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Beanstalk Bunny

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Beanstalk Bunny
Directed byCharles M. Jones
Story byMichael Maltese
Produced byEdward Selzer
StarringMel Blanc
Arthur Q. Bryan
(uncredited)
Music byCarl Stalling
Animation byKen Harris
Richard Thompson
Abe Levitow
Keith Darling
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date
February 12, 1955
Running time
7:00
LanguageEnglish

Beanstalk Bunny is a 1955 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Chuck Jones.[1] The short was released on February 12, 1955, and stars Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd.[2] The cartoon's story is derived from the fairy tale "Jack and the Beanstalk".

Plot

Daffy Duck opens the story in the role of Jack summing up recent events:

Now there goes a salesman – he trades me out of a perfectly good, Grade A homogenized Holstein cow, and for what? Three stupid beans. Jack, you're a jerk.

Frustrated with having traded his cow for the three beans, Daffy tosses them away and they land in Bugs Bunny's rabbit hole. A beanstalk erupts shortly after, and Daffy decides to climb it for the sake of the cartoon ("Well, I'd better get to work climbing that thing, or we won't have any picture"). On the way up, he comes across Bugs, who is asleep in his bed which is stuck in the beanstalk. Bugs awakens and sees Daffy, but Daffy kicks him away. Realizing which story is unfolding before him, Bugs decides that there will be a rabbit in this version of it and begins climbing after Daffy.

Meanwhile, Daffy reaches the top of the beanstalk, excited about stealing the fortune that the giant's castle holds, until he meets the giant himself – Elmer Fudd. Daffy's excitement turns into panic and he runs from the giant Elmer just as Bugs reaches the top. As Elmer closes in on the duo, Bugs reminds Elmer that he is supposed to go after Jack instead of a rabbit and claims that Daffy is Jack. Daffy frantically tries to pass this off as a lie, declaring his name to be Aloysius, and that Bugs is Jack. As the two start to argue about who the real Jack is, Elmer decides to "open up with a pair of Jacks" and captures both of them. Inside the castle, Elmer places Bugs and Daffy under a glass cake dome and prepares to grind their bones with a peppercorn grinder to make his bread. However, they manage to escape because Bugs has an ACME glass cutter in his possession. Elmer then chases the two around his castle as they are trying to escape.

The chase continues until Bugs manages to trip Elmer, knocking him unconscious. Bugs wants to leave the place, but greedy Daffy decides to stay so he can steal "those solid gold goodies" from the giant ("On account of I am greedy"). As Bugs runs towards the beanstalk, he comes across Elmer's huge carrot garden, with carrots as big as houses and ready to be eaten. Later that night, Bugs, his stomach now full and fat to a length equal to his ears, rests under one of the giant carrots he has been eating, and wonders what has become of Daffy, who is revealed to be trapped inside Elmer's pocket watch, acting like the minute and hour hands, while constantly making tick-tock sounds. Daffy remarks "Eh...it's a living", closing the cartoon.

Cast

Home media

This cartoon is available on the laserdisc release Hare Beyond Compare and on the VHS cassette Daffy Duck: The Nuttiness Continues....

Until 2023, this short was unavailable on DVD or Blu-ray. It's been rumored that the original negative stored in the Warner Bros. vault was damaged, but was reported in July 2020 that a restoration was being worked on.[3] The short was eventually released on home media as part of the Looney Tunes Collector's Choice: Volume 1 released in 2023.[4]

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. 269. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
  2. ^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 60–62. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7.
  3. ^ @spongefan21 (22 October 2020). "@bunchasofties @C_A_P_" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  4. ^ Beck, Jerry (28 March 2023). "Warner Archive Collection Announces "Looney Tunes Collector's Choice" blu-ray – Animation Scoop". www.animationscoop.com. Archived from the original on 7 April 2023. Retrieved 7 April 2023.
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Preceded by Bugs Bunny Cartoons
1955 		Succeeded by
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