The Big Snooze
| The Big Snooze | |
|---|---|
| Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny) series | |
| Directed by | Bob Clampett (uncredited) |
| Produced by | Eddie Selzer |
| Story by | Warren Foster |
| Voices by |
Mel Blanc Arthur Q. Bryan (uncredited) |
| Music by | Carl Stalling |
| Animation by |
Rod Scribner I. Ellis Manny Gould J.C. Melendez |
| Layouts by | Thomas McKimson |
| Backgrounds by | Philip DeGuard |
| Studio | Warner Bros. Cartoons |
| Distributed by |
Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
| Release date(s) | October 5, 1946 (USA) |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 7 minutes |
| Language | English |
The Big Snooze is a 1946 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by an uncredited Bob Clampett, his final theatrical cartoon for Warner and completed it before he left the Warner cartoon studio. Its title was inspired by the 1939 book The Big Sleep, and its 1946 film adaptation, also a Warner release. The Big Snooze features Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd, voiced as usual by Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan.
In this cartoon-within-a-cartoon, Bugs and Elmer are in the midst of their usual hunting-chasing scenario. After Bugs tricks Elmer into running through a hollow log and off a cliff three times (a comic triple of sorts originally used in Avery's All this and Rabbit Stew. In fact, the same animation sequence was recycled for "The Big Snooze", with the stereotypical black hunter being redrawn into Elmer Fudd), Elmer becomes enraged and frustrated that the writers never let him catch the rabbit in the pictures they both appear in. He tears up his Warner Bros. cartoon contract and walks off the set to devote his life to fishing, stunning Bugs, who piteously protests and effortlessly tries to ask him to reconsider. During a relaxing fishing trip, Elmer falls asleep.
Bugs observes Elmer's nap and takes sleeping pills in order to rock Elmer's "dreamboat" (Bugs sang Beautiful Dreamer, by "invading" his dream and continuing to drive Elmer crazy when Bugs uses the "Nightmare Paint". Symbolic of his dreamland plight, Elmer appears nearly nude, wearing only his derby hat and a strategically placed "loincloth" consisting of a laurel wreath. Elmer's dream is invaded by "ziwwions and twiwwions of wabbits" dancing on his head and singing "The rabbits are coming. Hooray! Hooray!" in a parody of the Pink Elephants on Parade sequence from the 1941 Disney film Dumbo with Bugs Bunny literally multiplying them from an adding machine. Looking for another way to torment Elmer, Bugs consults the book A Thousand and One Arabian Nightmares, exclaiming, "Oh, no! It's too gruesome!" before peeking over the book to cheerfully tell the audience, "But I'll do it!" Elmer realizes what Bugs has in mind, pleading "No, no! No, not that! Not that, pwease!" as Bugs ties him to railroad tracks, just as "the Superchief" (Bugs in an Indian chief's headdress, leading a conga line of baby rabbits) crosses over Elmer's head.
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