Classic Bugs Bunny short, directed by Friz Freleng and written by the great Michael Maltese. It's an exciting day at the ball field as the Gas-House Gorillas are playing the Tea Totallers. Things aren't going the Totallers' way, so Bugs steps in and takes on the Gorillas single-handed. Hilarity ensues. It's quite simply one of the best baseball cartoons ever made. Possibly even THE best. Solid voice work, nice music, and excellent animation. Love the colors. The cartoon moves at a fast pace and all of the gags connect well. As I said, it's a classic. Any Looney Tunes fan worth their salt will have seen it at least a few times. I've lost count of how many times I've seen it since childhood but it never gets old to me.
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utgard1428 February 2016
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Rikichi24 February 2004In most Bugs Bunny cartoons, he is pitted against a foe, usually human, while formidable in their own way, are obviously not in his league when it comes to brains. In this particular one, directed by Friz Freleng, he is up against a whole team of them. Bugs calls the Gas House Gorillas "a bunch of dirty cheaters". They then challenge him to a game of baseball where Bugs has to play every position, plus having to catch up where the Tea Totalers left off, behind 96-0 or something close to this score. Many of the jokes aren't up to writer Michael Maltese's usual standards, but anyone who has ever watched this cartoon will never forget the ending sequence where Bugs has to catch the last out of the game to win it.
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Mightyzebra26 November 2008My description for this Bugs Bunny episode, overall, is fun. The beginning of it is very boring and not very funny, but Bugs Bunny transforms this cartoon completely. If it had been any other cartoon character, this episode would have been a disaster. Bugs Bunny had to come on to enhance the action.
Bugs Bunny is watching a very boring and bad (according to him anyway) baseball match, saying he could do better. Not too surprisingly, the other players of the game challenge him to a game and Bugs Bunny accepts. Can he really do better than the other team..?
I liked this episode for the animation, some of the jokes (which were very original in 1946) and of course, Bugs Bunny. Personally I did not think the subject of baseball would make this episode very enjoyable, but I enjoyed it a great deal.
I recommend this episode to anyone who likes Bugs Bunny and to anyone who likes baseball (or people who can bear it). Enjoy "Baseball Bugs"! :-) -
ccthemovieman-114 February 2007We are at the Polo Grounds in New York City with the visiting team - the Gas-House Gorillas - giving the home team - the Tea Totallers - a thrashing, leading 94-0 and it's only the top of the fourth inning! Bugs emerges from his hole in the outfield and is disgusted. "Hey, I can beat this team singled-handed," he thinks, so he takes over from the 91-year-old pitcher who is getting shellacked. In fact, he takes over for everybody, being the whole team!
From that point on, it really becomes total lunacy - but one of the funniest Bugs Bunny cartoons I've ever seen (well, I'm a baseball fan, too) - capped off by a the most ridiculous catch ever made!
This was a lot of fun to watch. I hope Bugs did more sports cartoons and, if so, I get a chance to see them. -
paulo209 September 2004...if you want to see Bugs in a sports milieu. You'll see Bugs takes care of his own business as opposed to kidnapping a popular, talented athlete to do it for him. You won't see Bugs nabbing Joe DiMaggio, say, to help him against the Gashouse Gorillas. But I digress.
I think the comments on this toon are a bit too analytical. The fact is this is a classic and just plain fun; a toon that I always enjoyed as a kid (and I wasn't even a baseball fan at the time).
Notice how the Gorillas start out as the visiting team, then end up as the home team. Also, note how Bugs, when following the Gorillas' would-be game-ending long fly to try and catch it, gets off the cab that's "going the wrong way" and gets on a bus that appears to be heading in the same direction. These "bloopers" were probably due to error and/or a limited budget but they only add to the hilarious charm of this classic cartoon. -
erichyoung30 August 2001This is the one you remember from when you were growing up and watching Saturday morning "Bugs Bunny and Roadrunner" cartoons. I recently watched this cartoon a 15 years at least since I last saw it and laughed out loud at all the pranks that Bugs pulled out of his hat. I know I must have used some of these jokes when I was playing baseball as a kid.
And the cameo at the end of America's perennial first lady was a hoot - and Bugs goes and lampoons her on the spot!
Classic is the only word for this one. -
phantom_tollbooth18 August 2008Friz Freleng's 'Baseball Bugs' has become one of the most well known Bugs Bunny cartoons of all, so much so that it was referenced in hugely popular the sitcom 'Friends' in such a way that took for granted that the audience would recognise it. Commonly known as "that one where Bugs takes on a whole baseball team and plays all the positions", 'Baseball Bugs' brings back many a fond memory from my childhood. Watching it today, it's a fairly standard cartoon largely made up of visual gags of varying quality, the best involving a highly unconventional batboy. The main reason it has become semi-legendary would seem to be entirely down to its ingenious premise of pitting the rabbit against a whole team of thuggish ball players. Freleng does some interesting things with the premise but you can't help but feel a wackier director like Bob Clampett could have made so much more of it. Another problem with 'Baseball Bugs' is the more than usually abundant use of old references that inescapably date the cartoon. For cartoon aficionados like myself, these reference points always prove interesting (and 'Baseball Bugs' includes my favourite regularly used saying, "Was this trip really necessary?", which always cracks me up) but to most people they will prove perplexing and the fact that the cartoon ends with one of these forgotten catchphrases makes for a somewhat anticlimactic finale. Nevertheless, 'Baseball Bugs' is a fun short which I always enjoy seeing and which is not wholly undeserving of its reputation as a classic, even if it does pale in comparison to the truly great Warner cartoons
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lee_eisenberg22 November 2005Belligerent baseball team Gashouse Gorillas are truly a mean bunch. And they have no trouble making 96 points while the other team still has nothing. That is, until Bugs Bunny as the opposing team is playing every position. Then, it's really time to play ball! You'll never forget the final sequence.
"Baseball Bugs" was one of the many classic Looney Tunes cartoons on which Mel Blanc and that whole crowd collaborated. Seeing how great this cartoon is (no to mention how great the other classic Looney Tunes cartoons were), I gotta wonder what it must have been like actually creating the cartoons. They must have really had fun! -
rbverhoef29 December 2003In 'Baseball Bugs' we see Bugs Bunny playing baseball. He alone is one team and he is playing a team called the Gashouse Gorillas. It is a little too much of the same at the beginning but the very funny second part makes up for that. The Looney Tunes short are almost always funny and this one didn't disappoint me.
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movieman_kev5 November 2003Having just got the "Loony Tunes Golden Collection"(which i HIGHLY recommend, by the way), I'm going to try to comment on most if not all of the cartoons individually. As such the starting statement might seem redundant for those whom read multiple reviews of them, for this i apologize.
Baseball Bugs is a great cartoon of Bugs playing baseball (in all positions) against the Gashouse Gorillas' team. Some funny sight gags make this short great.
My Grade: B+
DVD Extras: Disk 1: an introduction by Chuck Jones; The Boy of Termite Terrice part 1; clips from the films "Two Guys from Texas" and "My Dream is Yours", both with Bugs cameos; Bridging sequences for an episode of "the Bugs Bunny show"; the Astro Nuts audio recording session; 2 vintage trailers; "Blooper Bunny: Bugs Bunny 51st and a half anniversary" with optional commentary with writer Greg Ford & stills gallery -
CuriosityKilledShawn19 May 2004The cheapness of this cartoon is evident from the beginning. Much of the animation is clearly recycled. Some of Bugs Bunny's jokes fall flat too but there's still plenty of zany, wackiness surrounding him to make up for it.
The story is this. Bug's baseball team (made up of very old men) is losing to a bunch of brutish, thug-types. He makes them a bet he can beat them all on his own. And, as usual, it's Bugs' wits and brain against the stupid, easily manipulated opponents.
This is also an earlier cartoon too. So Bugs' personality is not as honed and developed as later outings and the design of the character is a bit off. Still funny with lots of laughs tho. -
Having recently gotten the first Looney Tunes Golden Collection from my library, I went through all the extras first (except the "music only" shorts). Then I started watching the cartoons in order of appearance. Baseball Bugs is the first one listed on disc one. This Friz Freling effort from a Michael Maltese story piles on all the gags that one always associate with the Warner Bros. cartoons, like the one when Bugs, as the lone pitcher of a baseball team, manages to strike out three members of the opposing team by throwing the ball reeeeaaaaallll slow as all three swing their bat real quickly with the announcer saying at that speed, "One, two, three, out!" Or the one when Bugs distracts one of them by showing a picture of a sexy girl to keep him from catching the ball. Or how about a bat boy with bat wings giving the rabbit a couple of bats. There's plenty more but I don't want to spoil the whole thing for you so all I'll say is: Just watch.
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Pjtaylor-96-13804416 July 2023'Baseball Bugs (1946)' sees Bugs Bunny single-handedly take on a bunch of bullying brutes in a game of one-on-many baseball. The short is chock-full of delirious sight gags and visual puns, remaining enjoyable for its duration. It does take a little while to get properly going because Bugs doesn't make his entrance until the set-up is out of the way, but once it kicks into gear it's pacy and propulsive and, at times, properly funny. There are some jokes that are actually references to pop culture that's now pretty much been lost to time, but most of the affair is as timeless as the best of Bugs' appearances. It's an entertaining effort that keeps you smiling throughout.
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J. Spurlin6 March 2007The Tea Totallers is not a good ball team. The average age of the players is about 93--or 93 and a half as one player tells us in his best Lou Costello imitation. The Gas-House Gorillas is not a good ball team either. Everyone on it is an enormous, bullying reprobate. Contemptuous, too. A player grounds an umpire into the ground with his fist. The overconfident jerks even dance a conga line around the bases. Bugs Bunny picks the wrong team to boo. When he shouts that he could take on the Gorillas all by himself with one hand tied behind his back, they take him up on it, except for the hand-tying. Now it's the Gorillas against Bugs on first, Bugs on second, Bugs on third, Bugs pitching, Bugs catching; and it's no match. That is, the Gorillas are no match for our wily Bugs.
Friz Freleng and Michael Maltese give us several unforgettable moments: the screaming liner to left field; Bugs the catcher encouraging Bugs the pitcher with "That's the old pepper, boy"; Bugs's unique method for stealing a base; and even the Statue of Liberty imitating a typical woman fan of the day: "That's what the man said, you heard what he said, he said that!" Mel Blanc's voice talents, as usual, rival Bugs Bunny's one-man show. Treg Brown gives us several hilarious sound effects, such as what accompanies Bugs's wind-up pitch and what we hear when a Gorilla blows cigar smoke in Bugs's face. Carl Stalling writes a score worthy of Bugs and baseball.
This short is available on the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume One," Disc 1. -
verbusen5 November 2020Like another reviewer wrote, this is the Bugs cartoon you still remember from watching again and again on TV as a kid (another one is Daffy blowing himself up onstage with Bugs). This is a legendary cartoon and one of the best comedic sports films ever, IMHO. How do you know it's so good? You can't find it on Youtube, but you can find dozens of other Loony Toons online easily. I was able to find it eventually online (archive org) and it was again after 30 years, still awesome. I had a lot of it memorized (like Bugs' hilarious pitching) but parts seemed new and were also really funny. For me, possibly out of nostalgia of my 1970s childhood memories watching TV, this rates a 10 out of 10!
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. . . a carrot juice-fueled Bugs Bunny snatches Victory from the Spitoon of Defeat on behalf of his fellow Brooklyn Teetotalers. Coming on in relief with no one out in the bottom of the fourth and 41 runs already across the plate (Conga-line style), Bugs starts to dig out of the Temperance Boys' 95-0 hole by striking out three Gas House Gorillas on a single pitch. With plenty of innings left to "chip away" at the Gorillas' imposing advantage, Bugs takes the hill in the bottom of the Ninth Inning with a razor-thin 96-95 advantage (mathematically, the closest margin in baseball history). With one on and two down, the Gorilla clean-up hitter approaches the plate wielding a telephone pole. A mighty whack loft's Bugs' first offering well clear of the Polo Ground's not-so-friendly confines. Bugs exploits a gap in the center-field fence to first hop a taxi, then a streetcar, and finally an elevator to the roof of the "Umpire" State Building. Climbing a flagpole, Bugs throws his glove at the still ascending baseball. Said glove catches the ball, Bugs catches his glove, a speedy umpire calls the out, and the Statue of Liberty declares a Teetotaler Triumph (signaling Warner Bros.' urgent wish for a return of Prohibition, and the opportunity to make Modern Day sequels to THE PUBLIC ENEMY, THE ROARING TWENTIES, and other such Dry Days Classics.)
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Horst_In_Translation31 July 2015"Baseball Bugs" is an American cartoon from almost 70 years ago and tells us the basics about baseball in slightly over 7 minutes. Goofy explained some sports for Disney and Here Bugs does it for Warner Bros. Freleng, Maltese and of Course Blanc worked on really many films together back in the day and they knew exactly what they were doing. I myself do almost know nothing about baseball and yet I managed to enjoy this watch. if you have an interest in the sport, you will probably really love it. In any case, Bugs seems to be really good at the game as he beats the enemy team on his own. Babe Ruth would have been jealous. The enemy team, by the way, is named Gashouse Gorillas, which, in retrospective, is a really unlucky choice for a film that came out in the 1940s. Anyway, apart from baseball, this movie still has smart off-topic references, for example about about gangster movies ("follow that ball"), and some more interesting moments. My favorite funny moment was the Batboy scene. The ending could have been slightly better, but I guess they wanted to give it an American touch with the Statue of Liberty inclusion. Good watch. Recommended.
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Baseball Bugs is perhaps not Bugs's best, or quite classic status, as the beginning is a little slow, but it is a zany and original Looney Tunes cartoon with a lot to recommend. While there are a lot of memorable characters, it is Bugs who steals the show in the way only he can, with his quick wit and all. The animation is also good, colourful and solid-looking, while Carl Stalling's music is superb. The dialogue is furious and witty, and the visual gags are right on the money, especially the catch which was so outrageous it was funny! The story is very simple, but it is great too. And of course, the one and only Mel Blanc voices multiple characters to perfection. Overall, not quite a Looney Tunes cartoon, but it is very funny and original elevated even more by Bugs. 9/10 Bethany Cox
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"Baseball Bugs" a 1946 "Looney Tunes" short is one that was a fun watch and highly memorable and always a good watch at or during the start of baseball season. The short is funny with wit and clever means as Bugs outsmarts his opposition. It's a baseball game and The Gorilla team are having a runaway field day against the over the hill outmatched Tea Totallers. Never fear Bugs Bunny steps in for relief replacement to take on the Gorilla team as Bugs becomes a one man baseball team! The animation and scenes make it a fun watch as the action of Bugs pitching and catching the baseball is in top form. Bugs Bunny really shows his skill as a baseball player with victory this episode is clearly a home run! A classic that never gets old.
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tadpole-596-91825627 November 2016. . . that a rematch is in the offing of the 1932 World Series between the New York Yankees and the hapless Chicago Cubs, during which Babe Ruth (the Yank's "Sultan of Swat") thoroughly demoralized the Wrigleyville Faithless by "calling his shot." Certainly, the young brutes on the Cubs who scalped the Indians in the 2016 Fall Classic resemble this BASEBALL BUGS' "Gas House Gorillas" Ball Bashers. But the Gorillas' (Cubs') opponent here--the "Trumpet Town Teetotallers"--feature an all-geezer line-up. In order to ape the Tease, the one-time Bronx Bombers will have to age in a hurry. And the Yanks simply lack enough Old Hands in their Farm System to get this job done. Where should they turn? From Whence could they seek succor? If you limit this to Dorothy's Choices--"Lions, Tigers, or Bears"--the pick is obvious: give the Tigers a try (seeing as how Lions and Bears play mostly on Sundays, anyway). Fortunately for the Yanks, Big Al of the Tigers has announced a "Fire Sale" to cut payroll by 85% or so. Justin Verlander, Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez, and Ian Kinsler all are in their 90s in baseball years, which has historically been defined as "Yankee Prime Time." None of this quartet are likely to object to trading in Tiger stripes for Yankee pinstripes. Just remember when this deal is announced, you heard it first from BASEBALL BUGS!
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flippyfrogman5 June 2023Yet another Bugs Bunny cartoon that I adore to pieces, and can't really find many flaws or issues with. There is a story, but the majority of the cartoon is just excuses to tell really hilarious baseball gags, which works just fine. Bugs' is at the top of his game, with the perfect laidback and carefree personality that we all love the character for. All the gags are funny, such as the conga line gag, the pinball machine gag, the slow ball gag, among others. Not a single gag misses, they're all fantastic. The ending doesn't really connect much to the rest of the cartoon, but it's so out-of-nowhere and bizarre that it doesn't ruin the cartoon by any stretch of the imagination. Just an iconic Bugs Bunny classic through and through. 10/10.
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slymusic25 September 2007"Baseball Bugs" is a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon directed by the great Friz Freleng. As you can gather from the title, this film deals with one of America's favorite pastimes: baseball! Bugs Bunny does a swell job of keeping the gags rolling when he substitutes for ALL the players on the home team (the Tea Totallers) and antagonizes the visiting team (the Gas-House Gorillas) with foul play.
My favorite gags from "Baseball Bugs" include the following (DO NOT read any further if you have not yet seen this cartoon). Near the beginning, the hard-hitting Gorillas continually hit homers in a conga rhythm while all the batters dance around the baseball diamond. A gag Bugs used in various other shorts is his argument with the "umpire" (actually a Gorilla in disguise), in which he tricks the ump into declaring that he's safe instead of out. As one of the Gorillas runs the bases, Bugs stops him by showing him a picture of a scantily-clad woman while the popular song "Oh! You Beautiful Doll" can be heard in the background.
Again, "Baseball Bugs" is a wonderful cartoon with plenty of gags, homers, fouls, and strikeouts. "That's what the man said! He said that! That's what he said! He really said that! That's what he said!" -
hifijohn18 February 2022A super classic for those who love baseball and even for those who dont. Bugs plays every position including pitcher and catcher against the gashouse gorillas, its bugs bunny so the laws of physics go out the window. We have a conga line of batters around the bases, a bat boy that literally is bat ,a screaming line drive that is literally ball screaming. The ending of course is ridiculous any ball hit over the outfield wall in fair territory is home run catching it at the"umpire" state building doesn't matter.
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Bugs is watching a one sided baseball match and is giving the winning team a lot of verbal about their skills or, in his opinion, lack of them. When the team surround him and call his bluff, Bugs is forced to play them himself in all positions!
Bugs' antics are as good as ever here even if he has no one single foil to battle. The plot sets him up to outwit the baseball team of thugs and win his bet. The jokes are good as they always are, but they do tend to get a little repetitive and it quickly runs out of things to do within the confines of the stadium and the sport.
The characters are all good. The baseball bruisers are the same sort of make up as most of the thuggish characters which populate these cartoons, but Bugs deals with them well in a mix of physical comedy and quick wit!
Overall this is typical of Bugs Bunny's style and will be enjoyed by fans. Only thing to note is that it is a bit lacking in imagination after a short while and is not the best example of a fine Bugs Bunny cartoon. -
Michael_Elliott14 July 2008Baseball Bugs (1946)
**** (out of 4)
This here has always been one of my favorite Looney Toons. Bugs is at a baseball game where he starts heckling a team of outlaws who soon forces the bunny to play them. I'm not sure how many times I've watched this in my life but I remember as a kid I'd always stop was I was doing whenever I heard the sports commentators intro. I think there are plenty of non-stop jokes in this from the umpire being hit over the head and then apologizing for calling a strike to the final out with Bugs taking a trip across the city to get to a ball.