Touches You

Sadly Over-hyped

Best movie ever!

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

. . . with this 1940s animated short, THE BIG SNOOZE. Bugs Bunny takes on the Humphrey Bogart part, which of course leaves the Lauren Bacall role to Elmer Fudd. Though Mr. Fudd looks better in a green cocktail dress than Ms. Bacall, that may be a moot point, given SLEEP's monochromatic nature. Whereas the live-action Bogart flick involved him and Bacall telling each other an increasingly complicated bedtime murder mystery in which even the Real Life movie director admitted he could not figure out exactly who killed whom, SNOOZE finds Bugs invading Elmer's retirement dreams with packs of bunnies and wolves until Elmer's not sure which bathroom to use in North Carolina. Since Elmer logs on and off to Reality here like a schizophrenic on an LSD trip, there's no need for SNOOZE to introduce such tomfoolery as SLEEP's hidden cameras. Elmer appears totally nude from 5:08 through 5:11 of SNOOZE, which is a lot more daring than you can credit Bacall for anything she doffs in SLEEP. However, both efforts boil down to yawners.

Bob Clampett's final short for Warner Bros. is a classic Bugs & Elmer cartoon. Elmer's tired of the routine they're in where he chases Bugs but never wins. So he tears up his contract and quits the cartoon! Bugs, determined to get Elmer back, invades his dreams (like Freddy Krueger) leading to some surreal and wacky imagery. The music is bouncy and cheerful. The voice work from Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan is expectedly flawless. The animation is beautiful with well-drawn characters and backgrounds and lovely Technicolor. The dream stuff is amazing. Funny gags, lines, and fourth-wall breaking makes this one any Looney Tunes fan will want to see.

I don't think this is the best Bugs and Elmer partnering, A Wild Hare or any entry in the superb Hunting Trilogy I would put over this, but The Big Snooze is still a terrific Looney Tunes cartoon.Animation: Beautiful! A vast majority of the Looney Tunes cartoons have great animation and this is no exception. The backgrounds are pretty, the colours are audacious and the characters are well drawn.Music: I look out for this all the time, and this was not a disappointment either. It was rousing, energetic and whimsical, like the very best scores from the Looney Tunes cartoons are.Story: The weakest asset of the cartoon but still works. It is carefully constructed, with some very effective moments, especially the dream sequence which is by far and away the highlight of the cartoon, but the only criticism of the cartoon is that there are one or two parts at the beginning that seem a little aimless.Dialogue/sight gags: Typical Looney Tunes fashion. The dialogue is inventive and witty and the sight gags are very clever.Characters/ Voices: Nothing to complain about here. Bugs steals the show no doubt about it, but Elmer proves himself a great if rather dumb foil. Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan's vocal characterisations are consistently superb too.Overall, not the best but still terrific. 9/10 Bethany Cox

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.