SUMMARY: Bugs Bunny takes on the Sherriff of Nottingham in Merry Olde England.
WHY IT’S HERE: Of all the many Robin Hood based cartoons that came out in the wake of the wonderful Errol Flynn epic ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’, ‘Robin Hood Daffy’ remains the most famous and best. Chuck Jones’s ‘Rabbit Hood’, however, runs a very close second. A lesser known classic, ‘Rabbit Hood’ has an absolutely superb script by Michael Maltese. Chock full of literate dialogue and extremely unexpected and elaborate gags (the house building gag is one of my all-time favourites), ‘Rabbit Hood’ is hysterically funny. The Sheriff of Nottingham is a great foil for Bugs, displaying a natural tendency towards being duped rivalled only by Elmer Fudd but which is offset by his exaggerated olde timey British style lines. Bugs is great in this cartoon too, an example of the character at his most innately likable as was typical of Jones’s most common depiction of Bugs. The ending, which I won’t spoil here, is a wonderful surprise. All in all, ‘Rabbit Hood’ is an absolutely terrific piece of work and deserves more praise than it usually gets. I highly recommend the spectacularly beautiful 2 disc special edition DVD of ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ which not only features the classic feature film but also offers both ‘Rabbit Hood’ and ‘Robin Hood Daffy’ as extras.
