Nat King Cole sang it best: “Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer!” That’s exactly what we will do over the next several days, as Memorial Day Weekend unofficially kicks off the summer season.
With this easygoing season comes summer vacation. In 2021, 2024, and 2025, summer was celebrated with classic cartoons centering on summer vacations.

From these articles came suggestions from Cartoon Research readers for more classic cartoons on summer vacation, and here are just three of them:

“The Land of Fun” (1941), Columbia – suggested by Paul Groh

This “Columbia Favorite,” directed by Sid Marcus, features a number of gags that take satirical jabs at vacationers. The short parodies a travelogue, opening with a book that previews activities on vacation. The narrator (Frank Bingham) tells us we’re going to see “charm, beauty and good taste everywhere.” At this point, we cut away from two women sunbathing to a man sitting on his luggage with a toe that pops out of his sock.

From here, it’s a parade of jokes, including a lovely waterfall that seems to go on forever, then ends with a vacationer catching a tiny drop in a cup, a sheep herder (Mel Blanc) on the highland passage, who is asked how’s it’s going and answers “Not Baaa-ad,” snow capped mountains that acknowledge each other with such greetings as “Hi Sierra,” a beach goer who must walk across the heads of sunbathers, as the beach is so jam-packed and fisherman who wait while a fish down below shaves with their electric razor that’s plugged into an electric eel.

There’s also the recurring gag of “Joe Tourist,” who continually attempts to pass the car in front of him on a dangerous mountain road, until finally giving up, leaves his car behind and rides away on a bicycle.

The short ends with the sun literally sinking into the horizon, boiling the water and burning the rear end of a duck floating by.

The Land of Fun features a number of well-timed gags, set against lush, beautiful backgrounds, both of which remind us that while vacations can be picturesque, they can also come with a lot of work and provide a lot of laughs.

“Bee at the Beach” (1950), Disney – suggested by Tony Ginorio

This Jack Hannah-directed Donald Duck short brings the Disney star together with Spike the Bee, an entertaining supporting player from this era of Disney shorts.

As the short opens, Spike flies over a lovely background of the beach. He finds an open spot and is about to take it, when Donald (Clarence Nash) stakes his claim and puts up his umbrella, but Spike (James Mac Donald) still sets up his umbrella, (a flower), and a clam shell.

What then follows is Donald tormenting poor little Spike by stepping on him, and rinsing his towel off on him, while Spike gets revenge by using his stinger to poke holes in the straw of Donald’s soda bottle.

When Donald takes his raft out on the water, Spike deflates it. Donald manages to reinflate it but is surrounded by sharks. Spike seizes upon this situation and begins stinging holes in the raft, while Donald attempts to plug up the holes with his hands and webbed feet.

Spike cuts a hole in the bottom, causing Donald’s rear end to fall into the water, and the bee taunts the shark with the scent of one of Donald’s feathers, with the shark then pursuing Donald. This results in some good moments between Donald and the shark, including one with the shark’s tongue beckoning Donald to come forward.

It all ends with Donald being chased into the horizon by the shark, while Spike “buzzes” a laugh.

With animation from Bill Justice, Bob Carlson, Judge Whitaker, and Volus Jones, there is plenty of well-choreographed comedy here and solid animation of the two rivals. This Disney short also includes an opening shot of wall-to-wall beach umbrellas that will ring true with anyone who has ventured to the seaside during summer.

“It Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown” (1969) – suggested by Doug

In one of the opening scenes of this Peanuts special, Charlie Brown asks Linus if he knows why English teachers go to college for four years. When Linus replies, “No,” Charlie Brown answers furiously, “So they can learn how to make stupid little kids write stupid essays about what they did all stupid summer!”

So begins this Peanuts adventure, which actually opens on the first day of school and “flashes back” to summer vacation, as Charlie Brown (Peter Robbins), Linus (Glen Gilger), Lucy (Pamelyn Ferdin), and the gang write their essays about summer vacation when they were all together at camp.

While at camp, the boys and girls compete in various events, including swimming and softball. The boys are defeated in each. Looking for a win, the boys challenge the girls to an arm-wrestling contest, with Snoopy disguised as the mighty wrestler “The Masked Marvel.”

During the arm-wrestling competition, Snoopy kisses Lucy, and pins her arm, but Lucy declares the kiss a foul.

When we return to the first day of school, Charlie Brown receives a “C-“ on his essay. “Oh well,” says Linus, “it was a short summer, Charlie Brown.” To this, Charlie Brown responds, “And it looks like it’s going to be a long winter.”

Directed by Bill Melendez, It Was a Short Summer Charlie Brown brings the usual on-point humor from Charles M. Schulz, (evidenced by such lines as when Charlie Brown says “I feel like I’ve been drafted!,” when he finds out that Lucy has signed everyone up for Camp). And all of this is combined with nostalgia and memories that those who have ever attended summer camp will no doubt feel.

Here’s the first three minutes…

And, as we enter these longer days and endless nights, feel free to drop more of your favorite cartoons that celebrate summer vacation in the comments below. Wishing all a safe and happy summer.

Special time. #grickledoodle #duck #night #thoughts #cartoon #art #drawing #funny #humor

Eudaemonius posted a photo:

Eudaemonius posted a photo:

There are a number of iconic moments from classic cartoons, and Rabbit Fire has a lot of them.

This month marks the 75th anniversary of the first time Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd began a feud in this Warner Bros. short that has gone down in the annals of animation history.

Rabbit Fire opens with one of those iconic moments, as Elmer Fudd carefully makes his way through the forest, shotgun in hand, and turns to the camera to inform the audience, “Be vewy vewy quiet, I’m hunting rabbits.”

Tracks lead to the rabbit hole of one “B. Bunny” (stated on his mailbox), but it turns out that Daffy Duck is making the tracks with a pair of fake rabbit feet.

Elmer tries to hunt Bugs who is trying to convince Elmer that he should instead be hunting Daffy, in the now iconic “Duck Season! Wabbit Season!” exchange between the two. This results in Daffy getting blasted by the shotgun and his bill being shifted in hilarious, precarious positions (more cartoon iconography).

They dress up and imitate each other to throw Elmer off, and Bugs dresses in drag (another iconic gag used in this and future shorts) as a female hunter with Daffy as his dog. When Elmer eventually sees through this, Bugs and Daffy begin tearing “Rabbit Season” and “Duck Season” posters off a nearby tree (again, iconic), eventually revealing one that reads: “Elmer Season.”

With a vicious glare, the two turn the tables and begin hunting the hunter, ending the short by stating: “Be vewy, vewy quiet. We’re hunting Elmers.”

Rabbit Fire came to be courtesy of the genius of two legends, who teamed up quite a bit at Warner Bros.: director Chuck Jones (billed here as “Charles M. Jones”) and writer Michael Maltese. Jones and Maltese created memorable sight gags, slowing the animation down for pauses, and allowing the audience to anticipate the laughs.

All of it delivered perfectly by Mel Blanc as Bugs and Daffy and Arthur Q. Bryan as Elmer.

In one sequence, Bugs tries to get Elmer interested in sports other than hunting, at which point, Daffy emerges, dressed in whites with a racquet in his hand, asking, “Anyone for tennis?” Elmer immediately shoots him, the smoke clears, and a scorched Daffy wearily declares, “Nice game!”

The comic timing in Rabbit Fire rivals anything seen in live action.

Adding to the brilliance of the short are backgrounds by Phillip DeGuard, and animation from Lloyd Vaughan, Ken Harris, Phil Monroe, and Ben Washam.

Following Rabbit Fire’s success, Bugs, Daffy, and Elmer teamed up again for two more short subjects, Rabbit Seasoning (1952) and Duck! Rabbit! Duck! (1953). Collectively, these cartoons have become referred to as “The Hunting Trilogy.”

The second of these, Rabbit Seasoning, came in at number 30 in our own Jerry Beck’s 1994 book, The 50 Greatest Cartoons. In it, author Joe Adamson notes: “The dialogue in these cartoons, savored by connoisseurs for years, was an element singled out for praise by Boxoffice as soon as the first of the trilogy appeared. Since Carl Stalling wrote the scores, there are now published pieces of music entitled ‘Rabbit Season,’ ‘Duck Season,’ ‘Elmer Season,’ and ‘Pronoun Trouble.’

The levels of irony, role-playing, role reversal, and slapstick that rebound, highlight, overlap, intensify, and ricochet off each other in all three of these cartoons have been the subject of endless analysis.”

Released on May 19, 1951, Rabbit Fire remains a shining moment in the Golden Age of Looney Tunes.