Release Date:

April 10, 1948

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny

Summary:

At a huge boxing championship at a large stadium in the middle of the countryside, Bugs Bunny openly insults the Champ when he has an unfair advantage over the Challenger. In response, the Champ makes Bugs the new challenger.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1043 and was released as a Merrie Melodie. Said production number also appears on the train that the Champ drives near the end of the cartoon.

The Champ (voiced by Billy Bletcher) has the same character design as the later character known as “The Crusher” (voiced by John T. Smith, who voiced several antagonists in Warner cartoons from the early 1950’s), in a similar cartoon, “Bunny Hugged” (1951), also directed by Jones.

The cartoon is similar to “Baseball Bugs” in that they are both sport-themed Bugs Bunny cartoons and both involve Bugs replacing the losing team/competitor after insulting the antagonists’ dirty playing.

The Challenger resembles a taller version of Private Snafu.

The cartoon’s end gag is reused from “My Favorite Duck”, which was incidentally also a Jones cartoon and were both written by Michael Maltese (this one, of course, is one of the many from the late 1940’s that he wrote with Tedd Pierce).

Speaking of Maltese and Pierce, they originally considered including a referee to interact with Bugs and the Champ, but Jones decided against it in order to save money on production. Ironically, there would be a referee in the aforementioned “Bunny Hugged”.

The title refers to a then-recently banned boxing move which was a punch to the back of the head.

One time when I watched this cartoon on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 3 DVD set, my mom was fooled by the end gag where when the screen went blank from the film “breaking”, she had asked in surprise, “What happened?” But upon seeing Bugs peeking his face in before walking out to apologize for the dilemma, she realized, “Oh, it’s just pretend”.

What I Like About This One:

The absolutely awesome rendition of “The Black Horse Troop” over the opening credits.

The boxing match immediately begins with the Champ already beating the Challenger senseless. In the middle of this, he hears Bugs disgusted by his dirty playing and insulting him: “Boo! Boo! Boo! The Champ’s a bum! The Champ’s a dirty fake! Throw him out! Boo! PU! Hey, ya big palooka! Why don’t you pick on somebody your own size?” The Champ suddenly appears behind him and stretches Bugs up to his height asking in a threatening tone, “Like you?” Bugs gulps, “What’s up, doc?” before he is thrown into the dressing room and comes out wearing boxing gloves and boxing shorts. “Me and my big mouth” (animated by Lloyd Vaughan).

The Champ shows off his very large muscular body, with his biceps being taller than him. After his two small biceps show up, Bugs becomes ready to fight (animated by Vaughan).

After getting punched across the ring a few times, Bugs decides, “Eh, guess it’s about time to use a little stragety. I’ll faint him out of position”. He zooms up to the Champ before suddenly collapsing. When the Champ looks down at him in confusion, Bugs punches him with both fists (animated by Ken Harris).

Bugs has his corner set up like a cozy home setting: reading a book in a chair next to a radio. Meanwhile, the Champ cements a brick wall on his right boxing glove while laughing fiendishly. Bugs imitates the Champ’s snickering before he is punched with the brick wall, causing him to fly backward across the ring (animated by Phil Monroe).

The announcer announces that Bugs is “kissing the canvas” which he is literally doing. As the announcer starts to count him out, Bugs then takes the announcer’s microphone and does his own announcing to confuse the Champ: “Wait just a minute, folks. Bugs is coming out of it. He’s on his feet. He’s moving in like a tornado. The Champ is confused. He doesn’t know which way to look. Bugs lands a beauty to the solar plexus. A right to the jaw, a one-two on the instep. Four fast rabbit punches to the kidneys. A left hook, a right hook, a north hook, a south hook. What a fight! The Champ is groggy!” It’s at this point where the Champ ends up walking backwards and tripping over Bugs, who calmly concludes, “The Champ is down” (animated by Monroe).

The Champ and Bugs then go into a wrestling position (animated by Vaughan) ending with Bugs lifting up the Champ, but getting flattened against his back due to his weight. Bugs peels himself off (animated by Harris) and tries to pin the Champ down as the Champ plays solitaire with a smirk. Bugs then snaps a wooden plank in half which the Champ hears and mistakenly believes that his leg has been broken by Bugs. Jumping around and yelling in pain while holding his leg, the Champ calls for a doctor in the house. Bugs shows up disguised as one: “I am a physician, my poor man”. The Champ tells him, “It’s broke, doc! My leg’s broke!” Bugs diagnoses this as a “compound fracture of the left clavichord” and remedies this by bandaging the Champ up like a mummy, and then punching him by spinning his fist like a propeller, which causes the Champ to hit every corner of the boxing ring as the score flashes, “Tilt” (animated by Ben Washam).

In Round 37, the Champ pours axle grease in Bugs’ resin box. This only allows Bugs to skate across the ring and punch the Champ several times while spinning around. After Bugs stops “skating”, he gets an unexpected punch from the Champ (animated by Monroe).

In Round 48, Bugs imitates a popcorn vendor. He gives a popcorn box to the Champ, which turns out to have an explosive cigar hidden in it (animated by Washam).

In Round 73, Bugs requests the Champ to hold a slingshot as he launches a boulder into the Champ’s face (animated by Vaughan).

In Round 98, the Champ launches himself from a cannon while Bugs launches himself as the arrow in a bow and they both crash into each other headfirst (animated by Monroe).

In Round 110, the Champ ties Bugs to the railroad tracks and is about to run him over before the film suddenly breaks. On a white screen, Bugs walks out and apologizes: “Ladies and gentlemen, due to circumstances beyond our control, we are unable to continue with this picture. And, uh, confidentially, that film didn’t exactly break”. Bugs reveals a pair of scissors and winks (animated by Harris).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕