Apes of Wrath

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Apes of Wrath
Apes of Wrath title card.png
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Starring Mel Blanc
Additional voice characterization:
June Foray (uncredited)
Music by Milt Franklyn
Animation by Arthur Davis
Virgil Ross
Gerry Chiniquy
Layouts by Hawley Pratt
Backgrounds byTom O'Loughlin
Color process Technicolor
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date
  • April 18, 1959 (1959-04-18)
Running time
6:28

Apes of Wrath is a 1959 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short directed by Friz Freleng. [1] The short was released on April 18, 1959, and stars Bugs Bunny. [2] This cartoon recycles the plot from the 1948 cartoon Gorilla My Dreams . The title is a parody of John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath .

Contents

This cartoon was featured in Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales , but with a few slight changes, since the plot features Bugs and Daffy trying to sell books.

Plot

An inebriated stork is delivering a baby gorilla in the jungle, but loses him while taking a break. Realizing he'll be in big trouble if he doesn't deliver a baby, he tries to find a replacement. Spying Bugs Bunny roasting a carrot and singing, the stork knocks him out with a stick, dresses him in baby clothes, and flies him to the expectant parents.

"Mama" and Elvis Gorilla are overjoyed when the stork arrives, but are horrified upon seeing how hideous their "son" looks, Elvis gets a club to put him out of his misery, but the overbearing Mama stops him, scolding, "No matter what he looks like, he's still your son!" As Bugs wakes up, he notices his dress and headache and assumes he was at a costume party, got drunk and passed out, but quickly realizes his predicament when he sees Mama. Mama is already endeared to the "baby", but Elvis is disgusted, roaring in Bug's face when Mama tries to get him to give Bugs a kiss. Bugs fakes crying and being scared, earning Elvis a hit on the head from a rolling pin and a scolding from Mama. Realizing manipulating the conflict could be enjoyable, Bugs decides to keep up the cherade.

For most of the short, Bugs makes Elvis' life a nightmare, since both know Elvis can't really do anything without reprisal from Mama and her rolling pin. However, as Bugs is hitting a complacent Elvis with a bat, the stork finds and delivers the real baby. Both then realize the jig is up (Elvis grinning wickedly and a horrified Bugs uttering the pitteous line of "Mother.") Elvis then chases after Bugs with a vengeance and, while Bugs believes he's lost Elvis, the gorilla prepares to drop a boulder on him from a cliff. Unfortunately, Bugs runs away as Mama approaches, unknowingly getting in range, and the boulder lands on her instead, leaving Elvis tongue-tied for an explanation.

As Bugs watches the off-screen thrashing Mama gives Elvis, the drunken stork hands him a bundle and congratulates him on becoming a mother, to Bug's confusion. He opens the bundle to have Daffy Duck with a lump on his head and dressed in baby clothes jump out and call him "mummy", suggesting a parallel to Bug's predicament. He gives an annoyed Bugs kisses as the short end.

Home media

"Apes of Wrath" is available, uncensored and uncut, on the Looney Tunes Super Stars' Bugs Bunny: Hare Extraordinaire and Looney Tunes: Unleashed DVDs. However, in both cases it was cropped to widescreen. It was also included in the Stars of Space Jam: Bugs Bunny DVD, but this time in the ratio in which it was originally animated (fullscreen aspect ratio).

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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. 315. 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 6 June 2020.
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