. . . about BOTH "tackle" football AND Alvin Chipmunk flicks with this brief seven-minute animated short, RABBIT'S KIN. Bugs Bunny has to take an irritating cousin under his wing while resisting the natural urge to try out his extensive collection of hammers, gavels, and mallets on this trying tyke, who Jibber-Jabbers like a helium sucker (but fortunately lacks the two brothers necessary to equal ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS for the sheer ability to annoy). Following this easy but maddening prey into Bugs' lair is Pete Puma, who talks like all the one-time "gridiron heroes" who've taken one (or one hundred) lumps too many on behalf of their "sport," and are now playing out the string on their shortened lives by commentating on "the dog that bit them," or making Public Service Announcements on behalf of all the football dorms housing ex-players in the final throes of game-induced dementia. Masochistic by nature, Pete finishes RABBIT'S KIN amid an orgy of self-concussing blows (something called "football practice" by Real Life Brain Trauma Aficianos). Though Will Smith's CONCUSSION is just around the corner as of this writing, that live-action feature film will probably take a lot longer to get to its point that football is a tragic waste, compared to the much briefer RABBIT'S KIN.

Rabbit's Kin is an amusing if unexceptional Bugs Bunny cartoon. The storyline is mediocre mostly, Shorty is cute but he does have an irritating voice as well and the pacing was a little too quick. That said, it is amusing, with some amusing sight gags like Pete Pumas's semi-dance and some razor sharp dialogue. The animation is vibrant and colourful, and the character designs are excellent, and the music is lovely to the ears. Shorty aside, the characters are fine. Bugs is great here, a little underplayed compared to other times I have seen him, but Mel Blanc voices him marvellously. My favourite character though was Pete, he was absolutely hilarious and quite likable, with a scream/howl that you just love to imitate with a brilliant vocal performance from Stan Freberg. Overall, not absolutely superb, but definitely worth the watch. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Rabbit's Kin (1952) *** 1/2 (out of 4) The dimwitted Pete Puma (a lion) chases a baby rabbit into a hole not knowing that Bugs Bunny lives there. Of course Bugs has a few tricks up his sleeve to teach the dumb lion. This is yet another classic entry in the series that manages to be very funny even though I can't stand one of the characters. The film's biggest weakness to me is the young rabbit who I just find too annoying to really be entertained by him. Outside of that this short offers up many laughs and a lot of the credit has to go to the Puma character. The dumbness of this character is top notch and the running joke involving lumps are priceless. The ending with Puma giving himself lumps is hysterical as are many of the teaching methods of Bugs.

I really enjoyed "Rabbit's Kin," mainly for the cute little rabbit (who is completely ununderstandable and painful for many ears), Bugs Bunny and Pete Puma, even though he is a little annoying and the animation is good. I also liked the humour - usually I find repetitive humour very irritating and it often puts me off the thing I am watching, but in this case I did not mind! Pete Puma is a good character, almost as likable as Elmer Fudd, but I would not give the tea leaves in my china teapot to see all his other episodes (if he has any more). He is surprisingly stupid, even more so than many of the the characters that Bugs Bunny is paired with.In this episode, we see a little brown bunny rabbit with big eyes, running away from something or other. He bumps into Bugs Bunny and tells him that a puma is trying to catch and eat him (here Bugs Bunny seems to be some kind of linguist, as he understands the baby bunny, yet no-one else understands him). We also meet Pete Puma, the puma trying to hunt the little brown rabbit...I recommend this episode to people who like Bugs Bunny and people who like repetitive cartoons (and even to some people who do not!). Enjoy "Rabbit's Kin"! :-)