Apes of Wrath

Apes of Wrath
Directed by	Friz Freleng
Story by	Warren Foster
Starring	Mel Blanc Additional voice characterization: June Foray (uncredited)
Music by	Milt Franklyn
Animation by	Arthur Davis Virgil Ross Gerry Chiniquy
Layouts by	Hawley Pratt
Backgrounds by	Tom O'Loughlin
Color process	Technicolor
Production company	Warner Bros. Cartoons
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date	April 18, 1959
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.

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

Plot[]

The cartoon opens with the drunk stork talking to himself in the woods, while the gorilla baby he is supposed to deliver walks out of his bag. The stork is shocked to find that he has no baby to deliver. He has to find that new baby or he will be kicked out of the Stork Club. Coincidentally, what scene should appear next... none other than Bugs Bunny, who is singing "I dream of Genie, she's a light brown hare..." while roasting a carrot not too far from him. The stork knocks him out with a stick and takes him to the gorilla house, as the new baby. The bag is closed and they are both excited, until they open the bag, which reveals Bugs. Elvis (the male gorilla) goes to get a club to hit Bugs with, but the mother (who is dubbed "Mama" throughout the episode) stops him. Mama explains "no matter what he looks like, he's still your son." Bugs Bunny awakens, and is not about to assume position of a baby gorilla, so he tries to get away, only which the gorilla mother responds by spanking for trying to run away.

Elvis roars at Bugs when mother gorilla prompts him to kiss your "son". So she hits him over the head with a rolling pin, to get him to stop scaring the "baby". Witnessing this, Bugs get along with it and even pretend to be a monkey. From that point on, Bugs decides to make Elvis's life miserable for his own fun. As Elvis rocks Bugs' cradle rather unpleasantly, he tries to sneak away from Bugs whines with a horrid tantrum for a drink of water, to which Elvis responds by dumping a bucket of water over him then the scene changes to Elvis still holding the bucket then fades out just before the mother gorilla hits him with her rolling pin in response for his actions. The scene changes and they're outdoors, where Mama tells Elvis to plays horsey with Bugs. Elvis plays for a few seconds then throws and sends Bugs flying up into the air, then lands on Elvis and chasing Bugs. To Bugs' best of luck, Mama is nearby who soon takes control of the situation by confronting and clobbering Elvis with the ever-present rolling pin, then Bugs does the same while saying "bad ol' daddy" (almost like Tweety's famous line, "Bad ol' putty tat").

Later, Mama leaves Bugs in the care of Elvis once more, this time with Bugs continues hitting Elvis constantly over the head with a baseball bat. Mama walks away while saying, "That's nice, Elvis. Keep baby happy." Elvis then takes the bat and breaks it in two, but Bugs cries out for Mama and Elvis decides to replace the bat for Bugs rather than letting Mama know what just happened. While this is happening, the stork is already talking to Mama about his mistake then gives her their real baby and Elvis hears Mama yelling about the stork brings their real baby. Bugs finally realizes the danger that he is in (while uttering the piteous line "Mother!") and tries to escape as Elvis gives chase. Bugs first tried to hide in the tree, but hiding in a tree proves fruitless when Elvis rips the tree up by its roots and chases once more. Then Bugs crosses a rope bridge and tries to keep Elvis at bay by threatening to cut it if he crosses it; Elvis instead pulls the entire opposing cliffside to him in one effortless yank of the rope. Elvis tries to hit Bugs when he shrugs it off, but he gets away, leaving Elvis to smash the cliff to rubble as Bugs runs around to the bottom of the cliff, thinking he lost the mad gorilla. When Elvis sees Bugs at the bottom of the cliff from the top, he throws a huge boulder toward Bugs. Unfortunately this proven to be backfire as Bugs has no idea that there's a boulder coming towards him, but runs away when he sees Mama coming to ask "Elvis, guess what the baby said?" while she accidentally steps right into the spot where the boulder lands on her head hard then breaks into a rubble, much to Elvis' horror.

Elvis tries to explain to Mama about Bugs, but his words are too gibberish to be explainable and ends up bawling in disgrace. Bugs seen it and says: "I'd like to see him eeh-ooh-aah-ooh and but his way outta this one," as Mama, finally having enough of Elvis' insane actions, begins to give him a sound thrashing with her rolling pin (off screen). While the stork mistakenly delivers a baby to Bugs. The baby turns out to be Daffy (with a goose ahead atop his head suggesting parallels between Bugs' initial predicament). Daffy ends the cartoon by kissing and hugging Bugs and saying: "Mother! My dearest little mommy! Oh. I just love you, Mommy!", all to Bugs' noticeable annoyance and disgust.

Home media[]

"Apes of Wrath" is available, uncensored and uncut, on the Looney Tunes Superstars 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).

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Apes of Wrath

• Apes of Wrath at IMDb