Edgar Allan Pooh . . . or, in this carnation, "Cecil Turtle," to close the Warner Bros. animated short RABBIT TRANSIT. True Crime aficionados will immediately recognize this outing as one of those Warner cartoons with a more serious mission than to just elicit a few chuckles: To warn the Olympic World in general and one specific South African Beauty Queen in particular about the Unsportsman-like and murderous ways of the so-called "Blade Runner." If such a sociopath had cropped up in the American context of a sport people actually care about, such as NBA Basketball, no one would have given two seconds thought to the ludicrous idea of allowing some White jerk with a sob story about being short permission to compete against Michael Jordan or LeBron James while wearing five-foot stilts! Yet this is exactly what the bozos running the Olympics did, cowering in the face of a clown wearing souped-up rocket blades for fear of appearing "Politically Incorrect" if they exercised an ounce of Basic Common Sense. So Cecil Turtle is presented here in a cautionary light, trying to cheat his way to the Victory Podium with a rocket-powered shell, just because he was born slow. And, of course, when you let a Menace to Society get away with murder on the playing fields, it should come as no shock when the villain thinks that he'll get a pass for the homicides he commits in Real Life, as well.

slymusic "Rabbit Transit" is a Bugs Bunny cartoon in which Friz Freleng's direction is superb and Bugs is hilarious. A clever takeoff of the famous "Tortoise and the Hare" fable, this cartoon once again pits Bugs against Cecil Turtle, reminiscent of the earlier Bugs/Cecil cartoons "Tortoise Beats Hare" (1941) and "Tortoise Wins by a Hare" (1943). Once again, Bugs actually becomes the fall guy, which I'm sure at least some fans of the wascawwy wabbit find difficult to accept.My favorite highlights from "Rabbit Transit": Before the race begins, Bugs empties Cecil's robe and reveals a pair of skates, a bicycle, and a couple of scooters. At the end, Bugs finds out that he ran way above the speed limit, and two cops haul him off to jail! Bugs dismantles the engine inside Cecil's shell, and the turtle casually walks up and asks Bugs to hand him a few tools so that he can repair the engine. Remembering an old boy scout rule, Bugs pours water in Cecil's engine, and Cecil is hilarious as he uses a bucket to get the water out of his shell.When you're in the mood for a brisk-paced, hilarious Bugs Bunny cartoon, watch "Rabbit Transit". I believe it hits its mark in the laughter department.

ccthemovieman-1 The is the last of the three Bugs Bunny versus Cecil The Turtle road races, a takeoff on the famous fable of the Tortoise and The Hare.The writers go on the assumption apparently that few people are familiar with the first two of these Bugs Bunny-Cecil races because they begin the story with Bugs shocked by reading the famous Aesop Fable story about the tortoise beating the hare (even though he had done this twice before!)At the sauna bath, where the two are lounging, Bugs makes the bet again, this time telling Cecil, "Listen, snail, I'll give you the post position and spot you 100 yards and I'll run backwards with my hands tied behind my back." He exaggerates but Cecil takes the bet, because he has secret advantage.There are some very funny remarks, sight-gag jokes and asides-to-the-audience at the beginning of this race, which is to Grant's Tomb. The race itself is very strange, is all I can say. How these guys were in New York one minute, Chicago the next and Miami Beach is all quite a mystery. Only in the cartoons, I suppose.The "jet age" angle was entertaining, but the ending was a bit lame.

movieman_kev The third and finale race between Bugs and Cecil turtle is the least hilarious of the three, but it's still pretty funny at times. This time has Bugs reading Aesop's fables while relaxing. when he gets to the end of the story he's flabbergasted that the fairy tale had the Hare losing the race. So he challenges Cecil (whom he doesn't seem to remember from the other two times) to a race. As I said before the other two cartoons are funnier and more well paced than this one. The gag of the enhanced rocket shell also seems to be a tad long in the tooth, but I still had fun with the short. This animated short can be seen on Disc 1 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2.My Grade: B+