. . . with their animated short from the 1950s titled RABBIT RAMPAGE. Donald J. Trump is SO elderly that he was able to enjoy RABBIT RAMPAGE on the big screen when it first came out. As a young lad, Leader Trump was so impressed by the concept here of Elmer Fudd moving Bugs Bunny's rabbit hole into the sky, erasing Bugs' head, and giving Bugs demeaning labels and paint jobs that wee Trump became obsessed with making Elmer's Revenge Story his own Real Life Deal. (Of course, at this time young Leader Trump was suffering from constant bullying about his tiny fingers and T-Rex-like atrophied arms.) Trump-the-Boy decided that these other kids were not Real. This Solipcistic Approach to Life has allowed Leader Trump to discard worn out wives left and right, weasel out of all of a responsible citizen's tax obligations for the Common Good, violate contracts he's signed by the hundreds, shortchange his lowliest dishwashers on their wages, curse and slander President and Pope alike, and run a bankruptcy-based Ponzi Scheme to gain whatever "Wealth" he has. Just as Warner Bros. feared, the American Voters are proving that they are NOT Real People with the ability for individual critical thinking, but merely 350 million props to Mr. Fudd\Trump's Megalomania.

In this semi-sequel to Chuck Jones's excellent "Duck Amuck", Bugs Bunny, the mastermind behind Daffy Duck's systematic breakdown in the previous film, is struck by karma when another mastermind pretty much does to him what he had done to Daffy two years prior.This cartoon is not quite as good as its predecessor, mainly because Daffy generally works better as a flustered loser than Bugs does, but it's still solid stuff, thanks in no small part to its great animation and funny gags (the "shrunken head" gag in particular is priceless). In any case, "Rabbit Rampage", much like Freleng's "The Hare-Brained Hypnotist" and Clampett's "Falling Hare", is an interesting character study of how Bugs Bunny hates to lose. The real humor of the cartoon lies in that Bugs is also much more in-control here than he normally is in most other "loser Bugs" cartoons (he THINKS he is, at least), thus making his barely-contained rage and desperation even funnier in an odd way.When I first saw this cartoon, I expected the mastermind to be either Daffy or Cecil Turtle. The decision to have it instead be Elmer, the last character you would ever expect to play such clever and cruel tricks on Bugs, is a stroke of pure Jonesian genius.

"Rabbit Rampage" is an excellent and fairly unusual Bugs Bunny cartoon directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. Bugs is completely taken advantage of by the artist, thus making this one of the few cartoons in which Bugs cannot retaliate from getting picked on. Believe me, the artist gives it to him good! In a sense, then, "Rabbit Rampage" is a remake of "Duck Amuck" (1953), which features Daffy Duck as the artist's victim.My favorite moments from this cartoon: The artist draws a cavalcade of chapeaus on Bugs' cranium, with appropriate musical accompaniment from Milt Franklyn. With an anvil tied to his tail, Bugs takes a nasty fall onto the pavement; after cussing like Yosemite Sam, Bugs' head is then transformed into a pumpkin.I remember seeing "Rabbit Rampage" on TV when I was a kid, and it can now be found as one of the bonus cartoons on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 6 Disc 1. Whenever Bugs Bunny loses, he loses BIG TIME!

I think this cartoon was released to enhance the success that Daffy Duck's Duck Amuck (1953) achieved by using an even more famous and loved character in Bugs Bunny (better-loved for an unknown reason). It did not work. Though it's funny and I like it, Daffy is the kind of character that is supposed to do this kind of thing. Bugs just isn't himself when at the recieving end of torment. But I guess it shows his other side. But as always, you still get some Jones hallmarks, like the vivid use of colour, good verbal comedy and great animation and expression. The score complements all of that, but as Bugs takes on several forms through the animator's whim, he doesn't feel like Bugs except he continues to crunch his carrot even when he has been drastically modified. Duck Amuck was a better cartoon, much, much better. But this is entertainment, and a funny cartoon is a funny cartoon, I'll admit. So if you look for nothing but seven minutes of a good cartoon, I recommend this one. Good to see it's in print.