Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips

Our favorite looney tune is cruising somewhere on the pacific ocean, finally hitting some beautiful peaceful island... until a Japanese soldier comes up and they have a fight, first on the ground, then up in the air. Bugs gives him some heavy bomb (at least that's what I think it was) so the crazy Japanese guy falls down. Bugs: 'Happy landing'!

Then he takes on a sumo wrestler and in the end serves grenade-filled icecreams to, as he puts it, 'Japs, hundreds of them!'.

As you probably understand, this is propaganda and nothing else. Some would call it racist or whatever but you probably have to consider the time it was made in. There are better propaganda movies though as this is just a bit of a silly one...

4/10.

We are in a time now in which it is socially correct to "sweep under the rug" any material which may be uncomfortable. "Bugs Bunny Nips The Nips" certainly fits this bill. The stereotypes of Imperial Japanese soldiers are vicious, with depictions of Japanese as coke-bottle-glasses-wearing "Mr. Motos." It goes without saying that in this day and age this treatment is by no means pleasant, proper, called for, or tolerable from anyone calling themselves a thinking person. That having been said, We shouldn't discard this document as casually as we would anti-foreigner canards from the far right today. "Bugs Bunny..." was produced during the Second World War, at a time in which the United States was battling against Japan. It should be shown in classes to foster discussion on the origins and dissemination of racial stereotypes during a time of war.

Bugs bunny nips the nips is a 1944 cartoon, it is about bugs bunny in a box in the Pacific Ocean, and then it lands to Japan, then he ends up in a bush with a Japanese person, who tries to kill him, but then bugs bunny dresses up as a general, tricking him, however he isn't tricked, he then flies on a plane to chase bugs bunny, but the plane crashes, so he parachutes, then bugs gives him a anvil, this is half of the story, but I'm not gonna say the other half for spoliers, my opinion of it, I don't think it's Xenophobic but rather fascist phobic, if I was Japanese and I watched it I would not care as bugs bunny outwitted horrible humans in the cartoon, and bugs is a mischievous, sometimes sadistic rabbit, but here, he's a American marine, but still a slightly sadistic trickster.

It's obvious that this type of material is unlikely to be produced today. But the ridiculous sensitivities of the past decade should not preclude us from viewing that which has been produced in the past. Warner Brothers has seen fit to make it difficult to near impossible to see any of the controversial cartoons within it's vault. This includes this and several other classic Bugs Bunny cartoons. Frankly this kind of forced censorship should not be allowed. I was able to get a hold of this cartoon and I must say that it is quite funny. One just needs to be aware of it's context and it's time frame. Many of the Bugs Bunny cartoons have either been removed from any type of circulation or edited to the point of unwatchability. The latter because of supposed excessive violence for children. Well Bugs was always on a level beyond children anyway. When the twenty mallet hits to Pete Puma's head is reduced to just one hit ... it's not funny anymore. It's the twenty that made it funny in the first place. Back off WB and allow us to watch what we want to watch and to be intelligent enough to discern the context in which it was made!

Yes, this cartoon can be offensive to Japanese people now and then. However, please take into consideration that this cartoon was propaganda. Propaganda is not supposed to be politically correct. It is supposed to make the viewer have a certain view on a certain issue. This was made when the United States was at war with Japan. And I believe every country involved in World War II had its propaganda cartoons. Countries produce propaganda cartoons and animated things when there is a strong backing throughout the country of that view. World War II had strong backing everywhere. There has been no war since that has been so strongly backed by the public so we have not seen such racist propaganda. Do understand that this short was developed to make people dislike the Japanese. I think it was good propaganda for its time. We don't believe it now because we're not at war with Japan and we have gotten over those stereotypes. However, at the time, people believed that. I think it might be offensive if you take it as a short made with no purpose. But if you understand that its propaganda and understand what that means, its not offensive at all.