Carrotblanca

Bugs Bunny in charge of Rick's café? This spoof of, of course, the 40s film 'Casablanca' sees our carrot-chewing hero as the fortune-hunting, love-sick exile who meets the love of his life again when she walks into his bar.

The strength of this cartoon isn't just in the details - they are a perfect reflection of the original film - but in the casting of well-known WB 'toon characters as the main players in 'Casablanca', for example Tweety Pie as Ugarte (the squeaky-voiced role originally played by Peter Lorre).

Better than 'Rabbit Hood', Bugs's take on 'The Adventures of Robin Hood'. These little shorts are inspired additions to the DVDs of the original films - keep 'em coming.

You can view this animated short if you purchase the Casablanca 2-disc Special Edition DVD.

My only complaint about the short is that it is, well, too short. They could have extended the storyline to put in more gags and references. I'm also a little upset that they left out classic lines ("beautiful friendship") and a semi-important character (Ferrari, which could have been played by Elmer Fudd).

Otherwise, it's a fun little short that fans of the movie (and WB cartoons) will enjoy. It would have been interesting to see how the original WB artists/writers of the "Casablanca" era would have done it, compared to this 1995 version.

This cartoon spoofs Casablanca wonderfully, and reuses the Scarlet Pumpernickel's formula for putting various stars in unlikely roles. Tweety is weird but funny as Usmarte and does an excellent Peter Lorre impression. The animation is of the new, plastic sort. But if you consider the animation of other cartoons these days, the weird digital sheen loses importance. Bugs apparently likes Penelope, which is strange, I must say. CAT and RABBIT?!!? Anyway, it's a cartoon, and such cartoons like The Scarlet Pumpernickel (1950) quite disregard the species. Funny and filled with laughs, with more of the dramatic story sense than most. Highly recommended.

"Carrotblanca," parody of the classic "Casablanca," is a hilarious spoof of the latter. Just about everyone turns up for this funny film.

Bugs plays the Rick part, and Penelope (the cat persistently followed by Pepe le Pew) plays the Elsa part (although named Kitty.) Sylvester plays Laszlo, and Daffy plays a hilarious Sam (Not Yosemite Sam, but the piano-player. Yosemite's a Nazi soldier for this round.)

This mini-movie has many hilarious moments from Bugs' first line to the absurd part in which Tweety is cast. At some points it seems Daffy steals the show (try forgetting about the "I thought I told you never to play that song" section) but otherwise Bugs is the one to watch.

My only complaint is that it goes rather fast. Of course, all the Looney Tunes shorts run an average of 7 minutes, but you'd think a spoof of a 102 minute film would be worth at least a 30 minute episode.

Casablanca is one of my favourite films of all time, and when I heard Looney Tunes had done a spoof on it I was enthused. So I gave it a shot, and I really liked it. My only real problem is that the cartoon is too short, consequently the story which is absolutely timeless felt rushed.

I also admit it isn't quite as good as the Looney Tunes cartoons made in the 1940s-1950s with Mel Blanc immortally doing the characterisation. Nevertheless, it is hugely enjoyable, with excellent colourful animation and wonderful music. But the real stars of course were the toons, Tweety's Peter Lorre impression was hilarious and Bugs takes on the Humphrey Bogart role with style. Penelope(named Kitty here) was lovely in the Ilsa role, but the real joys were Pepe LePew and Yosemite Sam. The voice acting is well done, while Joe Alaskey is not quite as good as Mel Blanc he does a great job with the voices of Sylvester and Daffy. Greg Burson is okay as Bugs (he doesn't quite nail it as Blanc did) but is much better as Pepe LePew and Foghorn Leghorn. Maurice LaMarche is superb as Yosemite though, and Bob Bergen is great as Tweety. And while she doesn't say much, Tress MacNeille is nice as Penelope.

All in all, a hugely enjoyable spoof to a classic. Yeah, they changed the ending, but so what? The cartoon is funny, that's all that matters really. 9/10 Bethany Cox