| A-Lad-In His Lamp | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Robert McKimson |
| Story by | Warren Foster |
| Based on | One Thousand and One Nights by Czendze Ormonde |
| Produced by | Edward Selzer |
| Starring | Mel Blanc Jim Backus (uncredited) |
| Music by | Carl W. Stalling |
| Animation by | Charles McKimson Phil DeLara Manny Gould John Carey Fred Abranz (uncredited) A.C. Gamer (effects animation) |
| Layouts by | Cornett Wood |
| Backgrounds by | Richard H. Thomas |
| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
Release date |
|
Running time | 7 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
A-Lad-In His Lamp is a 1948Warner Bros.Looney Tunes cartoon.[1] The short starsBugs Bunny, and features theGenie and Caliph Hassan Pfeffer, who is after Bugs and thegenie in his lamp.[2] The voices of Bugs Bunny and Caliph Hassan Pfeffer are voiced byMel Blanc, and the voice of thegenie is played byJim Backus. The cartoon is a takeoff of the story ofAladdin's Lamp. Elements of this short would later be re-used for the Arabian era inBugs Bunny & Taz: Time Busters.
Bugs finds Aladdin's lamp while digging a rabbithole; believing that it is junk, he starts to clean it, rubbing off the dirt so that he can use it as an ashtray. Agenie appears and tells him to make a wish. Calling him "Smokey," Bugs reluctantly starts to make multiple wishes, only to be interrupted by the genie each time. Bugs ultimately requests two carrots, which the genie produces.
"Smokey" remarks that he wants to return to his home inBaghdad, and Bugs, imagining how fabulous it must be, remarks to himself that he wishes that he could go to Baghdad. Interpreting it as an actual wish, the genie then puts Bugs in the lamp and fires him from it like a cannon, and the two fly off to Baghdad. As they arrive, Bugs sputters and 'conks out,' and he and the lamp fall into the Royal Palace of CaliphHassan Pfeffer, angering the caliph, who then wants the lamp. When Bugs refuses, the caliph threatens Bugs at swordpoint, and a chase ensues, during which Bugs' attempts to enlist the lazy genie's help fail.
Bugs eventually tries to escape from the caliph by taking a magic carpet rigged with an outboard motor. When Bugs tries to draw the genie again he drives the genie's date (a female genie) away; the genie becomes extremely angry and warns Bugs saying, "If you disturb me once more, I'll beat you to a pulp." The carpet's motor runs out of gas, and Bugs crash-lands back into the palace, and the caliph now has possession of the lamp. When the caliph tries to draw the genie out of the lamp, in spite of Bugs' warning not to try this, the genie emerges, larger and angrier than before, and beats the caliph to a pulp, making good on his threat if he was bothered again.
Cheering Bugs on his victory, he grants Bugs a wish as a celebration. He whispers to "Smokey," who produces a ball that becomes a puff of smoke when dropped. The scene concludes showing Bugs as a caliph himself, surrounded by a harem of female rabbits, and wondering "what the poor rabbits are doing this season."
A-Lad-In His Lamp was released on theWarner Home VideolaserdiscWince Upon A Time, and theVHS releasesBugs Bunny's Hare Raising Tales andLooney Tunes Collector's Edition: Daffy Doodles.
This short was the earliest in the Bugs Bunny series to be set in either theMiddle East orNorth Africa, and the first to featureArabs orIslam.[3] In this case, the setting isBaghdad, depicted withLas Vegas-style flashy signs and desert-like streets. Also depicted is theused rug lot of Mad Man Hassan, where people can sell theirmagic carpets.[3] The scene soon shifts to the palace ofCaliph Hassan Pfeffer, built on aG.I. loan, amortgage loan forveterans guaranteed by thefederal government of the United States.[3]
The caliph is depicted as a lazy man, reclining on pillows and smoking ahookah.[3] When he discovers the magic lamp ofAladdin, his expression turns to "child-like glee" and his motive for the rest of the short is greed. His facial expressions during the pursuit of the lamp tend toward thegrotesque, while he is waving a big sword and growling.[3] As do Middle Eastern villains in other Looney Tunes shorts, he has bushy eyebrows, moustache and beard which enhance his physically intimidating presence.[3]
Such shorts reinforce stereotypes concerning Muslims and Middle Easterners, depicting them as lazy,hedonistic, pleasure-seeking, easily angered, and indiscriminately and irrationally violent. Punishments for various offenses are depicted as too severe,Draconian in favoringcapital punishment for the most minor of offenses. "Death is the default punishment" is a concept used to reinforce such stereotypes.[3] The G.I. loan that financed the building of the caliph's palace fits another stereotype: that of Muslim men deriving their power from the support of theWestern world.[3] These shorts tend to make no distinctions amongArabs,Muslims, andPersians, terms which in popular culture tend to be depicted as "interchangeable".[3]
For all the menace of their weapons (often swords), they are inept in using them and easily manipulated by the "Western hero" Bugs.[3] Also lacking are depictions of diligence and productivity in the Middle East, thus portraying the Middle East as being a cultural backwater, unaffected by modernity.[3]
In 1991 when the short was one of 120Looney Tunes being shown inAMC Theatres nationwide prior to, and during, theGulf War; Warner Bros. responded to criticism fromCasey Kasem, voice artist and radio personality of Arab descent, by issuing the following statement:
"To see the short is to recognize it as simply a classic cartoon, produced 43 years ago, satirizing a classic children’s fairy tale, intended - as all our cartoons are - only as good-natured fun".[4]
Vivian Boyer of Warner Bros. further clarified that "it was never intended to be a racist cartoon".[4]
| Preceded by | Bugs Bunny Cartoons 1948 | Succeeded by |