My Bunny Lies over the Sea

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My Bunny Lies over the Sea
My Bunny Lies over the Sea title card.png
Title card for My Bunny Lies over the Sea
Directed by Charles M. Jones
Story by Michael Maltese
Produced by Edward Selzer
Starring Mel Blanc
Music by Carl Stalling
Animation by Ken Harris
Phil Monroe
Ben Washam
Lloyd Vaughan
Layouts by Robert Gribbroek
Backgrounds by Peter Alvarado
Color process Technicolor
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date
  • December 4, 1948 (1948-12-04)
Running time
7:29
CountryUnited States
Language English

My Bunny Lies over the Sea is a Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon, released on December 4, 1948. [1] This theatrical cartoon was directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. [2] Mel Blanc played both Bugs Bunny and the Scotsman.

Contents

The title is a play on the second line of the old song, "My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean". The seven-minute short has been released on DVD multiple times in different compilation discs, and as of 2003 is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1 . Though this cartoon was the Scotsman's (named Angus MacRory) only theatrical appearance, he also made his second major role in "It's a Plaid, Plaid, Plaid, Plaid World" episode (first aired on February 3, 1996) in The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries . The Scotsman appeared briefly in a 1989 TV special and on a couple of Animaniacs episodes. He can also be seen in the 1996 hit film, Space Jam , watching the Toon Squad/Michael Jordan basketball game.

Plot

This cartoon begins as Bugs Bunny once again gets lost when he is tunneling to his vacation spot. He accidentally ends up near Loch Lomond, Scotland instead of the La Brea Tar Pits, and mistakes a Highlander named Angus MacRory playing the bagpipes for a lady being attacked by a "horrible monster". Bugs jumps MacRory, trying to rescue the "woman", and in the process he smashes his bagpipes to pieces.

Belatedly, Bugs figures out that MacRory is actually a man, fits him with a barrel and straps (claiming that wearing a skirt as a man is "indecent") and then asks him for directions. When the angry Scotsman replies that this is Scotland and brandishes a blunderbuss, Bugs dives back into his hole and comes back out disguised as an elderly Scotsman, accusing MacRory of "poaching on [his] property". MacRory doesn't believe him, however, and challenges him to a game of golf.

Throughout the golf game, Bugs continually cheats on the Scotsman and then declares himself the winner. MacRory angrily denounces the rabbit's cheating, but Bugs defends himself with a list of phony "historical" citations. MacRory concedes defeat, but still claims that he can't be beaten when it comes to playing bagpipes, and he grabs the instrument to demonstrate. After playing, he dares Bugs to try and top that — which, to MacRory's shock, the rabbit does, by dressing like a Scot and playing not only the pipes, but also a trombone, a saxophone, a trumpet, two clarinets, cymbals on his feet, and a bass drum on his head with the beaters tied to his ears, all at the same time. Bugs takes a final glimpse at the audience and waggles his eyebrow, before an iris-out.

Censorship

The version of this cartoon shown on CBS in the 1970s/1980s cut the part where Angus MacRory shoots his rifle at Bugs and the bullet falls, MacRory picks it up and asides to the audience that "It's been in the family for years," due to gun violence and the stereotype of the "thrifty Scotsman".

Other appearances

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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. 192. ISBN   0-8050-0894-2.
  2. ↑ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons . Checkmark Books. pp.  60-61. ISBN   0-8160-3831-7 . Retrieved 6 June 2020.
Preceded by Bugs Bunny Cartoons
1948		Succeeded by
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