... FOR "MOVIE COINCIDENCE OF THE DAY #7" (OR, "THAT TIME 'PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN' TOTALLY RIPPED OFF AN OLD BUGS BUNNY CARTOON")

So I was able to enjoy some much-needed rest and relaxation last month, while on vacation with the in-laws at Disneyland, and during one particularly lackadaisical morning in our hotel room, managed to catch the tail end of a Looney Tunes marathon on Cartoon Network. That sounds a bit like sacrilege, I know (Warner Bros created its Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoon shorts to compete with Disney's Silly Symphonies during the 1930s), but my love for Bugs, Daffy and the rest apparently knows no bounds, and it's always good to catch up with them on occasion. Even my 12-year-old nephew seemed to get a kick out of them, laughing along with the jokes and staying one step ahead of the characters, which was especially good for my ego.

One cartoon on the rotation, 1954's Captain Hareblower, has always been a personal favorite. It stars Yosemite Sam as a high-seas pirate who tries (unsuccessfully) to commandeer a vessel piloted by that wascally wabbit himself, Mr. Bugs Bunny. (Says Bugs, after Pirate Sam's first declaration of war, "Now, he should know better than that!") Naturally, hilarious hi-jinks ensue, involving a shark, a match, an axe, close-range cannon fire, and a bomb that somehow stays lit underwater - not necessarily in that order. Of course, only Bugs escapes with his dignity intact. Here it is in its entirety, courtesy of YouTube:



And yet, as the short played out, something about it really seemed to nag at me this time. Perhaps it was because I hadn't seen it in a while. Perhaps because we were sitting there in Anaheim, I had Disney on the brain. Either way, I couldn't help thinking that certain gags and even specific shots bore a striking resemblance to the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies, the third one in particular.

Checking our Blu-ray when we returned home, it turns out I was right: on at least three separate occasions (there may be more), the climax of At World's End seems to take Captain Hareblower as its inspiration. First, a POV shot of characters waiting to fire a cannon at the enemy:

Next, a shot of Captain Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones battling atop the ship's scaffolding:

Finally, a shot of two similarly-constructed ships silently passing each other before combat:

This isn't really a problem, per se, especially since the entire Pirates Of The Caribbean franchise plays like a live-action Looney Tunes anyway. And I'm sure further research would show that all pirate movies have employed similar shots at one time or another. (Seriously... how many ways can you visualize a cannon firing?) Wouldn't life be so much simpler, though, if every movie modeled itself after a Bugs Bunny cartoon?

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Interested in more Movie Coincidences of the Day? Click here for our introductory article. Then click here, here, here, here, and also here for everything after.