8 Ball Bunny (1950)

Touches You

Too much of everything

Just what I expected

Excellent adaptation.

8 Ball Bunny (1950) *** (out of 4) A small penguin gets separated from his traveling circus but thankfully he runs into Bugs Bunny who agrees to take him back home to the South Pole. This Warner/Looney Tunes short isn't going to be mistaken for a masterpiece as it doesn't contain enough laughs or action but there's no denying that the story itself is cute enough as is the penguin. For the most part this short moves well enough and the pacing is certain good enough to make the 7-minute running time go by very quickly. The highlight of the film is the rather funny map that shows the progress that the two are making. Of course, the scenes in between the maps really aren't all that clever or funny. One such example is a scene where Bugs is playing guitar while the penguin makes them a boat. It's just not funny. The one thing that does work is a few cameo spots by Humphrey Bogart playing the character from THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE.

I like this cartoon a lot. Much of it is probably due to just how gosh darn cute the penguin is who co-stars in the cartoon! Bugs is minding his own business asleep at home when a tiny penguin comes falling into his hole. The penguin missed his truck when the show he was in folded and Bugs feels sorry enough for him he vows to help bring him home. They go across the globe getting into some awful scrapes in order to get the little guy home. At one point, they have to fight off hobos who want to eat the penguin ("they taste practically like chickens"), headhunters and being shipwrecked! Finally, they make it to the South Pole, at which point the penguin gives Bugs a copy of a newspaper clipping indicating he was born in Hoboken, NJ!

This has got to be one of my all-time favorite Bugs Bunny cartoons, mostly because it's one of the first ones that we actually feel really sorry for poor Bugs. After coming across a lost little penguin who was accidentally left behind, he promises to help him find his way home... only to discover that penguins live at the South Pole! Bugs and the little penguin set off to bring the little penguin home, through starving hobos, a tax to cross the Panama Canal, getting attacked by a hungry tribe of cannibals, not to mention getting followed by a certain celebrity from The Treasure of Sierra Madre, they finally make it to the South Pole. However, Bugs discovers one tiny little problem: this penguin was raised in captivity in Hoboken, New Jersey!!!If you're like me, you'll fall in love with that cute little penguin (who can resist melting when he cries ice cubes?) and laugh as Bugs strains himself to help him out. Definitely a classic to love and watch over and over.

Bugs bunny meets a lost penguin and sets out to get him home to the south pole. Naturally there are a few slips along the way, but the indestructible bunny is equal to all challenges.Better than average bugs bunny cartoon but what a strange title. It doesn't seem to have anything at all to do with the cartoon. Chuck Jones does seem to go in for odd choices of title but this one beats them all!