What's Up Doc? is a pretty amusing, if not hilarious, cartoon from director Robert McKimson about Bugs Bunny's rise in show biz. As a child, he learns to play Franz Lizst on the piano. Then as an adult, he starts in the chorus in various musical revues. Bugs blows his big chance, however, when his solo act only gets crickets chirping (a familiar cartoon gag for when a performer bombs). Down on his luck, he sits on a park bench with Al Jolson, Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, and Bing Crosby when headliner Elmer Fudd walks by. Fudd rejects everybody as they do their trademark cues except Bugs. Bugs is basically a stooge to Elmer so he switches punchlines in New York which causes an angry Fudd to get a rifle in the wabbit's face making Bugs say, "What's Up Doc?" for the first time. As he notices the audience eat it up, he tells Elmer to say it again. He does and the applause gets louder! That leads to their first screen test at Warner Bros. where Bugs sings "What's Up Doc?" with Elmer singing and dancing along at the end. Having told all this to a female reporter, Bugs looks at his watch and says he's due on the set for his next starring role. As the curtain with his initials goes up, we see him singing and dancing with...those same chorus boys he performed earlier with in his career! Like I said mostly amusing if not hilarious though I loved many of the jokes that Elmer and Bugs did in the vaudeville segments. And the celebrity voices done mostly by Mel Blanc were spot on. Anyone who saw the live-action What's Up, Doc? that starred Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal should be very familiar with the "What's Up Doc?" number since that sequence appeared at the end of that movie. This short is part of Volume one of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection.

This is a bit different from most Bugs Bunny cartoons: the life story of Bugs, from when he knew he was "a bit different" (the rest of the babies were humans and he was a rabbit) to his beginnings in the world of show business.However, the latter doesn't pan out. Bugs is down on his luck and moping around on a park bench, when Elmer Fudd passes by and says, "Why are you hanging around with these guys? They'll never amount to anything." (They are Al Jolson, Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor and Bing Crosby!) Elmer gets him a job back in the theater. The vaudeville show opens in Peoria (where else?). It travels on to Buffalo and then New York City, but Bugs is getting bugged. He's tired of being Elmer's foil and getting pies shoved in his face, etc. He reverses the act and finishes with "What's up, doc?" It's a smash! Offers come in from everywhere and the two head off to Hollywood and Warner Brothers. The rest is history.There are not a lot of laughs in here: very few, in fact, but it's fairly interesting. This is good for one viewing only, unless you're a big fan or a collector of BB cartoons, then it might be of historical significance.

In this short, Bugs tells the story of his life from the day he was born right up until his discovery in Hollywood and subsequent stardom. It isn't really funny as Bugs doesn't have anyone to work with for most of the cartoon. There are a couple of scenes with Elmer Fudd but he doesn't do or say much. And the running joke with the chorus dancers in the tuxedos wasn't all that amusing. I was also a bit annoyed at the end because not only is it not funny but it isn't true. I've seen better Bugs cartoons than this. Though I must say the title song is very cool (used in many of 'Rabbit/Duck season' cartoons with Bugs, Daffy and Elmer). It just seems weird using it without having Daffy anywhere in sight.

Robert McKimson is one of the "other" Warner Brothers directors, after the Big Four-Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng and Bob Clampett. While nowhere near as innovative, with work that varied sometimes wildly in quality, he was probably the most solid of the other directors and this was one of his best efforts and an excellent addition to the Bugs Bunny efforts. The scene in the park is marvelously done! Wonderful short that deserves to be seen. Most highly recommended.