Release Date:

March 14, 1953

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd

Summary:

Elmer Fudd digs up a rare plant and also ends up inadvertently taking Bugs Bunny back to his penthouse with him due to Bugs’ hole being part of the soil required for the plant to thrive in. Once Elmer discovers Bugs’ presence, Bugs challenges him to a series of contests to see who is the better man, with Elmer getting very hollow victories in each.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1250 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue. When it was restored for HBO Max in 2020, the original opening and closing rings were put back in. This same restored print would also be put on the Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection Blu-ray set later that year.

Speaking of which, this was among the very first cartoons to be restored since 2014, as on November 8, 2019 (about two weeks before my 15th birthday), this particular cartoon was announced as being one of several that was being restored for a future release. A picture of someone restoring this cartoon can be seen online in fact. When I heard this news back then, excited was an understatement as to how I felt, especially since all of the restorations from 2020 onwards were the first time I had seen restorations that were entirely new.

The cartoon was originally going to be included on the Looney Tunes Super Stars Bugs Bunny Hare Extraordinaire DVD set in 2010 before being reconsidered. As mentioned above, it did eventually get a restored disc release with the Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection.

The title is a pun for “upswept hair”, a hairdo where one’s hair is combed or brushed upward to the top of the head.

The animator draft for the cartoon can be viewed here.

Favorite Scene:

The second challenge, which is to shoot an apple off of one’s head. Elmer successfully shoots one off of Bugs’ head, but when it’s Bugs’ turn, he deliberately misses by shooting backwards while looking in a mirror. Elmer boasts that Bugs missed the apple, but is unaware that Bugs shot him and has left him charred.

What Happens in This One:

The cartoon begins at sunset outside of Bugs’ hole where Bugs is heard saying inside, “Well, another day, another carrot. I’m gonna get me some shuteye (yawns)” before going to sleep. At the same time, Elmer has driven up to Bugs’ hole and is pleased at a type of flower that’s seen near it, “Oh boy. A desert bwooming hatacowuious! Won’t that wook beautiful in my twopical garden?” He comes back with a small barrel to put the dirt around it in and begins to dig up around Bugs’ hole with a shovel. “I’ll have to weave pwenty of dirt awound it. It onwy pwospers in its native soil” (animated by Rod Scribner).

The next morning (with a lovely rendition of “Lullaby of Broadway” playing in the background), Bugs’ dug-up hole is seen in the garden on the penthouse’s roof. Unaware that he’s in a different place, Bugs wakes up and walks out like normal, taking a dried flower with him to use as a back scrubber for his morning bath. He instead walks into the penthouse’s bathroom and goes into the large indoor pool in there (animated by Charles McKimson).

After holding his ears together like hair with a bobby pin (animated by Charles), Bugs splashes water on himself to wake up while shivering. Once he settles in, he realizes, “Hey! This ain’t my bathing stream!” He looks around at the fancy walls and paintings in the bathroom and assumes, “Oh, I get it. It’s a mirage (pronounces it “ma-raj”). Looks kind of Ancient Roman-like” and shrugs, “Well”. Bugs decides to take a bath in the large pool anyway while singing a Roman-like variant of “There’s No Place Like Home”: “Be it ever so crumbly, there’s no place like Rome. Nero, he was the Emperor and the palace (animated by Herman Cohen) was his home”. Meanwhile, Elmer is walking into the living room towards the bathroom when he hears Bugs singing, “But he liked to play with matches, and for a fire yearned. Yearned… yearned…”. Bugs shortly comes out wearing a towel and tapping a key on the piano to get his “La”’ing right. “La. La, la, yearned”. Elmer is confused at this, “That was a wabbit! What’s a wabbit doing in my bathwoom?” Bugs finishes his singing as Elmer watches him through the door’s keyhole, “And for a fire yearned, so he burned Rome to ashes, and fiddled while it burned” (animated by Phil DeLara).

Elmer exclaims in annoyance, “Ooooh…”, and bursts in to the bathroom, only for Bugs to yell, “Shut that door! Do you want me to freeze to death!?” Startled, Elmer does so, and walks away, but then lets out an even more furious “Oooooh….”, upon realizing he’s been tricked. Elmer returns with his rifle and bursts into the bathroom to find Bugs doing athletic-style swims in the pool, including one where he propels himself with his ears (animated by Scribner). Elmer tells Bugs, “Get off my pwemises, you twespassing wabbit!” and shoots at him (animated by DeLara), only for Bugs to dodge each shot. One of Bugs’ ears then pops up out of the water like a periscope (animated by Keith Darling) before Elmer spots it and shoots it (animated by Scribner), causing Bugs to sink like a submarine hit with a torpedo (animated by Darling). Elmer jumps around happily at successfully shooting at him, “I got him!” and does his trademark laugh. Bugs climbs out of the pool unharmed and advises Elmer, “You better plug him again, mac. Just to make sure”. Oblivious to who said that to him, Elmer nods in agreement, and shoots into the pool, which ends up creating a hole in the bottom that floods the apartment of Elmer’s downstairs neighbor. Elmer hears a knock on his door, which turns out to be his drenched downstairs neighbor, who proves his thin patience and super strength by tying Elmer’s rifle around his head like a bow before pulling the trigger, causing Elmer to slightly vibrate (animated by Cohen).

Bugs’ ballet-like dancing in the penthouse garden is interrupted by Elmer finding him outside and sulking, “Oh, it’s that cwummy wabbit again!” before shooting at him. Bugs stops and is annoyed at Elmer firing at him so he walks up to him (animated by Cohen). Bugs asks, “Hey, look, doc. What is all this? Are you trying to get rid of me or something?” Elmer answers, “Yes, I am! Wabbits don’t bewong in penthouses!” Bugs responds, “Oh, they DON’T, don’t they? You think you’re better than they are? Huh? Hmm? Huh?” He then decides, “Well, I’m gonna make you a sporting preposition: if you can prove you’re better than me, I’ll leave! What do ya say?” Sounding reluctant, Elmer agrees, “Well, I guess so” (animated by Charles).

Bugs looks around for something to do, “Okay. Uh…”, and decides upon spotting some barbells, “First, we’ll see who’s the strongest”. Bugs fails to lift them up, so he tells Elmer, “Okay, let’s see YOU do it”. Elmer manages to lift them up but the ground gives way from him holding them up and sends him falling through. To his misfortune, he ends up in front of the downstairs neighbor again, with the middle part of the barbells having landed on the neighbor’s head and causing a lump to grow out of it. Elmer returns, with the barbells tied around his head, revealing that the neighbor punished him this way again (animated by Charles).

Bugs walks up to a fruit bowl on a table and puts an apple on his head in the manner of William Tell. “Alright. Let’s see you shoot this apple off’n my head”. Elmer is pleased at this, “Oh, boy! Will I? (laughs)” Bugs tells him to hold it while he pulls his ears down so they’re not in the way of the bullet before giving Elmer the green light. Elmer’s shot reduces the apple down to the core (animated by DeLara). Elmer is delighted, “Oh boy. I hit it (laughs)”. Bugs calls this, “Eh, just a lucky shot, doc. Now it’s my turn”. He puts an apple on Elmer’s head (animated by Scribner) and deliberately misses by looking in a mirror and shooting the gun backwards (animated by DeLara). After the shot, Bugs turns around to see what Elmer looks like and reacts in disgust at the sight (animated by Cohen).

Unaware that his clothes are destroyed and the front part of his body is a charred mess, Elmer walks into view and boasts while laughing, “I pwoved I’m better than you are. You MISSED the apple!” Bugs tells him while taking the apple off of his head, “Oh, no. There’s, eh, one more test. The jump test” (animated by DeLara). Bugs decides they’ll jump over a yellow bench with him going first. After getting a good running start, Bugs ends up tripping over the bench. He chuckles awkwardly, “Eh, heh. Tripped”. Elmer informs, “Now, it’s my turn, Mr. Smarty-Wabbit!” Bugs agrees, “That’s right, doc. I’ll set it up for ya” and moves the bench sideways and pointed upward. Elmer announces, “Here I come!” and manages to jump clear over the bench, “I made it! (laughs)”, but stops laughing upon realizing he also jumped off of the roof! (animated by Scribner) Watching Elmer fall, Bugs calls down to him, “You win, mac!” after he lands offscreen (animated by Cohen).

It turns out that Elmer landed in the popcorn wagon on the sidewalk in front of the penthouse. Wearing his dug up hole to take back with him, Bugs pops out of it and declares, “I gotta admit you’re a better man than I am, doc. But only because I’m a rabbit!” Bugs then ducks back down into his dug up hole and marches down the street wearing it in tune to “The Girl I Left Behind Me” (animated by Charles).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕