Title - Wackiki Wabbit
Director - Chuck Jones
Released - 1943
Interesting Fact -- See below, don't want to spoil the surprise.
Reason for Placement --
Chuck Jones gives us a real visual treat with Wackiki Wabbit: a pair of castaways find themselves on a deserted island, and the only food in sight is... you guessed it, Bugs Bunny.
While we would never see the two castaways in future cartoons, most animation fanatics will recognize the pair: they are caricatures of Tedd Pierce (the tall, thin one) and Michael Maltese (the short, fat one), two writers responsible for most of the Looney Tunes cartoons. And while they were not credited, Pierce and Maltese even provided the voices.
This was one of Chuck Jones' first cartoons to feature the modern design of Bugs Bunny, as well as really cementing the wascially wabbit's character and humor. One of the best parts is shortly after our antagonists first see Bugs: they follow him into the island, where they see him dancing to drums and native chanting. Bugs greets the two with an overly-exaggerated island language, and the three proceed to partake in more Polynesian dancing (before Bugs stops and walks off, leaving the two to continue and temporarily forget about chasing him). If someone had warned the castaways what lay ahead on the island, something tells me they probably would have stayed out in the sea.
I liked the animation on the part where Bugs and the castaways do the tribal dance. Nice stylization on the backgrounds, too. Jones really was ahead of his time.
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