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Wabbit Twouble

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Wabbit Twouble
Lobby card
Directed byBob Clampett
Story byDave Monahan
Produced byLeon Schlesinger
Music byCarl W. Stalling
Animation bySid Sutherland
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
Release date
  • December 20, 1941 (1941-12-20)
Running time
8:22
LanguageEnglish

Wabbit Twouble is a Merrie Melodies cartoon starring Bugs Bunny, produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions and released on December 20, 1941, by Warner Bros. Pictures.[1]

Plot

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Elmer Fudd embarks on a journey to Jellostone National Park, aiming for a tranquil retreat. Upon arrival, he sets up his campsite, unknowingly positioning his tent over Bugs Bunny's rabbit hole. A mischievous Bugs Bunny plays a series of pranks on Elmer, including altering the time on his alarm clock and leading him to believe it is nighttime when it's actually daytime.

As Elmer tries to go about his routine, Bugs continues his antics, leading Elmer into perilous situations such as hanging off a cliff and encountering a grizzly bear. Despite Elmer's attempts to confront Bugs, the rabbit always manages to evade him, leading to further chaos and frustration for Elmer.

Eventually, Elmer's frustration boils over, and he vandalizes a park sign out of anger, leading to his arrest for destruction of government property. In an ironic twist, Elmer finds himself sharing a jail cell with Bugs and the bear he encountered earlier, adding to his woes.

Production notes

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This is the first of several Bugs Bunny films that refer to Elmer Fudd's speech impediment, with the names of Bob Clampett, Sidney Sutherland, and Carl Stalling, as well as the roles of Story, Supervision, and Musical Direction, intentionally misspelled in the credits to match the speech impediment.

Tex Avery began the project which Clampett finished; Avery is not credited on screen.[2] This was the first Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd cartoon directed by Clampett, with a story by Dave Monahan and musical direction by Carl W. Stalling. Although Sid Sutherland is the only credited animator, the short was also animated by Virgil Ross, Rod Scribner, and Robert McKimson. Mel Blanc provided the voices for Bugs and the bear, and Arthur Q. Bryan provided the voice for Elmer.

For the cartoon, Elmer was redesigned as a fat man (based on voice actor Arthur Q. Bryan's own physique) in an attempt to make him funnier. The "fat Elmer" would only make three more appearances in the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies canon – The Wabbit Who Came to Supper, The Wacky Wabbit and Fresh Hare, in addition to a cameo appearance in the war bond advertisement Any Bonds Today? – before returning to the slimmer form by which he is better known, for The Hare-Brained Hypnotist. This cartoon was the only time, though, that the "fat Elmer" also had a red nose. This is also the only cartoon with the "fat" version of Elmer still under copyright; all other "Fat Elmer" cartoons are in the public domain. Cartoon Network's anthology series ToonHeads later focused an episode on this particular design for Elmer in 1999 with "The Year Elmer Fudd Got Fat", which included Wabbit Twouble.

Reception

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Animation historian David Gerstein writes, "Wabbit Twouble represents a variant on the trickster of fable and myth who doesn't wait to pester first. Clampett's Bugs invades others' lives for the fun of it—especially when those others seem, like Elmer, to be easy targets... Bugs has immediately identified Elmer as the perfect patsy and mocks his girth and mannerisms. From the point of view of the classic trickster, some people simply deserve a hard time."[3]

Big Chungus

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The still frame from the short that has come to be known as "Big Chungus".

In December 2018, a still from the short depicting Bugs mocking Elmer by imitating his likeness became an Internet meme. The meme originated from fictitious cover art for a video game titled Big Chungus (with "chungus" being a neologism coined by video game journalist James Stephanie Sterling in 2012)[4] which featured the still and was popularized by a Facebook post by a GameStop manager in Colorado Springs, who alleged that a customer had inquired about purchasing the fictional game as a gift for her son.[5]

In April 2021, the character was added to the mobile game Looney Tunes World of Mayhem.[6][7] Big Chungus was briefly featured in the 2021 film Space Jam: A New Legacy,[8] and eventually received a trademark from Warner Bros. themselves.[9]

Home media

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References

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  1. ^ Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 123. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
  2. ^ "Cartoon Logic: Cartoon Logic Episode 06: Myth-Guided History - The Early Days of Bugs and Elmer (Wabbit Twouble)". cartoonlogic.libsyn.com. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  3. ^ Beck, Jerry, ed. (2020). The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons. Insight Editions. pp. 194–195. ISBN 978-1-64722-137-9.
  4. ^ "Big Chungus Is The Last Great Meme Of 2018". The Daily Dot. December 28, 2018. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
  5. ^ Staley, Willy (January 14, 2019). "All the President's Memes". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved January 25, 2019.
  6. ^ Deschamps, Marc (March 31, 2021). "Big Chungus Comes to Looney Tunes World of Mayhem". ComicBook.com. Retrieved March 31, 2021.
  7. ^ Walker, Ian (March 30, 2021). "Looney Tunes Gacha Game Exhumes The Corpse Of Big Chungus". kotaku.com. Retrieved July 29, 2022.
  8. ^ Sarrubba, Stefania (July 15, 2021). "Fans Are Losing It At 'Rick And Morty' Cameo In 'Space Jam: A New Legacy'". The Things. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  9. ^ Ongweso Jr, Edward (September 1, 2022). "Warner Bros Is Trying to Trademark Big Chungus". Vice. Retrieved May 26, 2023.
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Preceded by Bugs Bunny Cartoons
1941 		Succeeded by
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