Release Date:

October 8, 1949

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny, Playboy Penguin

Summary:

Bugs Bunny accidentally tunnels into the South Pole when he wants to spend his vacation at Miami Beach. After misleading an Eskimo who’s after little Playboy Penguin, Playboy becomes attached to Bugs and wants to go with him. Bugs accidentally causes Playboy to get captured by the Eskimo when attempting to send him away and must come to his rescue.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1089 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

This is the first of two cartoons to feature the mute penguin character who cries ice cubes in the winter atmosphere, later known as Playboy Penguin. His other appearance was in “8 Ball Bunny” (1950) also directed by Jones.

This one has a rather interesting history regarding being aired on TV. In the early 2000’s, there was an annual marathon on Cartoon Network called “June Bugs” which was intended to air every Bugs Bunny cartoon in chronological order. However, there were certain cartoons that couldn’t be shown due to racial stereotypes. Since AOL Time Warner considered the Eskimo to be a stereotype, this cartoon was one of the few called the “Twelve Missing Hares” that wasn’t included in the marathon (the other eleven include “Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt”, “All This and Rabbit Stew”, “What’s Cookin’ Doc” (due to including a flashback scene from the aforementioned “Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt”), “Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips”, “Herr Meets Hare”, “A Feather in His Hare”, “Mississippi Hare”, “Which is Witch” (the next Bugs Bunny cartoon after this one), 1950’s “Bushy Hare”, 1960’s “Horse Hare”, and the 1942 fundraiser short “Any Bonds Today”. Strangely, 1953’s “Southern Fried Rabbit” wasn’t one of them, despite having an infamous stereotypical scene and having Confederate imagery and slavery references). However, Cartoon Network and Boomerang aired it regularly in the 2010’s and MeTV has played it occasionally. It was also restored for the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1 DVD set in 2003.

The title is a pun for “Frigidaire”.

The cartoon presumably takes place more than three years later in January 1953 as evidenced by Bugs’ line at the end upon learning that regular vacation days are six months long at the South Pole: “Wow! If I stay up here, I won’t have to be back to work till July 1953!”

This is the third cartoon where Bugs makes a wrong turn at Albuquerque with the first two being in the aforementioned “Herr Meets Hare” and in “My Bunny Lies Over the Sea”.

The cartoon’s description on iTunes is taken mostly verbatim from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Shockingly, that isn’t uncommon as the descriptions for a few of the cartoons on Tubi (where you can now stream literally EVERY Warner cartoon that can easily play on TV uncut for FREE) have copied what was said in that book, most notably the ones for “I Wanna Play House” and “Good Night Elmer” (albeit the latter was somewhat reworded as in the book, it was described by Jerry Beck as “one of the most irritating cartoons ever made” and later “and Elmer is so stupid, it’s painful”. However, the descriptions for it on all streaming platforms have said this: “He’s so clumsy that it’s frustratingly painful to watch”). This just proves that if someone can’t describe or review something in their OWN words, then they shouldn’t be describing it or reviewing it at all.

What I Like About This One:

The rendition of Albert Gumble’s “Winter” over the opening credits.

Burrowing his way into the ice at the South Pole and believing he’s arrived at his destination, Bugs tosses out a bottle of sun tan lotion, sunglasses, a book labeled “Fun on the Beach”, as well as a lounge chair, a beach umbrella, and a bucket full of ice and carrots. He runs out excitedly in an old-fashioned bathing suit: “Miami Beach at last! Last one in’s a rotten egg! Make way! Yahoo!” as he jumps into the water, which is so cold that the splash he makes instantly freezes. Bugs quickly runs out backwards, completely blue and shivering: “Jee-umpin’ ice cubes! It’s freezin’!” (animated by Phil Monroe)

Once his skin turns back to normal, Bugs becomes aware that he’s not at the right place: “Hey, wait a minute. This don’t look like Miami Beach to me. Hmm. This looks more like California”. He pulls out his map and realizes he’s in the South Pole. “Oh, I get it. I should’ve turned left at Albuquerque!” Playboy bumps into him while fleeing from the Eskimo, to which Bugs yells, “Hey! Watch it, ya little runt! What’s the hurry? Where’s the fi-?” The Eskimo also bumps into him as Bugs shouts at him, “Hey, ya big palooka! Watch where you’re goin’!” The Eskimo immediately comes back up to him and gives a grunting “Huh?”, revealing he’s also holding a spear. After Bugs sheepishly asks, “Eh, what’s up, doc?”, the Eskimo explains what he’s doing in his unintelligible Native language. Realizing he’s talking about Playboy, Bugs asks “Oh, the little guy” to which the Eskimo nods. Bugs tells him “Well, he went that way, Nanook” as he points in the opposite direction of where Playboy went (animated by Monroe).

Packing all his stuff back into his hole, Bugs sings what is presumably an original tune written by Michael Maltese for this cartoon: “‘Cause I’m yearnin’ to be churnin’ up the surf on old Miami Beach!” He spots Playboy in front of him and tells him he’s safe now “so trot along to your party before you get your tuxedo all wrinkled up”. He then decides to dress him up formally by putting a bow tie around his neck and a top hat on his head before sending him off: “Not bad! You’ll knock ‘em dead, kid. Now go on. Pin the tail on the donkey”. Confiding that Mr. Warner only gave him a two-week vacation and he’s already lost enough time, Bugs tells Playboy he’ll send him “a momentum from Miami” (animated by Monroe up to here) and is about to be on his way: “Miami, here I come!” before Playboy suddenly comes in and jumps down into his hole, wanting to go with him to escape the Eskimo (animated by Lloyd Vaughan).

Bugs tosses him back out with an “Ah, no ya don’t!” only for Playboy to race back in again (animated by Vaughan). Bugs takes him out again and this time scolds him, “You can’t go with me! I travel light and fast and I can’t be-” but Playboy goes down into the hole while he’s still talking. “Hey! Come out of there!” Bugs grabs Playboy out of the hole and explains, “Look, kid. It ain’t that I don’t like ya, see, some of my best friends are birds”. He pretends to offer to spend part of his vacation up here with him, which Playboy happily jumps up and down about (animated by Ben Washam).

Bugs walks with Playboy up to a certain point and distracts him by pointing towards the air: “Ooh! Look at that four-legged aeroplane!” Once Playboy looks, Bugs gives him a soft kick that sends him sliding down the ice (animated by Washam). Bugs figures, “Well, that’s that”, but upon turning around, sees to his shock that he unintentionally helped the Eskimo catch Playboy as he slides into the Eskimo’s sack (animated by Monroe). Shaking it off, Bugs decides it’s none of his business and goes back to his hole, again singing, “‘Cause I’m yearnin’ to be churnin’ up the surf on old Miami Beach”. A few seconds later, Bugs pops his head out with a guilty expression before getting angry, “Why, that dirty, no-good-” and starts to explain to the audience, frustrated about sacrificing his vacation to go back and do the right thing: “Well, you didn’t think for a minute I was gonna let that bully… what I mean is, you wouldn’t want I should desert the little guy and…. Oh, always something! I’ll never get to Miami!” (animated by Washam)

Still walking with the captured Playboy, the Eskimo sees Bugs dressed in drag as a female Eskimo and is immediately smitten. While the Eskimo is noisily anticipating a kiss, Bugs pretends to be delighted with the “gift” he apparently brought: “Oh, you darling! Just what I always wanted! You really shouldn’t have!”, before hiding it behind his back, shaking Playboy out of the sack, and kicking him away to send him sliding down the slope. He then begrudgingly gives the Eskimo a kiss on the lips which drives the Eskimo wild enough to bring a large fish as a present. Bugs describes this as “just too, too divine. Simply tres chic (he pronounces the latter two words how they’re spelled). Oh, you’re just awful”, as he slaps him with the fish. The Eskimo picks him up for another kiss, but Bugs’ hood falls down and reveals his ears, causing the hearts above the Eskimo’s head to pop away and Bugs to give a sheepish grin before slapping him with the fish once more (animated by Ken Harris).

In tune to a rousing rendition of “Coasting”, the Eskimo chases Bugs all over the ice where they ski with their feet and with Bugs having to avoid the large cracks in the ice with his legs, to the point where they end up twisted together. The Eskimo eventually lands on top of Bugs, and they end up sliding all the way to the end of a cliff with a long drop into the icy water (animated by Vaughan).

Bugs tells the Eskimo to “Get off me, ya big baboon!” which causes the precipice they’re on to slightly break. Bugs’ gets them into further trouble, with “Now see what ya got us into?”, which causes it to come loose even further. The Eskimo then clears his throat which causes it to come even more loose as Bugs warns, “Stop breathin’ so hard!” but this also causes it to come loose. When the Eskimo is about to sneeze, Bugs stops him by holding his finger under his nose but Bugs himself sneezes, which leaves the precipice hanging by a thread. Playboy walks up to the scene and causes a microscopic ice particle to land on the precipice, which sends it along with Bugs and the Eskimo falling (animated by Vaughan). Playboy grabs a bucket of water and sends it down towards them with it instantly freezing as it goes down and stops the fall (animated by Harris).

As the Eskimo goes back up, Bugs laughs, “What a dope! What an Eskimo pie-head!” (animated by Harris) The Eskimo then attempts to jump on him, but Bugs sidesteps out of the way, causing the Eskimo to fall through the ice and land on the water coming out of a whale’s blowhole, with him being stuck there as the whale swims into the distance (animated by Washam).

Now rid of the Eskimo, Bugs is suddenly confronted by Playboy and is angry at him for ruining his vacation: “Oh! You again! Well, scram! You’ve already ruined my vacation! Why, I ought to bang you one on your little kisser!” Playboy begins to cry ice cubes as Bugs apologizes in guilt: “Oh, all right, all right! Turn off the ice factory! There. That’s better. I’m sorry, but what am I gonna do with only four days’ vacation left?” Playboy gestures for him to bend down towards him and whispers something in his ear, which shocks Bugs. “What!? You mean the days are six months long up here!?” After Playboy nods, Bugs realizes, “Wow! If I stay up here, I won’t have to be back to work till July 1953!” He runs off, and comes back now wearing a top hat and tuxedo: “I always wanted a nice, long formal vacation. Let’s go, kid” as he and Playboy walk off together to have fun (animated by Harris).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½