Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Ballot Box Bunny 1951 ( dir Friz Freleng)

Ballot Box Bunny is another one of those quirky Bugs Bunny films that I like. The fact that it has a false ending and one hell of a pun makes it more endearing.

It's election time in some village and Yosemite Sam is running for mayor. Bigs is not interested in the least, until Sam states that he will get rid of all the rabbits. This brings up Bugs' vengeful streak and he runs against Sam for Mayor ( and quotes teddy Roosevelt too!).

As one can guess Sam isn't going to settle for this so he tries his hardest to destroy Bug's reputation.Copying Bugs' campaign tricks ( which backfire) Sabotaging a picnic, creating a contraption that will blow up bugs when he opens a door, rigging up a piano ( something daffy did in Show biz Bugs)

Despite their fighting they find out that the election is won by a dark horse - A mare! A mare for mayor! ( what a pun!) so as a result they indulge in a game of russian roulette. Sam is first and misses. Bugs shoots and as there's the iris closing in we hear a bang. A 2 second pause and the iris opens again and we find out that Bugs missed and shot Sam instead. Sam's closing words are 'I hate that Rabbit' and the iris closes again.

I'm a huge sucker for trick endings so even if this cartoon was rubbish, i would gurantee that an ending like that makes up for everything. Fortunately the short is great so the end just brings the whole thing to another level.

tomorrow will be my last Bugs blog and then i'll be working on Daffy and Porky

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