Hare Conditioned

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = "Hare Conditioned"
series = Looney Tunes/Bugs Bunny
director = Chuck Jones
story_artist = Tedd Pierce
animator = Ken Harris
Ben Washam
Basil Davidovich
Lloyd Vaughan
Bob Cannon(unc.)
layouts = Hawley Pratt
backgrounds = Earl Klein
Robert Gribbroek
voice_actor = Mel Blanc
Dick Nelson (as Store Manager, uncredited)
musician = Carl Stalling
producer =
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
release_date = 1945 (USA)
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7 min
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0037763

Hare Conditioned is a 1945 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Looney Tunes series. It was directed by Chuck Jones. It stars Bugs Bunny, who was voiced by Mel Blanc.

The Macy's manager was done by Dick Nelson.

The title is a play on "air conditioned"; before air conditioning became widely used, it was sometimes advertised as incentive for the public to visit department stores, where they could avoid the heat of a hot day and, ideally for the store, make purchases.

Plot synopsis

Bugs is on display in the "Stacey's Department Store" window, helping to advertise camping gear. With that particular sales campaign over, the store manager takes Bugs to another department, which Bugs puzzles over ("tax-ee-doy-mee?") The man tells the rabbit he will look splendid... after he has been "stuffed". Bugs ponders this for a second, screams after realizing that he will die, and begins a cartoon-long chase.

At one point, Bugs distracts him by telling him he sounds "just like that guy on the radio: The Great Gildersneeze!" Bugs is right, the voice is a good imitation of Harold Peary's character in the "The Great Gildersleeve". The actor providing that voice here is uncredited, although most animation historians seem to agree it was Dick Nelson. (For unknown reasons, Blanc redubbed one line for him.) The chase soon resumes, including a frenetic dash up the stairs of the skyscraper. Just when Bugs is about to be captured, he distracts the man again by tricking him into thinking there is a monster behind him. When he looks behind, Bugs has leaped into position, making a hideous face. The frightened man leaps off the building with a scream, and apparently to his death. Bugs tut-tuts, then pulls out a mirror, makes the same face to himself, turns to the audience in horror, and then "he" leaps off the building with a scream. Iris out.

Notes

*An idea similar to the closing gag would be used in 1946's "Hair-Raising Hare". The monster (later dubbed "Gossamer") sees his reflection in the mirror, and the "reflection" screams and runs away.
*The final gag may have been the inspiration for a sequence in the 1994 Simpsons Treehouse of Horror segment entitled "The Shinning", in which Homer threateningly advances towards Marge up a flight of stairs and makes hideous faces at her, then stops to look in a mirror, which scares "him" and causes him to fall down the stairs.
*Porky Pig only appears in the end of the cartoon with his usual famous drum scene.
*During the 1945-1946 season, Looney Tunes used Merrie Melodies opening sequence while maintaining the same title.
*During this season, Looney Tunes' "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" was shortened onwards.
*During the elevator scene, Bugs (dressed as the elevator operator) rattles off items such as rubber tires, sugar, bourbon, butter, and then finishes with "...and other picture postcards." This joke refers to the rationing that took place during World War II, where the items mentioned were in severe shortage due to the war effort, although pictures of them could be had.

ee also

*List of Bugs Bunny cartoons