Knighty Knight Bugs

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Knighty Knight Bugs
KnightKnightBugs-TC.png
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Produced by John W. Burton, Sr.
Starring Mel Blanc
Music by Milt Franklyn
Animation by Gerry Chiniquy
Arthur Davis
Virgil Ross
Layouts by Hawley Pratt
Backgrounds byTom O'Loughlin
Color process Technicolor
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date
  • August 23, 1958 (1958-08-23)
Running time
6:28

Knighty Knight Bugs is a 1958 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. [1] The short was released on August 23, 1958, and stars Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. [2]

Contents

Knighty Knight Bugs is the only Bugs Bunny cartoon to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, which was awarded in 1959. [3] The short was later included in the 1981 compilation film The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie . The cartoon's title is a pun on the phrase "nighty-night".

Plot

Bugs Bunny aims his mallet at Black Knight Yosemite Sam Knighty Knight Bugs.png
Bugs Bunny aims his mallet at Black Knight Yosemite Sam

In the realm of King Arthur, trouble ensues when the infamous Black Knight Yosemite Sam steals the Singing Sword. King Arthur, looks to the Knights of the Round Table, as a volunteer to recover the stolen artifact, to which all of them reject. Reluctantly, court jester Bugs Bunny is assigned the mission by King Arthur, facing execution if he fails.

Upon infiltrating the castle of the Black Knight, Bugs encounters a dragon, a companion to Yosemite Sam, suffering from a cold-induced sneezing fit. Taking advantage of the situation, Bugs retrieves the Singing Sword from the castle's chest. When Bugs wonders aloud why it is called the Singing Sword, it starts humming "Cuddle up a Little Closer, Lovey Mine" and causes Sam to wake up from his nap. As Bugs escapes, Yosemite Sam gives chase of the dragon, leading to a series of comical encounters. Bugs outsmarts Yosemite Sam by utilizing the castle's defenses against him, causing various mishaps, including Sam falling into the moat and being flattened by a failed catapult launch. Despite Sam's persistent pursuit, Bugs ultimately traps him and the dragon in an explosives stockade within the castle.

As Bugs departs with the Singing Sword, the dragon's sneeze triggers an explosion that propels Sam and the dragon towards the moon. Bugs bids them farewell as the Singing Sword plays "Aloha 'Oe" at the end.

Awards

Knighty Knight Bugs is the fifth Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes entry to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1959. In doing so, it beat out cartoons Walt Disney Studios' Paul Bunyan and Terrytoons' Sidney's Family Tree. [4] It was the third Oscar-nominated Bugs Bunny cartoon, after A Wild Hare in 1941 [5] and Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt in 1942. [6] The Oscar was presented to John W. Burton, the producer of this cartoon. [7] After Burton's death, the Oscar was handed to the director, Friz Freleng. [8]

In the Tiny Toon Adventures episode "Who Bopped Bugs Bunny?", the Oscar win of Knighty Knight Bugs is a major plot point. Mirroring the real-life loss of the Terrytoons short at the Academy Awards, a character named Sappy "Slaphappy" Stanley (a parody of "Silly" Sidney, here voiced by Jonathan Winters) was defeated for the Shloscar Award. As a result, Stanley scorned the U.S. film industry. He relocated to France, where despite becoming a national star still nursed a bitter grudge against Bugs, culminating in the episode's plot.

References

Home media

This cartoon is featured uncut on Disc 1 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4 DVD set, [9] Disc 1 of the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection DVD set, Disc 1 of The Essential Bugs Bunny DVD set, Disc 1 of the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3 Blu-ray and DVD sets, and Disc 3 of the Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection Blu-ray set.

Attractions

Bugs' White Water Rapids at Six Flags Fiesta Texas Bugs' White Water Rapids at SFFT.jpg
Bugs' White Water Rapids at Six Flags Fiesta Texas

Bugs' White Water Rapids is a Hopkins Rides log flume themed to Knighty Knight Bugs that opened in 1998 at Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio, Texas. [10] [11] [12]

See also

References

  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. 309. ISBN   0-8050-0894-2.
  2. ↑ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 60–62. ISBN   0-8160-3831-7 . Retrieved June 6, 2020.
  3. ↑ "1958 Academy Awards" . Retrieved October 18, 2024.
  4. ↑ "1958 academy awards" . Retrieved September 20, 2007.
  5. ↑ "1940 Academy Awards" . Retrieved September 20, 2007.
  6. ↑ "1941 Academy Awards" . Retrieved September 20, 2007.
  7. ↑ Short Subject Winners: 1959 Oscars
  8. ↑ "Cartoonist Friz Freleng dead at 89" (PDF). The Palladium-Times. Associated Press. May 27, 1995. Retrieved January 20, 2023.
  9. ↑ "Looney Tunes - Golden Collection, Volume Four DVD Review". Archived from the original on October 10, 2007. Retrieved September 20, 2007.
  10. ↑ "Bugs' White Water Rapids". Six Flags Fiesta Texas. Retrieved December 14, 2011.
  11. ↑ "Fiesta Texas History". Archived from the original on March 23, 2012. Retrieved December 14, 2011.
  12. ↑ "Bug's White Water Rapids". Archived from the original on November 6, 2011. Retrieved December 14, 2011.
Preceded by Bugs Bunny Cartoons
1958		Succeeded by
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