Bugs Bunny in King Arthur’s Court (1978)
aka A Connecticut Rabbit in King Arthur’s Court
TV special
Article 5752 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 4-27-2020
Directed by Chuck Jones
Featuring the voice of Mel Blanc
Country: USA
What it is: You can’t go home again

Bugs Bunny is stranded in the time of King Arthur where he must do battle Sir Elmer of Fudde.

This was one of several TV-special cartoons made by Warner Brothers as vehicles to revive their classic animated characters. And you know, I don’t really blame them for wanting to do that. Nor do I blame them for bringing the talents of Chuck Jones and Mel Blanc into the mix. But there’s just too much missing. They can’t rely on the comic skills of their classic animation department because it’s long gone now, nor do they have Carl Stalling to compose a perfect little soundtrack for their work; the music sounds anonymous and sometimes inappropriate. The result here is a rather glum cartoon shot at half the speed of the originals, is overly talky and a bit too self-conscious, and it makes very poor use of its characters. Jokes about the fact that the story was lifted from Mark Twain and passing references to Ray Bradbury just seem off-putting here. I’m afraid all this TV-special did for me is make me nostalgic for the original forties and fifties cartoons; whatever they had back then is sorely missing here.