" . . . I'm a moron," proudly proclaims The Giant in a soliloquy about 3 minutes, 45 seconds into another prophetic Warner Bros. warning from its Animated Shorts Seers division (aka, The Looney Tuners) to We Americans of (The Then) Far Future. Exactly WHO is this Giant, subject of this Cautionary Tale from Warner? The answer comes about half a minute later (4:15), when Bugs Bunny refers to our current deplorable White House occupant #45 by name: "I'll bet you're a regular Don Juan with the Ladies," Bugs says to the Giant condescendingly, in an unmistakable reference to Red Commie KGB Chief Vlad "The Mad Russian" Putin's White House Sock Puppet, Don Juan Rump, and the latter's infamous ACCE$$ H0LLYWOOD tape. What does JACK-WABBIT AND THE BEANSTALK predict the Future has in store for Rump's once-great USA? The Giant's final Fall from Grace at the end suggests an Extinction Event is in store for Humanity, as one Killer T-Rex Hurricane (named after Putin's pick for U.S. Secretary of State, Rex "Exxon Valdez" Tillerson, the man whom experts tab as the guy MOST responsible for the current spate of Unnaturally Strong Global Warming Typhoons) UNLESS America acts swiftly to avert God's Wrath and dispatches Don Juan Rump as the sailors did in feeding Jonah to the Whale (or as Navy SEAL Team 6 acted, by shooting Osama in the eyes and feeding his corpse to the sharks)!

While not among my favourite Looney Tunes cartoons, although it stars one of my favourite cartoon characters ever, 'Jack-Wabbit and the Beanstalk' is very well done and very entertaining.As ever with Looney Tunes, although an early Bugs Bunny cartoon meaning that Bugs' design was still evolving, the animation is very good to great. It's beautifully drawn, everything moves smoothly with no stiffness, the backgrounds are rich in colour and detail and it's sumptuous and vibrant in colour.Carl Stalling's music score is outstanding, then again there may be some bias as Stalling is my personal favourite of the Looney Tunes composers. The music is supremely characterful and energetic, the orchestration is lush and clever and most importantly aside from that it's very memorable it fits with to the action and adds to it, Stalling also showing his perhaps unmatched ability at that time to enhance the action.The humour here, as has been said already, is mostly verbal rather than visual and kinetic. The script is incredibly funny and razor sharp in its wit, and there are some fun bits in the animation as well. The closing sequence is indeed terrific. The narration never falls into the trap of being over-explanatory or trying to tell too much. The story is somewhat formulaic, but the humour, crisp pacing and Bugs' charisma more than compensates.Bugs is such a funny and charismatic leading character, and he doesn't disappoint here even relatively early on in his development. The giant is not as strong a character and the least strong thing about 'Jack-Wabbit and the Beanstalk', he's sometimes amusing and threatening, especially in one of the gags referencing World War 2 and the Nazis, but also a bit bland and rather too dumb, even for a character meant to be. His rapport with Bugs has its nice amusing moments but is not as inspired as it could have been and there could have been more tension perhaps. Mel Blanc does fantastically voicing both characters and the narrator, yet another cartoon that demonstrates his unparalleled ability to voice more than one character and make them completely different but distinctive.In conclusion, very well done and well worth watching. Just could have been even better if Bugs' foil was as well written as Bugs. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I notice that "Jack-Wabbit and the Beanstalk" is one of a couple of cartoons in which Bugs Bunny's opponent is a total klutz - complete with a voice like George from "Of Mice and Men"* - whom Bugs could clobber without even trying. But even though the giant here is an easy target, it's impossible not to like the wacky series of events (or the literal ear drum).There's one other thing that I notice. This cartoon contains an obvious WWII theme, as the brainless giant claims to be more powerful than Bugs but obviously isn't (much like the Nazis claimed to be). If this is what's going to happen to the US given the current state of affairs...well, don't say that they didn't warn us.But I digress. It's a pretty funny cartoon.*Other such characters were Beaky Buzzard ("Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid"), Junyer Bear ("Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears") and Pete Puma ("Rabbit's Kin").

Discovering a bean stalk, Bugs Bunny climbs it to find himself face to boot with a giant who claims to be bigger and smarter than Bugs. However, the wily rabbit goes about outsmarting the giant and avoiding capture in his kingdom in the sky.From the start I had a good feeling about this short as Bugs looks a little rough and ready in his sleek, darker grey version - it always makes me feel that he suits his smart mouth in this version. The plot is simple enough but the character with Bugs is not strong enough (you know what I mean!) to help carry the weight of the film and the gags.While Bugs does his usual stuff well, the giant is not as responsive as other characters and doesn't really interact with Bugs as well as he needs to. The only point where he is effective is as a joke against the Nazi's as the giant claims superiority over little Bugs, but is easily defeated himself. Outside of this side joke, he doesn't have a whole lot to offer and Bugs seems to lose a little of his impact without a really good foil.Overall I love Bugs and enjoyed this outing. However it goes to show that Bugs is weaker when he doesn't have a co-star to bounce things off (literally!).