Piker's Peak (1957) Online

I will always watch anything with Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam, Bugs' arrogant yet likable personality contrasts perfectly always with Sam's abrasive and greedy one. Piker's Peak is a good short, it doesn't show the two at their best with a slightly slow start and I didn't think much of the stock music at the end. However, the two characters are absolutely great, Sam is the constant butt of the joke and he takes it well while allowing his distinctive persona to come through. Bugs as ever is likable with some fun lines. The dialogue is enough to make you smile and laugh, I especially like "What's up doc?"/"Not what's up, what's down"(and what follows after), while the gags are clever and well timed especially the repeated gag with the band playing, the sequence with the rescue dog and one of the longest screams I've heard in an animation(gives Gopher from The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh show a run for his money). The animation is detailed and colourful, though I do remember my VHS before it broke had sharper picture quality than the version on Youtube, while the music and pacing sparkle with energy, as does Mel Blanc's voice work. All in all, entertaining short but not the best that Bugs and Sam have offered. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I should say that Friz Freleng's "Piker's Peak" is pretty much what you'd expect in a Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam cartoon, with Bugs interfering with Sam's aims. But how can you not love what Bugs does to Sam? You gotta admit that Bugs can be a real jerk sometimes. Of course, Sam is a loose cannon, so that balances things out.

Seeing that the reward is measured in Cronkites, that brings up an interesting point. The obvious connection is Walter Cronkite. He wasn't yet the CBS Evening News anchor, but maybe he was a reporter at this time. But there's something else: the German word "Krankheit" - and yes, it is capitalized (as are all nouns in German) - means "sickness". And I remember that James Coburn's character in the movie "Candy" was Dr. Krankheit. What a mixture! OK, probably none of that relates to the cartoon. I'm sure that Friz Freleng intended the cartoon as pure entertainment, and it certainly entertains. Above all, it shows what a neat place Switzerland probably is. True, they don't really produce anything except chocolates and watches, but seriously folks, they gave us Ursula Andress! (hubba hubba)

Anyway, a pretty neat cartoon. That'll never be all, folks.

. . . as he attempts to beat "Bugs Bunny" to the top of "the Smatterhorn" in order to win a prize of "50,000 Cronkites" from the village at the foot of this mountain. Though I might not be able to put my fingers on the exact spelling of the translated title for the yarn about the guy cursed to endlessly roll a weighty stone up and down a steep slope, I think that "The Myth of Syphilis" comes pretty close. At any rate, the hapless Sam has little luck in reaching the Smatterhorn summit, as large boulders flatten and crush his diminutive form again and again. (In one telling incident, Sam has plenty of time to get out from under the shadow of a falling ten-ton weight, but gets smashed to smithereens anyway when he lingers in the Danger Zone trying to retrieve his "Make America Great Again" cap, which has fallen into the dirt.) It later turns out that over-hanging snow ledges and six shooters don't mix, either, as Bugs tricks Sam into starting a snow slide while the wily hare is safely shielded himself. Early on Sam mutters to himself "Rabbits are Sooooo stupid!" sounding for all the world like a White House Press Secretary during her daily briefing. As "Mr. Rogers" always says, "Stupid is as Stupid does."