Bugs and Daffy’s Carnival of the Animals

The first special of all-new Looney Tunes material was Bugs and Daffy’s Carnival of the Animals, a live-action/animation combination that premiered in 1976. This plays directly into a long-established tradition, the never-ending rivalry between Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny, with a backdrop of classical music and poetry. All of the ingredients are there for a successful reunion.

Bugs and Daffy’s Carnival of the Animals is a strange mixture, playing like a screwball variation of Fantasia’s Mickey Mouse and Leopold Stokowski’s brief time together. Whereas Disney took its classical pieces as a vague impression for their imagination and artistry to takeover, Carnival of the Animals takes its title literally, presenting a series of shorts animating the various animals mentioned.

The lions look like a young child’s drawing come to life; the chickens like a country kitchen’s artwork in movement, and the kangaroos are blocks of solid colors leaping across the frame. It never feels particularly like a Looney Tunes product, despite the presence of Bugs, Daffy, and Porky Pig, but it’s still hypnotic in its oddities. The “Birds” section is a particularly surreal highlight allowing Chuck Jones to engage in something that wouldn’t look entirely out of place in Yellow Submarine.

As a Looney Tunes piece, it’s heavily disappointing and a bit of a bait-and-switch. Taken as something else entirely, a freestanding work in which these characters merely cameo, it’s a beautiful thing. The music is well performed and orchestrated, the animation is kooky and inviting, and gives Jones a chance to go experimental in his choices. It’s worth a look both for curiosity’s sake, and for the visual strength. Just don’t expect any of the typical anarchy associated with Bugs and company.