JohnHowardReid
"Bugs Bunny", "Shorty/Buster Bunny", "Pete Puma". Director: ROBERT McKIMSON. Story: Tedd Pierce. Animation: Charles McKimson, Herman Cohen, Rod Scribner, Phil De Lara. Lay-outs: Robert Givens. Backgrounds: Richard M. Thomas. Voice characterizations: Mel Blanc. "Pete Puma" voiced by Dtan Freberg. Music director: Carl W. Stalling. Color by Technicolor. Producer: Edward Selzer.
Copyright 16 December 1952 (in notice: 1951) by The Vitaphone Corp. A Warner Bros. "Merrie Melodies" cartoon. U.S. release 15 November 1952. 7 minutes. COMMENT: Despite some splendid character animation - the freewheeling, gobbledegook-spruiking Buster/Shorty is especially endearing - this is a very mild offering in which Bugs outwits a not overbright puma. Bugs really needs someone more aggressively stupid as a foil. The pace is reasonably fast (though somewhat ambling by Warner Bros cartoon standards), the gags mild, familiar and/or predictable.
Edgar Allan Pooh
. . . about BOTH "tackle" football AND Alvin Chipmunk flicks with this brief seven-minute animated short, RABBIT'S KIN. Bugs Bunny has to take an irritating cousin under his wing while resisting the natural urge to try out his extensive collection of hammers, gavels, and mallets on this trying tyke, who Jibber-Jabbers like a helium sucker (but fortunately lacks the two brothers necessary to equal ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS for the sheer ability to annoy). Following this easy but maddening prey into Bugs' lair is Pete Puma, who talks like all the one-time "gridiron heroes" who've taken one (or one hundred) lumps too many on behalf of their "sport," and are now playing out the string on their shortened lives by commentating on "the dog that bit them," or making Public Service Announcements on behalf of all the football dorms housing ex-players in the final throes of game-induced dementia. Masochistic by nature, Pete finishes RABBIT'S KIN amid an orgy of self-concussing blows (something called "football practice" by Real Life Brain Trauma Aficianos). Though Will Smith's CONCUSSION is just around the corner as of this writing, that live-action feature film will probably take a lot longer to get to its point that football is a tragic waste, compared to the much briefer RABBIT'S KIN.
thechickinthemiddle
Sure,it's not the best McKimson cartoon out there,but the gags with Pete Puma actually made me laugh the first time I saw it.I loved the way Pete walked to Bugs and the little brown bunny when he was pretending to be the little brown bunny's mother,and the "How many lumps do ya want?" gag(s) is classic,especially the fact that Pete kept forgetting that he was going to be administered real lumps after saying "Oh,three or four..."This cartoon's my brother's second favorite cartoon(next to "Hot Cross Bunny"),and almost every time I pull out The Looney Tunes Golden Collection to watch,he exclaims "Go to the Pete Puma one!"Stan Freberg is an excellent voice artist and in the sense of best voice personality,Pete Puma is definitely the star of this cartoon(And I love Pete's unique laugh).I definitely recommend this to any Bugs Bunny fan who is a fan of obscure Bugs classics!
Shawn Watson
Not much going on in this short, I'm afraid. Bugs saves his little, hyperactive pal Junior from being eaten by the slow-witted Pete Puma (who acts like junkie looking for a fix). Bugs proceeds to execute a lame running gag with a hammer and hitting the poor doped-up puma on the head. It's not intelligent stuff, by any means. Odd, considering how great Bugs' usual standard is. The main problem lies with the fact that Pete Puma is not a great foil for Bugs, Junior is too hyper to be likable and there's a huge lack of real invention and mania. The Puma in drag scene also looked a bit disturbing.Bugs has done much better than this.
AD
