Good start, but then it gets ruined

From my favorite movies..

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

. . . this Warner Bros. "Merrie Melodies" animated short from the early 1950s goes a long way toward providing the answer. Since Warner's brass was Hell-bent upon warning us about the danger of firearms NOT covered by the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment Armory Musket Clause, they specialized in churning out flicks such as PUBLIC ENEMY, LITTLE CAESAR, and THE ROARING TWENTIES from their inception. These features show what kind of a country Americans would live in if the People ever permitted a Gun Nut Majority on the U.S. Supreme Court. Because Warner producers also were pragmatists, they realized that they needed to have a "Plan B" in case their cautionary feature films were NOT enough to squelch a prurient interest in guns among ALL adult Americans. Warner's animated shorts served this function. Slob hunter Elmer Fudd shoots Daffy Duck in the face six times by the end of RABBIT SEASONING (among his 20 total shots). Daffy bounces back good as new after each and every shooting. During my brief time on this planet I've read and heard about 72,306 separate instances in which kids have found a loaded gun in their home and decided to play "Elmer and Daffy" with fatal results. (I've probably missed one or two million other such "unpreventable" mishaps and I assume countless Woundings and near-misses never even make the news.) Though the Gun Nuts who run all branches of American Government have Out-Lawed any statistic-keeping more official than mine, I've seen enough to realize that Warner cleverly set out to thin the gene pool of Gun Crazy Families with "children's fare" such as RABBIT SEASONING.

Cleverly written by Michael Maltese and directed by Chuck Jones, "Rabbit Seasoning" is a classic Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck/Elmer Fudd confrontation. In any film in which Daffy tries to compete with Bugs, Daffy ultimately loses out and gets creamed, which only adds to his frustration and jealousy. In this case, Daffy loses by repeatedly getting his bill blasted off by Elmer's shotgun.The most memorable gag in "Rabbit Seasoning" is the clever pronoun switch that Bugs pulls on Daffy. But there are other memorable bits as well, all of which, of course, center around Daffy getting blasted by Elmer. When Bugs disguises himself as a lady and woos Elmer, the popular song "You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby" (which Carl Stalling used in quite a number of other Warner Bros. cartoons) can be heard in the background. While in drag, Bugs adapts a feminine voice and asks Elmer for a duck dinner; stupefied with a silly grin, Elmer staggers up to Daffy and - what else? - blasts him! After Daffy peers out of a rabbit hole and gets blasted, his bill is bent out of shape and he resembles a drunkard as he tells Bugs, "No more for me, thanks! I'm drivin'!" One final point: One particular animator found it difficult to watch Daffy in this cartoon and in his other pairings with Bugs and Elmer ("Rabbit Fire" [1951] and "Duck! Rabbit, Duck!" [1953]). He actually feels sorry for Daffy, being a victim of Chuck Jones' direction and having no choice but to be a loser in these cartoons. Although I see where this animator is coming from, I cannot agree. Daffy is so obnoxious and so jealous of Bugs that he will do anything to throw Bugs off guard so that he can get hurt. Hence, Daffy DESERVES to get his bill shot off by Elmer. As Chuck Jones himself once explained, Daffy feels he deserves the best, not because he actually has EARNED it but because he simply FEELS he deserves the best!

I take it most people have a take-it-or-leave-it attitude towards cartoons, but I'm an avid fan of classic cartoons. "Rabbit Seasoning" is the definitive example of the Warner Brothers "hunting" genre. The "Pronoun Trouble" routine is up there with "Who's on First

This is the middle cartoon of the three (between Rabbit Fire and Duck! Rabbit, Duck!) and is the weakest of the three, while still being quite funny. It simply depends on one gag for too much of the action. Still a good cartoon. I feel a definite sympathy for Daffy in this one, which is rare for me. Daffy is so clearly overmatched that it almost becomes painful to watch at times. Good cartoon in an excellent series. Recommended.