Shrunken Cinema/Termite Terrace/Rabbit Transit
From Eccentric Flower
Rabbit Transit
1946
Summary: Bugs and Cecil Turtle race again, but this time Cecil has a rocket-powered shell.
Director: Friz Freleng
Writer: Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce
Featuring: Bugs Bunny.
Onreel
0:40 The geyser covered with a glass dome may be meant to look like the top of a coffee percolator.
0:53 Bugs' attire etc is to show that he is using the hot springs as a spa or a steam room. The turtle is having steam piped directly into his shell as if he is in a steam cabinet.
1:31 "... a nave little toitle ..." Bugs means "naive."
1:34 Sound cue: "Arkansas Traveler," slowly. Used several more times in the cartoon for cues involving the turtle.
2:39 Instead of being from Western Union, the telegram is from Western Bunions. If they began their race in Wyoming (which would fit the landscape in the initial shots), then their journey to Grant's Tomb in New York City will be about 1800 miles long (especially if we assume they begin in the Yellowstone area, where Bugs has been known to hang out). By the way, Yellowstone was made a national park by Ulysses Grant.
3:07 "Musta been Halley's comet."
3:28 Bugs swims here to avoid paying the toll.
3:41 The geography makes sense, even if the speeds are improbable. If Cecil is in Chicago, he's already about halfway along the route. Meanwhile Bugs is only as far as Center City, Minnesota.
3:56 Sound cue for the Christmas card: "Jingle Bells." No, there is no particular reason why Cecil would send a Christmas card. It could be just randomness, or maybe Christmas was on the animators' minds since this cartoon was made at the end of 1946 (but wasn't released until May 1947).
4:05 Although this theme may very well be used in other places throughout the cartoon, this was the first place where I could definitely identify it as being "Time Waits For No One" [obviously the big-band-era song, not the Rolling Stones one!]
4:35 Sound cue: A little bit of the "William Tell" overture tucked in here as the turtle is running without his shell.
5:15 "Wrench ... screwdriver ... suture ... forceps ... scalpel." The latter three are for medical surgery.
7:51 Cecil ends by stealing one of Bugs' famous lines.
Offreel
This is the last of three cartoons involving Cecil Turtle, the prior two being Tortoise Beats Hare and Tortoise Wins by a Hare. Unlike in the latter, this time Cecil and Bugs seem unaware that they have met before.
