Rabbit Seasoning
Rabbit Seasoning
NR | 20 September 1952 (USA)
Rabbit Seasoning Trailers

The cartoon finds a row of signs saying it's rabbit season ("If you're looking for fun, you don't need a reason. All you need is a gun, it's Rabbit Season!"). Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck again are arguing over which of them is “in season” (it is really Duck Season, as Daffy says in the beginning), while a befuddled Elmer Fudd tries to figure out which animal is telling the truth. Between using sneaky plays-on-words, and dressing in women's clothing (including a Lana Turner-style sweater), Bugs manages to escape unscathed, while Daffy repeatedly has his beak blown off, upside-down, and sideways by Elmer.

Reviews
NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!
SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie
Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.
filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Edgar Allan Pooh . . . this Warner Bros. "Merrie Melodies" animated short from the early 1950s goes a long way toward providing the answer. Since Warner's brass was Hell-bent upon warning us about the danger of firearms NOT covered by the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment Armory Musket Clause, they specialized in churning out flicks such as PUBLIC ENEMY, LITTLE CAESAR, and THE ROARING TWENTIES from their inception. These features show what kind of a country Americans would live in if the People ever permitted a Gun Nut Majority on the U.S. Supreme Court. Because Warner producers also were pragmatists, they realized that they needed to have a "Plan B" in case their cautionary feature films were NOT enough to squelch a prurient interest in guns among ALL adult Americans. Warner's animated shorts served this function. Slob hunter Elmer Fudd shoots Daffy Duck in the face six times by the end of RABBIT SEASONING (among his 20 total shots). Daffy bounces back good as new after each and every shooting. During my brief time on this planet I've read and heard about 72,306 separate instances in which kids have found a loaded gun in their home and decided to play "Elmer and Daffy" with fatal results. (I've probably missed one or two million other such "unpreventable" mishaps and I assume countless Woundings and near-misses never even make the news.) Though the Gun Nuts who run all branches of American Government have Out-Lawed any statistic-keeping more official than mine, I've seen enough to realize that Warner cleverly set out to thin the gene pool of Gun Crazy Families with "children's fare" such as RABBIT SEASONING.
J. Spurlin Daffy Duck has signs hanging from every inch of every available tree announcing that it's rabbit season. But, you guessed it - it's really duck season. Elmer Fudd appears: he's the only hunter dumb enough to fall for the gag.He's even dumber than that. When Bugs Bunny strides up to him and asks how the rabbit hunting is going, Elmer admits that he hasn't seen a rabbit yet. This is more than Daffy can stand. He emerges from his hiding place and immediately points to a rabbit: Bugs Bunny. "Shoot him now!" Daffy screams. "You be quiet," says Bugs. "He doesn't have to shoot you now." Daffy insists that he does.After Daffy returns his blasted-off beak to his head, he is doomed to more arguments infected with "pronoun trouble" which all have the same result. Later, Bugs dresses as a sexy woman and flirtingly asks Elmer for a duck dinner. Will Daffy get the last laugh? "Ha, ha, very funny! Ha, ha, ha!"What's funny about this classic cartoon? Bug recoils in fright as Daffy screams in his face. Bugs Bunny says "Yes?" while dripping with self-satisfaction. Daffy Duck stands on tiptoes demanding to be shot. Elmer Fudd whines that he "can't wait any wonger." Daffy sees Bugs in women's clothes and makes that little noise with his tongue. Carl Stalling plays "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" during Bugs's drag act. Daffy demands "sheer honesty" out of Bugs. Stalling plays "Home Sweet Home" at an inappropriately appropriate moment. Daffy tells Bugs he's "desthpicable."In five words: every detail of this film.NOTE: This short is available on "Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume One," Disc 1
movieman_kev Having just got the "Loony Tunes Golden Collection"(which i HIGHLY recommend, by the way), I'm going to try to comment on most if not all of the cartoons individually. As such the starting statement might seem redundant for those whom read multiple reviews of them, for this i apologize.Rabbit Seasoning is the middle short in a trilogy of like-minded shorts (the other two being "Rabbit Fire" and "Duck! Rabbit, Duck). Bags and Daffy argue about who Elmer Fudd should short. It makes me laugh EVERY SINGLE TIME!!! On the DVD it has a commentary, featurette, & option to play it music only.My Grade: A+DVD Extras: Disk 1: an introduction by Chuck Jones; The Boy of Termite Terrice part 1; clips from the films "Two Guys from Texas" and "My Dream is Yours", both with Bugs cameos; Bridging sequences for an episode of "the Bugs Bunny show"; the Astro Nuts audio recording session; 2 vintage trailers; "Blooper Bunny: Bugs Bunny 51st and a half anniversary" with optional commentary with writer Greg Ford & stills gallery
Betelgeuse-19 Strange enough, shorts like this get a 10. Why? They are hilarious. This is hilarious. Notice a lot of the quirky humor. Dated and childish to toon naysayers, but they don't know what they're talking about. They got to know that cartoons aren't just for kids. The art in this is probabley the best non-Road Runner art of the 1950's Looney Tunes shorts. It's hard to come across something better than the art in "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery", although nothing ever will. This probabley runs a close 3rd or 2nd. Shorts like this one might have spawned witless LT rip-offs like Tiny Toons Adventures to try to squeeze out all the old comedy out over and over again, like how great movies like Scream spawned crap like I Know... which was released just to squeeze out all the old horror from Scream, but like Scream, this is great alone. Chuck Jones has had his faults with shorts once in a while but he does make up for them. Take Hopper for example. Few people like Hopper but it never ruined the LT reputation, but I'm sure this was his make up on things as such. Bottom line: This is not as good as "Duck! Rabbit! Duck!", but close. Catch it on Cartoon Network frequently.