Edgar Allan Pooh
. . . of Bugs Bunny's problems as he conducts a symphony orchestra playing Franz Von Suppe's "Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna." Bugs' venue is an outdoor amphitheater. Bugs chooses his conducting baton with greater care (and from a bigger selection) than a wand-shopping Harry Potter. Remembering to chalk its tip, Bugs waves his baton. The concert seems to get off on the right note (though two minutes of BATON BUNNY have passed by this point). However, between having his dress shirt self-destruct and being buzzed multiple times by a pesky fly, Bugs' conducting is so erratic that ALL of the concert goers have exited by the final chord. Only the fly is left to applaud. I once attended a Major League Baseball Game that suffered such a plague of flying insects that the stands were nearly as empty as Bugs' concert bowl by the end of the Seventh Inning Stretch. But baseball is best enjoyed outdoors (unless you're talking about the Tampa Bay Rays, in which case it cannot be enjoyed at all). On the other hand, concerts should be an indoor activity, as BATON BUNNY more than proves.
phantom_tollbooth
'Baton Bunny' is an unusual cartoon co-directed by Chuck Jones and Abe Levitow. It open with the caption "The Warner Bros. Symphony Orchestra Playing "Morning, Noon and Night in Vienna" by Franz Von Suppe". The conductor, it turns out, is Bugs Bunny. 'Baton Bunny' is a bold attempt at a largely one character cartoon but it's largely unsuccessful. While there are some inventive jokes including Bugs' staging of a Cowboy and Indian battle in which he plays both sides, there are also moments when 'Baton Bunny' becomes repetitive and dull. Matters are not helped by the unattractive look of the cartoon. It's clear to see that this is an effort from the later years of Warner Bros. The animation is not as smooth as you'd expect from classic Warner material and the drawings look less realistic and slightly more stylised than usual, a problem that would only get worse as the studio headed into the 60s. It's also telling that 'Baton Bunny' is a full minute shorter than most Warner cartoons, betraying the dearth of material writer Michael Maltese managed to come up with for this tricky premise. The introduction of a troublesome fly is a promising plot line but not much is made of it. All in all, it's not hard to see why 'Baton Bunny' is rarely cited alongside the classic music-based Warner cartoons. It's an unattractive and frequently lifeless six minutes.
tavm
Like Mickey Mouse, Andy Panda, and Tom and Jerry before him, Bugs Bunny plays a symphony conductor in Baton Bunny. Even without his voice, Bugs is hilarious whether inadvertently putting his glasses upside down making the pages look that way, having cuff links move around him, or being annoyed by a fly while he's conducting. Oh, and watch him play lots of instruments! Once again, Chuck Jones with Abe Levitow as co-director, mixed classical music with quality animated comedy in a heavenly inspiration of styles. Highly essential for fans of both genres I just mentioned. This is on disc 3 of The Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 1.
rlendog
Not every Bugs Bunny cartoon can be a classic, and this one isn't. Not bad, but a mediocre effort. The video (probably out of print as I write this) called "Overtures to Disaster" uses "Baton Bugs" as a framing device for 2 Bugs classics, "Rabbit of Seville" and "What's Opera, Doc", plus a few other good sequences, which highlights the difference in quality levels better than I could possibly describe in words.
AD
