(Blooper) Bunny

1991 cartoon directed by Greg Ford and Terry Lennon January 2025 March 2025 (Blooper) Bunny Blooper Bunny title card.png Title card Greg Ford Terry Lennon Ronnie Scheib Greg Ford Terry Lennon Greg Ford Jeff Bergman Gordon Hunt Russell Calabrese George Daugherty Doug Compton Nancy Beiman Russell Calabrese Frank Gabriel Bob McKnight Nelson Rhodes Larry Ruppel Louis Tate Dean Yeagle Warner Bros. Animation 1997 06 13 8 minutes 20 seconds English (Blooper) Bunny is a Merrie Melodies animated short film directed by Greg Ford and Terry Lennon, with music by George Daugherty, produced in 1991IMDB article on (Blooper) Bunny by Warner Bros. Animation. Featuring the voice talents of Jeff Bergman, Gordon Hunt,https://archive.today/20130110174953/http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon_characters/36513-(blooper)_Bunny.html List of crew involved with the cartoon and Russell Calabrese,ANIMATOR https://www.rcartwerks.com/RCArtwerks/ANIMATOR.html Russell Calabrese Artwerks July 21, 2024 the short is a parody of some of the specials produced for Bugs Bunny's 50th anniversary the previous year.Scott Orrin "Dance of the Comedians – 75 Years of the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote" https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/last-dance-of-the-comedians-75-years-of-the-road-runner-and-wile-e-coyote/ April 28, 2025 Cartoon Research April 28, 2025 https://web.archive.org/web/20250428203024/https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/last-dance-of-the-comedians-75-years-of-the-road-runner-and-wile-e-coyote/ April 28, 2025 The short never received its intended theatrical release and was shelved for six years.The shelving of the cartoon for years It was finally given a television premiere on Cartoon Network on June 13, 1997. It is featured on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1 2003 on, and on the Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection 2020 on. Synopsis The cartoon opens with a short special, celebrating Bugs Bunny's 51st and a Half Anniversary Spectacular. Once that is finished, what happened earlier that day is shown, with a backstage look at the characters (featuring 3D rendering of the scenery). Bugs is shown rehearsing his one line in the special. Elmer Fudd is shown trying to use minoxidil to regrow his hair. Daffy Duck and Yosemite Sam are shown only begrudgingly going along with the act, complaining non-stop until called to their places by the director. They attempt a performance, which results in a series of animated "bloopers". Featured bloopers Bugs Bunny begins to dance, but the music is slightly out of tune and the record skips. He then dryly looks at the camera and says, "Ehh...What's up, Doc?" in an annoyed and sarcastic voice. The director and producers laugh as Bugs walks offstage. He then peeks back in to say "Monotonous, isn't it?", which gets the director and producers laughing again before the record scratches. Bugs halts the routine midway, explaining he noticed a loose floorboard which could pose a hazard to his "esteemed fellow thespians". He suggests cutting the action back and readjusting the camera. Bugs misses the cane when it flies out. The cane is thrown before Bugs is ready to catch it, much to his frustration. While waiting for the cane to be thrown, it becomes clear that Daffy Duck has refused to throw it to Bugs. According to Daffy, his contract states that he is not supposed to throw canes to "stupid rabbits" and that Bugs' people spoke to his, resulting in the director agreeing to have someone else throw it in Daffy's place. Daffy enters the stage at the exact time that Bugs does, saying that he thought it was a vast improvement as he walks away, only to bump his head on the boom mike. Daffy does not appear when he is supposed to. Offstage, Daffy is heard telling Bugs, the director and the producers to wait, followed by the sound of a toilet flushing. As Daffy rushes onto the stage dancing, the director yells in exasperation, "Cut! CUT! CUT!" Elmer Fudd fires his real gun as opposed to the prop gun that shoots a flag and confetti, grazing Daffy's head. Bugs scolds him, but Elmer responds that he thought that it would be "a gweat, big birthday surpwise if after 511 2 years of twying, [he] finally bwasted [Bugs]". Daffy starts yelling at Elmer for not using the prop gun and refuses Bugs's insistence on cutting. As he walks away telling Elmer to expect his lawyers to call him, he steps on the loose board Bugs had avoided earlier, and the board strikes him in the face and goes through his beak. When Bugs asks if they can cut now, Daffy grumbles, "You smug son of a—" and is then cut off by Bugs. Daffy dances onto the stage with the board still stuck to his face. Bugs uses a hand mirror to reveal this to Daffy. When he pulls it off, he yanks his beak off as well in the process, but continues speaking and where his beak was, a mouth appears, though he fails to notice it. Everything plays out correctly until Yosemite Sam emerges from the cake with a scowl on his face and two Cowgirls come up and spruce him up. The director asks him to act a little more enthusiastic and caring for the next take. Sam reluctantly agrees, practices a toothy grin and goes back into the cake, mumbling "But I hates rabbits". The spectacular performance is done perfectly, except for one thing, as Bugs puts it – there were supposed to be five rockets, but Sam replies "There were five! And I lit 'em, too!". The fifth rocket, attached to Sam's belt, sends him flying about before crashing into the camera. He then yells at Bugs, calling him a "carrot-chomping flop-eared, bobtailed rabbit", along with his usual cursing (which lasts throughout the credits) before being silenced by an unseen glass object. Bugs then suggests that what had just happened can be fixed in the editing, before one of the producers asks, "Can we go to lunch now?" The familiar "That's All Folks" runs up the screen at the very end as if written in the film emulsion (like on raw footage). Cast Jeff Bergman as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam Gordon Hunt as Off-Screen Director Russell Calabrese as Man in Audience, Movers, Vocal Effects Production (Blooper) Bunny was produced between 1990 and 1991 at a time when newer Looney Tunes shorts were being released to introduce the Warner cartoon characters to a modern generationMiller Bob The New Looney Tunes 1992 Comics Scene Yearbook Starlog Group 23–29, 72 1 7189647260 (Pages 1-4, https://archive.today/20251217220046/https://twitter.com/OManimoves/status/1814720093407887558 Pages 5-8) — a process that was, thanks to the tepid reception of 2003's Looney Tunes: Back in Action, eventually discontinued for some time from 2004 to 2009.Looney Tunes: Back in Action trivia at the Internet Movie Database. Greg Ford and Terry Lennon began production on the short with the idea of working the story into a future compilation special. The idea of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam acting friendly while being filmed but being their adversarial selves off-camera was done as a critical jab toward the executives at Warner Bros. for their handling of the characters at the time (marketing them in the vein of Disney). According to Lennon, "On-camera, they've got their big marketing grins on their faces; off-camera, they want to kill each other."Sandler Kevin S. https://books.google.com/books?id=zd_WTZZjvqkC&q=Reading+the+Rabbit:+Explorations+in+Warner+Bros.+Animation Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation 1998 17 Rutgers University Press 978-0-8135-2538-9 enPat Caldora on Twitter: "Basically, Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers AND Blooper Bunny were Greg Ford and Terry Ward snubbing at how WB were treating the Looney Tunes characters at the time (marketing them in the vein of Disney). Evidently WB became aware of how these guys were mocking them and pulled the plug on Blooper Bunny at the eleventh hour. It really wouldn't be shown off until years later on Cartoon Network." https://twitter.com/PCaldora/status/1326696178927476736 November 11, 2020 Twitter May 2, 2024 https://web.archive.org/web/20211206154728/https://twitter.com/PCaldora/status/1326696178927476736 December 6, 2021Komorowski Thad Greg Ford on "Daffy Duck's Quackbusters" https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/greg-ford-on-daffy-ducks-quackbusters/ January 28, 2025 Cartoon Research April 28, 2025 https://web.archive.org/web/20250128152000/https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/greg-ford-on-daffy-ducks-quackbusters/ January 28, 2025 The film was animated using a combination of both new computer technology (done by Bill and Susan Kroyer) and traditional cel animation — a first for a Warner Bros. cartoon — with three-dimensional rendering distorting the background in the "backstage" scenes to give the appearance of a handicam being used.Benn Janet Beiman's Progress https://www.awn.com/animationworld/beimans-progress August 1, 1997 Animation World Network April 10, 2025 (Blooper) Bunny! (1991) - Trivia The first "backstage" scene in the film, a sequence that goes on for nearly a minute and a half without a cut, is, according to Ford, one of the single longest uninterrupted shots ever attempted in animated cartoons.Ford, Greg. Audio commentary for (Blooper) Bunny on Disc One of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1 and on Disc Three of the Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection. The characters in the scene were animated by Nancy Beiman (Bugs and Daffy), Dean Yeagle (Elmer), and Nelson Rhodes (Sam).Bla bla bla about me https://nancybeiman.com/ Nancy Beiman April 10, 2025Bio https://cagedbeagle.com/bio.htm Dean Yeagle - Caged Beagle Productions, Inc. April 10, 2025 https://web.archive.org/web/20060410124013/https://cagedbeagle.com/bio.htm April 10, 2006 The short features several direct references to some of the previous output of Warner Bros. animation department. During the first, aforementioned "backstage" scene, the name of Bosko, the first true Looney Tunes star, can be seen on one of the dressing room doors for a few frames (ironically, the Warner Bros. studio did not own the rights to Bosko at the time). Midway through the film, there is also a deliberate homage to the "Hunting Trilogy" made popular by Chuck Jones, of whom Ford reportedly holds great admiration. Additionally, during the end credits, "Hello! Ma Baby," a song featured prominently in the Chuck Jones-directed One Froggy Evening, can be heard. Suppression, rediscovery, and subsequent reputation (Blooper) Bunny is a self-parody of some of the specials produced for Bugs Bunny's 50th anniversary the previous year, 1990. Intended to be released theatrically in 1991 with the Warner Bros.-released animated film Rover Dangerfield,Sandler Kevin S. https://books.google.com/books?id=zd_WTZZjvqkC&q=Reading+the+Rabbit:+Explorations+in+Warner+Bros.+Animation Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation 1998 224 Rutgers University Press 978-0-8135-2538-9 en the short, however, never received its intended theatrical release and was shelved for six years, due to the executives at the studio not liking the short's edgy humor, which included "the sound of a toilet flushing".https://chicagoreader.com/chicago/consider-the-source/Content?oid=904461 Consider the Source January 25, 2001 Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader July 21, 2024 According to co-director Greg Ford, the executives withheld the short's release due to one of Daffy Duck's lines where he criticizes the studio for "not having an original bone in [their] body".https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lRMc5dG5ZQ&lc=UgytjL2b-Q4fRbnYzSh4AaABAg.9Q3XtN1Y9gp9hIaIL3OkhM Joe Dante's Battle With Hollywood 21 July 2021 YouTube Gabe Schleifer: Greg Ford told me that a few years ago (a former employee of his was my first year professor at SVA, and Ford came to talk to my class once). According to him, their film "(Blooper) Bunny" was withheld from release for about six years because WB would not let them release it with Daffy's line "WB doesn't have an original bone in their body!" and this is something a classic short could get away with because nobody at WB actually watched the films, they just bankrolled and released them. Warner Bros. witheld (Blooper) Bunny from release due to one of Daffy's lines criticizing them. August 22, 2024 Ford smuggled the finished print of the short out of the studio, informing executive vice president Lisa Henson that he was taking the print to finish its post-production.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyymtYkPD60 This Animation Director STOLE His Own Cartoon From Warner Bros!!! A Commentary with Greg Ford January 31, 2026 YouTube January 31, 2026 Kevin S. Sandler stated in his book, Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation, "Unfortunately, (Blooper) Bunnys corporate irreverence proved to be its downfall. Time Warner delayed the cartoon's release in theaters, on video, or on television for six years. Possibly believing that (Blooper) Bunnys combination of hyperbole, innuendo, profanity, and wickedness might contribute to the "paradigmatic disarray" of the now-watered-down Looney Tunes characters, the heads of Time Warner in 1991 decided to shelve (Blooper) Bunny rather than risk potential public outcry." Jonathan Rosenbaum, in a review for Chicago Reader, noted: "Ironically, Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers, another Bugs Bunny cartoon directed at the same time by the same rebellious duo, Greg Ford and Terry Lennon, is even more directly critical of studio greed, yet it got a pass and wound up on the TV special Bugs Bunny's Creature Features, perhaps because it was less formally transgressive." (Blooper) Bunny would not receive a television premiere until 1997, when it was broadcast on Cartoon Network. It is featured on disc 1 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1 DVD 2003 on, and on disc 3 of the Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection Blu-ray 2020 on, along with an optional audio commentary by Ford. Jules Faber, in a review for DVD.net, lauded the cartoon as a "highlight" and elaborated further: "Blooper Bunny: Bugs Bunny's 511 2 Anniversary is a clever little blooper reel created in 1991 and utilizing some brilliantly conceived early 3D rendering making a very funny behind the scenes mockumentary." Chicago Reader also gave the film a positive mention, saying: Much of what's funny about Blooper Bunny is the temperament of the aging cast: Bugs rehearsing his opening line, "Gosh, I'm so unimportant," over and over; Elmer still trying to grow hair with tonic; Daffy insanely jealous about being upstaged and threatening to have "my people" talk to "your people"; and Sam grouchily declaring as he's being forklifted onstage that he couldn't care less how old Bugs is — he still hates rabbits. Dawn Taylor in a mixed review for The DVD Journal, however, said: "it has some very funny moments, and falls completely flat in others." The DVD Journal | Reviews: The Looney Tunes Golden Collection References External links 0101484 (Blooper) Bunny Category:1991 films Category:1991 animated short films Category:1991 comedy films Category:1991 American animated films Category:1991 English-language films Category:1990s Warner Bros. animated short films Category:1990s American animated short films Category:Merrie Melodies short films Category:Bugs Bunny films Category:Daffy Duck films Category:Elmer Fudd films Category:Yosemite Sam films Category:Fictional quartets Category:Fiction about rivalry Category:Censored films Category:Warner Bros. Animation short films Category:Films directed by Greg Ford Category:English-language short films