Release Date:

May 31, 1958

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny, Big Bad Wolf, Nephew Wolf

Summary:

Determined to catch Bugs Bunny for dinner, the Big Bad Wolf acts out fairy tale scenarios with his giggling nephew and having Bugs pose as the protagonist. Bugs knows how these schemes are supposed to work out, and plays along with them to frustrate the wolf further.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1481 and was released as a Looney Tune.

This wolf and his nephew would go after Bugs again in the last Bugs Bunny cartoon of the Golden Age, “False Hare” (1964; also directed by McKimson).

The title is a pun for “now hear this”, which would actually be the title of Jones’ abstract 1963 masterwork.

This is the last cartoon where William Butler is credited as “Bill Butler”.

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

This is the second time Bugs disguises as Red Riding Hood with the first being in “The Windblown Hare”.

The cartoon contains a pun for the usual “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!” line.

Favorite Scene:

Seeing that “Grandma” (the wolf) has cold feet, Bugs decides to warm them up- by using a frying pan full of hot coals from the fireplace and sticking them under the bed so they burn his feet!

What Happens in This One:

From the point of view of someone watching him from a telescope, Bugs is skipping along with a basket of carrots as he sings an original tune, “Oh, the carrots that bloom in the springtime; I’d rather have carrots than fish; or pheasants or fowl, or even an owl; in fact, they’re my favorite dish!” The one watching him with a telescope in question is the wolf, who licks his lips in hunger at this, “A rabbit!”, before running out and putting his telescope down. As he sneaks up on Bugs, Bugs’ ears start rotating around like a radar as a way of detecting the wolf’s presence, “Huh. Unless my built-in radar’s off the beam, there’s a wolf in the neighborhood” (animated by Ted Bonnicksen).

Bugs turns around to see that there is indeed a wolf and lets out a small “Yike!” before running off and jumping into his hole. The wolf goes to the hole and attempts to grab Bugs from outside, only to hear Bugs whistle to him from another hole a good distance away, with the camera panning to the left to show exactly how far. He asks, “Eh, what’s up, doc?” while munching a carrot as the wolf runs over there and attempts to grab him again. Bugs is now back at the original hole and calling, “Yoo-hoo!” The wolf keeps going back and forth trying to grab Bugs from the hole he pops up out of, before Bugs eventually stops doing this, while the wolf continues absentmindedly doing it until Bugs stops him by holding up a garbage can lid (animated by Bonnicksen). Bugs then gives some advice, “Look, mac. When a rabbit holes up in his own diggings, ya can’t just reach in and grab him! Ya gotta out-clever him! Get him out in the open!” After ducking another attempt by the wolf to grab him, Bugs adds, “Better start scheming!”, before the wolf fails to grab him once more. Walking back to his house, the wolf decides, “Ah, he’s right! I gotta use my noggin!” Bugs informs the audience, “I just wanna see if he’s got any moxie on the ball. Otherwise, I won’t bother with him” (animated by Tom Ray).

As the wolf is sitting on his front porch thinking to himself, the nephew walks up, “Uncle Big Bad?”, to which the wolf answers rather irritably, “Huh? Oh, hello, nephew. What do youse want?” The nephew requests, “Will you tell me the story about Little Red Riding Hood?” The wolf initially refuses, “No, I won’t tell ya’s no story about no Little Red Riding Hood!”, before this gives him an idea, “Red Riding Hood? Hey, that gives me a wolfishly clever idear!” He then asks the nephew, “How would ya’s like we should PLAY Little Red Riding Hood, huh?”, which the nephew is eager to do, “Oh, that’d be peachy-keeno, Uncle Big Bad! How do we play it?” The wolf walks him into the house, “I’ll show ya’s! Come on!” They come back out seconds later with the nephew dressed as Red and with the basket as the wolf instructs, “Now remember what I told ya’s to do, kid, and DON’T forget your lines!” The nephew giggles as he walks off, before the wolf explains his intentions for this to work out, “The rabbit’ll feel sorry for Red and change places and come to Grandma’s house, and I’ll- HOO-HOO-HOO!” (animated by Bonnicksen)

Coming up to the hole, the nephew as Red starts fake crying “Boo-hoo-hoo”, etc. repeatedly. Bugs realizes what’s going on, “Hmm, the Little Red Riding Hood routine. Red cries, I feel sorry for the kid, I change places to go to Grandma’s house, and the wolf, he’ll-HOO-HOO-HOO! So I’ll go along with it!” (animated by George Grandpre) He climbs out of his hole and asks the nephew, “Eh, what’s up, Little Red Riding Hood?” Stopping his faux-crying, the nephew answers, “I’m on my way to Grandma’s house and when I get there, the wolf will eat me all up! And I don’t wanna be eaten all up!”, before resuming the phony sobbing. Pretending to feel sorry, Bugs asides, “Kinda chokes ya up, don’t it?” He then replies, “Don’t cry no more, little girl. I will take your place and go to Grandma’s house in your stead”, as he puts on the red cape and takes the basket while the nephew puts his baseball cap back on (animated by Bonnicksen).

The wolf’s house is marked as “Grandma’s House” as Bugs and the nephew come up to the door, with Bugs knocking and the Grandma-disguised wolf initially answering in his normal voice, “Come in- I mean…”, before switching to a feminine voice, “Come in, Little Red Riding Hood” (animated by Grandpre). Entering the house, Bugs acts impressed about the interior, “Say! Nice place ya got here, Grandma!” The nephew then becomes impatient as he tugs on the cape, “Come on! Say ‘what big eyes you’ve got’!”, to which Bugs agrees, “Oh, uh, okay. Sure, sure”. Coming up to the wolf, he says, “My! What big eyes you’ve got, Grandma!”, and pokes the wolf’s eyes. “And what a long nose you have!”, he adds as he honks the wolf’s snout. He then lifts up the covers from the side of the bed and observes, “And my my! What cold feet you have! Well, uh, we’ll take care of that”. He goes over to the fireplace and scoops out some hot coals with a frying pan. “Here’s a nice bed warmer for ya, Grandma!”, Bugs tells him before shoving the pan under the covers, causing the coals to burn the wolf’s feet, and the wolf to jump into the air and through the roof in pain (animated by Warren Batchelder).

The wolf is heard thudding on the roof for a bit (after his pain-powered jump has created a wolf-shaped hole in the roof) from coming down it before he falls off the roof and lands in the well outside. Bugs pulls him out with the rope attached to the bucket and begins to inform him, “Alright, mac. Let’s quit horsing around. There’s only one way to have a rabbit for dinner, and I’ll tell ya what it is”. The wolf stubbornly refuses to listen, “You’s won’t tell me nothing! I got my OWN idears!” With this, Bugs lets go of the rope and sends the wolf falling back into the well, “So, okay!” (animated by Ray)

This time, the wolf and nephew walk to Bugs’ hole together as the wolf instructs, “Now remember, little nephew, in THIS game, you’re the baby bear and I’m the mama bear!” The nephew giggles before he calls down into the hole, “My porridge is too hot, Mama Bear!”, with the wolf adding in the same feminine voice from earlier, “Well, we will go for a walk in the woods while it cools off… Baby Bear!” After they leave, Bugs emerges from his hole with a blonde wig, “So now I’m Goldilocks. Eh!” (animated by Grandpre)

The same sign is left on the wolf’s house but with “Grandma’s” crossed out and replaced with “3 Bears”. Bugs walks up to it in a slightly feminine voice, “I wonder who lives in THIS house”. He sees the three bowls of porridge and three beds, before witnessing the wolf and nephew watching from out the window. After letting out an “Uh oh”, he decides to go through the routine without actually eating the porridge and simply touches each bowl lightly, “Uh, this porridge is too hot. This is too cold. This is just-”. He drinks the small one that’s supposed to be just right and lets out a “YEESH!” from how presumably disgusting it is. Bugs also rushes through the bed routine, not actually going into the first two and only going into the “baby bear”’s bed, “This is too hard. This is too soft. This is just right. Goodnight!” (animated by Batchelder)

The wolf and nephew then enter the house with the former instructing, “Come on, kid!” while they tiptoe in. Skipping the “Somebody’s been eating my porridge!” scenario, the wolf goes straight to the bedroom, imitating the papa bear with a somewhat booming “Somebody’s been sleeping in MY bed!” He then imitates the mama bear by pulling his shirt over his legs, walking in a squatting position, holding his hat like a bonnet, and using the feminine voice again, “Somebody’s been sleeping in MY bed!” The nephew giggles as he runs over to the baby bed, having spotted what are presumably Bugs’ ears sticking out from under the covers, “Somebody’s been sleeping in MY bed and he’s STILL sleeping in my bed! (giggles)” The wolf then shoos him away, “Okay, kid! Beat it! I don’t need you’s no more! Out! Out! Out! Out! Out!” Chuckling fiendishly, the wolf grabs his own frying pan full of hot coals to pull the same prank on Bugs from earlier. Much to the wolf’s confusion, he gets no reaction from this, so he lifts up the covers and finds out that Bugs substituted himself with a dynamite stick and with the rabbit ears attached to it as a decoy! Realizing he’s screwed, the wolf futilely tries to cover up the explosion with his hat, only for it to result in his hat being destroyed and him being nude from the neck down, barring his tail and shorts. Bugs reappears and again tells him, “Like I told ya, mac. If ya wanna have a rabbit for dinner-”. Giving up, the wolf is now willing to listen to the idea as he answers begrudgingly, “Okay. How?” Bugs replies, “Well, ya see, what ya gotta do-” as the scene fades out (animated by Batchelder).

Bugs’ idea of having a rabbit for dinner is revealed to be having himself as a dinner guest. At the table, the nephew asks the bandaged and sulking wolf, “Isn’t this a swell way to have a rabbit for dinner?” The camera pans over to Bugs at the end of the table and remarking, “Like I said, ‘if ya can’t EAT ‘em, join ‘em!” (animated by Bonnicksen)

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½