Release Date:

August 22, 1942

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd

Summary:

Bugs Bunny is wanted by the Mounted Police, but Mountie Elmer Fudd proves incapable of catching him, like always.

That’s Not All, Folks:

There is one thing that is very frustrating about the cartoon: it has been restored since either 2011 or 2012 (clips from this restored version are seen in the 2012 featurette “King Size Comedy: Tex Avery and the Looney Tunes Revolution” as well as the 2020 featurette “Bugs Bunny’s 80th What’s Up Doc-umentary”) but Warner is refusing to release it to disc because of the ending gag where Bugs is sentenced to a firing squad and is given one wish. Bugs starts singing “I Wish I Was in Dixie” and the scene then fades into Bugs, Elmer, and the firing squad all in blackface and singing “Camptown Races”. It’s actually very hypocritical that Warner is refusing to put this out on disc (as well as a few Tom and Jerry cartoons and Tex Avery MGM cartoons that contain blackface gags), as they have released SEVERAL cartoons with blackface gags and racial stereotypes on to disc. The clips from the unreleased restored version can be viewed here.

This is the last cartoon where Elmer is fat.

The cartoon is in the public domain.

The title is a pun on “fresh air”.

This is one of two cartoons where Bugs is on the wrong side of the law. The other is Clampett’s “Buckaroo Bugs” (1944) where he is a notorious carrot thief known as the “Masked Marauder”.

What I Like About This One:

As Elmer first spots Bugs’ footprints (animated by Richard Bickenbach; Elmer also doesn’t say “Wabbit twacks!”), one of Bugs’ wanted posters is shown to be vandalized (presumably by Bugs himself). There is also a sexy pin-up on another tree with a girl in a swimsuit and labeled “Read the Mounted Police Gazette”.

Elmer leaving out a carrot as bait (animated by Bickenbach), to which Bugs’ fingers walk out like legs but are unable to walk through the snow so Bugs puts tennis racquets on them to use as snowshoes. Elmer then handcuffs himself to Bugs, who feels the buttons on Elmer’s outfit and then flicks his nose (animated by Gerry Chiniquy).

Attempting to pull Bugs out of the hole, Elmer finds that Bugs substituted a bomb in his place. Realizing he can’t get away, Elmer frantically tries to find his keys, but it turns out Bugs has them. Bugs deliberately takes his time to find the right key, with the explosion happening at the exact moment he finds it (Chiniquy animated the shots of Elmer while Bickenbach animated the shots of Bugs).

Elmer pinning Bugs to a tree with his rifle (animated by Phil Monroe) and then reading all of Bugs’ assumed crimes which include “wesisting an officer, assault and battewy, twespassing, disturbing the peace, miscewaneous misdemeanors, pubwic nuisance, twaffic viowations, going twough a bouwevard stop, jaywalking, twiple parking, conduct unbecoming of a wabbit, and viowating twaffic weguwations”. But Bugs steals Elmer’s hat in the middle of Elmer listing these all out and imitates Elmer’s superior (“Why, look at you! You call yourself a Mountie?”). He then tears Elmer’s uniform apart before sheepishly giving him his yellow underwear with blue polka dots back (animated by Gil Turner).

Elmer is shown to be wearing a corset which Bugs tightens around him (animated by Monroe).

Before continuing the chase, Elmer runs back to put his clothes back on (animated by Monroe).

After both run through a snowdrift, Bugs is shown to now be behind Elmer (animated by Ken Champin).

During an underground chase, Bugs’ ears dodge a tree but Elmer hits it, causing the snow to fall off and revealing it as a Christmas tree. Elmer pops up from the snow with a Santa-like beard and hat formed from said snow (animated by Champin).

Monroe’s animation of Bugs diving back down into the snow.

Elmer later finds Bugs insulting a snowman-lookalike of Elmer and attempts to surprise him by appearing behind him. Bugs then prepares to punch the snowman in the nose but he turns around and punches Elmer into the nose (animated by Bickenbach), causing Elmer to propel backward and hit a wall of ice, creating a heart with an arrow on the ice (animated by Manuel Perez).

Bugs going into a cave before coming out and substituting for Elmer’s gun (animated by Turner).

Bugs and Elmer then dart into the snow several times, creating snow-shaped imprints of themselves. At one point, a woman-shaped imprint is put in (animated by Monroe). After Bugs paints a silhouette of himself on another ice wall, Elmer hits it (animated by Turner). Feeling defeated, Elmer cries that he is a “disgwace to the wegiment”. Feeling sorry for him, Bugs volunteers to give himself up and be taken in (animated by Monroe). Of course, as discussed in the infamous ending, everyone wins.

Where Can I Watch It?

On YouTube!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕