The Big Snooze

In this last Bob Clampett Looney Tunes short, Elmer Fudd is thoroughly appalled by the treatment he always winds up getting from Bugs Bunny, so he decides enough is enough, tears up his Warner Brothers contract and commits himself to fishing for the rest of his days. Bugs is mortified of course (for his own job security mind you) and when he finds Elmer dreaming, he takes a sleeping pill and enters his pleasant dream to turn it into a nightmare. This is a hilarious if a wee bit surreal cartoon that can be seen on Disc 1 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2. It also features an optional commentary by animator Bill Melendez that is pretty good.

My Grade: A

Big Snooze, The (1946)

*** (out of 4)

Elmer Fudd, tired of being abused by Bugs Bunny, decides to tear up his contract to Warner and go on vacation. Bugs needs him back so the rabbit invades his dreams to cause a nightmare. This is certainly a wild short but I've never found it to be a funny one. What does work here are the amazing colors inside the "nightmare", which look absolutely stunning in their remastered form. The visuals are certainly the main reason to watch this film as there aren't too many laughs. The film starts off with a chase, which would normally end a cartoon but here the gag is somewhat funny. The best sequence is the famous one where Elmer is tied to the train tracks and a train of rabbits run over him.

If you thought that Bob Clampett had gone as far out of normalcy as possible with "Porky in Wackyland" and "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery", then check out "The Big Snooze". When Elmer Fudd - tired of always Bugs Bunny always embarrassing him - tears up his Warner Bros. contract, Bugs does something that I wouldn't even imagine him (of all people) doing: he invades Elmer's dreams, creating one of the most surreal sequences that I've ever witnessed. Who would have ever guessed that Bugs Bunny was Freddy Krueger's forebear?!

Above all, it's a good thing that I first saw this cartoon now, when I'm old enough to fully understand what it portrays (not to mention that I know who Bette Davis was). Had I watched this when I was six or somewhere thereabouts, I would have naively laughed at it without realizing what the gist was; or it might have scared me. As Looney Tunes screenwriter Michael Maltese said in an interview: "We wrote cartoons for grownups, that was the secret."

But overall, this is a really cool cartoon. Bob Clampett, during the approximately one decade that he worked with the Termite Terrace crowd, created a body of work beyond what I could have ever conceived of. I recommend it.

I don't know any of the details surrounding Bob Clampett's departure from Warner Bros., but in this, his last cartoon for them, was one of the weirdest from a long list of strange entries from him. I don't think he got along well with the new studio imposed producer, Edward Selzer. Leon Schlesinger, the previous one, and the creator of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, let him have all the freedom he needed with zany, wild cartoons as the result. Some, like "Porky in Wackyland" and "The Daffy Doc" are considered by many cartoon historians to be important for the bold liberties he took with art and the use of space. He did things that had never been done before, but Warner Bros. bought out Schlesinger for $1,000,000 and Clampett's star never quite shone as brightly as it did in those heady days.

At the beginning of this cartoon, then, it is significant that we see that Elmer Fudd is becoming disenchanted with his cartoon contract with "Mr. Warner" and tears it up in frustration after once again being the fall guy for Bugs Bunny. What follows is a surreal sequence after Elmer falls asleep. Bugs uses "nightmare paint" to make him dream so Bugs can manipulate him in his slumber to save both of their careers. We have the usual assortment of corny Clampett gags mixed in with some stunning scenes that must have had everyone back in 1946 scratching their heads a little, wondering if Clampett had finally lost his mind. The price that innovative people sometimes have to pay is that not everyone will get it, and I don't think Selzer was anywhere near "getting it", so Clampett got the door.

As usual, Elmer Fudd is hunting Bugs Bunny. Bugs puts another one over him. He has had enough and quits on the spot. He rips up his WB contract and goes fishing. Bugs finds him napping while fishing. It is a trip into his dreamland and Bugs turns it into a nightmare.

I like the turn and going meta. I am less convinced of the dreamland sequence. I can think of many ideas for dreams including Elmer Fudd turning into a rabbit being chased by Bugs Bunny dressed as a hunter. Most of all, I don't buy the ending. If he gets hounded by Bugs in his nightmare, he would never go back to his job. This is adventurous although I have questions.