Hare Brush

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = "Hare Brush"
series = Merrie Melodies/Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd

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caption = A still from "Hare Brush"
director = I. Freleng
story_artist = Warren Foster
animator = Ted Bonnicksen
Art Davis
Gerry Chiniquy
layouts = Hawley Pratt
backgrounds = Irv Wyner
voice_actor = Mel Blanc
Arthur Q. Bryan (uncredited)
musician = Milt Franklyn
producer = Edward Selzer
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
release_date = May 7, 1955 (USA)
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 8 min (one reel)
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0048148

"Hare Brush" is a 1955 Warner Bros. "Merrie Melodies" animated short, featuring Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.

ummary

Millionaire Elmer Fudd enters the boardroom of his multi-million dollar company, but he isn't himself. He's hopping around on all fours and acting like a rabbit. Fudd snaps into a moment of paranoid delusion, expressing worry and fright over hunters who are out to get him. The board of directors agrees that Fudd needs help.

Soon Elmer, now wearing a rabbit suit, is committed to The Fruitcake Sanitarium for treatment of his apparent mental illness. A few moments later, Elmer sees Bugs Bunny walk by and lures his nemesis to the window with a carrot. Bugs goes inside, and Elmer hops out the window. Bugs lies in Elmer's bed to "keep it warm for him." Bugs then notices the medicine beside him and reads the instructions (Take one teaspoon every hour, with water), but he doesn't like it (he actually swallows the spoon!).

The Austrian hospital psychiatrist (whose name is Dr. Oro Myicin) comes for Elmer, but notices Bugs in his place; Myicin attributes this apparent sudden change to "a clear case of "rabbitschenia" (a pun on both rabbit skin and schizophrenia) ... vurst case I've evah zeen!" Bugs tries to convince the doctor that he really is a rabbit, but the doctor gives Bugs a hypnotizing pill. Once it takes effect, Bugs is made to repeat, "I am Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire. I own a mansion und a yacht."

Dr. Myicin's programming works: Bugs Bunny leaves the sanitarium convinced he's Elmer Fudd and pronouncing R's and L's as W's. He decides to relax by going hunting, where Elmer, still in his rabbit suit, is waiting.

It's the usual chase from there, only in reverse. Notable gags include Elmer siccing a bear on Bugs and telling him to play dead; the bear buries Bugs, who then falls from the underside of a cliff ledge.

In the climax, Bugs is about to go after Elmer again when a government agent (dressed in film noire G-men attire) taps Bugs on the shoulder, asking "Excuse me, are you Elmer Fudd?" Bugs replies, "Yes, I am Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire. I own a mansion and a yacht." Bugs is arrested for $300,000 worth of back taxes Elmer owes, and tries in vain to explain himself, saying "I'm hunting a scwewy wabbit!" This time, the last line of the episode belongs to Elmer: "I may be a scwewy wabbit, but I'm not going to Alcatwaz!"

A possible interpretation is that, in the cartoon, Elmer has been faking his insanity all along precisely to avoid being sentenced to prison (and also to finally get revenge on Bugs).

Facts

* This was the first Merrie Melodies cartoon to feature a new version of "Merrily We Roll Along."

Censorship

* Besides two edits for violence (a gun gag and a gag where Bugs dives into shallow water and hits his head on a rock), the version that aired on ABC edited out the establishing shot of "The Fruitcake Sanitarium" where the sign reads, "The Fruitcake Sanitarium: It's Full of Nuts" because of a standards and practices rule on ABC forbidding the mention (or mocking) of mental illness.

ources

* Beck, Jerry and Will Friedwald, "Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons," Henry Holt and Co., New York, 1989. (ISBN 0-8050-0894-2).

External links

*imdb title|0048148
* [http://kevinmccorrytv.com/1955bugsbunny.html "Deconstructing" Bugs: The Bugs Bunny Cartoons of 1955] - Written by Kevin McCorry