Shrunken Cinema/Termite Terrace/Big Top Bunny
From Eccentric Flower
Big Top Bunny
1950
Summary: Bruno the bear does not like the idea of Bugs sharing his circus act.
Director: Robert McKimson
Writer: Tedd Pierce
Featuring: Bugs Bunny.
Onreel
0:16 Sound cue: We begin Sousa's "Washington Post March" even before the title card appears.
0:33 Sound cue: "Animal Fair" ("I went to the animal fair/The birds and the beasts were there ...")
1:37 Sound cue as Bugs makes his entrance: "Frat." Then back to the Sousa (bear entrance, conversation); then "Frat" again (after the whistle blows) until Bruno finishes climbing the ladder.
3:00 Sound cue: This theme is Stalling's own. Its most notable use is Bugs' soft-shoe act in Stage Door Cartoon.
3:09 "Don't you believe it!" This line also shows up in some Tom and Jerry cartoons (and in this same peculiar intonation). My first thought was a newsreel or radio program, but Wikipedia says it is a reference to a set of World War II propaganda shorts (whether short films or radio spots is unclear). If so, the shorts have become obscure enough that if you try to search the web on this line, what you mostly get is mystified references to it on pages about Tom and Jerry!
3:14 Sound cue in trapeze act: "She Was an Acrobat's Daughter."
3:56 And we're back to Sousa again, before returning to "Acrobat's Daughter" once they begin "swing-ink."
4:21 Bruno has handed Bugs a set of bicycle handlebars, complete with bike bell. Therefore Bugs' subsequent actions make complete sense in cartoon logic. Sound cue as Bugs is rescuing himself: Overture from "William Tell."
4:43 After Bruno falls offscreen we know he has done the tuba-to-kettledrum bit again, because of the sound. (The brilliance of this is spoiled a little by the fact that Bugs' looking upward - i.e. at Bruno being flung out of the tuba - seems to be at the wrong time relative to the sounds.)
5:15 "Frat" again. This cartoon is not one of Stalling's most complex works, but it does the job.
6:21 Sound cue: "Aloha Oe."
6:27 The whistle noise here is meant to sound like there is an ocean liner offscreen, to go with the gangplank.
6:39 "Frat" again during the elaborate Bruno "trip" - then one final dose of Sousa as Bugs delivers the last line by the cannon.
Offreel
This is not a particularly bad McKimson work, as these things go, although a lot of it feels like retreads from earlier, better cartoons. At least it seems like Mel Blanc had a lot of fun voicing Bruno, the Slobokian bear.
