Hare Trigger

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Hare Trigger
series = Merrie Melodies


caption = Title Card for the cartoon
director = Friz Freleng
story_artist = Michael Maltese
animator = Manuel Perez
Ken Champin
Virgil Ross
Gerry Chiniquy
Jack Bradbury(unc.)
voice_actor = Mel Blanc
musician = Carl W. Stalling
producer = Warner Bros. Pictures
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
release_date = May 5, 1945 (USA)
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 8 min
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0037765

"Hare Trigger" is a 1945 Warner Brothers Merrie Melodies cartoon short starring Bugs Bunny directed by Friz Freleng. It marks the first appearance of Yosemite Sam, who appears as a train robber. Mel Blanc does both characters' voices.

The title is a play on "hair trigger", referring to any weapon or other device with a sensitive trigger.

Plot

Bugs is riding in the mail car of a train, singing a goofy song known as "Go Get the Ax". Bugs sings, "Peepin' through the knothole of Grandpa's wooden le-heg/Who'll wind the clock when I am gone/Go get the axe there's a flea on Lizzie's ear/For a boy's best friend is his mudder!/Peepin' through the knothole of Grandpa's wooden le-heg/Why do they build the shore so near the ocean...", when a pint-sized bandit attempts to rob the train, only to have it pass clear over his head. He then calls for his horse, which he needs a rolling step-stair to mount. He catches up and boards the train and begins to rob it while the mail clerk wraps himself in a package marked "DON'T OPEN 'TIL XMAS. He accidentally throws Bugs Bunny in his sack, with Bugsy sounding like crashing pots-and-pans as he hits bottom. Bugs assumes he's Jesse James. The bandit scoffs and tells him (and the audience) who he actually is: "I'm Yosemite Sam, the meanest, toughest, rip-roarin'-est, Edward Everett Horton-est "hombre" what ever packed a six-shooter!" (This pattern of Sam introducing himself to Bugs and the audience would continue in other cartoons) Bugs tells Sam that there is another tough guy in the train packing a "seven-shooter", and Sam goes looking for him -- and he is actually Bugs in disguise.

Various fights ensue, as each character temporarily gets the upper hand for a while. At one point, Bugs thinks he has vanquished Sam, and yells "So long, screwy, see ya in Saint Louie!" in a line that will be echoed in "Bugs Bunny Rides Again" and "A Feather in His Hare". After another skirmish, Bugs tricks Sam into dashing into a lounge car in which a horrific fight is occurring, actually stock film footage of a stereotypical western saloon fight. With the sounds of crashes and bangs in the background, Bugs calmly sings "Sweet Georgia Brown" to himself. Sam emerges tottering, banged and bruised, to a comical instrumental of "Rally 'Round the Flag", and a race-based gag occurs that is subtle enough it is usually left intact in network showings: Bugs effects the stereotyped voice of an African-American train porter, and has the dazed Sam convinced he's supposed to disembark the train, piling him up with luggage; Sam even hands Bugs a silver coin as a tip, and Bugs says, "Thank you, suh!" As Sam steps off the moving train, the mail-drop hook grabs him and temporarily whisks him off the train. But he gets back on board somehow. Finally, Sam has Bugs tied up, dangling from a rope, weighted down by an anvil, and fiendishly cutting through the rope, while the train is passing over a gorge. The screen fills with the words the narrator (also Mel Blanc, in pretty much his natural voice) is saying, "Is this end of Bugs Bunny? Will he be dashed to bits on the jagged rocks below?" and so on. Then Bugs walks across the screen, dressed in top hat and tails, carrying a bag full of gold (reward money), and dragging the tied-up villain behind him, mocking the on-screen words ("Will he be doomed to utter destruction and be rendered non compos mentis?"). Bugs closes by turning to the audience and repeating a popular radio catch-phrase from Red Skelton's "Mean Widdle Kid": "He don't know me vewy well, do he?" as a bar of "Kingdom Coming" plays on the track at iris-out.

Notes

* A character similar to Sam was the southern sheriff seen in "Stage Door Cartoon" (1944), also directed by Freleng.
* The Bunny and Sam would square off again in a western setting, three years later, in "Bugs Bunny Rides Again".
*First Warner Bros. cartoon with full credits.
*Around 1945, Merrie Melodies' theme song Merrily We Roll Along was shortened and onwards.

In the DVD ', this cartoon appears, unrestored, as part of a late-1980s TV special called "What's Up Doc?" The restored version is scheduled to appear in '.

Links

* [http://www.jibjab.com/view/197431 Hare Trigger at Jibjab]

See also

* Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies filmography (1940-1949)
* List of Bugs Bunny cartoons