A Star Is Bored
| A Star Is Bored | |
|---|---|
| Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny) series | |
 | |
| Directed by | Friz Freleng |
| Produced by |
Edward Selzer (uncredited) |
| Story by | Warren Foster |
| Voices by |
Mel Blanc June Foray (uncredited) Arthur Q. Bryan (uncredited) |
| Music by | Milt Franklyn |
| Animation by |
Art Davis Virgil Ross Gerry Chiniquy |
| Layouts by | Hawley Pratt |
| Backgrounds by | Irv Wyner |
| Studio | Warner Bros. Cartoons |
| Distributed by |
Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
| Release date(s) | September 15, 1956 (USA) |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 7 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Half-Fare Hare |
| Followed by | Wideo Wabbit |
A Star Is Bored is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon of the Looney Tunes series, directed by Friz Freleng. The cartoon is mainly made up of reused footage from earlier cartoons to expand upon the rivalry depicted between Bugs and Daffy in such films as Chuck Jones' Rabbit Fire, this time placing the action in a show-biz setting. In this 7-minute short, Daffy must double for Bugs in any slapstick that Warners deems too dangerous for its top star.[1] After each disaster, Daffy shouts "MAKEUP". The unseen director directing the scenes has a Erich Von Stroheim accent.
Plot
The opening frame depicts the exterior of Bugs' dressing room, inside which he is talking to the journalist, Lolly (a reference to the nickname of famed Hollywood columnist Louella Parsons).
Daffy then marches into the casting director's (possibly Jack L. Warner) office just as he is on the phone with another executive discussing the difficulty in finding anyone "stupid enough" to be Bugs' stunt double for his next picture. Daffy of course takes the job!
After a visit to the Make-Up Department, Daffy gets his first taste of on-the-set film action shortly thereafter (a Western co-starring Yosemite Sam. Initially, Daffy is extremely excited to be finally in any motion picture. He takes Bugs' place in a rabbit costume and holding a carrot, and stands next to Sam. Daffy gets the worst of it instead of Bugs!
Next, Bugs is in a scene where Elmer Fudd is cast in his usual role as trying to hunt Bugs. Bugs is high in a tree, and Elmer is supposed to climb it to saw the branch Bugs is sitting on, off (though not all the way through, as Bugs reminds him). However, Daffy has other ideas. He tells Elmer to come closer to him, as he has something to tell him. Lacking a clue to Daffy's actual motive, Elmer shuffles closer to Daffy, who whacks him in the head to knock him out. Daffy tries to upstage Bugs by sawing off the branch Bugs is on; unfortunately for Daffy, the branch Bug stands on is solid, while the part Daffy stands on falls to the ground!
After this sequence, Bugs is fishing off a pier, but Daffy takes no notice . He also takes Bugs' place at the end of the pier and his fishing rod. Yet he is not safe from the film script even now, as a giant bluefin tuna swallows him whole.
Another scene wherein Bugs is chased by Elmer follows this one, culminating when Bugs dives into another tree. With the "scwewy wabbit" cornered, Elmer aims his gun into the tree but gets poked in the rear by the gun's barrel (in reality, it's really Bugs holding another gun). When Elmer pulls his gun back, the other one makes the same movements. Wondering just how stupid Elmer is, Daffy furiously marches onto the set, snatches Elmer's gun and shoves him off. Daffy sticks the gun into the hole in the tree in which Bugs is hiding but what he believes to be another gun (in reality it's HIS gun bent around so that it points at his hindquarters) sticks up through a hole in the ground just behind him! Daffy retracts his gun; the "other" gun does the same. Daffy does this two or three more times before he decides to try a small experiment. He ties a red ribbon around the barrel of his gun, then sticks it into the tree, and looks behind him. The ribbon on the gun in the ground is white with red polka dots, leading Daffy to believe it to be a fake. He shoots, intending to mark Bugs, but the bent-around gun plan is revealed when the bullet hits him in the hindquarters and he pulls the gun out of the tree. The ribbon is white with red spots! Daffy didn't notice that Bugs switch the ribbon.
The next scene has Bugs piloting a plane accelerating up to 20,000 feet, then going uncontrollably in the direction of the ground. At the last second, the plane is "stopped" before crashing and Bugs get out and his place gets taken by Daffy who as usual gets the worst of it!
Having finally had more than enough, Daffy announces that "I'm through playin' stooge to a rabbit. I need a part that fits ME!" to the casting director, who promptly tells the distraught Daffy that he has just such a script: the starring role in a new movie called The Duck.
The final scene shows the filming of The Duck, with Daffy starring as a typical duck in a peaceful pond and directed by the same man who helmed the earlier movie wherein Daffy subbed for Bugs. Just as in the first scene of the earlier film, Daffy digs out his script to rehearse his line. When the director announces "Rrrroll 'em," Daffy says, "I wonder where all the hunters are today?", at which point ten hunters suddenly surround the pond, gun Daffy down and leave. Again infuriated, Daffy shrieks, "I DEMAND TO KNOW WHO WROTE THIS SCRIPT!" The cruel screenwriter turns out to be none other than... Bugs, to whom the camera is now transferred and who says, "I'd love to tell him, but... hehehehe... modesty forbids."
Censorship and rearrangement
- On the syndicated run of The Merrie Melodies Show, all scenes of Daffy getting shot were replaced with still shots of Bugs Bunny looking offscreen.[2]
- The WB version not only edited the cartoon to completely remove the two times that Daffy is the victim of gunshots (Daffy getting shot while replacing Bugs in a scene with Yosemite Sam and the end where Daffy [in his own movie] gets shot by a group of hunters after delivering his line, "I wonder where all the hunters are today"), but rearranged the parts where Daffy is working as Bugs' stunt double.[2] The sequences of the uncut version went as follows:
- Daffy stepping in for Bugs during his scene with Yosemite Sam.
- Daffy, disguised as Elmer Fudd, attempts to saw through Bugs' tree branch, only to fall with the main part of the tree while the branch stays suspended in mid-air from a prop.
- Daffy, sick of doing all the hard jobs while Bugs gets the soft jobs, replaces Bugs in his fishing sequence, only to be swallowed by a large fish.
- Bugs doing a forest chase scene with Elmer Fudd and Daffy trying to shoot Bugs through a tree hole only to have the barrel come out of a rabbit hole.
- Daffy substituting for Bugs during his airplane-flying scene
- The edited version on the WB showed the cartoon this way: the third scene aired first, followed by the second scene, and then the last two scenes, with the scene with Yosemite Sam cut.
Production
This was the first of the three Friz Freleng Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck cartoon to be mostly made up of reused animation from earlier cartoons. In terms of production order, the other two were Show Biz Bugs (1957) and Person to Bunny (1960).
Cast
- Mel Blanc as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, Producer (voice)
- Arthur Q. Bryan as Elmer Fudd (voice) (uncredited)
- June Foray as Lolly (voice) (uncredited)
Availability
As of 2007, A Star Is Bored is available on the four-disc DVD box set Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5,[3] as well as the similar, two-disc DVD Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 5. It is also available as a bonus on the Playstation 2 version of Looney Tunes: Back in Action, and the "Daffy Duck's Madcap Mania" VHS.
See also
- List of American films of 1956
- List of Bugs Bunny cartoons
- List of Daffy Duck cartoons
- List of Yosemite Sam cartoons