Release Date:

August 18, 1956

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny

Summary:

Hearing of a bumper carrot crop in Chattanooga, Bugs Bunny hops a train bound for it. Onboard said train are two starving hobos who are caricatures of Ralph Kramden and Ed Norton. Once Bugs gets onboard, they intend to cook him and chase him all around the train.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1414 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

This is McKimson’s first Bugs Bunny cartoon since “Devil May Hare” and the first one he did with his new unit.

Bugs’ antagonists are Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) and Ed Norton (Art Carney) from “The Honeymooners”. This is also McKimson’s first parody of them as he would do so again several more times (most notably in his amusing “Honey-Mousers” trilogy). In all Warner cartoons parodying “The Honeymooners”, the voices parodying Gleason and Carney’s respective characters were provided by Daws Butler. Butler would later use his Norton voice for Hanna-Barbera’s Yogi Bear.

This is the first cartoon I can think of where I was truly impressed with the restoration, knowing this was a restoration that was entirely new. It was one of numerous restored for HBO Max in 2020, and when I first saw it in this form in the summer of 2020 six years ago, I was absolutely blown away by how gorgeous it looked (every print of this cartoon prior to 2020 were murky, faded ones). This same restoration was later put on the Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection Blu-ray set the same year.

This is the last cartoon to use the original “Bugs Bunny in” card animation.

The slamming into the tunnel gag is reused from “All A Bir-r-r-r-d”.

A few of the train’s boxcars contain some in-jokes. “Gribbroek Pacific Lines” refers to Robert Gribbroek, “Ship Dyson All the Way” refers to Russ Dyson, “Don Foster Fruit Express” refers to the title card artist of the same name, and the engine’s tender has the number 1414 is a reference to the cartoon’s production number.

This is one of the few cartoons where Bugs and his antagonist (or antagonists, in this case) both lose.

Carl Stalling scored this one.

A brief snippet of “What’s Up Doc” is used on McKimson’s director credit. The music that plays over the opening credits is mostly “On the 5:15” (complete with train sound effects).

Unfortunately, the animator draft for the cartoon doesn’t exist anywhere online.

The cartoon uses the 1954-1955 red-purple rings with the blue background in the “That’s all, Folks!” end card.

Favorite Scene:

Ralph and Norton intend to put Bugs in a pot of boiling water once they enter a dark tunnel, only for Norton to succeed in getting Ralph in the pot instead. Once Ralph emerges completely red from the boiling water, Norton remarks that he looks like a boiling lobster. Ralph asks, “I look like a boiled lobster?” before becoming angry and shoving Norton’s nose in the water, “WELL, I’M NOT A BOILED LOBSTER!”

What Happens in This One:

In the snowy countryside, a train passes by the house in the yard where Bugs resides and drops a newspaper on its doorstep. Bugs, wearing a scarf, enters and looks at the headline, “Local Carrot Crop Freeze” with the articles, “Bumper Crop in Chattanooga” and “Rabbit Leaving State in Droves”. Bugs remarks, “In droves? But I don’t have a drove! Eh. I’ll just have to hop a choo-choo for Chattanooga!”, before acting like someone at a sports game, “Come on, Chattanooga Choo-Choo!” (animated by Russ Dyson)

In one of the boxcars on the Chattanooga Choo-Choo are Ralph and Norton as hobos stowing away. Norton says, “Hey, Ralph. You wanna know something? I’m hungry”. Ralph replies, “YOU’RE hungry!? Why, I’M so hungry, my stomach thinks my throat’s cut! If I don’t get something to eat soon, I’ll go nuts!” Norton starts daydreaming about various foods and saying them aloud in tune to “Shortnin’ Bread”, “Me too, Ralph. Hamhocks and cabbage. Locks and sour cream. Pig’s knuckles au gratin. Fish a la mode. Mustard ice cream. Uh-” In the midst of Norton talking, Ralph has taken notice of Norton’s foot, put it on a plate, and salted it, only for Norton to realize this just before Ralph can take a bite. “Hey, hey, hey, hey! That’s mine, Ralph!” Norton then puts paper frills on his own toes while exclaiming, “Va-va-va-voom!” Just before Norton can eat his own foot, the train suddenly comes to a stop, causing them to fall from where they were sitting (animated by Ted Bonnicksen).

Getting up, Ralph tells Norton, “Hey, stupid! The train stopped! We better get scarce!” Hearing footsteps, they run off and stand behind a crate to see who it is. Norton figures, “Could be brakemen”, only for Ralph to exclaim, “Ah, shut up!” Norton: “Alright, alright, Ralph” (animated by Keith Darling). It turns out the train has finally stopped at Bugs’ place with him being the one to open the door to the boxcar. “Kinda dark in here, but it seems to be empty” (animated by Bonnicksen). Delighted, Norton quietly says to Ralph, “A rabbit!” Once Ralph and Norton approach him, Bugs begins to apologize for his apparent intrusion, “Oh, eh, heh, heh, pardon me. I didn’t know these accommodations was occupied!” Ralph and Norton look at each other and shout in unison, “It’s food!”, putting extra emphasis on the “d” in the word (animated by Bonnicksen).

Bugs picks up the large bag he took with him and begins to leave, “Eh, um, I-I-I don’t wish to intrude so, uh, I’ll, uh, I’ll-I’ll just eh, eh, uh…”, only for Ralph and Norton to stop him and pretend to be welcoming. Norton: “No, no, no! Stick around! Huh, Ralph?” Ralph: “Yeah! You’re just in time for dinner!” Norton laughs before repeating, “Dinner” to himself (animated by Bonnicksen). Ralph then offers, “Here, um, uh, let me take your bag!” as he tosses said bag aside. Norton then grabs Bugs by the scarf and offers, “I hang this up for you. You’re a good kid”. With his scarf wrapped around his neck like a noose from hanging off of a hook, Bugs asks in a strained voice, “Hey, fellas? (animated by Darling) Do ya mind if I take this off?” He then takes his scarf off himself and gets down as he walks up to them, “I think I’ll be warm enough without it, don’t you?” Ralph agrees, “Yeah! Boiling hot!”, to which Norton laughs (animated by Dyson).

The offscreen conductor then calls “All aboard!” as the train begins to leave. In the boxcar, Ralph- with a wooden plank behind his back- and Norton- with the pot lid behind his back- have prepared a pot of boiling water as Bugs acts flattered, “Gee, fellas. It’s real swell of ya to have me for dinner. Uh, what are we having for dinner?” They look away innocently before Ralph answers, “Uh… it’s a surprise!” Norton laughs, “Yeah, you gonna be surprised!” The train begins to enter a dark tunnel as Bugs feels the water with Ralph behind him and ready to get him into the pot, “Well, the water feels hot enough to put in whatever you’re going to put in!” When they enter the tunnel, the screen becomes pitch black as a noise is heard. Once they exit the tunnel and everything is shown again, it turns out that Norton has obliviously gotten Ralph into the pot instead. His happy scatting is stopped by Bugs asking him, “Eh, what’s cookin’, doc?” Norton lifts up the pot as Ralph emerges from the water as red as a lobster. Norton chuckles at his appearance, “Hey, Ralph. You look like a boiled lobster!” Ralph asks before suddenly becoming angry, “I look like a boiled lobster? WELL, I’M NOT A BOILED LOBSTER!”, as he shoves Norton’s nose into the pot. Now with a red nose, Norton comments, “Shee, what a grouch!” (animated by George Grandpre)

Bugs makes an excuse to leave, “I, uh, hate boiled lobster, uh, so I’ll go rustle up something for meself. Uh, uh, toodle-loo!”, as he climbs up the ladder rungs built into the boxcar to climb up to the top of the train. With both no longer red, Ralph begins shoving Norton while urging, “Come on, stupid! After him!”, and then shakes his fist while saying to himself, “I ought to belt him!” (animated by Grandpre)

Bugs runs across the top of the train with Ralph and Norton in pursuit and both holding a wooden plank. Bugs suddenly runs into the smoke coming from the engine’s funnel as he coughs and splutters, “Hey! I-I can’t hardly see with all this-this-Say! We must be going through Los On-guh-lees!” Ralph and Norton then come up to him, unable to see him through the smoke, as they skid to a stop, oblivious that they’re right next to him. Norton: “Where is he, Ralph? Where’d the rabbit go?” Ralph: “Where’d he go? Where’d he go? HOW DO I KNOW WHERE HE WENT!?” Bugs then gets down in a leaning position and points to his left, “Eh, I went that-a-way!” Ralph replies, “Thanks!”, and Norton adds, “Yeah, much obliged. You a sweet kid”, with the latter absentmindedly patting him on the head. They run off in that direction, and end up landing in the “Florida Alligator Farm Tank Car”. With both yelling and jumping around in there trying to avoid the alligators snapping at them, they both run out back to safety while whacking the alligators with their planks as Ralph shouts, “Down, down! Down, down, down, down, boys! Down! Get away from me! I said get away from me!” Once he reaches the ladder on the adjacent car, Ralph continues keeping them down, “Don’t sting me, alligators! Don’t sting me, I said!”, only to get his plank chewed down to nothingness, much to his disbelief (animated by Darling).

As they both get to the top of this car, Norton informs, “Hey, hey, Ralph! There he is!”, pointing to his right where Bugs is. Ralph begins pushing him forward while repeatedly slapping him, “Well, don’t just stand there! Go after him!” (animated by Bonnicksen) Bugs calls, “Yoo hoo, fellas!”, before seemingly jumping into a hole on the top of another boxcar. Unbeknownst to Norton and Ralph, Bugs actually jumped in between this boxcar and the car in front of it, with them both jumping down into the former. Bugs figures as he looks down at them, “Say! I’ll bet they’re thirsty! They’ve been running hard!” He pours the water from the water tower down into the boxcar as he calls, “Drink’s on the house!”, and then fluttering his eyebrows at the audience (animated by Dyson). Bugs climbs down and opens the side door to reveal Ralph and Norton swimming around in the flooded boxcar. He acts like a kid at the aquarium, “Hey, mama! Look at the funny fish!”, before the water spills out, along with Ralph and Norton. With the boxcar now empty, Bugs remarks, “Well, looks like I’ll have a private car all to myself the rest of the way to Chattanooga!”, before suddenly spotting a railroad detective approaching, “Uh oh! Railroad dick!” and then entering the boxcar to avoid him. The detective comes up and starts banging on the boxcar, “Hey, you! Come out of there!”, only for him to not be able to do anything about it due to Bugs getting back to the top of the train, which departs once more (animated by Grandpre).

Carrying new planks, Norton and Ralph get back onboard as Norton sees Bugs running across the top, “Hey, Ralph! Here he comes, Ralph!” They both hide alongside the mountain waiting for Bugs to pass them so they can ambush him. Unfortunately, they jump out at the wrong moment and only have time to give silent half-shocked half-horrified expressions as they slam face-first into the tunnel, causing them to fall off the train. On the tracks, Norton remarks while chuckling, “Somebody goofed!”, but Ralph doesn’t see anything funny about it as he begins threatening while shaking his fist, “One of these days! One of these days!” Sitting atop the caboose, Bugs calls out to them, “Too bad, fellas! Looks like I’ll have that bumper crop in Chattanooga all to meself! (laughs)” He doesn’t pay attention to what’s behind him, however, as he ends up slamming backfirst into the side of another tunnel and falling off himself! Getting up dazed and with numerous lumps on his head, Bugs remarks, “Well, maybe I didn’t get to Chattanooga, but I SURE did get a BUMPER crop!” and then groans in exasperation (animated by Dyson).

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½