Super-Rabbit
Super-Rabbit is a 1943 Merrie Melodies animated short produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, directed by Chuck Jones, featuring Bugs Bunny as a superhero parodying the contemporary Superman character from comic books and Fleischer Studios cartoons.[1][2] In the storyline, Bugs acquires superhuman abilities—including flight and enhanced strength—after eating carrots fortified with special vitamins by a mad scientist, prompting him to adopt the Super-Rabbit persona and challenge a cowboy antagonist accompanied by a horse, both opposed to rabbits.[3][4] The cartoon, released on April 3, 1943, as the sixteenth Bugs Bunny short, incorporates visual and narrative elements mimicking Superman's origin and adventures, such as a rocket-powered escape from a doomed planet, though adapted to a whimsical rabbit context.[1] Its ending, where Super-Rabbit discards his cape to join the U.S. Marine Corps amid World War II propaganda efforts, drew positive attention from the Marines, who requested preservation of the sequence despite later commercial sensitivities around military depictions.[2]Production
Development and Influences
Super-Rabbit originated as a parody of the Superman animated shorts produced by Fleischer Studios between 1941 and 1943, which depicted the DC Comics character performing feats of strength and flight in serialized adventures.[5] Warner Bros. animators, under director Chuck Jones, avoided direct licensing of DC Comics properties by transforming Bugs Bunny into a rabbit superhero reliant on temporary powers from enhanced carrots rather than inherent abilities.[1] This approach incorporated elements from Superman's radio serials, such as dramatic narration and heroic posturing, to satirize the archetype without infringing on trademarks.[5] The cartoon entered development in 1943, capitalizing on Bugs Bunny's rising stardom following his breakthrough in A Wild Hare (1940), which had established him as Warner Bros.' flagship character amid the studio's shift toward anthropomorphic tricksters.[6] With production overseen by Leon Schlesinger in his final Warner Bros. project before departing in 1944, the choice to grant Bugs superhero attributes via "super carrots" devised by the fictional Professor Canafrazz reflected studio efforts to merge the rabbit's clever persona with contemporary escapist fantasies.[7] Released on April 3, 1943, as a Merrie Melodies short, it marked the 16th Bugs Bunny cartoon and Jones's 47th directorial effort.[1] Influences drew from the 1940s superhero mania fueled by the comic book industry's expansion, where sales surged from 10 million copies monthly in 1939 to over 50 million by 1943, driven by patriotic icons amid World War II.[5] Warner Bros. aligned with wartime priorities by embedding enlistment motifs, responding to government campaigns and public fervor for content promoting military service, as evidenced in contemporaneous shorts urging audiences to "buy bonds" or join up.[6] This causal linkage prioritized market demands for uplifting, domestically produced entertainment over neutral storytelling, though executed through Bugs's irreverent humor to differentiate from earnest Fleischer depictions.[5]Animation Techniques and Staff
Super-Rabbit was supervised and directed by Chuck Jones, marking one of his early Bugs Bunny entries where he refined his approach to character-driven comedy and visual parody.[6] The story was written by Tedd Pierce, with animation handled by Ken Harris, renowned for his versatile draftsmanship that enabled smooth, expressive sequences in action-heavy scenes.[6] Musical direction came from Carl W. Stalling, who scored the short to underscore its satirical tone, while producer Leon Schlesinger oversaw the Leon Schlesinger Productions unit before Warner Bros. assumed direct control later in 1943.[6] The animation employed traditional cel techniques typical of mid-1940s Warner Bros. shorts, featuring hand-drawn frames for full-bodied motion in Bugs Bunny's Superman-inspired feats, such as soaring flights and superhuman leaps powered by "vitaminized" carrots.[1] Harris's contributions shone in the fluid depiction of dynamic chases and exaggerated impacts, like Bugs deflecting bullets or outpacing a horse-drawn bomber, blending realistic physics parody with cartoon elasticity to heighten the superhero spoof.[8] Jones's stylistic choices rooted in Merrie Melodies conventions included caricatured facial distortions for humor—Bugs's smirking transformations and the villain's slack-jawed reactions—and a faux newsreel opening sequence mimicking Pathé-style announcements to set up the origin gag.[1] Produced amid World War II, the short adhered to Technicolor processes without evident cutbacks in frame rates or detail, prioritizing vivid caricature over strict realism to lampoon comic book tropes like invulnerability and heroic poses.[3] This era's hand-inked cels and multi-layer compositing allowed for layered depth in flight scenes, where Bugs navigates clouds and stratosphere effects, though resource strains from wartime priorities influenced broader studio efficiencies rather than compromising this entry's polish.[6]Voice Cast
Mel Blanc provided the primary voice work for Super-Rabbit, portraying Bugs Bunny in his superhero guise as Super-Rabbit, complete with adapted signature quips such as a heroic twist on "Eh, what's up, Doc?" to fit the parody of Superman's persona.[9] Blanc also voiced the antagonist Cottontail Smith, a rabbit-hating cowboy from Texas, as well as the narrator, a horse, a Texas rabbit, and an observer, showcasing his versatility in handling multiple roles within the short's rapid wartime production style.[10][9] Uncredited contributions included Tedd Pierce, a writer and animator at Warner Bros., who provided voices for additional characters such as Professor Canafrazz, the scientist who grants Bugs superpowers via special carrots.[11] Kent Rogers, an emerging voice actor known for roles in other Looney Tunes shorts, supplied minor character voices before his death in a 1944 training accident during World War II.[11] No dedicated voice director received credit, reflecting the era's efficient assembly-line approach at Leon Schlesinger Productions, where performers like Blanc often recorded independently or with minimal oversight to meet theatrical release demands.[9]| Character | Voice Actor |
|---|---|
| Super-Rabbit / Bugs Bunny | Mel Blanc |
| Cottontail Smith | Mel Blanc |
| Narrator / Various minors | Mel Blanc |
| Professor Canafrazz | Tedd Pierce (uncredited) |
| Additional minors | Kent Rogers (uncredited) |