Forward March Hare

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Forward March Hare
series = Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny)


caption =
director = Charles M. Jones
story_artist = Michael Maltese
animator = Ken Harris, Lloyd Vaughan, Ben Washam
voice_actor = Mel Blanc
musician = Carl Stalling
producer = Eddie Selzer
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
release_date = February 4, 1953
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7 minutes
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0045786

"Forward March Hare" is a 1952-animated Looney Tunes cartoon released in 1953 featuring Bugs Bunny. Bugs is accidentally drafted in the army, and causes havoc with his sergeant. The title relates to the March Hare.

Plot

The mailman has delivered a letter to "B. Bonny" (Bertram Bonny), but when the truck pulls out, the exhaust from the tailpipe causes the letter to drift out of the mailbox and drop into Bugs Bunny's hole. Bugs, in the middle of his morning workout (including a brief workout of his ears), eventually sees the letter and assumes it's for him. On reading the letter, he gets shocked: "Holy cats, I've been drafted!"

Bugs' going through the Army induction center only causes some small reactions (with the exception being the man checking each person's X-Ray, who immediately diagnoses himself as "overworked" when seeing Bugs' X-Ray). He passes the eye exam with flying colors from the first letter right down to the microscopic "Reg U.S. Pat Off" disclaimer at the bottom of the chart. Once in the army, though, he quickly causes problems. His shoes are too big, so when his Sergeant calls for the men lined up to "about face!", Bugs accidentally knocks the rest of the line over like bowling pins. The Sergeant calls Bugs forward, where Bugs introduces himself as "Private Bugs Bunny, reporting as ordered, your majesty!". The Sergeant doesn't believe it's really Bugs, and dryly refers to himself as "Sergeant Porky Pig." However, his Colonel, referring to "him"self as "Colonel Putty Tat", tells the Segeant that "General Tweety Pie was asking about you, Sergeant." On inspecting Bugs, Bugs quickly knocks the Colonel over with his large shoes.

Bugs and his commanding officer - now noticeably demoted to Sergeant from Sergeant First Class - take a long hike that sees both of them crawling back to their bunk in the middle of the night. Bugs finally lies down in his bunk, but is woken by Reveille. Bugs, intending to "moider" that bugler!", runs with a baseball bat and smashes the record player to bits. He then takes a bath, using the Colonel's helmet as his bathtub! When the Sergeant notices this, he throws Bugs out and runs off with the helmet full of soapy water - only to run into the Colonel.

Now demoted to Corporal rank, Bugs' officer has Bugs 'dress' the chickens for dinner - though Bugs has them all dressed in tuxedoes. Bugs then tries nailing a calendar to the wall above his bunk using a large ammunition shell. The Corporal runs up just in time to almost get hit with the shell when it goes off - but the shell drives a hole clean through the Colonel's helmet while the Colonel is wearing it! Now reduced in rank to Private, Bugs' former commanding officer asks the bunny what he's got against him. He finally realizes that "We've inducted a rabbit!" and runs off to find the Colonel. When told by the Colonel (whom Bugs refers to as "General, sir") that he can't be part of the armed forces, Bugs asks what a patriotic rabbit can do. The Colonel tells Bugs there "is" something he can do - Bugs is then seen testing ammunition shells (similar to the one he accidentally fired) by striking the top with a mallet and marking them as 'DUD' when they don't explode. Bugs then tells the audience, "And just think! In thirty years, I can retire!"

External links

*imdb title|0045786