Pluskylang Great Film overall

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Contentar Best movie of this year hands down!

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

phantom_tollbooth Chuck Jones's 'Super Rabbit' is an excellent parody of the Fleischer Brothers 'Superman' cartoons, starring Bugs Bunny in the title role. Starting with an incisive comic recreation of the Fleischer opening sequences, 'Super Rabbit' quickly shows us the origins of Bugs's super powers before segueing into an extended battle in the Texas desert with the Yosemite Sam prototype, Cottontail Smith (via a wacky Clampett-esquire gag involving a horse walking in the sky). The early parts of the cartoon are good but once the main plot kicks in, 'Super Rabbit' goes from great to classic. Particularly exceptional is a basketball game with a cannonball in which Bugs manages to dupe his enemies into actually cheering for him. 'Super Rabbit' is as gorgeous to look at as it is funny and, while I was disappointed with the patriotic ending as a child (I didn't really get it), I now find it a fascinating climax which gives us a glimpse at the mentality of cinema goers during World War 2. It's even more interesting to note that the US Marines were so flattered by Bugs deeming them as the greatest superheroes of all that they officially made him a US marine. It's perhaps the most telling example of just how important these cartoons were in keeping up morale during wartime and how seriously this issue was taken. It's a historically significant climax to a classic early Bugs Bunny short which has been one of my favourite of the rabbit's films since I was very young.

ccthemovieman-1 People would find it hard to believe that "Superman" was around in the early '40s, early enough to be parodied in this 1943 cartoon. George Reeves made the character famous on television but that wasn't for about another eight or nine years. Before that, there were two serials. I was shocked myself that they were imitating Superman this early on in a cartoon.Superman began on the radio in 1941 and Bud Collyer, who became famous years after as host on TV's "To Tell The Truth" voiced the title role!Anyway, in this cartoon we get the tale of "Bugs Bunny: Super-Rabbit" and what "caused this extraordinary metamorphose of a timid woodland creature into the super-dynamic rabbit of tomorrow!"It seems a wild-looking scientist (aren't they all in classic movie era?) has an experimental rabbit which has a scientific name: rabbitus idiotus americanus. I wonder if the Road Runner cartoon writers got their inspiration for that watching this? Anyway, Richard Haydn's unmistakable voice plays "Professor Canafrazz," so that's an unexpected bonus. Haydn was always fun to hear in regular movies. Eating a special carrot gives Bugs his new super powers. Looking a newspaper headline about a guy who wants to wipe out all the rabbits gives Bugs his first assignment as the new superhero.For an early BB cartoon, this was great stuff and not far off his wise guy character of the next decade which brought him super fame. True, it has that early '40s cornball humor that is more stupid than the better material of the '50s, but it's still Bugs and it's still pretty clever and unpredictable most of the time. Bugs' disguise with the Clark Kent-glasses and the phone booth out in the middle of Texas was hilarious!

Lee Eisenberg Still in his relative infancy, Bugs Bunny becomes a superhero out to fight an anti-rabbit cowboy. I really liked the scene of the two of them on the horse. Maybe the wartime themes make us cringe a little bit nowadays, but they're not vicious by any stretch (although I hear that some Looney Tunes cartoons were). Maybe this wasn't the greatest Bugs Bunny cartoon in history, but it's definitely worth seeing. Anyone can plainly see why the Looney Tunes cartoons from the '40s and '50s were some of the best cartoons in cinema history (I can't say the same for their modern cartoons; for starters, no more Mel Blanc). A real classic.

Draco1138 This of one of the best Bugs Bunny films ever. Aside from the comedy it is also memorable due to both the coming of WWII. I loved the bit with Bug's hoping along with the cowboy as all the characters switch positions. Also...when Bug's "assumes the role of a woodland creature" he's a perfect Clark Kent. The best has to be the Bugs Bunny Cheer."Bricka bracka firecracker sis boom bah! Bugs Bunny!Bugs Bunny! Bugs Bunny! RAH RAH RAH!"Finally Bugs' admitting that, "This looks like a job for a REAL super hero," and emerges as a Marine. :)