Baseball Bugs is perhaps not Bugs's best, or quite classic status, as the beginning is a little slow, but it is a zany and original Looney Tunes cartoon with a lot to recommend. While there are a lot of memorable characters, it is Bugs who steals the show in the way only he can, with his quick wit and all. The animation is also good, colourful and solid-looking, while Carl Stalling's music is superb. The dialogue is furious and witty, and the visual gags are right on the money, especially the catch which was so outrageous it was funny! The story is very simple, but it is great too. And of course, the one and only Mel Blanc voices multiple characters to perfection. Overall, not quite a Looney Tunes cartoon, but it is very funny and original elevated even more by Bugs. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Baseball Bugs (1946) **** (out of 4)This here has always been one of my favorite Looney Toons. Bugs is at a baseball game where he starts heckling a team of outlaws who soon forces the bunny to play them. I'm not sure how many times I've watched this in my life but I remember as a kid I'd always stop was I was doing whenever I heard the sports commentators intro. I think there are plenty of non-stop jokes in this from the umpire being hit over the head and then apologizing for calling a strike to the final out with Bugs taking a trip across the city to get to a ball.

Having recently gotten the first Looney Tunes Golden Collection from my library, I went through all the extras first (except the "music only" shorts). Then I started watching the cartoons in order of appearance. Baseball Bugs is the first one listed on disc one. This Friz Freling effort from a Michael Maltese story piles on all the gags that one always associate with the Warner Bros. cartoons, like the one when Bugs, as the lone pitcher of a baseball team, manages to strike out three members of the opposing team by throwing the ball reeeeaaaaallll slow as all three swing their bat real quickly with the announcer saying at that speed, "One, two, three, out!" Or the one when Bugs distracts one of them by showing a picture of a sexy girl to keep him from catching the ball. Or how about a bat boy with bat wings giving the rabbit a couple of bats. There's plenty more but I don't want to spoil the whole thing for you so all I'll say is: Just watch.

In most Bugs Bunny cartoons, he is pitted against a foe, usually human, while formidable in their own way, are obviously not in his league when it comes to brains. In this particular one, directed by Friz Freleng, he is up against a whole team of them. Bugs calls the Gas House Gorillas "a bunch of dirty cheaters". They then challenge him to a game of baseball where Bugs has to play every position, plus having to catch up where the Tea Totalers left off, behind 96-0 or something close to this score. Many of the jokes aren't up to writer Michael Maltese's usual standards, but anyone who has ever watched this cartoon will never forget the ending sequence where Bugs has to catch the last out of the game to win it.