User reviews

A savage, undisciplined lion has been put behind bars for a circus carnival. He suddenly notices a hole on the floor of his cell, then sticks his nose into this hole to snuff it. At first he thinks Bugs Bunny's home is belong to a camel; yet when he wakes Bugs up from his sleep hoisting him up to the ground, there he meets with Bugs, his next trainer.

If you ever wonder how Bugs would turn a savage lion into a Hawaiian hula dancer with traditional skirts on, you should watch this cartoon. Director Bob McKimson offers endless laughters by means of absurd and unexpected demonstrative humour.

The signature scenes include:

1/ the look of Bugs Bunny's home, cross-referencing to Donald Duck with the B.B. name acronym on the headboard of Bugs's bed

2/ Bugs Bunny's short journey with the mine hoist climbing up to the ground floor

3/ When Nero the Lion calls his friend the Elephant for help, Bugs uses a toy mouse to scare the Elephant; since the Elephant needed a broom to outpower that toy mouse, he uses Nero as a broom!

4/ Bugs becoming a clown with the proper costume and make-up and the practical clown jokes that he makes

5/ the trapeze scene while Nero chasing after Bugs

6/ the famous Human Cannonball scene after which Nero the Lion starts dancing Hawaiian Hula

The magic moments which keep Acrobatty Bunny fresh at all times in our memory:

1/ When Bugs comes out of his bunny hole, he thinks he's in the Pinocchio tale; and starts acting to save Pinocchio out of the giant whale's stomach

2/ When the Lion roars to scare him, Bugs replies back to him with roaring

3/ Bugs arguing with the Lion for he's making so much noise, then finding a piece of wood to rub it against the iron bars while singing in order to make more noise than him

4/ Wearing rubber heels at the circus, Bugs starts to bounce like toy rabbits and causes Nero to bounce!

Those are the 10 main reasons that keeps Acrobatty Bunny as a Bugs Bunny classic and can be found in the "Bugs Bunny Classics' MGM/UA Video (1989)"

Once again, Bugs Bunny sacred home is violated by careless people. This time the traveling circus put a lion's cage right over the rabbit's hole. So Bug's has to come out of the hole and face Nero (that's the name of the lion), which he does in his usual hilarious style. After a slow and rocky beginning to the cart, it keeps getting better and better and winds up being quite hilarious. Nero the lion turns out to be a pretty good foil for Bugs and that turns this short into a highly memorable one, if still shorn of a classic. This animated short can be found on Disk 1 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 3.

My Grade: A-

Robert McKimson's 'Acrobatty Bunny' is one of the director's finest shorts. Although the circus-based setting may evoke hideous memories of McKimson's dreadful 'Big Top Bunny', 'Acrobatty Bunny' is in fact nowhere near as dull as that travesty. Pitting Bugs Bunny against a ferocious lion, 'Acrobatty Bunny' is fresh and funny from the outset, not to mention extremely attractive to look at. There's a classic scene in which Bugs takes a strangled elevator ride out of his hole only to emerge directly into the jaws of the lion. In a brilliant Disney parody, he hollers "Pinocchio" down the lion's throat! This brilliant opening is a sign of things to come. There are some expertly choreographed antics in and around the lion's cage to begin with, followed by a hilariously grotesque and irritating rendition of 'Laugh Clown Laugh' which, as a child, I used to impersonate regularly! All this culminates in a short acrobatic sequence which gives the cartoon its name. I've never been fond of the circus as a setting for cartoons and find it usually makes for a dull and predictable set of gags but 'Acrobatty Bunny' breaks from the mould and the result is an exhilaratingly funny short which stands amongst McKimson's best.

The "good news" is that the circus is in town. The "bad news" is that's right over Bugs Bunny's underground home. He wakes up as his place shakes like an earthquake hit it, when workers pound stakes into the ground and elephants stomp by, etc.

To be more specific, the lions' cage is place exactly over Bugs' hole. The lion sniffs food, and by process of elimination, figures out it's a rabbit. Bugs, curious what all the racket is about, winds his way through the tunnel and winds up in the lion's mouth.

I'll say for thing for BB: he is totally fearless, at least in this cartoon, and at least for 30 seconds. When he comes to his senses, he runs like crazy and we get a lion-versus-a rabbit battle the rest of the way. Once again, Bugs faces dumb opponent, one he calls "Nero," but lion is fierce and Bugs will need all his wits and somewhat-fake bravado to fend off this beast.

About half the gags are stupid and the other half funny, but always fast-moving, colorful and good enough to recommend. I mean, it's not everyday you can see a lion on a trapeze, or doing a hula dance!

You've got a good point there, Nero.

Perhaps best known for being the first Looney Tune to end with "That's All, Folks!" combined with the Looney Tunes theme music, this 1946 cartoon, in which Bugs Bunny takes on a lion and briefly an elephant at a circus, might not exactly have me in stitches, but it is perfectly amusing and well-made all the same. Overall, I do derive a strange amount of pleasure from watching Bugs torment the poor lion, and Acrobatty Bunny has several highlights, such as Bugs' lawbreaking elevator to the surface, and the scene in which he dresses as a clown and, indeed, puts the lion in the stitches that he failed to put me in.

If you love Bugs Bunny and Looney Tunes then you will love Acrobatty Bunny. While it starts off a little rocky, with some disappointingly blocky animation, the cartoon gets better and better, and the animation does as well so by halfway through it is much more colourful and solid. The music throughout is absolutely great, I loved the dialogue and the sight gags were both hilarious and awe-inspiring. What I also loved about Acrobatty Bunny was how quickly it went, it didn't feel rushed, but it skipped along with consummate ease. As for Bugs I had no problem with his performance whatsoever, he's still the funny, arrogant and charming rabbit I fell in love with when I was six years old. Mel Blanc does a stellar job with the vocals, so overall I don't think other than the rocky start that you will be disappointed. 9/10 Bethany Cox

In this Looney Tunes cartoon, Bugs wakes up in his hole and finds the circus has been built over it. And that a lion's cage is the one that's directly above him so he has to deal with that cage's inhabitant. Plenty of gags concerning how one gets out or in the cage, a cannonball, a trapeze swing, a scene from Pinocchio, an elephant and how one gets rid of one, a toy rodent, a hula dance, etc. Robert McKimson keeps things pretty funny throughout. Of course, Mel Blanc is quite the charmer as that wascally wabbit. I watched this short on the A Night in Casablanca DVD. Okay, I'm running out of things to say but since this is supposed to be ten lines for this to be submitted, I'll just now say that Acrobatty Bunny is worth a look.

When the circus comes to town and places the lion's cage directly over Bugs Bunny's home, Bugs ends up somewhere in the range right between freaked out and intrepid. Despite the title "Acrobatty Bunny", it's only at the end when Bugs and the lion perform acrobatics. But even leading up to that, it's quite funny what Bugs does to escape getting eaten; somehow, he always manages to use the other character's weakness against him, and then pull any convenient object out of thin air! Bugs later ended up in the circus in "Big Top Bunny". I liked this one better, as the latter got drug down a little bit by giving the antagonist an Eastern European accent (I know that it was during the Cold War, but still). I recommend this one.

And with the end, we can affirm that it'll never be Aloha Oe for this cartoon.

Bob McKimson directed Bugs short that has a circus setting up over Bugs' rabbit hole. Bugs emerges and finds himself face to face with a lion he names Nero. What follows is Bugs leading Nero on a chase around the circus, culminating with a cannon mishap somehow turning into a hula routine. Fun but nothing special. Good voice work from the incomparable Mel Blanc. Nice music from Carl Stalling. The animation is nice but the coloring is a little sloppy in places, particularly Nero's mane where the brush strokes are sometimes pretty noticeable. It's not going to top many people's "best Bugs cartoons" lists but it is worth a look.

When the circus moves in to the area, all the banging above ground wakes Bugs up. However, when he comes up to the surface to complain he finds that a lion cage has been placed right on top of his burrow hole, complete with one hungry lion.

This short starts really badly and it put me on guard for some time in regards the quality of the overall product. The problem is the low grade animation; the people in the circus look blocky and Bugs himself is not drawn with as much care as he has been at times – here he looks very simplistic and lacking quality.

The comedy however works well despite the shaky start. Bugs does his usual stuff and the lion is capable for quite a few good laughs – better than I expected actually! The film raises a few laughs and I was glad that this film managed to have had more effort put into it's material than it had into it's animation.

Overall this cartoon is not classic Bugs but it is still funny enough to be worth watching despite the animation lacking the care and attention that it should have.

A circus moves on Bugs Bunny's home.He goes up from his cozy hole, and finds himself from a lion's cage.So starts a chase between a lion and a bunny.Nero the Lion wants to eat the bunny, but it's easier roared than done.At least when that bunny happens to be Bugs.Acrobatty Bunny is a Looney Tunes short from 1946.It's directed by Robert McKimson.Mel Blanc's voice work is as good as always.The movie, even though not lasting very long, manages to have several funny gags.Like when the lion uses the elephant to get inside the cage, where Bugs is.But Bugs uses a fake mouse to frighten the elephant, and he hits it using the lion.Or Bugs the clown trying to make the lion laugh, using unorthodox methods.And what about the lion as a cannonball! It's a riot!

He's fought Elmer. He's fought Yosemite Sam. Now he goes up against the lion and gives a very funny short. As always, Bugs comes up with clever and original tricks to beat out his adversary. And, of course, they're hilarious. Don't miss this must see.