Let's Watch This: An Episode of "Dumb Bunnies"

I think you'd be hard-pressed to find somebody who doesn't know who Dav Pilkey is. You probably know him best at the creator of Captain Underpants, but he's written other books too. He's responsible for the Ricky Rocatta's Mighty Robot books, The Hallo-Wiener, and a series of books known as The Dumb Bunnies.

I've only read one of these Dumb Bunnies books, and I thought it was decent. The title of the series sums it up pretty well: there are three bunnies, and they're dumb. Four books were released. These characters have never been as popular as Captain Underpants, but they did manage to get an animated adaptation years before he did, so...

The Dumb Bunnies cartoon was produced by Nelvana and Yoram Gross, premiering on CBS in October 1998. It's basically the same thing as the books - there are rabbits, they're dumb, they get into whacky situations as a result of their being dumb, yadda yadda yadda. As I've said before, characters being dumb can only get you so far... there's a reason why you don't see many people saying nice things about the Dumb and Dumber cartoon. But I do like Dav Pilkey's work, so maybe there's something of substance here.

So, we'll be watching the show's first episode, "One Small Step", and seeing if the show is worth a look or if it's as dumb as its central characters. Get ready to see how many rabbit jokes I can make in one review. This is Dumb Bunnies.

The episode begins with a narrator (Peter Wildman) welcoming us to Bunnyville, a bustling city populated seemingly entirely by pink rabbits. Any minute now, Poppa Bunny (voiced by Rob Smith) will be making his way home from his job as Assistant Lab Bunny at a university. Yes, apparently this bunny - despite being as dumb as a brick - managed to get a job in a lab. Methinks the folks who hired him are even dumber than the Dumb Bunnies.

Then we cut to Momma Bunny (Catherine Gallant) and Baby Bunny (Dustin Lauzon) in their garden. Baby is planting carrots... not carrot seeds, CARROTS... in the garden and Momma is picking them. Clearly, these bunnies don't understand how gardening works.

Odd that Momma Bunny needs those glasses. Aren't carrots supposed to be good for
your eyesight?

Poppa Bunny is sent flying home from the university and lands in his garden. Okay, so are we going to get an explanation as to WHY he was launched out of the university with a trail of smoke behind him? Any explanation at all? The punchline isn't funny when you don't bother to show the set-up.

So, what are the Dumb Bunnies having for supper? Breakfast. They had supper for breakfast. This is meant to show how dumb the bunnies are, but who HASN'T had "breakfast for dinner" at some point? Pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon are a perfectly acceptable thing to have for dinner.

Granted, most folks who have pancakes for dinner don't mix the batter with a lawn mower...

Y'know, these bunnies might be dumb, but at least they're happy. If stupidity is bliss, I say, let them be stupid. They're not hurting anyone.

But, what's this? The bunnies are out of cheese! They can't eat pancakes without cheese! What else could they possibly put on them? Maple syrup? Pfff. That's like putting ketchup on your French fries. What are the bunnies to do? The narrator suggests pausing for a second so... Baby Bunny can recite a poem. Um, okay...

"Y'know, a funny thing happened to me on the way here this evening..."

Baby Bunny's poem, predictably, doesn't rhyme. Nyuck nyuck nyuck. But then he REALIZES that the poem doesn't rhyme, so then he tells it again with the last word swapped out for another that ALSO doesn't rhyme. Okay, you're sort of dragging the joke out here. Then he finally DOES think of a word that rhymes. Ha ha?

Back to the episode. The Dumb Bunnies decide to borrow a cup of cheese from their neighbors, the Uppity Bunnies. Their shtick is that they're prissy uptight snobs. Well, at least the mother (Linda Kash) and father (Dwayne Hill) are. The daughter (Rebecca Brenner) seems to prefer the simpler things in life.

They also have horrible taste in decorating. Seriously, does the entire room have to be
painted such a bright shade of yellow?

Mr. and Mrs. Uppity actually seem to be AFRAID of the Dumb Bunnies. Which is kind of understandable when the first thing they do upon entering the house is see the burning candles, assume that the house is on fire, and squirt Mr. and Mrs. Uppity with fire extinguishers.

It's at this point we get the first joke in the episode to actually get a chuckle out of me. The daughter asks the Dumb Bunnies if they'd like to stay for supper, to which Mr. and Mrs. Uppity dramatically shout "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" for, like, five minutes as we keep cutting back to the Dumb Bunnies smiling like idiots. I don't know why I find that so funny, I just do.

The Uppity Bunnies are really starting to regret not taking that job with Energizer.
Now they have to star in THIS to put carrots on the table...

Coincidentally, the Uppitys are all out of cheese too. But the Dumb Bunnies won't give up. They'll just go to the store and BUY some cheese. And just in case you didn't get that these bunnies were stupid, they don't go to a grocery store, but a CLOTHING store! Oh, how humorous!

The store-owner tells them that A) the store does not sell cheese, and B) the bunnies are in desperate need of a new wardrobe. I dunno, I think Baby Bunny's Mickey Mouse pants are a pretty good look for him. The narrator then says that this situation reminds him of a story...

Uh, hello? The Dumb Bunnies still haven't eaten their pancakes? Not exactly the best
time for a story...

The story is about how once upon a time there was a kingdom where everyone dressed in the latest fashions. One day, a traveler came to the kingdom seeking shelter, but because he was dressed in outdated clothing, everyone laughed at him and slammed doors in his face. Until he came to the humble cottage of three humble Dumb Bunnies, who welcome him with open arms. Even if the Dumb Bunnies are dumber than Patrick Star, Homer Simpson, Yakkity Yak, and Dudley Puppy combined, they know that you should never treat a person lousily because of what they're wearing. Y'know, maybe these Dumb Bunnies aren't so dumb after all...

The stranger turns out to be the prince of the kingdom, and he rewards the Dumb Bunnies with treasure and makes them his royal advisers. Alas, the clothing store owner isn't moved by the story and shoos the Dumb Bunnies out of his shop. The Dumb Bunnies visit some more stores - a clothing store, a bookstore, everything BUT a grocery store - to find cheese, but come out empty-handed (or should that be empty-PAWED?). Poppa Bunny comes to the conclusion that there's a cheese shortage in Bunnyville... while standing in front of a shop with cheese in the window.

I'm not going to say that the Dumb Bunnies are stupid, but they once attempted to
raise their IQ by standing on a ladder.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if that's true.

But then, who should the Dumb Bunnies run into but the shadiest character in Bunnyville, Sly Fox (Norm Spencer). Sly Fox also seems to be the only resident of Bunnyville who isn't a rabbit. Is this like Zootopia, where Sly Fox faces discrimination over his species?

Actually, that's a recurring thing in Zootopia, isn't it? Nick calls himself a "sly fox" and Judy a "dumb bunny"? The comparisons are writing themselves...

Never let them see that they get to you, Sly...

Sly tells them that he just so happens to have some "moon cheese" on him. It's very rare - in fact, the last "moon cheese" on Earth - so it's obviously going to be very, very expensive. The Dumb Bunnies politely decline, believing it wouldn't be fair for them to have the last piece of moon cheese when there's a cheese shortage in Bunnyville. Baby Bunny suggests that they go to the moon themselves and bring back enough moon cheese for everybody.

So, yeah. This episode has decided to rip off the first Wallace and Gromit short. Except the Bunnies actually plan to share the cheese, so they have a less selfish motive than Wallace.

The Dumb Bunnies head to the university to ask Poppa Bunny's boss, Dr. Bunsen Bunny (Keith Knight), for directions to the moon. Coincidentally enough, Dr. Bunsen just so happens to be launching a space probe so he can study a new comet in the solar system.

"Dang it, another comet heading for us. Somebody call Bruce Willis, Liv Tyler and Ben Affleck..."

Dr. Bunsen gives the Dumb Bunnies directions to the moon - it's right above their heads. So to get to the moon, all they have to do is go up. I find it refreshing that Dr. Bunsen is actually nice to the Dumb Bunnies. Everyone else in Bunnyville seems to treat them with distain.

Now the Dumb Bunnies just have to figure out how to get up to the moon. They spot a nearby elevator and run inside, unaware that the elevator actually leads into the space probe. Uh oh...

I can't think of a funny joke to make here, so instead, here's an interesting fact about
rabbits: a baby rabbit is called a "kit", a female rabbit is called a "doe", and a male rabbit is called
a "buck".

The Dumb Bunnies blast off into space. Little do they know that the space probe isn't going to the moon (which, unlike in most cartoons, isn't actually made of cheese), it's headed for the middle of that comet. And little does Dr. Bunsen know that the comet isn't a comet at all, but a spacecraft being driven by an alien! In the words of M. Night Shyamalan, WHAT A TWIST!

"I'm going to blow up the Earth. It obstructs my view of Venus."

The military sends rockets with suction cups on the front of them the alien (Ron Rubin)'s way, but he ricochets them back and demands to see the planet's leader. In response, the military freaks out, which makes the alien believe that they need to be taught some manners. He lands his ship on the moon, then the space probe that the Dumb Bunnies are in lands on the moon as well. The Dumb Bunnies help themselves to some of the moon "cheese" - actually rocks, but because they're idiots they just assume that it's stale. I wonder if their quest to get some cheese is going to wind up foiling the alien's plan to knock Earth "into the next galaxy".

Spoiler alert: it does. They distract the alien by playing a rousing game of "What's Wrong With This Picture". How many things do YOU see that are wrong with this screencap?

Actually, there's only ONE thing that's wrong with this screencap - that vase has a flower
in it. That's where the fishing rod should go. Obviously.

The alien decides to call off the "knocking Earth into the next galaxy" plan upon learning that the Dumb Bunnies live on Earth and everybody has some tea. And guess what else? The alien is also a cheese salesman.

Zhe odds, vhat are zhey?

The Dumb Bunnies (presumably after a quick stop at Mars to get some tomato paste as well) return to Earth to eat those pancakes. But they're not eating the cheese WITH the pancakes, no, no... they're wearing the cheese as hats! The moral of today's story is that if you just keep trying, you can do anything. Even get cheese from the moon.

Also, it's raining cheese.

Dang it, Flint Lockwood.

What's the Verdict?

I admittedly had very small expectations when I decided to review Dumb Bunnies, but, to be honest, I was pleasantly surprised. The show is actually pretty charming. Usually, shows where the main joke is that the characters are idiots get really obnoxious really quickly. But I think what sets the Dumb Bunnies apart from a character like, say, Yakkity Yak or Dudley Puppy is a couple things: their cheery and kindhearted personalities, the fact that they don't SHOUT EVERY OTHER LINE, and, of course, better writing. My main complaint is that it takes us forever to actually get to the main plot of "the Dumb Bunnies go to outer space" - there's a lot of filler that could've easily been removed. Aside from that, I found Dumb Bunnies a rather pleasant show. Not the greatest cartoon ever, of course, but if you like the books - or, heck, even if you've never read the books - I'd recommend watching at least one episode. I'd gladly take these dumb pink bunnies over Richard from The Amazing World of Gumball.

This was a lighter review than the extremely long one we had last week. Here's a teaser for what we'll be looking at next time: