Baseball Bugs (1946)

. . . a carrot juice-fueled Bugs Bunny snatches Victory from the Spitoon of Defeat on behalf of his fellow Brooklyn Teetotalers. Coming on in relief with no one out in the bottom of the fourth and 41 runs already across the plate (Conga-line style), Bugs starts to dig out of the Temperance Boys' 95-0 hole by striking out three Gas House Gorillas on a single pitch. With plenty of innings left to "chip away" at the Gorillas' imposing advantage, Bugs takes the hill in the bottom of the Ninth Inning with a razor-thin 96-95 advantage (mathematically, the closest margin in baseball history). With one on and two down, the Gorilla clean-up hitter approaches the plate wielding a telephone pole. A mighty whack loft's Bugs' first offering well clear of the Polo Ground's not-so-friendly confines. Bugs exploits a gap in the center-field fence to first hop a taxi, then a streetcar, and finally an elevator to the roof of the "Umpire" State Building. Climbing a flagpole, Bugs throws his glove at the still ascending baseball. Said glove catches the ball, Bugs catches his glove, a speedy umpire calls the out, and the Statue of Liberty declares a Teetotaler Triumph (signaling Warner Bros.' urgent wish for a return of Prohibition, and the opportunity to make Modern Day sequels to THE PUBLIC ENEMY, THE ROARING TWENTIES, and other such Dry Days Classics.)

In most Bugs Bunny cartoons, he is pitted against a foe, usually human, while formidable in their own way, are obviously not in his league when it comes to brains. In this particular one, directed by Friz Freleng, he is up against a whole team of them. Bugs calls the Gas House Gorillas "a bunch of dirty cheaters". They then challenge him to a game of baseball where Bugs has to play every position, plus having to catch up where the Tea Totalers left off, behind 96-0 or something close to this score. Many of the jokes aren't up to writer Michael Maltese's usual standards, but anyone who has ever watched this cartoon will never forget the ending sequence where Bugs has to catch the last out of the game to win it.

Bugs is watching a one sided baseball match and is giving the winning team a lot of verbal about their skills or, in his opinion, lack of them. When the team surround him and call his bluff, Bugs is forced to play them himself – in all positions!Bugs' antics are as good as ever here even if he has no one single foil to battle. The plot sets him up to outwit the baseball team of thugs and win his bet. The jokes are good as they always are, but they do tend to get a little repetitive and it quickly runs out of things to do within the confines of the stadium and the sport.The characters are all good. The baseball bruisers are the same sort of make up as most of the thuggish characters which populate these cartoons, but Bugs deals with them well in a mix of physical comedy and quick wit!Overall this is typical of Bugs Bunny's style and will be enjoyed by fans. Only thing to note is that it is a bit lacking in imagination after a short while and is not the best example of a fine Bugs Bunny cartoon.

This is the one you remember from when you were growing up and watching Saturday morning "Bugs Bunny and Roadrunner" cartoons. I recently watched this cartoon a 15 years at least since I last saw it and laughed out loud at all the pranks that Bugs pulled out of his hat. I know I must have used some of these jokes when I was playing baseball as a kid.And the cameo at the end of America's perennial first lady was a hoot - and Bugs goes and lampoons her on the spot!Classic is the only word for this one.