Apes of Wrath

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Apes of Wrath
Apes of Wrath title card.png
Directed by Friz Freleng
Story by Warren Foster
Starring Mel Blanc
June Foray
Music by Milt Franklyn
Animation by Arthur Davis
Virgil Ross
Gerry Chiniquy
Layouts by Hawley Pratt
Backgrounds byTom O'Loughlin
Color process Technicolor
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date
  • April 18, 1959 (1959-04-18)
Running time
6:28

Apes of Wrath is a 1959 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short directed by Friz Freleng. [1] The short was released on April 18, 1959, and stars Bugs Bunny. [2] This cartoon recycles the plot from the 1948 cartoon Gorilla My Dreams . The title is a parody of John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath .

Contents

This cartoon was featured in Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales , but with a few slight changes, since the plot features Bugs and Daffy trying to sell books.

Plot

An inebriated stork, tasked with delivering a baby gorilla in the jungle, loses the infant during a break. Fearing repercussions, the stork seeks a replacement and spots Bugs Bunny roasting a carrot and singing. He incapacitates Bugs, dresses him in baby clothes, and delivers him to the gorilla parents.

Initially delighted, the gorilla parents, "Mama" and Elvis, are horrified upon seeing the "baby." Elvis attempts to eliminate the "ugly" baby, but Mama intervenes, insisting they accept him. Upon regaining consciousness, Bugs realizes his predicament and decides to manipulate the situation for his amusement. Bugs proceeds to make Elvis's life miserable, knowing Elvis cannot retaliate without facing Mama's wrath and her rolling pin. The stork eventually returns with the real baby gorilla, revealing the charade. Elvis, eager for revenge, chases Bugs. As Elvis prepares to drop a boulder on Bugs from a cliff, Mama unwittingly enters the danger zone, resulting in her being struck by the boulder. Elvis is left speechless as Mama prepares to punish him.

The drunken stork then mistakenly congratulates Bugs on becoming a mother and hands him a bundle containing Daffy Duck, who, dressed as a baby and sporting a lump on his head, calls Bugs "mummy."

Home media

"Apes of Wrath" is available, uncensored and uncut, on the Looney Tunes Super Stars' Bugs Bunny: Hare Extraordinaire and Looney Tunes: Unleashed DVDs. However, in both cases it was cropped to widescreen. It was also included in the Stars of Space Jam: Bugs Bunny DVD, but this time in the ratio in which it was originally animated (fullscreen aspect ratio).

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References

  1. Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 315. ISBN   0-8050-0894-2.
  2. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons . Checkmark Books. pp.  60-62. ISBN   0-8160-3831-7 . Retrieved 6 June 2020.
Preceded by Bugs Bunny Cartoons
1959
Succeeded by