Sonny Rabbit and the Measles Mess: A Quick Look at Fox and the Rabbit

Is it worth the watch?

Look, if you have seven minutes and a strange craving for depression-era animation, sure. It’s for the folks who like their cartoons to feel like they were made in a shed by people fueled entirely by caffeine and deadline pressure. If you need a plot that makes sense or characters with actual depth, you are definitely in the wrong place.

Sonny Rabbit is just a guy trying to exist, but the world—and this fox—have other plans. The whole measles gag is just bizarre. Watching the animators use ketchup as a prop for a character's sickness feels like a fever dream I probably had back in third grade. It’s weirdly specific.

The pacing is absolutely breakneck, which is common for these old Color Cartunes, but it leaves you feeling a bit dizzy. There’s no room to breathe because something has to be hitting someone else with a frying pan every four seconds. It reminds me a little of the manic energy in Ko-Ko's Courtship, where the logic is loose and the slapstick is king.

The little things

• The red ink vs. ketchup continuity is nonexistent, and I kind of love it.
• The fox is one of those classic villains who seems to fail at everything, but keeps trying with alarming optimism.
• The backgrounds are surprisingly flat, almost like they were painted on cardboard just before the camera rolled.

It’s not a masterpiece, and honestly, it doesn't try to be. It just wants to get a laugh out of a kid with a messy face. 🐰 Sometimes, that’s just enough for a Tuesday afternoon.

It’s funny how these things hold up. Or don’t hold up, really. It feels like a relic that wandered out of a trunk in an attic. If you’ve been watching heavy stuff like The Stranger, this might be the palate cleanser you didn't know you needed. Or it’ll just confuse you. Probably both.