Shrunken Cinema/Termite Terrace/Rabbits Kin
From Eccentric Flower
Rabbit's Kin
1951
Summary: Bugs helps a small, anxious rabbit fend off the depredations of Pete Puma.
Director: Robert McKimson
Writer: Tedd Pierce
Featuring: Bugs Bunny.
Onreel
0:19 Sound cue: We open with Stalling's "What's Up, Doc?" theme.
0:36 Sound cue: This music, used throughout the cartoon, is from the overture to Mendelssohn's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
2:43 Sound cue in the cigar sequence: This is a frequent Speedy Gonzales cue; if I care enough I'll come back and put it in after I identify it there.
3:05 Sound cue whenever the tea service is in play: "At Your Service, Madame."
3:50 Sound cue for Pete in drag: "That Wonderful Mother of Mine."
4:49 Sound cue when Pete proposes changing to coffee: "A Cup of Coffee, a Sandwich, and You."
5:35 Sound cue: "While Strolling Through the Park One Day."
5:57 Sound cue: "Rural Rhythm." (I've never heard the original so I don't know if the "Arkansas Traveler" elements are part of that, or were inserted by Stalling.)
Offreel
The first Golden Collection is ever-so-slightly front-loaded. There are somewhat more of the really four-star cartoons on the first collection than average, and almost none of the handful of outright bad cartoons that Warner made over this long timespan. Of course, what makes a cartoon good or bad is personal and subjective. Exhibit A: "Rabbit's Kin."
I hate this cartoon. Hate it hate it hate it. I don't like its animation style (crude-looking, especially Pete Puma), the squeaky high-speed voice of the little rabbit makes me want to tear my hair out, and Pete's is equally annoying (I've never understood the weird inhalation/wheeze/grimace thing he does periodically). But more than that, it's a boring cartoon - the one sin a cartoon can never commit. The gags do not follow from one another in any sort of logical sequence (there is absolutely no reason for Pete to offer Bugs a cigar, nor for Bugs to invite Pete to tea). It really only has one gag, and it has no ending. And yet I believe it occupies a prime slot on the first disc of the first connection because some people absolutely love this cartoon. In fact, evidence suggests that Stan Freberg's voice work as Pete Puma, in particular, has something of a cult following. (Pete's only other appearance, in "Pullet Surprise," is not in any of these collections.)
Well, there's no accounting for taste. But if you really are a Freberg fan (and you should be), I modestly propose that he does much better work in Three Little Bops, a much better cartoon.
