"Bugs' Bonnets" begins as a psychological study on the different clothes that people wear and it gives examples of how the same person can change if he or she wears different outfits (which is not the case in real life). When Elmer Fudd is chasing Bugs Bunny in the woods, a van containing various hats, driving on a bridge above the pair, has its doors broken open and the hats and outfits fall out. Throughout the episode Bugs and Elmer wear different hats and change their personalities and roles dramatically throughout the episode.
I do not know if anyone else noticed (if you watched the episode) but this episode reminded me of the sort of activities one does in drama, changing your personality completely just to sort an outfit. A bit like the reviewer Lee Eisenberg with his random theories, it may have only occurred to me and not to anyone else...
Anyway, here is a list of the good things about this Bugs Bunny + Elmer Fudd episode: 1. The idea is a clever and amusing one and is used well in the cartoon. 2. The "base" characters are good in this episode and the "added" characters are also very well done and amusing. 3. The cartoon opens and ends well, parts of episodes I feel can very often be patchy in a Looney Tunes cartoon. 4. The back-ground animation is very good, the character animation could be better, but it is not an issue in this episode. 5. The music was well done and often changed dramatically in this cartoon, which I liked.
If there was anything I did not like so much about the episode, it was the quickness of some of the character changes, the unnecessary pauses between some of the character changes and the slightly racist point where Bugs Bunny starts shooting Elmer Fudd as soon as Bugs is wearing Native American costume (I thought Americans had gone a bit better about that by the mid 1950's, but maybe I was mistaken).
I recommend this episode to any fan of Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd cartoons, to people who enjoy Looney Tunes in general and to people who love quick-changing personalities in a cartoon.
