Baby Buggy Bunny is a Merrie Melodies

Merrie Melodies

Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...

 animated short film directed by Chuck Jones

Chuck Jones

Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...

 and written by Michael Maltese

Michael Maltese

Michael "Mike" Maltese was a long-time storyboard artist and screenwriter for classic animated cartoon shorts.-Career:...

 in 1954. The story is about a dwarf

Dwarfism

Dwarfism is short stature resulting from a medical condition. It is sometimes defined as an adult height of less than 4 feet 10 inches  , although this definition is problematic because short stature in itself is not a disorder....

 gangster named "Babyface" Finster (a play on words on Baby Face Nelson

Baby Face Nelson

Lester Joseph Gillis , known under the pseudonym George Nelson, was a bank robber and murderer in the 1930s. Gillis was known as Baby Face Nelson, a name given to him due to his youthful appearance and small stature...

) who, after a clever bank robbery, loses his ill-gotten gains down 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...

's rabbit hole, forcing him to don the disguise of an orphan baby to get it back.

Plot

Finster (AKA Ant Hill Harry), a 35-year-old man who resembles a baby, makes a successful robbery of the Last National Bank by the swift use of stilts, dark clothes, a carriage and baby clothing. With him dressed in Baby attire, he easily evades the police.

Finster loses his money down Bugs' rabbit hole (the carriage rolls down a hill and strikes a bump) and gets himself unofficially adopted in order to gain it back. Multiple attempts to grab it (in one instance Finster whacks Bugs with the bag of money) are interpreted as a baby's typical grabbiness. Finster even pulls and fires a gun but this still does not fully register with Bugs. Just as Bugs is putting the 'baby' to bed, Finster beats Bugs with a baseball bat; he assumes the baby is having a nightmare. A supposedly remorseful Finster grabs Bugs and hugs him saying "dada!"

Later, Bugs is trying to watch TV when he gets distracted by a buzzing noise in the bathroom. Looking inside, Bugs finds Finster is in the bathroom shaving himself, smoking a cigar, and wearing a tattoo (labeled Maisie, Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, 1932). A brief news clip about the bank robbery and an APB for the robber finally makes the rabbit realize what truly is going on.

He takes the time to torment the bank robber, before trussing him up in a basket like a baby (At one point, Finster tries to stab Bugs but stabs himself in the rear. He murmurs inaudible obscenities

Profanity

Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...

, causing Bugs to spank him and remove the weapons he has) and leaving him and the money at the police station. Finster does not take it well, throwing a wild temper tantrum while locked up in a baby sized playpen in the State Prison. Bugs ends the cartoon, telling the angry bank robber, "Don't be such a crybaby, after all 99 years isn't forever!"

Censorship

• On ABC, Cartoon Network, and the syndicated version of the Merrie Melodies show, the part where Finster draws a gun on Bugs and he thinks it is a toy is cut. The cut is not easily visible because the jump cut is to the same layout, though one can tell a cut is present due to the change in audio.
• On ABC, in addition to the aforementioned cut, the part where Bugs, having learned Finster's identity, shakes Finster after catching him trying to get the purse full of money atop the bookshelf, puts Finster in the washing machine after handling the "dirty" money, throws Finster up to the ceiling, and lets him fall flat on his face. The edited version is done in such a way, it looks like Finster just fell off the bookshelf. This edit also appear on Nickelodeon.
• Some syndicated airings of this cartoon on local TV stations merely shorten the part where Babyface Finster is shaken after Bugs catches him trying to get the purse full of money ("How many time have I told you not to play with the dirty money?!").

External links