Editing Rebel Rabbit

{{Short description|1949 animated short film by Robert McKimson}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox film
|name = Rebel Rabbit
|image = RebelRabbit-TC.png
|director = [[Robert McKimson]]
|story = [[Warren Foster]]
|animator = [[Charles McKimson]]<br>[[Phil DeLara]]<br>[[Manny Gould]]<br>John Carey
|layout_artist = [[Cornett Wood]]
|background_artist = Richard H. Thomas
|starring = [[Mel Blanc]]
|music = [[Carl W. Stalling|Carl Stalling]]
|producer = [[Edward Selzer]]
|studio = [[Warner Bros. Cartoons]]
|distributor = [[Warner Bros.]]<br>[[Vitaphone|The Vitaphone Corporation]]
|released = {{Film date|1949|4|9}}
|color_process = [[Technicolor]]
|runtime = 6 minutes 39 seconds
|country = [[United States]]
|language = [[English language|English]]
}}
'''''Rebel Rabbit''''' is a 1949 [[Warner Bros.]] ''[[Merrie Melodies]]'' animated short directed by [[Robert McKimson]].<ref name=Beck>{{cite book |last1=Beck |first1=Jerry |last2=Friedwald |first2=Will |title=Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons |date=1989 |publisher=Henry Holt and Co |isbn=0-8050-0894-2 |page=197}}</ref> The cartoon was released on April 9, 1949, and features [[Bugs Bunny]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lenburg |first1=Jeff |title=The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons |date=1999 |publisher=Checkmark Books |isbn=0-8160-3831-7 |accessdate=6 June 2020 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780816038312 |url-access=registration |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780816038312/page/60 60]-61}}</ref>

In the film, Bugs finds the insignificant bounty on rabbits to be offensive. He is informed that rabbits are considered harmless. He sets out to prove how dangerous he can be, by vandalizing monuments and landmarks throughout the United States. He is soon targeted by the entire [[United States Department of War|War Department]]. He starts serving a prison sentence in [[Alcatraz Island]], while trying to figure out whether he overdid it.

==Plot==
Bugs notices high bounties on various animals: $50 on foxes, $75 on bears, but then he becomes offended by the two-cent bounty on rabbits. Bugs has himself mailed to Washington, D.C., where a supercilious game commissioner explains that the bounty is so low because, while foxes and bears are "obnoxious" animals who damage property, "rabbits are perfectly harmless." Bugs vows to prove that "A rabbit can be more obnoxious than anybody!" and after squirting the official's face with an ink pen, storms out, slamming the game commissioner's door so hard that the glass shatters.

Bugs begins his campaign of [[direct action]] by attacking a guard on the leg with his own billy club. From there, he pulls stunts like renaming [[Bernard Baruch|Barney Baruch]]'s private bench to "Bugs Bunny" bench, painting barbershop pole stripes on the [[Washington Monument]], and rewiring the lights in [[Times Square]] to read "BUGS BUNNY WUZ HERE".

Various newspapers comment about Bugs' actions as he goes to [[Buffalo, New York]] and shuts down [[Niagara Falls]] (revealing a faucet above and some barrels beneath it). Bugs then sells the entire island of [[Manhattan]] back to the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]] and is shown walking through it wearing a stereotypical feathered headdress and smoking a peace pipe, [[Fourth wall|asiding to the audience]] "Ehh, they wouldn't take it until I threw in a set of dishes". Afterwards, Bugs saws [[Florida]] off from the rest of the country and quotes [[Call Me Mister|"South America, take it away!"]] Bugs then wonders what other kind of devilry he can commit. Bugs heads to [[Panama]] and swipes all the [[Panama Canal locks|locks]] off the [[Panama Canal]], which are represented as actual locks as he yells "I got 'em! I got 'em! I got 'em!". Bugs then heads to [[Arizona]] where he fills up the [[Grand Canyon]]. He then concludes his campaign by literally tying up railroad tracks.

An outraged bombastic Southern [[Senator Claghorn]]–esque Congressman speaks before the [[United States Congress]] and demands that they take action against Bugs, but is interrupted by Bugs who emerges from the congressman's hat, slaps him and gives him a mocking kiss. The cartoon then shows live-action footage of the entire [[United States Department of War|War Department]] mobilizing against him. [[M2 Light Tank|Tanks]] come rumbling out of their garages, soldiers pour out of barracks, the US Horse Cavalry, tanks and jet planes charge toward Bugs and bugles blow as the news of this is shown.

Bugs, now satisfied with the $1 million bounty on his head (although the bounty is for ''him'' specifically, not rabbits in general), has his [[Tarzan yell]] interrupted by the whole US Army coming after him, much to his horror. Bugs then dives into a fox hole as artillery shells surround the foxhole. Bugs then says, "Ehh, could it be that I carried this thing too far?" just as the shells explode. It then cuts to [[Alcatraz Island]] where Bugs, in his jail cell, finally remarks "Ehhh, could be...!"

==Home media==
The uncut short is available on the ''[[Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3]]'' DVD set.

==See also==
* [[List of Bugs Bunny cartoons]]
*"[[Florida Man]]", an internet meme often referencing the sequence of Bugs literally removing Florida as a joking solution to its insanity.

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb title|41785}}

{{s-start}}
{{succession box
|before=[[Mississippi Hare]]
|title=[[List of Bugs Bunny cartoons|Bugs Bunny Cartoons]]
|years=1949
|after=[[High Diving Hare]]|}}
{{s-end}}

{{Bugs Bunny in animation}}
{{Robert McKimson}}

[[Category:1949 films]]
[[Category:Merrie Melodies short films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Robert McKimson]]
[[Category:Films set in California]]
[[Category:Films set in Florida]]
[[Category:Animated films set in New York City]]
[[Category:Films set in Panama]]
[[Category:Animated films set in San Francisco]]
[[Category:Films set in the San Francisco Bay Area]]
[[Category:Films set in Washington, D.C.]]
[[Category:Films scored by Carl Stalling]]
[[Category:Short films with live action and animation]]
[[Category:Bugs Bunny films]]
[[Category:1940s Warner Bros. animated short films]]
[[Category:1940s English-language films]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Warren Foster]]
[[Category:Films produced by Edward Selzer]]
[[Category:English-language short films]]
[[Category:1949 animated short films]]