Acrobatty Bunny is a Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 cartoon released in 1946 as part of the Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...

series, directed by Robert McKimson

Robert McKimson

Robert "Bob" Porter McKimson, Sr. was an American animator, illustrator, and director best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros., and later DePatie-Freleng Enterprises...

 (his second), and starring Bugs Bunny

Bugs Bunny

Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...

 and Nero the Lion

Lion

The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...

.

An acrobat

Acrobatics

Acrobatics is the performance of extraordinary feats of balance, agility and motor coordination. It can be found in many of the performing arts, as well as many sports...

is a person skilled at high-wire or other high-in-the-air exploits, while "batty" is a slang term for "crazy" (as is "Bugs").

Plot synopsis

A circus is being set up just above Bugs' rabbit hole, causing much noise and vibration. The Lion cage is set up directly above the hole, and the Lion takes deep sniffs (alternatively yanking Bugs towards the hole or throwing him back) to determine that the animal below is Bugs. When the Lion (whom Bugs eventually refers to as "Nero") roars again, Bugs comes to the surface to see what's going on, riding an elevator that makes twists and turns. Bugs tries to reason with the lion ("I'm the tenant downstairs, and there's entirely too much noise!"), but soon makes a hasty escape when Nero takes a swipe at him.

Nero manages to get out of his cage, and chases Bugs around the circus grounds. Bugs at one point ducks into a dressing room, coming out as a clown trying to convince Nero to laugh ("COME ON, LAUGH!"), which he eventually does - until Bugs takes some whacks at the lion with a wooden board. The lion then chases Bugs into the big top, where they swing around acrobat swings. Eventually, Bugs tricks Nero into a cannon and sets the cannon off, causing Nero to do a hula in his 'skirt' (complete with a lei from Bugs) while Bugs plays the ukelele to close the cartoon.