User Reviews

Bugs tunnels his way back in time ... not as far back as he did in Bob McKimson's HARE WE GO (with Christopher Columbus), but he emerges in Europe once again, in Napoleon's headquarters circa 1810. The Emperor's war room becomes the setting for typical Bugs trickery, followed by violent action involving a bayonet (Napoleon utters some interesting cusses while the blade is in his butt). Bugs gets out of trouble for a while by dressing as Josephine and switching on the ballroom jukebox (this is the film's best part, with Virgil Ross animation, sophisticated music titles, and lots of polish by background artist Irv Wyner). But Bugs lets his dress slip; the ensuing chase ends in an execution yard which is dominated by a towering guillotine and lent extra menace by Wyner's twilight graphics. Only Bugs could get away with uttering an old Gillette ad line while peering under the executioner's hood. Additional laughs are provided by the incongruous presence of Muggsy, who is understandably never shown on a seat.

-Tony

Director: I. FRELENG. Story: Warren Foster. Animation: Gerry Chiniquy, Virgil Ross, Arthur Davis. Backgrounds: Hawley Pratt. Lay-outs: Irv Wyner. Voice characterizations: Mel Blanc. Music director: Milt Franklyn. Color by Technicolor. Producer: Ed Selzer.

A Warner Bros. "Merrie Melodies" cartoon. U.S. release: 16 June 1956. 1 reel. 7 minutes.

COMMENT: Bugs takes another of his famous wrong turns at Hollywood Boulevard, and ends up in Napoleon's palace. A nice contrast is made between the grandeur of the palace with its high-ceilinged doors and the diminutive rabbit - and the equally short-stopped, mad-as-a-hatter Napoleon.

After some zany adventures sliding down bannisters and evading the guillotine, Bugs heads for his hole.

This entry has some wit, moves fast, and often delights the eye with striking designs and images. The Napoleon character makes a good foil for our hero, but he doesn't quite rise to the occasion, preferring instead to evade the emperor's wrath with such tried and true devices as a female impersonation (they dance to "Three Coins in the Fountainbleu") and making a scapegoat out of a not-so-bright sentry. All the same, definitely recommended.

. . . do they all teach our Young 'Uns their letters and numbers, like Sesame Street? Or do they exalt in messing with brains as Impressionable as Silly Putty, provoking Young Boys to play "dress-up" in Mommy's heels, lingerie, and lipstick? Many of Warner Bros. "Merrie Melodies" outings fall into this latter perverse category, with the Bugs Bunny short NAPOLEON BUNNY-PART following that pattern. The first half of NAPOLEON features four scenes of men painfully poking each other in the butt, making out like this is one of the primary pastimes of adult guys. A fifth episode involves Bugs masquerading as NAPOLEON's Empress Josephine, and the former shooting the latter in "her"\his butt. Beyond the sexual confusion displayed by NAPOLEON in not being able to distinguish his wife from a jack-rabbit in drag and the suggestiveness of the Emporer firing his load at the exit rather than entrance, the indiscriminate nature of such intimacies between strangers no doubt led to many kids finding it more thrilling to reenact NAPOLEON BUNNY-PART than to Play Doctor. Psychologists need to study which exposure is better for Pre-teen socialization: tasteful XXX modeling Protection, or Merrie Melodies?