Rabbit's Kin (1952) User Reviews (20)

Better Than Everyone Else Thinks

[thechickinthemiddle · 6/10 · 25 August 2005]

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!

Stan Freberg's remarkable vocal talents significantly elevate what could have been a weak cartoon

[phantom_tollbooth · 7/10 · 18 August 2008]

Robert McKimson's 'Rabbit's Kin' is an extremely memorable cartoon entirely because of the villain, Pete Puma. A popular character despite the fact that he only appeared in this cartoon (he was later revived as the Looniversity janitor on 'Tiny Toon Adventures'), Pete Puma is hilariously voiced by Stan Freberg. Freberg's unique voice characterisation is at once hysterically funny and somewhat disturbing. Pete Puma sounds like a desperate junkie searching for his next fix. Bugs' heckling in this cartoon is distinctly underwhelming, based entirely around the old "How many lumps do you want?" gag but this marginalisation of Bugs seems to be entirely intentional in order to throw the spotlight more prominently on the frighteningly odd antics of Pete Puma. Once experienced, Stan Freberg's unique vocal performance will be with you forever. Just witness the horrendously troubling drag scene for proof! All in all, 'Rabbit's Kin' could have been a dull cartoon if it weren't for its bizarre one shot villain. As a script, it would read as lacklustre. As a performance piece, its fantastic.

Pete Puma Is A Funny Guy, And I Liked His Voice, Too, But The Story Is Lame

[ccthemovieman-1 · 6/10 · 18 February 2007]

"Shorty," a little rabbit, comes racing into Bugs' hole seeking shelter and help. A ferocious monster, according to the fast-talking little hare, is after him. Bugs figures it is "Pete Puma," and goes to investigate. Sure enough, it is, and Pete -with a funny voice - tells Bugs he's after a little rabbit who is going to eat. Bugs asks him, "Wouldn't you rather have a big rabbit?"

Bugs then torments the poor, dumb sap, which is how the orange puma is portrayed. I'll tell ya, this Puma was a funny guy. He dresses up as Shorty's mother, trying the lure the little one, and is hilarious. However, poor Pete isn't smart enough to pull off any ploy...and pays the price each time.

Puma's voice (by Stan Freberg) was probably the highlight of this so-so cartoon. Using English subtitles to translate the super-speed-voice little rabbit helped, too.

Stan Freberg and hilarious character animation combine to set Pete Puma among the most memorable Warner Brothers characters: and this is his only appearance

[J. Spurlin · 8 March 2007]

Shorty, a school-age rabbit who must have learned how to speak from Alvin and the Chipmunks, frantically (he does everything frantically) jumps into Bugs Bunny's rabbit hole to escape the clutches of the villainous, but extremely stupid, Pete Puma, whose distinctive speech climaxes in an ear-splitting screech. Pete tries to trick Bugs and Shorty with an exploding cigar. Doesn't work. The cigar says "El Explodo" right on the wrapper. He tries to trick them by disguising himself as Shorty's mother. Doesn't work either. His rabbit ears are leaves that are inelegantly affixed to his hat. How can this poor, pathetic puma win the day? Smarter opponents than he have failed to outwit the wily Bugs Bunny.

This was not a great picture, but all Warner Brothers cartoon fans remember it for a great character. He appeared only in this film: Pete Puma. Stan Freberg's voice, with that hilarious (and fun-to-imitate) screeching, is the main reason for Pete's enduring popularity. The secondary reason is the hilarious animation. That incredible semi-dance Pete does, when he enters as the mother, is sublime.

This cartoon is available on the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume One," Disc 1.

Amusing if not entirely exceptional Bugs Bunny cartoon

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 23 April 2010]

Rabbit's Kin is an amusing if unexceptional Bugs Bunny cartoon. The storyline is mediocre mostly, Shorty is cute but he does have an irritating voice as well and the pacing was a little too quick. That said, it is amusing, with some amusing sight gags like Pete Pumas's semi-dance and some razor sharp dialogue. The animation is vibrant and colourful, and the character designs are excellent, and the music is lovely to the ears. Shorty aside, the characters are fine. Bugs is great here, a little underplayed compared to other times I have seen him, but Mel Blanc voices him marvellously. My favourite character though was Pete, he was absolutely hilarious and quite likable, with a scream/howl that you just love to imitate with a brilliant vocal performance from Stan Freberg. Overall, not absolutely superb, but definitely worth the watch. 7/10 Bethany Cox

"How many lumps do you want" never gets old

[utgard14 · 7/10 · 7 September 2015]

Bugs Bunny rescues an adorable little rabbit named Shorty from the clutches of Pete Puma. Bugs shows Shorty how to deal with the dimwitted feline. The bad: Shorty's super speed chipmunk voice is very annoying and he seems to have no purpose other than looking cute. The story is also pretty thin and relies heavily on a repeated joke (but a funny one). The good: Pete Puma is comedy gold. Stan Freberg provides the voice and does a great job. I was in stitches every time Pete opened his mouth. The gags are pretty funny, too, with Bugs putting the poor puma through the wringer so bad you actually start to root for him to win in the end. The recurring gag of "how many lumps do you want" never got old to me but others may disagree. Not one of the best Bugs shorts but a fun one.

Cup of Tea?

[smicalef · 10/10 · 27 February 2002]

One of McKimson's better Bugs episodes, as Bugs teaches a young bunny how to handle Pete Puma. The star of this episode though is Stan Freberg, as he was the one who voiced Pete. He gave Pete an 'over-the-top' voice, but perfectly matched what the character looked like. Good running gag about tea. 8/10.

Rabbit's Kin is a partly amusing Bugs Bunny cartoon

[tavm · 7/10 · 31 December 2007]

Robert McKimson's Rabbit's Kin is not a great Bugs Bunny cartoon but it does have a great voice for Bugs' adversary here, Pete Puma, that of Stan Freberg's with that screeching laugh (or maybe it's just some kind of disgust reaction). A little rabbit with a highly-speeded up voice is afraid of this puma and goes to Bugs for help. The rabbit manages to trick Puma to accept various number of lumps hit on his head whenever he asks him, "How much would you like?" when referring to coffee or tea. Those scenes and that aforementioned screeching laugh were the most memorable parts of this short. The little rabbit himself named Shorty is pretty irritating. Glad he was a one-shot. Pete Puma would subsequently appear in a Foghorn Leghorn cartoon made in the '90s. Would like to see that one. Anyway, this is on Volume one of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection.

Another great Bugs Bunny/Bob McKimson collab

[ja_kitty_71 · 10/10 · 22 October 2007]

This short is both cute and funny. I love the little bitty bunny, he's so cute! I also love the scene in Pete Puma's cave, where Bugs disguise himself as Pete's "second cousin Paul Puma;" the voice he used for the disguise was hilarious. Yes, there is no doubt this is one of my favorite Bugs Bunny cartoons directed by Bob McKimson, along with "Hillbilly Hare," "Acrobatty Bunny," "Wet Hare" and 8 other shorts too. I am quite terribly particular about that, a favorite short directed by who's who.

I love Pete's "I got a little rabbit in this hole..." Yes, as I said before Mel Blanc and Stan Freberg had never sound so good together. And anything else I could say about this cartoon is that I love it.

Why-Oh-Why Hadn't Pete Puma Ever Become A Featured Character In Other "Looney Tunes" Classics!?

[StrictlyConfidential · 6/10 · 14 May 2020]

Let's face it, f-f-folks! - Without the absolutely hilarious voice characterization of Pete Puma by Stan Freberg - 1952's "Rabbit's Kin" wouldn't have been even half as entertaining as it was. It's true.

Yep. Regardless of this animated short being a "Bugs Bunny" vehicle - It was, without question, good, ol' Pete Puma who repeatedly stole the show and upstaged that rascally rabbit, over and over again.

And, with that in mind - I cannot understand why Pete Puma hadn't ever appeared in any other "Merrie Melodies" from Warner Bros. 'Cause I think that he would've been an excellent character (to cause all sorts of comical situations) had he been teamed up with the likes of Elmer Fudd - Don't you agree!?

A doped up Puma?

[CuriosityKilledShawn · 5/10 · 26 May 2004]

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.

Though repetitive, this is still a good Bugs Bunny episode. :-)

[Mightyzebra · 8/10 · 4 October 2008]

I really enjoyed "Rabbit's Kin," mainly for the cute little rabbit (who is completely ununderstandable and painful for many ears), Bugs Bunny and Pete Puma, even though he is a little annoying and the animation is good. I also liked the humour - usually I find repetitive humour very irritating and it often puts me off the thing I am watching, but in this case I did not mind! Pete Puma is a good character, almost as likable as Elmer Fudd, but I would not give the tea leaves in my china teapot to see all his other episodes (if he has any more). He is surprisingly stupid, even more so than many of the the characters that Bugs Bunny is paired with.

In this episode, we see a little brown bunny rabbit with big eyes, running away from something or other. He bumps into Bugs Bunny and tells him that a puma is trying to catch and eat him (here Bugs Bunny seems to be some kind of linguist, as he understands the baby bunny, yet no-one else understands him). We also meet Pete Puma, the puma trying to hunt the little brown rabbit...

I recommend this episode to people who like Bugs Bunny and people who like repetitive cartoons (and even to some people who do not!). Enjoy "Rabbit's Kin"! :-)

most likely to be mistaken for lobotomy

[lee_eisenberg · 6/10 · 26 December 2006]

Not every Bugs Bunny cartoon was a full-scale masterpiece, and "Rabbit's Kin" is an example. It has Bugs protecting a small rabbit from a hungry, slow-witted puma, whom he frequently gives lumps...on the head. It seems like the whole cartoon is sort of a one-joke premise, and the little guy tries a little too hard to be cute. My favorite scene is Bugs in puma drag (that scwooey wabbit liked to dress up in drag, didn't he?).

So, this cartoon isn't terrible, just a little weaker than what we expect from the Looney Tunes cartoons. OK if there's absolutely nothing else to do (although there are far better cartoons on the Golden Collection, where you can find it).

That puma just seemed like he'd been lobotomized or something.

Trivia About Pete Puma's Voice

[drmark7 · 17 October 2002]

Priceless dialog: Bugs: "How many lumps you want?" Pete Puma: "Oh, better give me a lotta lumps. A *WHOLE* lotta lumps... (After realizing his mistake) No thanks, I'll do it myself."

Did you know that the character and voice of "Pete Puma" in the Warner Brothers cartoon "Rabbit's Kin" was based on Frank Fontaine's character of "Crazy Guggenheim." Pete's voice was provided by Stan Freberg. Freberg reprised this voice in another Warners cartoon (as Pete!) and in 1990 as Pete on "Tiny Toon Adventures."

About 65 years ago Warner Bros. had the foresight to warn us . . .

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 22 December 2015]

. . . 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.

A mild cartoon!

[JohnHowardReid · 6/10 · 9 March 2018]

"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.

Is "Stan F." just another alias for . . .

[pixrox1 · 6/10 · 24 July 2021]

. . . Mel fill-in-the-blank? I see no reason why the voice of Porky, Daffy, Bugs, Foghorn, Yosemite, Sylvester and countless others could not have tackled the role of Peter Puma. It's a historical fact that Mel nailed the character of Elmer F. At least once after his friend Arthur Q. Passed. Furthermore, didn't The Man of One Thousand Voices have a contract with the studio to do the voice work for ALL their loonies? Last, but not least, is there any credible evidence that an independent personage credited as "Stan F." ACTUALLY existed? Food for thought.

not up to Looney Tunes standards

[movieman_kev · 20 July 2004]

Another merely so-so Robert McKimson short that can't hold it's own when held against other Looney Tunes shorts. This time Bugs Bunny foils Pete Puma after he tries to catch Bug's nephew, Shorty. I don't care for Pete Puma and I don't like whenever one of Bug's nephews show up. Really only one somewhat funny joke stretched out for too long. This cartoon is uncut on Disk 1 of the 'Loony Tunes Golden Collection' and also has a commentary track (with the voice of Pete Puma) as well as a music-only track. On a side note, Pete Puma in drag is more then a little bit disturbing to see. Also Pete Puma showed up again in that dreadful "Tiny Toons" show.

My Grade: c

Bugs Bunny

[Michael_Elliott · 12 April 2009]

Rabbit's Kin (1952)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

The dimwitted Pete Puma (a lion) chases a baby rabbit into a hole not knowing that Bugs Bunny lives there. Of course Bugs has a few tricks up his sleeve to teach the dumb lion. This is yet another classic entry in the series that manages to be very funny even though I can't stand one of the characters. The film's biggest weakness to me is the young rabbit who I just find too annoying to really be entertained by him. Outside of that this short offers up many laughs and a lot of the credit has to go to the Puma character. The dumbness of this character is top notch and the running joke involving lumps are priceless. The ending with Puma giving himself lumps is hysterical as are many of the teaching methods of Bugs.

Boy, is Pete Puma stupid!

[slymusic · 26 June 2009]

Directed by Robert McKimson, "Rabbit's Kin" is a Bugs Bunny cartoon that benefits from the vocal talent of Stan Freberg as the "one-hit wonder" Pete Puma. Bugs is compelled to protect a helpless little kid bunny (whose voice is so sped up you can't understand him) from this absolutely dimwitted puma.

My few favorite moments from "Rabbit's Kin": Pete Puma never does figure out what kind of "lumps" he asks for, and Bugs manages to blow him up twice - once with a stick of dynamite disguised as a rabbit, and once with an exploding "ceegar".

"Rabbit's Kin" is a good cartoon that can be found on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 1 Disc 1, with an optional audio commentary by our dear friend Stan Freberg. I admit I had never heard of Pete Puma until I obtained this DVD collection; it's just too bad he never really seemed to catch on with the public.