Saturday, May 21, 2022

THE ABOMINABLE SNOW RABBIT - "Which Way Did He Go George?" (1961)

Monsters and cartoons just go hand in hand like love and marriage or horse and carriage, so that's why tonight's Saturday Night Special is a cartoon from 1961 titled "The Abominable Snow Rabbit."

Bugs Bunny needs to get himself some better maps. He meant to be going to Palm Springs, but instead ends up in the Himalayan mountains! He's gonna have a big surprise when he opens his eyes.

His pal Daffy Duck was trailing right behind him, and Daffy immediately dives into what he thinks is going to be warm water, not frozen ice.

Daffy doesn't appreciate having his face flattened, and lets Bugs know all about it!

Daffy is cold and pissed!

Daffy then meets a rather large creature, the Abominable Snow Man!

It really is amazing how easy it is to create an illusion like something very large.

The writer of "The Abominable Snow Rabbit" was the amazing Tedd Pierce. IMDB states that because Tedd had a penchant for partying and showing up to work hungover that Chuck Jones lampooned him by creating the character Pepe Le Pew, but Wikipedia said it was because he thought of himself as a ladies' man. Whatever his lifestyle was, Tedd still managed to crank out 270 of these stories. I wish I had spent just one of those nights of debauchery with him, just so I could ask him why he liked to refer to George so much.

The Abominable Snowman thinks Daffy is a rabbit because the sleeves of his shirt make it look like he has ears.

 He really wants a rabbit for a little buddy named George.
 
Daffy explains to the monster that he's not a rabbit but he knows where there is one.

When the monster finally gets Bugs in his clutches, the first thing he does is sit on him like a mother hen to keep him warm.

The cartoons from this era were simple, but what great colors!

Bugs folds back his ears, and turns the tables again!

The monster has no ill intentions, but he's still dangerous like King Kong, Frankenstein or Lemmy, just because he's a big bumbling lummox.

Bugs heads back to Palm Springs, his original destination. I love this image!

The snowman follows him the whole way, but finds he doesn't like it, because it's just too hot!

When the poor monster melts from the heat, Daffy comes to the conclusion that he really was a snow monster!

4 comments:

  1. Puppeteer Bil Baird eliminated an L from his first name. Supposedly, Tedd Pierce spelled his own name with an extra D in response! He restored the cosmic balance!

    I do worry that Family Circus creator Bil Keane threw everything out of whack again.

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  2. Astute Observation! I hope not!

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  3. P.S. More trivia: We always assumed W. Lee Wilder invented the yeti feature film with The Snow Creature (1954). But it turns out Pekka ja Pätkä lumimiehen jäljillä (Pekka and the Stump on the Snowman's Trail) (1954) beat the Creature by half a year! Pekka and the Stump being a popular Finnish comedy team! If you wanted to see it you'd probably have to look for the DVD in Finland.

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  4. Just when I thought we've gone as far as is humanly possible, Edward comes up with "Pekka and the Stump on the Snowman's Trail." There obviously is no end to this journey! Thanks my friend!!

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