User Reviews

I agree with the reviewers here: this was good, but "the only Bugs Bunny cartoon to win an Academy Award?" That is ridiculous. I can only surmise that it was similar to what has happened to many famous actors. They had never won an Academy Award so near the end of their careers, the Academy gives them them on Oscar to make up for past omissions. Here, "Bugs" gets rewarded for years of service, in reality. By the end of the 1950s, Bugs' great career wasn't far from being over.

This is a funny, beautifully drawn cartoon worthy of praise; it's just not exceptional. In a nutshell, court jester Bugs Bunny makes a fool out of the Yosemite Sam a.k.a. The Black Knight, the latter guarding the treasured "singing sword." Bugs has to get past the knight, his dumb dragon - who has a cold and a sneezing problem! - to get the sword and return it to the good guys.

Some of the jokes are inventive, some are old, but the story entertains all the way. It's also 30 seconds shorter than most LT Bugs Bunny episodes. Overall, it's still a solid effort.

This is an above decent cartoon, but it is not the best Bugs cartoon. I do agree with everyone here that while this is very enjoyable, I am not sure whether the Oscar was deserved or not. Personally the chief weakness for me was the dragon, while relevant to the story, he turned out pretty useless. The dialogue is good, but Yosemite gets the best lines somehow, and Bugs while on top form as well is a little underplayed here. That said, the animation is consistently excellent, the gags particularly with the drawbridge were very funny and the music is wonderful. And so are the vocals from Mel Blanc, who pretty much immortalises the Looney Tunes cartoons. Overall, not the best, but definitely one I'll see again. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This is the only Bugs Bunny cartoon to win an Academy Award. This may seem strange to a lot of people because there were so many better Bugs shorts that weren't even nominated for Oscars, let alone won. But we have to keep in mind this was only up against the rest of the animated shorts from 1958 and the competition that year might have been pretty slim pickings. As a matter of fact there were only three nominees that year instead of the usual four so it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case. I've seen all three nominees and I can say, for my money, this is the best of the three. I can't readily think of another 1958 cartoon but I do know that the quality of animation across the board was declining by the late '50s. There would still be some great stuff to come but the best days of WB, MGM, and even Disney shorts were behind them by this point.

Oscar talk aside, this is a very good Bugs Bunny cartoon. It takes place in the time of King Arthur, here represented as a silly old man. Arthur asks for a volunteer among his knights to retrieve the Singing Sword from the evil Black Knight (Yosemite Sam) and his fire-breathing dragon. All of the knights are chicken so King Arthur orders court jester Bugs to retrieve the sword. If he refuses, he'll be tortured and beheaded! Bugs goes to the Black Knight's castle to complete his task and Sam obviously tries to stop him. Now, reading back over what I just wrote, this sure doesn't sound like a funny cartoon, does it? It actually has a lot of clever bits and great gags. The idea of Arthur and his knights being cowardly is pretty funny, I thought. But the short's strength lies in the Bugs vs Sam stuff. If you've ever seen a Bugs/Sam cartoon before (and I'm sure you have), then you know how much fun these two going toe-to-toe can be. It's very funny with good animation, lively music, and solid voicework from the always reliable Mel Blanc. The scenes of Black Knight Sam trying to get back into the castle are hilarious. Funny stuff with the dragon, too ("Dragons is so stupid!").

We all know King Arthur, but what if Bugs Bunny was his court jester? Quite simply, the king - disappointed at his knights chickening out (in more way than one) - would send Bugs to fetch the Singing Sword kept by the Black Knight, aka Yosemite Sam. And that's just what happens in "Knighty Knight Bugs". Specifically, when Bugs finds the Singing Sword, it literally starts singing, and Sam comes after him with his pet dragon. But Bugs tricks them and takes over the castle, leading Sam to pull several embarrassing stunts attempting to re-enter. I really liked Sam's plan to "sail over the wall". All in all, they created another classic cartoon here.

This short is the only Bugs Bunny short to grab an Oscar. While it's a good cartoon, I don't think it was the best cartoon of 1958. It wasn't even the best Bugs Bunny of 1958 (Hare-way To the Stars was). This is a very good cartoon, of course. It's just that there were much better ones released in 1958. Oh, well. At least Bugs got an Oscar, even if it was for something that wasn't among the better of "his" work. The same can be said for some acting winners. Recommended.

Friz Freleng's 'Knighty Knight Bugs' is an Oscar winning cartoon which, though a tad overrated, is solidly entertaining throughout. Jester Bugs Bunny is sent to recover the Singing Sword from Black Knight Yosemite Sam. The set up and ensuing antics immediately bring to mind two other cartoons, Chuck Jones's 'Knight-mare Hare' and Freleng's own 'Sahara Hare'. While Jones's cartoon shares the same medieval setting, 'Sahara Hare' features a similar storyline as Sam pursues Bugs and finds himself attempting to gain entry to a building in which Bugs has barricaded himself. 'Knighty Knight Bugs' is an improvement on both its forerunners, offering a far more charming depiction of medieval times than in Jones's feeble effort and improving on the gags in 'Sahara Hare' with some consistently amusing if hardly uproarious sequences. Also reminiscent of 'Sahara Hare' is Sam's relationship with his beast of burden, a camel in the former cartoon and a dragon in this case. In both cartoons, this relationship is one of the best elements and results in some very funny lines and animations. All in all, 'Knighty Knight Bugs' is an enjoyably pedestrian cartoon in which being able to see the gags coming doesn't hinder the viewer's enjoyment of their good timing. Surely not worthy of its Oscar but certainly worthy of being viewed by any cartoon fan.

All right, it's not totally surprising this Looney Tunes episode won an Academy Award - what is surprising is that it has been the only Bugs Bunny episode to have an A.A! I agree with ccthemovieman-1, it was silly to rate only this an A.A and not other episodes. Episodes like "Mad As a Mars Hare" and "Bugs and Thugs" deserve an A.A more than this.

Despite what I said in my previous paragraph, I do think this is a good episode. It has good humour and surprisingly good slapstick (the timing is very good), the King Arthur theme works well and gives a good setting to the episode and the "quest" theme for Bugs also gives a good tone to the episode, amid all the slapstick there is indeed a brave quest being done here. This short also has one of my favourite Looney Tunes endings, it is quite calm and peaceful (this is NOT a spoiler).

A singing sword has been stolen from the Knights of the Round Table and King Arthur wants to send one of his knights to go and recover it. None of them are brave enough to face the Black Knight (Yosemite Sam) who stole it and turn, literally, chicken. Then Bugs Bunny, a jester, turns up on the scene and there is a funny plot turn...

I recommend this to people who like Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam teaming up and becoming different characters and to people who like a King Arthur theme in a Looney Tunes episode. Enjoy! :-)

This cartoon (Oscar winning animated short for that year) is just out and out hilarious. I have a weakness for Yosetime Sam, here as the Black Knight trying to get into Bugs' castle. Of course he fails with hilarious results. If this doesn't make you chuckle, check your pulse.

This is my third review of an Oscar-nominated cartoon for 1958 having previously done the same for Art Bartsch's Sidney's Family Tree and Les Clark's Paul Bunyan. When I was a pre-teen kid of the mid-'70s, one of the Saturday morning shows I enjoyed watching was "The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour". And during the show's intro, the announcer would always say, "Starring that Oscar-winning rabbit Bugs Bunny". This was actually the first cartoon I saw on that program but it wasn't until years later that I found out this was what finally got Bugs his Academy Award after losing on his previous noms of A Wild Hare (which was Bugs' debut and directed by Tex Avery) and Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt (which, like this short, was helmed by Friz Freleng). Anyway, Bugs is a court jester in King Arthur's court who reluctantly gets assigned to retrieve The Singing Sword from The Black Knight after Arthur's knights all literally chicken out. Yosemite Sam is The Black Knight and he has a dragon who keeps accidentally sneezing fire to Sam's consternation! I'll just now say this was very funny stuff and compared to the other nominees that year was the most entertaining. So Knighty Knight Bugs is most highly recommended. P. S. The man who accepted the award at the Oscars was John W. Burton who had succeeded Edward Selzer as producer at the WB cartoon studio. Selzer had accepted the other Oscars in previous years but this turned out to be the only time Burton did as no more WB cartoons won after this year and John would leave the studio a few years later to be an executive at Pacific Art and Title which was founded by Leon Schlesinger who was the founder of the WB cartoon studio when it was originally named after him.

I think this cartoon truly did deserve an Oscar it was hilarious. I especially like when Yosemite Sam/The Black Knight shoots himself out of a cannon and crashes into the wall and when he gets flattened by the drawbridge. Classic line: Sam: "Don't sneeze, you stupid dragon, or you'll blow us to the moon." Sure enough, that's what happens. Highly recommended.

Bugs Bunny comes across a great castle where he finds the treasure of a singing sword. He attempts to get away with it only to find that the castle is protected by Yosemite Sam and his fierce (?) fire breathing dragon. When Bugs gets control of the castle, Sam has to try and take it back - without too much success.

This cartoon is the only Bugs Bunny effort to have won an Oscar and, while I believe he deserved to have one of his shorts win such an award I don't think that this is the one that he deserved it for. The plot is fairly usual for Bugs fair and is pretty enjoyable all told - he outsmarts Sam as always and it is generally pretty funny. The animation is bright and colourful but the material is not as sharp as one would have hoped and Sam actually hurts himself more often than Bugs causes it directly by being smarter.

Having said that Sam is still a good foil for Bugs and he makes him a stronger character. Bugs is as enjoyable as ever even if he is less active and tricky than he usually is. The dragon is pretty much a non-event and isn't really that good - acting more as a thorn in Sam's side than anything else. Overall this is still an OK cartoon but it is far from Bugs' best and it doesn't deserve to be the one that he won his award for.