Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol
Encyclopedia
Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol is an eight minute animated
short film produced by Warner Bros. Television
and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
and released in 1979 by Warner Bros.
as part of the Christmas special, Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales
.
The cartoon is an adaptation of the Charles Dickens
classic A Christmas Carol
, featuring Yosemite Sam
as Ebenezer Scrooge
and Porky Pig
as Bob Cratchit
. Bugs Bunny
makes things better by dressing up as a ghost
to give Scrooge a fright.
of his firm when Bob Cratchit (Porky) comes in, wanting to borrow a lump of coal
as he is freezing. Scrooge refuses, and just after this Bugs comes in with Christmas decoration
s and mistletoe
. He is tossed out, and decides that "somebody oughta teach that little humbug some Christmas spirit". Bugs then borrows a piece of coal and places it in the office of Cratchit, who graciously thanks him.
However, Sylvester, Scrooge's cat, notices this and warns him, causing him to take back the coal and fire Cratchit, also throwing out some carolers
(Elmer Fudd
, Pepé Le Pew
and Foghorn Leghorn) that Bugs let into his office. Cratchit invites Bugs to dinner introducing him to his youngest son Tiny Tim
(Tweety Bird). "Kinda puny, isn't he?" Bugs notes. "If you had to live on birdseed, you'd be puny too!" Tim retorts. Scrooge sends the light company to take the last candle (as Cratchit is past due) and a notice that the house is being foreclosed, forcing Cratchit to move out by midnight. Bugs decides this is the last straw.
First, Bugs annoys Scrooge with carolers, causing him to go out to deal with him and he slips. Next, he puts snow
into Scrooge's hot bath. He then acts like a ghost dragging around chain
s and beating a drum
, which causes Scrooge to investigate. He does so, and accidentally slips down the stairs and into the cold along with Sylvester. They go back to bed, but Bugs appears acting like a ghost. Sylvester quickly flees, but Scrooge is stopped by the door closing. As the ghost, Bugs threatens to take Scrooge to see "the man in the red suit" (the Devil
, though Scrooge first guesses Santa Claus
). Scrooge quickly promises to change.
He immediately makes good on his promise, giving money to the poor and making Bob Cratchit a partner in his firm. Tweety raises a toast to him, and Bugs kisses him. Scrooge (now going by the name of Sam) still hates kissing, though.
This story is the first part of Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales
. As the second one featuring Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner
begins, Sam asks Cratchit and his family to give all his money back to him.
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
short film produced by Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television is the television production arm of Warner Bros. Entertainment, itself part of Time Warner. Alongside CBS Television Studios, it serves as a television production arm of The CW Television Network , though it also produces shows for other networks, such as Shameless on...
and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
DePatie-Freleng Enterprises was a Hollywood-based animation production company, active from 1963 to 1981. They produced theatrical cartoons, animated series, commercials, title sequences and television specials. Notable among these is The Pink Panther film titles and cartoon shorts and the Dr....
and released in 1979 by 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,...
as part of the Christmas special, Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales
Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales
Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales is an animated Christmas television special featuring Bugs Bunny and other Looney Tunes characters, in three newly-created cartoon shorts with seasonal themes.The special originally aired on CBS on November 27, 1979....
.
The cartoon is an adaptation of the Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
classic A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
, featuring Yosemite Sam
Yosemite Sam
Yosemite Sam is an American animated cartoon character in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The name is somewhat alliterative and is inspired by Yosemite National Park...
as Ebenezer Scrooge
Ebenezer Scrooge
Ebenezer Scrooge is the principal character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol. At the beginning of the novel, Scrooge is a cold-hearted, tight-fisted and greedy man, who despises Christmas and all things which give people happiness...
and Porky Pig
Porky Pig
Porky Pig is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig...
as Bob Cratchit
Bob Cratchit
Robert "Bob" Cratchit is a fictional character who is the abused, underpaid clerk of Ebenezer Scrooge in the Charles Dickens story A Christmas Carol...
. 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...
makes things better by dressing up as a ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
to give Scrooge a fright.
Plot
Scrooge (Yosemite Sam) is counting money in the counting houseCounting house
A counting house, or compting house, literally is the building, room, office or suite in which a business firm carries on operations, particularly accounting. By a synecdoche, it has come to mean the accounting operations of a firm, however housed...
of his firm when Bob Cratchit (Porky) comes in, wanting to borrow a lump of coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
as he is freezing. Scrooge refuses, and just after this Bugs comes in with Christmas decoration
Christmas decoration
A Christmas decoration is any of several types of decorations used at Christmastime. The traditional colours of Christmas are pine green , snow white, and heart red. Blue and white are often used to represent winter, or sometimes Hanukkah, which occurs around the same time. Gold and silver are...
s and mistletoe
Mistletoe
Mistletoe is the common name for obligate hemi-parasitic plants in several families in the order Santalales. The plants in question grow attached to and within the branches of a tree or shrub.-Mistletoe in the genus Viscum:...
. He is tossed out, and decides that "somebody oughta teach that little humbug some Christmas spirit". Bugs then borrows a piece of coal and places it in the office of Cratchit, who graciously thanks him.
However, Sylvester, Scrooge's cat, notices this and warns him, causing him to take back the coal and fire Cratchit, also throwing out some carolers
Christmas carol
A Christmas carol is a carol whose lyrics are on the theme of Christmas or the winter season in general and which are traditionally sung in the period before Christmas.-History:...
(Elmer Fudd
Elmer Fudd
Elmer J. Fudd/Egghead is a fictional cartoon character and one of the most famous Looney Tunes characters, and the de facto archenemy of Bugs Bunny. He has one of the more disputed origins in the Warner Bros. cartoon pantheon . His aim is to hunt Bugs, but he usually ends up seriously injuring...
, Pepé Le Pew
Pepé Le Pew
Pepé Le Pew is a fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, first introduced in 1945. A French skunk that always strolls around in Paris in the springtime, when everyone's thoughts are of "love", Pepé is constantly seeking "l'amour" of his own...
and Foghorn Leghorn) that Bugs let into his office. Cratchit invites Bugs to dinner introducing him to his youngest son Tiny Tim
Tiny Tim (A Christmas Carol)
Timothy Cratchit, called "Tiny Tim", is a fictional character from the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. He is a minor character, the young son of Bob Cratchit, and is seen only briefly, but serves as an important symbol of the consequences of the protagonist's choices...
(Tweety Bird). "Kinda puny, isn't he?" Bugs notes. "If you had to live on birdseed, you'd be puny too!" Tim retorts. Scrooge sends the light company to take the last candle (as Cratchit is past due) and a notice that the house is being foreclosed, forcing Cratchit to move out by midnight. Bugs decides this is the last straw.
First, Bugs annoys Scrooge with carolers, causing him to go out to deal with him and he slips. Next, he puts snow
Snow
Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by...
into Scrooge's hot bath. He then acts like a ghost dragging around chain
Chain
A chain is a sequence of connected links.Chain may also refer to:Chain may refer to:* Necklace - a jewelry which is worn around the neck* Mail , a type of armor made of interlocking chain links...
s and beating a drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
, which causes Scrooge to investigate. He does so, and accidentally slips down the stairs and into the cold along with Sylvester. They go back to bed, but Bugs appears acting like a ghost. Sylvester quickly flees, but Scrooge is stopped by the door closing. As the ghost, Bugs threatens to take Scrooge to see "the man in the red suit" (the Devil
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
, though Scrooge first guesses Santa Claus
Santa Claus
Santa Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...
). Scrooge quickly promises to change.
He immediately makes good on his promise, giving money to the poor and making Bob Cratchit a partner in his firm. Tweety raises a toast to him, and Bugs kisses him. Scrooge (now going by the name of Sam) still hates kissing, though.
This story is the first part of Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales
Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales
Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales is an animated Christmas television special featuring Bugs Bunny and other Looney Tunes characters, in three newly-created cartoon shorts with seasonal themes.The special originally aired on CBS on November 27, 1979....
. As the second one featuring Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner
Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner
Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner are a duo of cartoon characters from a series of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. The characters were created by animation director Chuck Jones in 1948 for Warner Bros., while the template for their adventures was the work of writer Michael Maltese...
begins, Sam asks Cratchit and his family to give all his money back to him.