Robot Rabbit

{{Infobox film

| name = Robot Rabbit

| image=

| caption =

| producer = Edward Selzer{{cite web |title= Robot Rabbit (1953): Main |publisher=The Big Cartoon DataBase |accessdate=7 November 2021 |url=https://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/253-Robot-Rabbit}}{{dead link|date=January 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

| director = I. Freleng{{cite book |last=Webb |first=Graham |title=The Animated Film Encyclopedia: A Complete Guide to American Shorts, Features and Sequences (1900-1999) |page=304 |publisher=McFarland & Company Inc. |isbn=978-0-7864-4985-9 |year=2011 |url=https://pdfcoffee.com/download/a-companion-to-film-theorytoby-millerrobert-stam371pdf-pdf-free.html|edition=Second }}

| story = Warren Foster

| animator = Ken Champin
Manuel Perez
Arthur Davis
Virgil Ross

| starring = Mel Blanc
(Bugs Bunny, Mule)
Arthur Q. Bryan
(Elmer Fudd){{cite web |title=Robot Rabbit (1953): Cast |publisher=The Big Cartoon DataBase |accessdate=7 November 2021 |url=https://www.bcdb.com/cartoon-characters/253-Robot-Rabbit}}{{dead link|date=January 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}

| layout_artist = Hawley Pratt

| background_artist = Irv Wyner

| music = Carl Stalling

| studio = Warner Bros. Cartoons

| distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation

| released = {{Film date|1953|12|12|USA premiere}}

| color_process = Technicolor

| runtime = 6 minutes 45 seconds

| language = English

}}

Robot Rabbit is a 1953 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Friz Freleng.{{cite book |last1=Beck |first1=Jerry |last2=Friedwald |first2=Will |title=Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons |date=1989 |publisher=Henry Holt and Co |isbn=0-8050-0894-2 |page=255}} The short was released on December 12, 1953, and stars Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.{{cite book |last1=Lenburg |first1=Jeff |title=The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons |date=1999 |publisher=Checkmark Books |isbn=0-8160-3831-7 |access-date=6 June 2020 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780816038312/page/60/mode/2up |pages=60–62}}{{Cite book |last=Ohmart |first=Ben |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p8KCDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Robot+Rabbit%22+-wikipedia+bugs+bunny&pg=PT522 |title=Mel Blanc: The Man of a Thousand Voices |date=2012-11-15 |publisher=BearManor Media |language=en}}

The short is considered an example of how animation of the time addressed the topic of robotization.{{Cite book |last=Telotte |first=J. P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lJc4DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Robot+Rabbit%22+-wikipedia+bugs+bunny&pg=PT124 |title=Animating the Science Fiction Imagination |date=2017-10-10 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-069529-3 |language=en}}

Plot

Elmer Fudd is a carrot farmer who spots Bugs' rabbit hole, claiming that Bugs has raided his carrot farm, and decides to shoot him with a gun. Elmer shoots into Bugs' hole, unaware that Bugs is not in it. Bugs appears behind Elmer and attempts his "fake dying" act. Elmer celebrates and unwittingly starts dancing and celebrating with Bugs, until he realizes Bugs has tricked him.

This action prompts Fudd to call "ACME Pest Control" for a robot with the express purpose of evicting Bugs. The robot initially confuses a mule for a rabbit and Elmer, who was trying to explain to the robot what a rabbit looks like, for his intended target before getting the early upper hand. Bugs quickly evens the score by luring the robot under a rotating water sprinkler, causing it to rust. Furious at the robot's incompetence, Elmer oils the robot (restoring its original color) and threatens to sell it for scrap iron if it does not catch Bugs.

Later, Bugs disguises himself as a female robot (where he literally throws a wrench into their "relationship"), before finally causing the robot to follow him through a construction site and beneath a piledriver. Back at home, Elmer starts wondering how the robot fared when Bugs greets him by dumping the various parts of the robot on his doorstep.