Release Date:

December 24, 1949

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny

Summary:

Bugs Bunny is caught by the Sheriff of Nottingham for attempting to steal carrots belonging to the King, so Bugs spends the cartoon heckling the Sheriff in various hilarious ways.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1102 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue. In January 2025, a 16mm black and white print of the cartoon with the original rings was found. This also retains the “Bugs Bunny in” title card that was cut in the reissue (in the reissue, the music where this sequence is supposed to be is very obvious).

Being a parody of Robin Hood, the title is an obvious pun for it.

The live action footage used at the end of the cartoon is from the 1938 film, “The Adventures of Robin Hood”. In order to get his approval for this footage to be used, Errol Flynn was given a personal copy of this cartoon.

This is the only Warner cartoon to be released on Christmas Eve.

This is also the final Warner cartoon to have been released during Leon Schlesinger’s lifetime as he died just a day after its release on Christmas Day 1949 at the age of 65.

This is Jones’ second cartoon parodying Robin Hood. The first was his third cartoon, “Robin Hood Makes Good” from ten years earlier. He would parody it again in the masterpiece, “Robin Hood Daffy” (1958).

The original script for the cartoon is included as memorabilia in the 2010 book, “The Looney Tunes Treasury” (which was actually the first ever Looney Tunes book I got as I got it in June 2014).

There is a neighborhood near where I live in Watkinsville, Georgia called “Sherwood Forest” (which has streets called “Castle Dr”, “Castle Ct”, “Friar Rd”, “Jester Pl”, and “Miriam Pl”). Ever since getting into these cartoons in 2013, it’s always this one I think of when passing by that neighborhood.

Near the end when Bugs tries to convince the Sheriff that the King is coming before he disguises as the King himself, one of the things Bugs says is, “O’er yon Chevy Chase!” This refers to the English ballad, “The Ballad of Chevy Chase”, as the actor, Chevy Chase, was only six years old at the time of this cartoon’s release.

If you listen carefully when the Sheriff’s head falls to the ground after he says, “Odds fish! The very air abounds in kings!”, his head lands with Paul Julian’s “Meep!” sound effect for the Roadrunner (albeit only one time instead of two).

When Bugs cons the Sheriff into building a house in the king’s private garden, he acts like a real estate salesman, at one point asking the Sheriff if he is a veteran. According to Disney animator Eric Goldberg’s commentary for this cartoon on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 4 DVD set, the reason why Bugs asks this is because even though World War ll had been over for four years at this point, it was hard for veterans to get housing loans.

For my 12th birthday in November 2016, there was a Chuck Jones Center of Creativity in Huntsville, Alabama. The banner above it showed Bugs in a pose from this cartoon (to be specific, it’s after he leaves the garden upon successfully tricking the Sheriff into signing it to build his house atop the garden).

What I Like About This One:

Sherwood Forest is studded with numerous “No Poaching” signs including one that adds, “not even an egg”.

Bugs first attempts to swipe a carrot from the King’s carrot patch, but finds out that these carrots are fitted with an alarm-like booby trap when pulled out. Bugs attempts to silence the alarm by sitting on the carrot before jumping on it, which disconnects the noise-making devices from the carrot just as the alarm dies down. The Sheriff arrives a few seconds later armed with his bow and arrow: “So ho, varlet! Caught crimson-fisted!” When Bugs asks, “Eh, what’s up, doc?”, the Sheriff answers, “What’s up forsooth! It’s the rack for you, me long-eared naive (pronounces it how it’s spelled). These are the King's carrots!” Bugs ponders, “Rack? King’s carrots?” The Sheriff confirms, “Aye, King’s carrots!” Bugs looks down and sees the King’s emblem on the carrot he pulled (animated by Phil Monroe).

Bugs attempts to leave with an excuse, nervously chuckling: “Well, uh, I must be toddling along. Eh, eh, spot of tiffin and all that, ya know. Give my regards to the King and Queen, and the Jack, and the Ten of Diamonds” before running off only for the Sheriff to catch him by the throat: “Oh, no you don’t! We have an appointment with the rack!” Suddenly, a goofy Little John with a dopey voice appears and announces, “Don’t you worry. Never fear. Robin Hood will soon be here” and blows his bugle of Mel Blanc vocal effects. Bugs retorts to the anxious Sheriff, “YEAH, Mr. Wise Guy. Now you’re gonna get it. Robin Hood’ll fix you up, brother”. However, Robin Hood doesn’t show up, causing Little John to shrug and run off (animated by Monroe).

Bugs nervously asks, “Eh, where was we?”, so the Sheriff repeats what he said earlier, “It’s the rack for you, me long-eared fellow! The King shall be indeed proud of me!” This gives Bugs an idea as he announces, “Lo, the King approacheth!” The Sheriff asks, “The King? Where? Where?”, so Bugs points him in the other direction, “There! There! O’er yon flowered bank!” Once the Sheriff bows and says, “Your Majesty”, Bugs bops him on the head with a club and runs off. Seeing kings circling around him instead of stars, the Sheriff remarks, “Odds fish! The very air abounds in kings!” (animated by Monroe)

Later, Bugs is looking at the wall of Sherwood Forest and wanders how he’s supposed to get out of this place, but runs off upon seeing the Sheriff running towards him with a sword (animated by Monroe).

The Sheriff chases Bugs all the way to “Ye King’s Royal Rose Garden” and shouts at Bugs, “Stop! Stop! You can’t go in there! You’re not allowed in there! This is the King’s Private Garden! You’re standing on royal ground!” “Royal ground?”, Bugs asks annoyed. “You mean to say that this ground is better than that ground over there?”, pointing to where he’s standing and where the Sheriff is standing, respectively. “Yes, it is”, the Sheriff answers indignantly. Bugs starts acting like a real estate salesman, showing the Sheriff what “a nice piece of property” the garden is: “Level, fruit trees, choice view, improvements already in. Eh, what type of house was ya plannin’?” The Sheriff replies that he “sort of had a six-room Tudor in mind”. Bugs tells him, “Then this is just the place for you. And it’s priced just right. But, uh, first, uh, are you a veteran?” The Sheriff begins to answer that he isn’t so Bugs continues, “Good! Then it’ll be easy. Here, just sign on the dotted line”. The Sheriff nervously asks if he could call him later, but Bugs informs him as he puts the deed away, “Well, I don’t know. You see, there was a couple here from Kansas City lookin’ at this place this morning and they-” Without a second thought, the Sheriff hastily signs the deed as Bugs leaves, “You’ll never regret it, my friend. This place will double in value inside of six months” (animated by Ben Washam).

The scam turns out to be so successful that the Sheriff is shown to have built his house to half-completion in the next scene. Wearing a carpenter outfit, the Sheriff is happily humming to himself, while hammering in a few nails before slowly hammering one of the nails in and stopping his humming as he starts to catch on. He looks around at his half-completed house and after realizing he’s been tricked, the Sheriff angrily grits his teeth with the nails still in his mouth before exclaiming in anger, “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I HATE MYSELF!” and screams, “I DO!” several times while hitting himself on the head with his hammer (brilliantly animated by Washam).

Meanwhile, Bugs is trying to leave by climbing the wall. “What a mess. I should’ve gone to Worce-cester-cester-shire”. The Sheriff suddenly shows up and shoots his arrow at Bugs’ tail (animated by Washam), causing him to land in Little John’s arms, who again informs him, “Duh, Don’t you worry. Never fear. Robin Hood will soon be here”. Bugs realizes, “Oh, Guinevere. This is where I came in” (animated by Ken Harris). Upon seeing the Sheriff, Bugs sarcastically says, “Oh, you again” and distracts him by introducing him to Little John and vice versa, and doing it over and over again, and eventually referring to them as “Sherri” and “Johnny” and then “S of N” and “LJ” respectively. With them distracted, Bugs leaves as the Sheriff gets wise and yells at Little John to stop (animated by Monroe).

The Sheriff demands Bugs to “halt in the name of the King!” Bugs again declares, “Lo, the King approacheth!”, but the Sheriff isn’t buying it this time: “‘King’ indeed (scoffs) Doest thou taketh me for a fooleth?” Bugs insists, “No really. He approacheth to you now. O’er yon Chevy Chase”. When the Sheriff says, “I ignore you”, Bugs continues, “But it’s honest and truly him! Look, look! It’s the King! His most royal majesty cometh! Sound the welcons and blow the crumpets! The King is here! Look, look, the King! Oh, mighty King!” Sweating in fear, the Sheriff frets, “Ooh! I shall probably hateth myself cometh the dawn!” before demanding, “Where, LIAR!?” (animated by Lloyd Vaughan)

Bugs shortly comes out disguised as a royal trumpet player and then as a royal subject announcing in a posh voice, “Presenting his most royal Majesty, the King”. Once the carpet is rolled, Bugs disguises as the King himself with the same posh voice, and knights the Sheriff by bopping him on the head with his scepter, knighting him under several titles after each hit, “Sir Loin of Beef”, “Earl of Cloves”, “Duke of Brittingham”, “Baron of Munchausen”, “Essence of Myrrh”, “Milk of Magnesia”, and “Quarter of Ten”. The very groggy Sheriff tells him, “You are too kind, your Majesty” before Bugs confides in his normal voice, “Got lots of stamina”. The Sheriff then starts groggily singing “London Bridge is falling down… falling down… falling down…” (animated by Harris) as Bugs brings in a stove out of nowhere and quickly bakes a cake (animated by Vaughan) for the Sheriff to collapse face first into (animated by Harris).

Little John shows up one final time, “Duh, Don’t you worry. Never fear. R-” but this time Bugs interrupts him in an annoyed, sarcastic manner: “Yeah, I know. ‘Robin Hood will soon be here’. He robs from the rich and gives to the poor. Yo-ho. We go skippin’ along, tra-la, through Sherwood Forest. Helping the needy and the oppressed. Ah, you’ve been sayin’ that through the whole picture! Well, where is he!?” (animated by Harris) Little John tells him he “should not talk mean like that because THERE he is”. Bugs turns around and is greeted by Robin Hood in live-action stock footage, announcing, “Welcome to Sherwood!” Bugs is bewildered at first (animated by Vaughan) but then states in disbelief, “Nah, that’s silly. It couldn’t be him” (animated by Harris).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕