Release Date:

April 19, 1952

Main Character(s):

Bugs Bunny, Gossamer

Summary:

On a rainy night, Bugs Bunny’s hole floods and sends him and his mattress down the river past the castle of an evil scientist who needs a brain for his robot monster. He decides Bugs will do, but once Bugs wakes up, he flees upon being freaked out with everything he sees. The scientist sends Gossamer (named “Rudolph” in this one) to catch him, but he gets heckled by Bugs instead.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1194 and was released as a Looney Tune.

The cartoon is a followup to “Hair Raising Hare”, with Gossamer making his other Golden Age appearance, and being given the name “Rudolph” (he wouldn’t be named “Gossamer” until after the Golden Age in the 1980 cartoon, “Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24 1/2th Century”). The main difference between the two is that instead of a scientist who is a caricature of Peter Lorre, the scientist in this one is a bald one whose head is shaped like a bowling pin and who is voiced by John T. Smith rather than Mel Blanc.

In Looney Tunes World of Mayhem (2018-present), the scientist in this cartoon is known as “Dr. Frankenbeans” (an obvious pun for Frankenstein).

During the scene where the scientist’s attempt to throw an ax at Bugs results in him shattering a jar of ether by mistake, resulting in the ether’s fumes massively slowing down the movements of both Bugs and the scientist, a slow and drowsy rendition of the William Tell Overture plays.

The cartoon is featured in the 1988 compilation movie, “Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters”, as advertisements on how to deal with a monster.

One of the scientist’s potions is called “Uglifying Acid”, which presumably turns something ugly.

The title is a pun for the line “water water every where”, from the poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Miner”.

The cartoon was originally restored for the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1 DVD set in 2003 in normal pitch. It was re-restored for HBO Max in 2020, but was inexplicably low-pitched.

Favorite Scene:

Bugs pours vanishing fluid on himself to turn invisible, allowing him to torment Gossamer unseen. He then pours reducing oil on Gossamer, which shrinks him down to the size of a mouse. Now too small to be scary, Gossamer puts on his hat and coat and leaves through a mouse hole, throwing out an actual mouse.

What Happens in This One:

The heavy rain causes Bugs’ hole to flood while he’s asleep in bed. Unaware that he’s submerged under water, Bugs scrunches his body up with his blanket, before his legs stick up, and his blanket slides down to his face. His head and pillow then rise up out of the water and his blanket slides off of his body, so he re-positions himself back properly while still asleep, before his legs stick up again. Still asleep, Bugs goes to his water cooler, which is also mostly submerged, unaware that he’s drinking water underwater, before going back to bed (animated by Phil Monroe).

Once Bugs gets back to bed, his entire mattress pops up out of the water and starts to float downstream towards the scientist’s castle, whose neon sign always flashes “Evil Scientist” and then “Boo” (animated by Monroe). Using a tall ladder to reach the robot monster’s head, the scientist is pleased with his creation, “My baby! My mechanical masterpiece! So nearly complete! So nearly perfect! If you only had a living brain.” The scientist sees Bugs floating down the river outside his castle window, and reels him and his blanket in with a fishing pole just before the mattress goes down over the falls. The scientist then puts Bugs and his blanket atop a sarcophagus to measure him, while Bugs shivering in his sleep, unknowingly pulls a nearby mummy over himself. Measuring the robot monster’s head, the scientist realizes, “A wee bit small. But it will have to do” (animated by Ben Washam).

Waking up, Bugs soon becomes freaked out upon seeing he’s been sleeping with a mummy and dashes off and asks, “Eh, eh, w-w-w-what’s up, doc? What?” before screaming upon seeing he’s in the scientist’s arms (animated by Monroe), then clings onto an Egyptian sarcophagus, “What’s goin’ on around here? Where in-YAAAAAAHHHH!”, and then finds himself holding onto the face of the robot monster, “Where am I anyway? EEEEEEEEE! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!”, before running out. The scientist is annoyed at this, “Oh, dear. Delays. Delays. Nothing but delays”, and goes to open Gossamer’s door where he is growling inside. After unlocking it, the scientist says, “Come, Rudolph”, before opening the door, revealing Gossamer breathing menacingly. The scientist informs him, “There is a rabbit loose in the castle, Rudolph. Return him to me, and I shall reward you with a spider goulash”. Delighted at this, Gossamer immediately runs off after Bugs (animated by Lloyd Vaughan).

Bugs runs up the stairs into another room where a trapdoor opens, revealing a long drop below into water filled with alligators. Walking backwards, Bugs prays unintelligibly, before noticing Gossamer, and realizing, “Uh oh. Think fast, rabbit!” and quickly imitates a chatty hairdresser in a feminine tone, “My stars! Where did you ever get that awful hairdo? It doesn’t become you at all”. He sets Gossamer up at a salon-like table, and starts doing his difficult-to-comb hair into curls. “Here, for goodness sake, let me fix it up. Look how stringy and messy it is. What a shame. Such an in-teresting monster too. My stars. If an in-teresting monster can’t have an in-teresting hairdo, then I don’t know what things are coming to. In my business, you meet so many in-teresting people”. Having gotten the two curls he’s made on Gossamer’s head together, Bugs stops to ask, “Bobby pins, please”, to which Gossamer gives him, before Bugs continues, “But the most in-teresting ones are the monsters. Oh dear, that’ll never stay. We’ll just have to have a perma-ma-ma-nent”, leaving Gossamer’s hair ruffled, as Bugs runs off to get some dynamite from an explosives room. Putting the dynamite on Gossamer’s head as rollers and lighting the fuse for them all, Bugs leaves with the excuse, “Now I’ve got to give an in-teresting old lady a manicure. But I’ll be back before you’re done”. The explosion leaves two bald lumps on Gossamer’s head before he ties some of his fur like a braid to cover it up, before angrily continuing the chase (animated by Ken Harris).

Running into the potion room, Bugs stops upon seeing one (animated by Harris) called “Vanishing Fluid” and pours it on himself to turn invisible. Gossamer peeks around the corner after Bugs is heard saying, “Hmmm. Not bad”. Gossamer then walks along, looking for Bugs, as Bugs takes a trash can, puts it over Gossamer’s head, and then bangs it with a mallet. After Gossamer takes the can off of his head, which has been compressed into the can’s shape, Bugs literally pulls the rug out from under him, causing Gossamer to fall. Bugs then takes another potion called “Reducing Oil” to pour it on Gossamer, whose roar turns into a squeak as he shrinks down to the size of a mouse. Realizing he’s now too small to be frightening, Gossamer dresses up in a hat and coat and takes his bags with him as he leaves through a mouse hole. He throws out an actual mouse, and upon seeing a sign on the hole’s door, left by Gossamer, reading, “I Quit!”, the mouse confides, “I quit too!”, referring to an alcohol bottle before running away (animated by Vaughan).

Munching a carrot, the still-invisible Bugs decides, “Well, that’s that”, but the pouring of a liquid from above causes him to become visible again. The camera pans upward to reveal this was the scientist’s doing, standing on a cabinet with an ax and with an anti-invisibility potion called “Hare Restorer” (animated by Harris). After confiding, “Never send a monster to do the work of an evil scientist”, the scientist tells Bugs, “Now be a cooperative little bunny, and let me have your brain”. Bugs starts to back away, “Sorry, doc, but I need what little I’ve got”. The scientist throws an ax at Bugs, which Bugs ducks, causing the ax to instead shatter open a jar of ether (animated by Washam).

Both Bugs and the scientist get drugged by the ether’s fumes as the chase becomes very slow, with the scientist also saying very slowly, “Come…. back…. here….. you….. ra-bbit”. Behind a door, Bugs trips the scientist, who just shrugs and goes to sleep: “Nighty-night”. Bugs runs out of the castle very slowly and trips over a tree stump, as he also shrugs and goes to sleep, also saying “Nighty-night” as the river carries him back to his still flooded hole (animated by Washam).

Back in his mattress-less bed, again submerged, Bugs wakes up and is startled to find himself back in his flooded hole, before sighing in relief, “Must have been a nightmare”. Suddenly, the still-tiny Gossamer rows past in a miniature rowboat, getting in his only line of dialogue, as he retorts in a midget-like voice, “Oh yeah? That’s what YOU think!” Bugs gives the audience a confused look to end the cartoon (animated by Monroe).

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕