This year, WB breaks new ground in animation. In addition to the usual short films, a few Looney Tunes characters appear in an extended featurette, and thanks to an acquisition from another studio, Warner Bros. releases its first full-length animated feature! On the downside, we have to say goodbye to a few WB cartoon stars...

Wet Hare
Directed by Robert McKimson
Bugs is showering under a waterfall, but the water stops running all of a sudden. Blacque Jacque Shellacque has built a dam to take the water for himself. But Bugs outwits Jacque, destroying the dam and forcing him to build another stronger dam. Returning for one more appearance, Jacque is an entertaining character – maybe slightly more understated than Yosemite Sam, but still proving an amusing foil for the rabbit. Essentially variations on the same gag (Jacque builds a dam, Bugs does something to have it destroyed), the result is a great one, showing that Bugs still had plenty to give at this point!
9.5

A Sheep in the Deep
Directed by Chuck Jones
Co-director: Maurice Noble
Sam Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf are at work again, the former protecting the sheep from the latter. All of the wolf's attempts are thwarted effortlessly by the sheepdog, despite Ralph's use of a rope, a bowling ball and a "Music to Put Sheep Dogs to Sleep By" record. One of my favorites in this series – besides the usual entertaining work-related gags, there's a great scene of Ralph being woken up mechanically (to the tune of Raymond Scott's classic "Powerhouse") and an especially amusing scene with the characters wearing disguises...
10

Fish and Slips
Directed by Robert McKimson
After Sylvester Jr. praises a record-breaking fisherman shown on TV, his father takes him fishing. To make things easier, they go to a closed aquarium to do it. But all of Sylvester's attempts to catch fish end in disaster, as the fish he finds are strange and dangerous ones... I've always liked the cartoons featuring Sylvester and his son – and now that they don't all feature Hippety Hopper, we're getting some nice variety. Junior has some funny lines and Sylvester's various attempts are comedic in their disastrousness, but the weird fish are the standout for me here, especially the hammerhead and shovel nose shark combo! Another underrated short.
9

Quackodile Tears
Directed by Art Davis
Daffy doesn't want to hatch an egg, but his wife ("Honeybunch") forces him to do so. When Daffy takes the egg out of the nest for a brief moment, it rolls into a nest full of alligator eggs. Daffy and an alligator keep fighting each other for the egg. The first WB cartoon directed by Davis since 1949, and also his last one. Good old-fashioned cartoon wackiness, even if Daffy has had better. With the fuller animation of the late 40s when Davis had last directed, it would have been even more entertaining. Some scenes smack of cost cutting, notably a scene with nothing but a still background for 14 seconds (!) while Daffy and his wife are arguing off-screen. A good sendoff for Davis in any case.
8.5

Crows' Feat
Directed by Friz Freleng
Co-director: Hawley Pratt
The Mexican crows José and Manuel travel on the wing of an airplane until they jump off to land in a cornfield. Seeing a scarecrow in the likeness of Elmer Fudd, Manuel literally beats the stuffings out of him. But the two soon meet the real Elmer, armed with a gun... Quite a fun entry. The crows are just as entertaining as on their debut, getting some amusing lines in (I especially like their meta reference to seeing Elmer in motion pictures with Bugs Bunny). Elmer has some nice gags too, though his portrayal is a strange one – the crew had apparently realized that Arthur Q. Bryan was irreplaceable, so the hunter has no dialogue at all. Indeed, this was to be his last appearance after more than two decades of cartoons. The crows wouldn't appear again either.
8.5

Mexican Boarders
Directed by Friz Freleng
Co-director: Hawley Pratt
Sylvester is trying to catch Speedy as always when Speedy's cousin Slow Poke Rodriguez comes to visit. The slowest mouse in Mexico is constantly hungry, and as he'd be much too slow to avoid getting caught by Sylvester, Speedy has to do it for him. Slow Poke's debut in "Mexicali Shmoes" was a highlight in that short, so bringing him back for a more significant appearance is a great idea – he's once again funny, and his appearance makes this stand out from the average Speedy cartoon. I especially like the ending where the slow mouse once again plays a big part!
9.5

Bill of Hare
Directed by Robert McKimson
Taz is transported on a ship, but he escapes from his crate. He spots Bugs and immediately tries to eat the rabbit. Bugs keeps outwitting the beast, but he's a persistent one, even after being shot out of a cannon and getting run over by a train. Another fun cartoon despite not being Taz's best –  he's still funny, and Bugs is great with his various ways of fooling him, the scene where he tells Taz to chase a moose instead possibly being my favorite here.
9

Zoom at the Top
Directed by Chuck Jones
Co-director: Maurice Noble
The Road Runner (Disappearialis quickius) escapes Wile E. Coyote's (Overconfidentii vulgaris) attempts to catch him with the help of a steel trap, an instant icicle maker and a boomerang with iron glue, and others. Not my absolute favorite in the series, but all of Jones' Road Runner cartoons have their charm – some creative gags, expressive animation and nice stylized designs. The coyote is of course the star as always, unusually not completely silent here (his vocal effects punctuate a couple of scenes).
8.5

The Slick Chick
Directed by Robert McKimson
Foghorn Leghorn agrees to babysit the widow hen's son after Mr. Cackle refuses to do so. Foghorn refuses to believe Cackle's claims that the boy is bad, but he's soon proven wrong, as Junior shows his sadistic side. Not a bad idea for a cartoon, but sadly the execution isn't quite what it could be... A little sadistic yellow bird – maybe an attempt to replicate the early version of Tweety, but Junior isn't a likable character in the least, making Foghorn's misfortunes significantly less funny than they could have been. The gags in the cartoon are decent (some slow pacing at times but nothing really bad), but not really groundbreaking. Surprising that Prissy wasn't used for the role of the widow hen – from what little we see of the hen, she seems much nicer than her son, though she's not as memorable as her predecessor. Maybe the standout moment is the reference to a horse named Applejack – now who'd call a horse that?
7

Louvre Come Back to Me!
Directed by Chuck Jones
Co-director: Maurice Noble
Pepé Le Pew once again chases a female cat who accidentally gets a white stripe painted on her. This time their chase takes place in the Louvre, with the cat's boyfriend also trying to fight the skunk. The last cartoon to feature Pepé Le Pew is one of my favorites in the series. The paintings and sculptures reacting to the stench is amusing, and the additional character adds something new to the old formula. The skunk again has some good dialogue, going out on a high.
9.5

Honey's Money
Directed by Friz Freleng
Yosemite Sam reads that a local widow has inherited five million dollars, so he decides to propose to her. While he's horrified at the sight of her at first, he immediately realizes how much he wants the money and marries her. However, things get worse for Sam when his new wife has him do all the chores, and then he finds out she has a son named Wentworth. Sam tries to get rid of Wentworth while playing with him, but everything backfires. The plot is recycled from "His Bitter Half" (with some influences from "Hare Trimmed"), even using the same name for the son. This short's version of Wentworth is not as much of a troublemaker, just unintelligent and big, while Sam tries to actively harm the boy instead of trying to survive his tricks like Daffy. The ending is also different, and in my opinion, funnier. All in all, there's enough new stuff for this not to feel too derivative (and seeing Sam on his own rather than as Bugs' foil for once is nice), and it's certainly an entertaining watch.
8.5

The Jet Cage
Directed by Friz Freleng
Tweety wishes he could fly like the other birds. Granny finds a solution: a jet-propelled flying cage. The bird is now safe from cats, but this doesn't stop Sylvester from trying various tricks to catch him! Not one of my biggest favorites in the series, but a solid one with some good gags in any case, the flying cage being the thing that sets this apart from the other entries. The ending is also one I like! Long-term WB cartoon composer Milt Franklyn died during the production of this short, with Bill Lava taking over for most of the remaining shorts (including parts of this one).
8.5

Mother Was a Rooster
Directed by Robert McKimson
The Barnyard Dawg snatches an ostrich egg from a farm and puts it next to a sleeping Foghorn. The rooster wakes up and thinks he's a mother! After the egg hatches, Foghorn introduces his new son to the dog who calls him the ugliest chicken he has ever seen. The rooster decides to get back at the dog for insulting his son. While I appreciate the crew trying new ideas, this is by no means one of the best entries in the series. On a positive note, the ostrich is cute and Foghorn has some funny moments. The gags, on the other hand, are rather ordinary, and the Barnyard Dawg seems a little out of character to me (despite his eternal rivalry with Foghorn, insulting a kid's looks to his face is a bit much for him). The Foghorn series seems to have started to run out of steam...
7.5

Good Noose
Directed by Robert McKimson
The captain on a ship announces that all stowaways found on his ship will be hanged. Everyone leaves, except for Daffy Duck. The captain's parrot Mr. Tristan immediately finds him. But Daffy convinces the captain to spare him by claiming to be a magician and promising to show him an amazing trick. But Daffy's attempts to impress the captain don't go very well... Quite a strange cartoon. An unusual situation for Daffy to be in, though he's responsible for the best moments in the cartoon. The captain isn't very memorable as a character, but the parrot is more interesting with his intentional annoyingness. Entertaining enough, certainly better than McKimson's last couple of cartoons!
8

Shishkabugs
Directed by Friz Freleng
Sam is the King's cook and isn't happy about his treatment by the monarch. The King orders him to make hasenpfeffer. He needs a rabbit for it, and Bugs happens to show up at just the right moment. But Bugs once again outwits the angry cook. While far from the strongest effort for either character, it's still a fun watch – the king provides some humorous moments with the entertaining voice acting, and Sam has some nice lines ("I hate that honorable royal majestic graciousness!"). Bugs shows his usual trickster charm too.
8

Martian through Georgia
Directed by Chuck Jones & Abe Levitow
Co-director: Maurice Noble
The Martians are all happy, except for one who's tired of it all. Psychiatrist Sam Roar-Shock suggests that traveling would help him, so the Martian sets out, landing on Earth. But his attempts to revitalize himself don't go right, as everyone is afraid of the "monster". An unusually dark Looney Tune with its depictions of depression and being an outsider, this short is an emotional one at times. The Martian is a very likable character – very expressive despite having no lines (most of the dialogue consisting of narration), and extremely cute to boot! You can't help but feel sorry for him. The visuals in general are appealing, at times rather abstract. And it all gets a satisfying conclusion. One-shots have formed a significant part of the WB cartoons for much of their history, though they've become increasingly rare (a development that will continue) – this was one of the last truly great ones the crew made. Also the last WB cartoon directed by Abe Levitow – having mainly been an animator, he didn't direct many (and even then it was often in collaboration with Jones, like here), but in that short time, he was responsible for several masterpieces, this being one of them.
10

The remaining episodes of season 2 of "The Bugs Bunny Show" aired this year. This was to be the series' last season, but more Looney Tunes compilation shows would come out later... Out of the fourteen episodes, five are available to watch.

Do or Diet
Directed by Robert McKimson
Bugs is explaining why rabbits enjoy eating carrots so much until Taz shows up, planning to eat him. "Dr. Bugs" convinces Taz to go on a carrot diet to improve his health (using the featured cartoons to further demonstrate the impact one's diet has), but this doesn't really bring the desired results... Another fun episode with some entertaining gags, the Dr. Bugs act being the obvious highlight!
8.5

The Cat's Bah
Directed by Chuck Jones & Friz Freleng
Co-director: Maurice Noble
Pepé Le Pew tells the story of how he found the greatest love of his life. After he introduces a Bugs Bunny cartoon, his "love" leaves him, leaving him with just one thing to do... Essentially an extension of the similarly titled 1954 cartoon, with very little new footage even by the show's usual standards. I do like how they incorporated the old cartoons... and "Frigid Hare" even gets a slight redub to replace the original reference to July 1953 with 1968! Still one of the less interesting episodes in the series.
7.5

The Honeymousers
Directed by Robert McKimson
Having just finished hosting tonight's Bugs Bunny Show, Bugs shows the viewer his dressing room. He does his best to make it comfortable for the guest, letting them watch his favorite comedy show "The Honey-Mousers" but keeps getting distracted by the guest's loud eating, for example. An unusual episode in that this doesn't take place on the usual stage, with some nice fourth wall breaking included. A likable portrayal of Bugs, some simple but nice gags – very appealing.
9

A Star Is Bored
Directed by Chuck Jones & Friz Freleng
Co-directors: Maurice Noble & Tom Ray
In tonight's show, Bugs shows how animated cartoons are made. He gives us a quick look at a cartoon storyboard, claims that he does Mel Blanc's voice rather than vice versa and explains how the animation sketches must be cleaned up. Just then, new clean-up artist Daffy Duck arrives. His way of cleaning up a walk cycle of Tweety isn't quite what was expected... One of my favorites in this series – while the explanations of how animation works aren't the most detailed, they're still quite informative, and most importantly entertaining! Daffy is responsible for the funniest moments here, especially his disastrous clean-up work.
9.5

A Tale of Two Kitties
Directed by Robert McKimson
In the last episode of "The Bugs Bunny Show", Bugs introduces "father of the year" Sylvester. The cat immediately embarrasses himself by almost spanking Junior on live TV. As the father starts telling stories of his mouse-catching heroics, the humiliated son mutes the sound, telling how it really went (as shown in the featured cartoons). A charming episode, with Junior upstaging his father with his usual schtick. Though Sylvester's treatment of his son is something I didn't quite expect, it otherwise fits the cats' usual portrayal with Sylvester's wild stories about his exploits. I think this was a nice way to end the Looney Tunes' first TV series.
9

Other episodes aired this year included "Hare Brush", "Is This a Life?", "De-Duck-Tive Story", "The Astro-Nuts", "Vera's Cruise", "Foreign Legion Leghorn", "Watch My Line", "What's Up Dog?" and "No Business like Slow Business".

After the success of "The Bugs Bunny Show", WB had plans for a new series called "The Road Runner Show", combining earlier cartoons and new animation just like the Bugs series. However, the show wasn't picked up by networks at this point, and the pilot ended up getting a theatrical release instead (before getting reused yet again in later years).

Adventures of the Road-Runner
Directed by Chuck Jones
Co-directors: Maurice Noble & Tom Ray
Wile E. Coyote explains how he films all his attempts to catch the Road Runner in order to learn from his past errors. Ralph Phillips and his friend (called Arnold in production materials) watch the Road Runner on TV. Arnold pretends to be a psychiatrist, helping Ralph with his daydreaming problem. Finally, the coyote tells the boys why he always tries to catch the Road Runner before struggling with a catapult. In the style of "The Bugs Bunny Show", we see a combination of old and new footage, with earlier cartoons used for the coyote's previous failed attempts (from various Road Runner cartoons) and Ralph's explanation of his daydreaming ("From A to Z-Z-Z-Z"). The coyote is heard speaking for the first time in a Road Runner cartoon, and he and the Road Runner unusually don't have Latin names displayed, apart from the latter being listed as "Super-Sonnicus Idioticus" at one point, obviously made up the coyote himself. While the special's structure (25 minutes with reused cartoon footage mixed in) is clearly one intended for TV rather than theatrical use, the result is a very appealing one – both the sequences with Wile E. providing his explanations and the two boys' antics are very entertaining – surprisingly the latter might be my favorite part of the short ("Beep beep! Zip tang!"). The old footage is also utilized effectively, making it more of an entity than the usual "Bugs Bunny Show" episode was. Why it wasn't picked up is a mystery to me, as this is a great pilot – not that the Road Runner would stay off TV forever....
10

In addition to starring in cartoons, Speedy Gonzales also became the subject of an international hit song this year. While the Pat Boone song's (originally recorded by David Dante the year before) depiction of the character as a lazy womanizer doesn't have much in common with the cartoons, Mel Blanc did record his usual Speedy voice for the spoken parts of the song.

Outside the Looney Tunes world, the last of WB's four Bell System science specials was made this year, again with cartoon sequences included, created under the direction of Phil Monroe, who was responsible for the commercials the studio produced at the time. Disney would take over for the last entry in the series.

About Time
In this special about how time works, simple stylized animations are again used to explain things. We see the evolution of timekeeping – how the sun, the moon and weather influenced the creation of the calendar, how Galileo came up with the idea of using a pendulum for the clock. There are looks at how the Earth's friction works, atoms, the whole history of the Earth condensed into 24 hours, the passage of time on Earth and on a spaceship. The only sequence with proper characters or some humor involves twins Peter and Paul arguing (Goofy Gophers style) about who should be the first to travel into space, while the ending has nice visuals to go with the narrator's questions about how it all began and whether time will stop when it all comes to an end. I liked these sequences more than the ones in the previous special, but once again, besides assisting the narrator, there isn't much of interest animationwise.
7.5

Despite having become the industry leader in the cartoon shorts market, Warner Bros. Cartoons never tried to make an animated feature – could the failures of the likes of Fleischer to challenge Disney have put them off this? However, Warner Bros. would distribute one made by another studio, United Productions of America (UPA). "Gay Purr-ee" was worked on by many former WB animators. Most controversially, Chuck Jones (who had previously directed "Hell-Bent for Election" for UPA's predecessor Industrial Films back in 1944) moonlighted on the movie, co-writing it with his wife Dorothy. Jones was consequently fired by WB for violating his contract. How ironic that WB acquiring the movie was how they found out about it!

Gay Purr-ee
Directed by Abe Levitow
Mewsette, a cat from Provence, wants to leave the country life behind and heads to Paris. There she meets Meowrice who promises to help her fit in, but he has nefarious plans in mind for her... Mewsette's boyfriend Jaune Tom and his faithful friend Robespierre try to find her before it's too late. An interesting film for sure! While the story itself is good with enough twists and turns to keep it exciting, I found myself liking the visuals and audio even more. The main characters show signs of the typical Jones/Levitow style, but otherwise the visuals are definitely more in the UPA style – the beautiful background paintings, stylized character designs, abstract visuals... Unusually for the time, celebrity voices were used for many of the likable characters (Judy Garland as Mewsette, Robert Goulet as Jaune Tom, Red Buttons as Robespierre...) – especially Garland's charming performance and Buttons' entertaining delivery stand out. The highlights for me were the musical sequences with the enjoyable songs by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg (who had worked with Garland on "The Wizard of Oz") and at times very surreal visuals! Sadly the film wasn't a commercial success despite its positives – I imagine it was too artistic and at times weird for the general public's enjoyment at the time.
9

The year 1962 was definitely a varied year with many projects both in theaters and on TV – maybe the most random bunch since the WWII era... Most of the year still had a high quality, but this is the first year where I started wondering if the series was finally reaching its inevitable point of decline, with the later parts of the year being rather weak, though thankfully it did end on a high thanks to the magnificent "Martian through Georgia".