Hot Cross Bunny is a 1948 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies theatrical animated short directed by Robert McKimson. The short was released on August 21, 1948, and features Bugs Bunny. The title is a play on the nursery rhyme Hot Cross Buns as well as a punny allusion to the basic plot premise.

Plot

Bugs is "Experimental Rabbit #46" in the Eureka Hospital Experimental Laboratory, Paul Revere Foundation. Bugs lives a pampered life, oblivious to the fact that a scientist plans on switching his brain with that of a chicken. After giving Bugs an examination, the scientist brings him out to the operating theater, in front of an audience of fellow doctors. Bugs thinks he's been brought out to perform. Upon finishing each act, he looks around to see the unimpressed, stern-faced doctors in exactly the same frame position each time. When he learns the scientist's intentions, Bugs runs and a chase ensues. Finally, Bugs is rendered helpless with laughing gas and placed on the table, with metallic mind-switching caps placed on him and the rather uninterested-looking chicken. At the last minute, he switches the electrodes and the scientist ends up clucking like a chicken, while the chicken (with the scientist's mind) states in plain English he hopes that the experiment can be reversed.

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