A Wild Hare

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A Wild Hare
A Wild Hare Lobby Card.PNG
Lobby card
Directed byFred Avery
Story byRich Hogan
Produced byLeon Schlesinger
Music byCarl W. Stalling
Animation byVirgil Ross
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date
  • July 27, 1940 (1940-07-27)
Running time
8:15
LanguageEnglish

A Wild Hare is a 1940 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon was directed by Tex Avery. The short subject features Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny, the latter making what is considered his first official appearance.[1][2]

Title[]

The title is a play on "wild hair", the first of many puns between "hare" and "hair" that would appear in Bugs Bunny titles. The pun is carried further by a bar of "I'm Just Wild About Harry" playing in the underscore of the opening credits. Various directors at the Warner Bros. cartoon studio had been experimenting with cartoons focused on a hunter pursuing a rabbit since 1938, with varied approaches to the characters of both rabbit and hunter.[3]

Plot[]

The cartoon begins with Elmer tiptoeing around and telling the viewer his famous line, "Shh. Be vewy, vewy quiet. I'm hunting wabbits." Elmer then approaches one of Bugs' warrens, puts down a carrot, and hides behind a tree. Bugs' arm reaches out of the hole, feels around, and snatches the carrot. He reaches out again and finds Elmer's double-barreled shotgun. His arm quickly pops back into the hole before returning to drop the eaten stub of Elmer's carrot and apologetically caress the end of the barrel. Elmer shoves his gun into Bugs' burrow, and thus causes a struggle in which the barrel is bent into a bow.

Elmer frantically digs into the hole while Bugs emerges from a nearby opening with another carrot in his hand, lifts Fudd's hat, and taps the top of his head until Elmer notices; then chews his carrot and delivers his definitive line, "What's up, Doc?". When Elmer replies that "[he's] hunting 'wabbits'", Bugs chews his carrot and asks what a rabbit is; then teases Elmer by displaying every aspect of Fudd's description until Elmer suspects that Bugs is a rabbit. Bugs confirms this, hides behind a tree, sneaks behind Elmer, covers his eyes, and asks "Guess who?".

Elmer tries the names of contemporary screen beauties whose names exploited his speech impediment, before he guesses the rabbit. Bugs responds "Hmm..... Could be!", kisses Elmer, and dives into his burrow. Elmer sticks his head into the hole and gets another kiss from Bugs; whereafter he wipes his mouth and decides to set a trap. When Bugs puts a skunk in the trap, Fudd blindly grabs the skunk and carries it over to the watching Bugs to brag; and when Elmer sees his mistake, Bugs gives him a kiss on the nose, whereupon Fudd looks at the skunk, who winks and nudges Elmer. Fudd winces and gingerly sends the skunk on his way.

Bugs then offers a free shot at himself; fakes an elaborate death; and plays dead, leaving Elmer suffering with remorse; but survives the shot and sneaks up behind the distraught Fudd, kicks him in his rear, shoves a cigar into his mouth, and tiptoes away, ballet-style. Finally, the defeated Elmer walks away sobbing about "wabbits, cawwots, guns", etc. Bugs then remarks, "Can ya imagine anybody acting like that? Ya know, I think the poor guy's screwy", and begins to play his carrot like a fife, playing the tune The Girl I Left Behind Me, and marches with one stiff leg towards his rabbit hole (recalling The Spirit of '76).

Wild Hare on the radio[]

In a rare promotional broadcast, A Wild Hare was loosely adapted for the radio as a sketch performed by Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan on the April 11, 1941, edition of The Al Pearce Show. The sketch was followed by a scripted interview with Leon Schlesinger.[4]

What's up, Doc?[]

  • Bugs's laid-back stance, as explained many years later by Chuck Jones, and again by Friz Freleng and Bob Clampett, comes from the 1934 movie It Happened One Night, from a scene where Clark Gable's character is leaning against a fence eating carrots more quickly than he is swallowing (as Bugs would later do), giving instructions with his mouth full to Claudette Colbert's character. This scene was so famous at the time that most people immediately saw the connection.[5][6]
  • The line, "What's up, Doc?", was added by director Tex Avery for this film. Avery explained later that it was a common expression in Texas where he was from, and he did not think much of the phrase. But when this short was screened in theaters, the scene of Bugs calmly chewing a carrot, followed by the nonchalant "What's Up, Doc?", went against any 1940s audience's expectation of how a rabbit might react to a hunter and caused complete pandemonium in the audience, bringing down the house in every theater. As a result of this popularity, Bugs eats a carrot and utters some version of the phrase in almost every one of his cartoons; sometimes entirely out of context.[7]

Home media[]

"A Wild Hare" is available on many home video releases.

Notes[]

  • The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons[11] but lost to "The Milky Way", another MGM Rudolph Ising production.
  • When the film was reissued as a Blue Ribbon release, it was retitled The Wild Hare. Also, during the "guess who" sequence, the name Cawole Wombard was redubbed, since Lombard died in a plane crash, and was replaced by Bawbawa Stanwyck.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Barrier, Michael (2003), Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age, Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-516729-0
  2. ^ Adamson, Joe (1990). Bugs Bunny: 50 Years and Only One Grey Hare. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 978-0-8050-1190-6
  3. ^ Blanc, Mel; Bashe, Philip (1988). That's Not All, Folks!. Warner Books. ISBN 0-446-39089-5 (Softcover), ISBN 0-446-51244-3 (Hardcover)
  4. ^ "Original script". Al Pearce Show. tobaccodocuments.org. April 11, 1942. Archived from the original on 30 July 2010. Retrieved June 26, 2010.
  5. ^ "A Wild Hare (1940)". IMDb.com. Retrieved 20 December 2021.
  6. ^ It Happened One Night film review by Tim Dirks, Filmsite.org.
  7. ^ Adamson, Joe (1975). Tex Avery: King of Cartoons, New York: Da Capo Press. OCLC 59807115
  8. ^ [1][dead link]
  9. ^ "The Essential Bugs Bunny". Animatedviews.com. Retrieved 20 December 2021.
  10. ^ ""Looney Tunes Platinum Collection Volume 2" Available on DVD and Blu-ray October 16, 2012". Cartoonbrew.com. 1 August 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2021.
  11. ^ "1940 Academy Awards". Infoplease.com. Retrieved 2007-09-20.

External links[]

Preceded by
None - first short
 Bugs Bunny Cartoons
1940 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from ""