of the other soldiers down like bowling pins. Thinking this was some kind of practical joke, the Sergeant orders, “You! Come here!” Bugs marches up to him and salutes him, “Private Bugs Bunny reporting, your Majesty, sir”. Failing to recognize him, the Sergeant becomes sarcastic, “Oh! Private Bugs Bunny, eh? Well, I’m Sergeant Porky Pig!” The Colonel shouts from behind him, “Sergeant!” before joining the conversation, “And I am Colonel Putty Tat! General Tweety Pie was asking about you, Sergeant!” The Colonel then observes Bugs and assumes, “One of YOUR men, I presume, Sergeant” and calls “About-” Realizing what’s about to happen, the Sergeant only has time to let out an “Oh, no” before the Colonel finishes, “-face!” and is promptly knocked down by Bugs’ over-sized shoes like a bowling pin (animated by Harris).

As punishment, Bugs and the Sergeant are seen doing marching drills all through the night, with the Sergeant having been demoted to Sergeant First Class. By the time they make it back to “Camp Ono”, they are so exhausted that they can only move by crawling. Back in his bunk during sunrise, Bugs removes his shoe, where his foot is literally red hot. Just when he lies down, “Reveille” is heard. Angry, Bugs decides, “Why, I’ll murder that bugler!” before running out with a baseball bat and attacking the “bugler” offscreen. Bugs walks off with the destroyed bat and decides, “That’s that. Now for a leisurely hot bath”. It turns out that he actually destroyed a record and record player playing “Reveille” (animated by Washam).

The Colonel is missing his helmet and is visibly peeved about it. It turns out Bugs is actually taking a bath in said helmet while singing “Singin’ in the Bathtub”. The Sergeant First Class finds Bugs doing this and is horrified. Bugs tells him, “Cleanliness is next to godliness, they always say”. The Sergeant First Class tosses Bugs out of the soap bubble-filled helmet and runs away with it to dump it out. Unfortunately for him, he is stopped by the Colonel, who takes the helmet back and gets drenched by the water when he puts it back atop his head before he angrily blows a few soap bubbles out of his mouth (animated by Washam).

The Sergeant First Class has now been demoted to Corporal, as he tells Bugs, “Now, look, buster. I don’t want no more trouble out of you. I want every one of them chickens cleaned and dressed for the Officers’ Dinner Dance tonight!” Bugs salutes with an “Aye aye, sir!” Later, Bugs comes up to the Corporal and informs him, “The chickens is ready, your honor!” Bugs shows him, “All cleaned and dressed for dinner, sir!”, only for the Corporal’s eyes to bulge outward in shock at what he sees: it turns out that Bugs literally dressed all of the chickens up in top hats and tuxedos! “Where are they eatin’?” (animated by Vaughan)

Much later, everyone in the camp runs away in fear about something. It’s revealed that Bugs is hammering a pin-up above his bunk, but instead of a hammer, he’s using an artillery shell to nail it in! The Corporal runs up to his bunk to see what’s going on, and nearly gets his head blown off by the shell blowing up. The Corporal’s head rises up from his uniform, having managed to duck the explosion, but he soon hears the Colonel yelling angrily, “Corporal!” Breathing in seething fury, the Corporal turns around to reveal that the shell went right through the middle of his helmet and left a bald spot on that part! (animated by Harris)

The Corporal is now demoted all the way to Private. He questions the bandaged Bugs, “What have ya got against me, anyways? Why don’t ya listen to orders? You’ve got ears just like all the other guys!”, but then silently reacts in shock upon seeing Bugs’ rabbit ears. “Well, anyways, you’re furry all over and got a fuzzy tail just like all the-”, before he exclaims, “DIIIIIIIIIIII!” upon finally realizing Bugs is a rabbit. “Jumpin’ catfish! We’ve inducted a rabbit!” He runs off immediately calling out, “Hey, General! Hey, somebody! Hey!” (animated by Harris)

In the Colonel’s office, Bugs is informed by the Colonel about the reality of this, “I’m very sorry, bunny. But it’s just that Congress made no provision for the inducting of rabbits into the United States Armed Forces”. Bugs asks, “But, General, sir, isn’t there SOMETHING a patriotic rabbit could do for his country?” The Colonel informs him, “Well, as a matter of fact, there IS a service where you could be useful”, which Bugs is delighted about (animated by Vaughan).

This service is revealed to be Bugs testing artillery shells on an assembly line and hitting each with a mallet. If they don’t explode, Bugs writes “Dud” on them with a piece of chalk. Satisfied with this new job, Bugs closes the cartoon with, “And just think, in 30 years I can retire!” (animated by Vaughan)

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½