This biography, shown on American television as part of the PBS "Great Performances" series, examines the life works of one of Hollywood's most celebrated animators, Chuck (Charles M.) Jones. He is best known for Warner Brothers cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, and Pepe LePew. Included are plenty of behind-the-scenes descriptions of how an animated film is made, and (best of all) many clips from Chuck's cartoons.
If Bugs Bunny were to direct his signature inquiry--"What's up, doc?"--toward the modern-day Warner Bros. creative team, he wouldn't be far off. For 1001 Rabbit Tales, they've doctored up a batch of classic cartoons featuring the carrot muncher and his bumbling comrades and bundled them, near seamlessly, into a feature-length film. Here's the premise: Bugs and Daffy, both book salesmen, are competing to sell the most copies of a kids' book. Instead of burrowing a beeline to his sales territory (he should have made a left at Albuquerque), Bugs ends up in the castle of Yosemite Sam, here a harem-leading honcho. Sam's pain-in-the-spurs son, Prince Abalaba, needs somebody to read him stories; Bugs, who'd sooner take the job than suffer the alternative, that involving being boiled in oil, signs on.
Sylvester has been "blackballed" out of membership to the Loyal Order of Alley Cats Mouse and Chowder Club again. To gain the long-coveted membership, the Grand Master offers to let the lisping puddy tat place a big bell around the neck of the largest mouse he can find, so the cats can pounce on the mouse when they hear the bell. Just as that's going on, Hippety Hopper escapes from a city zoo truck. It's not long before he encounters the hapless Sylvester. Each attempt to place the bell around Hippety's neck ends with Sylvester wearing the bell (and the cats pounding the puddy into submission). In the end, Sylvester finally does get the bell around Hippety's neck, but by the time the cats are ready to pounce on the baby kangaroo-mistaken-for-a-giant-mouse, Hippety has been recaptured. The oblivious cats end up jumping in front of the city zoo truck! Sylvester now gets to serve as Loyal Order's Grand Master.
Miss Prissy, the slow-witted hen, sets out to land a husband - Foghorn Leghorn, and Barnyard Dog is willing to help her by dressing as a rooster to "rival" Foghorn Leghorn's non-existent affections and make him jealous so that he'll marry Prissy without thinking. Foghorn Leghorn falls for the scheme - hook, line, and sinker.
Daffy Duck takes his girl to a beach, where a muscle-bound duck attracts the attentions of Daffy's fickle chick. She leaves Daffy and walks off with the hunky duck. A salesman sells Daffy a bogus strength-building tonic, and Daffy takes some, thinking it has made him into a virile power-house! He challenges the muscular duck to a series of contests involving bar-bending, chain-chewing, and weight-lifting.
Lazy Dodsworth the Cat wants to catch a woodpecker for his breakfast. The woodpecker has built its home inside the upper trunk of a very tall tree, and Dodsworth puts on a professor's cap, pretending to be a passive teacher of bird-catching and thereby deceive an eager-to-learn kitten into doing the perilous ascending of the tree to try to catch the woodpecker.
Daffy Duck is an insurance peddler, who arrives uninvited at Porky Pig's door to persuade him to purchase an accident policy on the pretext that his home is loaded with hazards. When Porky rejects Daffy's claim that accidents in the home are "waiting" to happen, Daffy rigs some.