. . . with this 1940s animated short, THE BIG SNOOZE. Bugs Bunny takes on the Humphrey Bogart part, which of course leaves the Lauren Bacall role to Elmer Fudd. Though Mr. Fudd looks better in a green cocktail dress than Ms. Bacall, that may be a moot point, given SLEEP's monochromatic nature. Whereas the live-action Bogart flick involved him and Bacall telling each other an increasingly complicated bedtime murder mystery in which even the Real Life movie director admitted he could not figure out exactly who killed whom, SNOOZE finds Bugs invading Elmer's retirement dreams with packs of bunnies and wolves until Elmer's not sure which bathroom to use in North Carolina. Since Elmer logs on and off to Reality here like a schizophrenic on an LSD trip, there's no need for SNOOZE to introduce such tomfoolery as SLEEP's hidden cameras. Elmer appears totally nude from 5:08 through 5:11 of SNOOZE, which is a lot more daring than you can credit Bacall for anything she doffs in SLEEP. However, both efforts boil down to yawners.

Big Snooze, The (1946) *** (out of 4) Elmer Fudd, tired of being abused by Bugs Bunny, decides to tear up his contract to Warner and go on vacation. Bugs needs him back so the rabbit invades his dreams to cause a nightmare. This is certainly a wild short but I've never found it to be a funny one. What does work here are the amazing colors inside the "nightmare", which look absolutely stunning in their remastered form. The visuals are certainly the main reason to watch this film as there aren't too many laughs. The film starts off with a chase, which would normally end a cartoon but here the gag is somewhat funny. The best sequence is the famous one where Elmer is tied to the train tracks and a train of rabbits run over him.

Elmer Fudd is the doing the normal thing for him: hunting for Bugs Bunny in the woods. Bugs cleverly uses a log and a cliff to repeat the same joke three times, but it's always funny. Finally, Elmer has had it. He tired of always losing "in these cartoons." He takes his Warner Brothers contract and rips it up!"From now on, its nothing but fishing for me, and no more wabbits," announces Elmer to a stunned Bugs, who pleads with him to change his mind. "Doc, you can't do this to me. Look at all we've been through. We're like Rabbit & Costello," he says. (That's one of the things I love about these cartoons - great, inventive dialog.)While Elmer's peacefully dreaming, Bugs invades his dream! This is one of the wildest, funniest Bug Bunny cartoons I have ever seen - just brilliant material.

In this last Bob Clampett Looney Tunes short, Elmer Fudd is thoroughly appalled by the treatment he always winds up getting from Bugs Bunny, so he decides enough is enough, tears up his Warner Brothers contract and commits himself to fishing for the rest of his days. Bugs is mortified of course (for his own job security mind you) and when he finds Elmer dreaming, he takes a sleeping pill and enters his pleasant dream to turn it into a nightmare. This is a hilarious if a wee bit surreal cartoon that can be seen on Disc 1 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2. It also features an optional commentary by animator Bill Melendez that is pretty good.My Grade: A