What is Rabbit Fire?

Rabbit Fire
Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck) series
Title card from Rabbit Fire.
Directed by	Charles M. Jones
Story by	Michael Maltese
Animation by	Ken Harris Phil Monroe Lloyd Vaughan Ben Washam
Voices by	Mel Blanc Arthur Q. Bryan
Music by	Carl W. Stalling
Produced by	Eddie Selzer
Studio	Warner Bros. Cartoons The Vitaphone Corporation
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date	May 19, 1951 (USA)
Format	Technicolor, 7 min (one reel)
Language	English
Followed by	Rabbit Seasoning (1952)

Rabbit Fire is a 1950 Looney Tunes cartoon starring Bugs Bunny, directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. The short, guest starring Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd, is notable for being the first film in Jones' "Hunting Trilogy" - the other two films being Rabbit Seasoning and Duck! Rabbit! Duck!. It is also the first film to feature a feud between Bugs and Daffy. Produced by Edward Selzer for Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc., the short was released to theaters on May 19, 1951 by Warner Bros. Pictures and is widely considered among Jones' best and most important films.

Plot

The short starts out like many Bugs Bunny cartoons do: Elmer Fudd follows a trail of "wabbit twacks" left by a rabbit he presumes to be Bugs Bunny. It turns out, however, that the tracks are being left by Daffy Duck, who, using the feet from a rabbit costume, makes the prints lead right up to Bugs' rabbit hole. "Survival of the fittest," Daffy tells the audience as he runs to hide, "...and besides, it's fun!"

When Elmer appears, Bugs informs him that the hunter cannot legally shoot the rabbit, since it is Duck Season. Daffy emerges from his hiding place, screaming that Bugs' claim is "an unmitigated frabrication" and that it is actually "Rabbit Season." The argument then continues:

Bugs: "Duck season!"

Daffy: "Rabbit season!"

Bugs: "Duck season!"

Daffy: "Rabbit season!"

Bugs: "Duck season!!"

Daffy: "Rabbit season!!"

Bugs: (reversing the flow) "Rabbit season!"

Daffy: "Duck season!!!"

Bugs: "Rabbit season!!!"

Daffy: "I say it's duck season, and I say, FIRE!"

Elmer then obliges and shoots the duck's bill causing it to spin and then resting back where it was again. Uninjured, yet embarrassed, Daffy starts the argument back up again.

Daffy: "Let's try that again."

Bugs: "Okay."

Daffy: "I'll start it this time."

Bugs: "Right."

Daffy: (grabs Elmer's rifle and points it to Bugs) "Rabbit season!"

Bugs: (pushing Elmer's rifle towards Daffy) "Duck season."

Daffy: (puts the rifle in front of Bugs again) "Rabbit season!!"

Bugs: (spins the rifle clockwise and aims it at himself, again reversing the flow) "Rabbit season."

Daffy: (grabs the rifle and pulls it toward himself) "Duck season!! FIRE!!!"

Once again, Elmer obliges and shoots Daffy's bill out of position. And once again uninjured, Daffy suggests Bugs start the argument again.

Daffy: "Okay, this time, you start it."

Bugs: "Whatever you say." (aims Elmer's rifle at himself) "Rabbit."

Daffy: (takes the rifle and points it at himself) "DUCK!! FIRE!!!"

This time, Daffy head is shot out of position.

Daffy: "What's the matter? Everything's upside-down! That's strange. I can't make heads or tails of things."

The debate over which animal is actually in season continues for the rest of the short, with Bugs escaping each round unscathed, but Daffy ending up being shot in the bill. None of Bugs' and Daffy's tactics convince Elmer to lay down his gun.

Daffy notices a sign on a tree that reads "DUCK SEASON OPEN"

Daffy: "Devilishly clever..." (notices Elmer approching) "Uh,oh!" (runs off screen)

Elmer continues walking until he runs into Daffy (who is disguised as a rabbit).

Daffy: "What's up Doc? Having any luck on those ducks? It's duck season, you know!

Bugs then approches disguised as a duck.

Bugs: "Just a darn minute! Where do you get that "Duck Season" stuff?"

With a look of confidence, Daffy points offscreen.

Daffy: "Says so right over there on that sign, you're so smart."

The sign now reads "RABBIT SEASON OPEN".

Daffy: (still with a look of confidence) "You know what to do with that gun doc..."

Elmer shoots Daffy in the bill, blowing his disguise off from the neck up. Elmer has a look of surprise on his face. Daffy quietly stares at the triumphant Bugs with a look of embarrassed fury.

Daffy: (approches Bugs angrily) "You're dispicable..." Bugs and Daffy then begin reading cookbooks on how Elmer can prepare rabbit or duck delicacies.

Elmer: "I'm sowwy fewwers, but I'm a vegetaweein. I just hunt for the sport of it."

Bugs and Daffy then are shot at by Elmer and escape.

They return later, and Bugs is dressed as a female hunter with Daffy as his dog, but are expoed after Bugs' ear pokes out of the wig he is wearing. The argument continues until, in a notable twist, it turns out to be "ELMER SEASON", prompting the hunter to run and Bugs and Daffy to don hunting gear and inform the audiences to be "vewwy, vewwy quiet...we're hunting Elmers!" Then Daffy laughs like Elmer, which ends the short.

Reaction

Rabbit Fire is generally considered among Chuck Jones' and Michael Maltese's best works, and is noted for its use of dialogue gags in lieu of the physical gags more typical in animation. Besides the two sequels to this film, a number of other notable Jones shorts, including Beanstalk Bunny and Ali Baba Bunny, paired quick-witted Bugs and self-serving Daffy with (or rather against) each other.

The "duck season/rabbit season" argument from this short became one of the most notable references of the Looney Tunes franchise, and has been analyzed both by scholars and by Jones himself (though it should be noted that this gag was actually used by Daffy against Porky 6 years earlier in the cartoon Duck Soup to Nuts). According to an essay by Darragh O'Donoghue, Rabbit Fire "stands in close relation to human experience, striving and generally failing to grasp an elusive quarry or goal." [1]. Richard Thompson said that in the film, there is "the clearest definition of character roles: Elmer never knows what's going on; Bugs always knows what's going on and is in control of things; Daffy is bright enough to understand how to be in control, but never quite makes it." Jones himself refers to Rabbit Fire as a "corner" picture, among his works that, "as in turning a corner in a strange city, reveal new and enchanting vistas."

The short earned an honorable mention for animation historian Jerry Beck's list of The Fifty Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1000 Animation Professionals. Its 1952 sequel, Rabbit Seasoning, made the actual list at number 30. The style, setup, and plot of Rabbit Fire were adapted into the opening sequence of Warners' 2003 film .

While the film is introduced by the Looney Tunes music The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down, the opening card indicates a Merrie Melodies Blue Ribbon release, and the end card is Merrie Melodies, replacing the original orange LT title sequences.

Censorship

• Network television channels (particularly ABC, CBS, WB, and FOX, the last showing the previously syndicated "The Merrie Melodies Show") have edited this cartoon (and the other two cartoons in "The Hunting Trilogy"--Rabbit Seasoning and Duck! Rabbit! Duck!) to remove the many times Daffy is shot in the face by Elmer. While ABC and "The Merrie Melodies Show" would simply replace each occurrence with a frozen shot of Bugs looking on while the gunshot can be heard, CBS and WB would cut the entire scene of Daffy getting shot (sound and all).
• Nickelodeon has aired the other two Hunting Trilogy cartoons with the scenes of Daffy getting tricked into being shot by Elmer intact. However, the Nickelodeon version edited "Rabbit Fire" to remove the "No More Bullets" gag (where Elmer seems to have run out of ammunition, Daffy stares down the barrel of the shotgun and discovers the hard way that there was "one buwwet left", the large slug left lodged in his dangling scalp).
• The back-and-forth-and-reversed gag from this short is referenced in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, where Eddie Valiant tricks Roger into having a glass of whiskey in the same way Bugs tricks Daffy into getting shot.

Goofs

• In the second minute of the cartoon, Daffy sounds different a few times.
• The rabbit tracks that Daffy creates eventually disappear.

Credits

• Produced by: Edward Selzer
• Directed by: Chuck Jones
• Story: Michael Maltese
• Music: Carl Stalling
• Animation: Ken Harris, Phil Monroe, Lloyd Vaughan, Ben Washam
• Background: Philip DeGuard
• Layout: Robert Gribbroek

References

• Jones, Chuck (1989). Chuck Amuck : The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist. New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux. ISBN 0-374-12348-9.
• Jones, Chuck (1996). Chuck Reducks : Drawing from the Fun Side of Life. New York: Warner Books. ISBN 0-446-51893-X.
• Thompson, Richard (Jan-Feb 1975). Film Comment.

External links

• Rabbit Fire