I throw myself upon your tender mercy....
Gorilla My Dreams is a 1948 Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Robert McKimson.Bugs Bunny is, for some reason, adrift in the ocean in a barrel (similar to how "Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips" started). He happens to wash up on the island of "Bingzi-Bangzi", which has a large population of very anthropomorphic gorillas. A lovesick female gorilla finds Bugs and immediately adopts him as her baby. Bugs, who sympathizes with a crying woman, plays along. However, her husband "Gruesome" is not at all happy at adopting a rabbit, and tries to get Bugs away.
Remade in 1959 as "Apes of Wrath".
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Gruesome is one to Bugs, due to being a Child Hater. His first reaction to his wife bringing home a baby is to "take Junior for a walk", playing rough with him, and then when Bugs fights back, he goes into a murderous rage.
- Alcohol Hic: The stork in "Apes of Wrath". It's all but stated he got one too many drinks by the time the episode starts.
- Bullying a Dragon: In "Apes of Wrath" Bugs goes along with it just to annoy Elvis for his own amusement, especially since Elvis's wife won't hesitate to clobber him if he tries anything. Once the Stork finds and delivers their real baby however, Bugs realizes just how much trouble he's in.
- Butt-Monkey: Bugs, unusually for him, in both shorts, due to being dragged into playing baby for a gorilla and her ferocious husband. Especially so in "Apes Of Wrath" where he is violently shanghied into such by the drunken stork, and later even Daffy gets a final punchline on him for once.
- The Cameo:
- Tarzan comes swinging through the jungle, calling his classic call.
- Gruesome himself appears as a minor boss in the video game Bugs Bunny & Taz: Time Busters and a boss in ''''Looney Tunes Collector: Martian Revenge!''.
- Daffy Duck appears at the end of "Apes of Wrath", delivered by the stork to Bugs as his "new baby".
- Child Hater:
- Gruesome can't stand babies, which is why he and his wife don't have children.
- Zig-Zagged in "Apes of Wrath". Here, Gruesome (renamed Elvis) WANTS to be a father but when the stork substitutes Bugs for the missing baby gorilla he was supposed to deliver, Elvis wants no part of it, and is only angered more when Bugs trolls him in response.
- Coconut Meets Cranium: A coconut falls on Gruesome's head, breaking into a shape that looks just like a football helmet.
- Digital Destruction: The Golden Collection DVD restoration had truly terrible DVNR art erasing throughout many parts of the cartoon. The Platinum Collection DVDs and Blu-ray discs (as well as the HBO Max streaming version) rectified this with a new restoration, thankfully.
- Fiery Redhead: Gruesome has a red tuft of hair on top of his head, and he has the worst temper of all the gorillas.
- Gentle Gorilla: In contrast to Gruesome and despite a sign claiming the island is inhabited by "ferocious apes", the other gorillas are considerably friendlier, particularly Gruesome's mate.
- Goo Goo Getup: Mrs. Gruesome dresses Bugs in a bonnet and a diaper when he agrees to be her baby.
- Henpecked Husband: Weaponised in 'Apes of Wrath". As fierce as Elvis is, he is cowed by his wife and her rolling pin, giving Bugs protection.
- Hero Antagonist: Bugs in "Apes of Wrath".
- I Want My Mommy!: In “Apes of Wrath”, Bugs fearfully says, “Mother!” upon finding out that the stork found the real baby and realizing that there’s nothing to protect him from Elvis’ wrath.
- Jungles Sound Like Kookaburras: The trilling kookaburra noise, which of course in Real Life would not be heard in any jungle and definitely nowhere near where gorillas live, is heard as the cartoon fades out.
- Killer Gorilla:
- Gruesome tries hard to murder Bugs.
- Downplayed with Elvis who is mainly aggressive towards Bugs because the rabbit annoys him just for kicks, though he did try to off Bugs upon first seeing him.
- Laser-Guided Karma: At the end of "Apes of Wrath", after spending much of the short tormenting Elvis for his own amusement, Bugs gets stuck with Daffy as his "new baby".
- Monkey Morality Pose: A drawing of the "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" monkeys can briefly be seen on the wall of the Gruesome household.
- Naturally Huskless Coconuts: Bugs shakes a palm tree full of huskless coconuts until one falls on the head of Gruesome Gorilla.
- The Not Catch:
- Gruesome throws Bugs very high in the air, poses to catch him, then scoots out of the way at the last second as Bugs plummets to earth.
- Elvis in the remake tries the same thing when kicks Bugs high in the air. Only for Bugs to land on his head.
- No-Sell: In “Apes of Wrath”, when Bugs tells his pursuer to not cross a rope bridge to the mountain he’s standing on, lest he cut the rope, the ape has none of it and simply pulls at the rope—dragging Bugs’ mountain along with it. Bugs is appropriately cowed.
- Oh, Crap!: Bugs in "Apes of Wrath" when the stork arrives with the apes' real baby, and Elvis realizes he finally has an opportunity to beat Bugs into oblivion without his wife objecting.Bugs: Mother...
- Primal Chest-Pound: Gruesome angrily pounds his chest when Bugs smacks him in the head. Bugs responds to it by mockingly pounding his own chest, which makes Gruesome furious.
- Standard Snippet: Hey, it's Warner Bros., what do you expect? They have to make use of their songbook.
- In the beginning, Bugs carelessly sings, "Down Where the Trade Winds Play" and "Someone's Rockin' My Dreamboat".
- During the chase sequence, Raymond Scott's "Dinner Music for a Pack of Hungry Cannibals" plays at a faster tempo.
- Taxonomic Term Confusion: Bugs tells Mrs. Gruesome that he is species Rodentus rabbitus. Rabbits aren't rodents; rodents are the order Rodentia while rabbits are Lagomorpha.
- Victory by Endurance: Gruesome finally catches Bugs and seems to be about to pound him into a pulp, when he tires and collapses from exhaustion.Bugs: I wore him out!
- Vine Swing: How the gorillas get around. Bugs gets proficient at this by the end of the cartoon.
- Vocal Dissonance: This is a rare short in which Mel Blanc voices a female character, in this case Mrs. Gruesome. She essentially sounds like Mel doing a poor falsetto voice. Subverted in "Apes of Wrath" where the mother gorilla is voiced by June Foray.
