A Wild Hare

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = A Wild Hare
series = Merrie Melodies (Elmer Fudd, Bugs Bunny)


caption = Screen title of "A Wild Hare".
director = Fred Avery
story_artist = Rich Hogan
animator = Virgil Ross
Robert McKimson (uncredited)
Rod Scribner (uncredited)
Charles McKimson (uncredited)
voice_actor = Mel Blanc (uncredited)
Arthur Q. Bryan (uncredited)
musician = Carl Stalling
producer = Leon Schlesinger
studio = Leon Schlesinger Productions
distributor = Warner Bros. Pictures
release_date = July 27, 1940
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7 min (one reel)
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0033260

"A Wild Hare" (re-released as "The Wild Hare") is a Warner Bros. "Merrie Melodies" animated short film. It was produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, directed by Tex Avery, and written by Rich Hogan. It was originally released on July 27, 1940. "A Wild Hare" is considered by many film historians as the first "official" Bugs Bunny cartoon. [Michael Barrier, [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0195167295 "Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age"] , 2003, Oxford University Press, 978-0195167290] ["Bugs Bunny: 50 Years and Only One Grey Hare", by Joe Adamson (1990), Henry Holt, ISBN 0-8050-1855-7.] 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 1939, with varied approaches to the characters of both rabbit and hunter. ["That's Not All, Folks!", 1988 by Mel Blanc, Philip Bashe. Warner Books, ISBN 0-446-39089-5 (Softcover), ISBN 0-446-51244-3 (Hardcover)] "A Wild Hare" is noteworthy as the first true Bugs Bunny cartoon, as well as for settling on the classic voice and appearance of the hunter, Elmer Fudd. ["Bugs Bunny: 50 Years and Only One Grey Hare", by Joe Adamson (1990), Henry Holt, ISBN 0-8050-1855-7.] Although the animators continued to experiment with Elmer's design for a few more years, his look here proved the basis for his finalized design. [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033260/trivia "A Wild Hare" trivia at the Internet Movie Database.] ] The design and character of Bugs Bunny would continue to be refined over the subsequent years, but the general appearance, voice, and personality of the character were established in this cartoon. The rabbit is unnamed in this film, but would be christened "Bugs Bunny" in his very next short, "Elmer's Pet Rabbit", directed by Chuck Jones. The opening lines of both characters—"Be vewy, vewy quiet, I'm hunting wabbits" for Elmer, and "Eh, what's up Doc?" for the rabbit—would become catchphrases throughout their subsequent films.

Plot

The basic plot of "A Wild Hare", which centers on Elmer Fudd's hopeless pursuit of the much smarter Bugs, would serve as a template for many subsequent cartoons. In addition, many of the specific gags and plot devices in this cartoon became part of the template for later Bugs/Elmer confrontations, with subsequent shorts repeating them or varying them for comic effect. Examples include Elmer failing to recognise Bugs as a rabbit, Bugs kissing Elmer, [The "insulting kiss", which Bugs plants on Elmer in this cartoon and many others, and which may seem strange to 21st century viewers, back-references a schtick sometimes done by early film comedians, including Charlie Chaplin.] and Bugs feigning death.

Finally, the frustrated Elmer driven to distraction by the rabbit's antics, walks away sobbing about "wabbits, cawwots, guns", etc. Bugs tells the audience, "Ya know, I think the poor guy's screwy!" Bugs then 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, as with the fifer in the painting, "The Spirit of '76".

Cast

Virgil Ross is credited with the animation, and Carl Stalling with the musical score. Uncredited talent on "A Wild Hare" include animator Robert McKimson, layout man Robert Givens (who redesigned Elmer and the rabbit for this film), and voice artists Mel Blanc (as Bugs Bunny) and Arthur Q. Bryan (as Elmer Fudd).

The short was nominated for an . Another contestant was "Puss Gets the Boot", directed by William Hanna and produced by Rudolf Ising. Both nominations lost to "The Milky Way", another MGM Rudolph Ising production.

Censorship

*In the original version, when Bugs plays "Guess Who" with Elmer, Elmer's second answer was Carole Lombard. In the reissue prints that were released following Lombard's death in a plane crash, Elmer's second answer was redubbed with Barbara Stanwyck. Both names involve letters (L and R) that Elmer has difficulty enunciating.

What's up, Doc?

*Bugsy's nonchalant carrot-chewing stance, as explained many years later by Chuck Jones, and again by Friz Freleng and Bob Clampett, comes from the movie, "It Happened One Night", from a scene where the Clark Gable character is leaning against a fence eating carrots more quickly than he is swallowing (as Bugs would later often do), giving instructions with his mouth full to the Claudette Colbert character, during the hitch-hiking sequence. This scene was so famous at the time that most people immediately got the connection. [http://www.filmsite.org/itha.html "It Happened One Night" film review by Tim Dirks - Filmsite.org] ] [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033260/trivia "A Wild Hare" trivia at the Internet Movie Database.] ]
*The line, "What's up, Doc?", was added by director Tex Avery for this short. Avery explained later that it was a common expression in Texas where he was from, and he didn't 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. Because of the overwhelming reaction, Bugs eats a carrot and utters some version of the phrase in almost every one of his cartoons after that, sometimes entirely out of context as compared to this original use. [Adamson, Joe, "Tex Avery: King of Cartoons", New York: De Capo Press, 1975.]
**Cartoon Network once ran an all-day Bugs Bunny marathon. In each cartoon, when he said, "What's up, Doc?" a bell would ring and a banner would pop up for a couple of seconds.
**Working the phrase or its variants into some cartoons could require some invention. In "Rhapsody Rabbit", Bugs was onstage alone, playing the piano a mostly mime sketch. He uses the phrase when he has to answer the phone at one point. In "Hair-Raising Hare", borrowing a joke from "Horse Feathers", he uses it as a gag, speaking to a supposed audience member who was a doctor. In "The Old Grey Hare", the octogenarian Bugs asks the octogenarian Elmer, "What's up, Prune-Face?"
**In the cartoon "What's Up Doc?", the phrase was expanded into a song.
**He usually uses the phrase (or a variant) only once per cartoon. There are a few exceptions to this axiom.
**Variants of the phrase appear in many cartoons. They range from things as simple as "What's up dogs?" when facing down a canine street gang, to "What's cooking, Lolly?" to his press agent when he was a movie star, and "What's all the hubub (gulps), bub?" In "Ali-Baba Bunny", when Daffy Duck buries him in his rabbit hole to keep the treasure for himself, Bugs Bunny says, "What's up, duck?" In "Knight-mare Hare", after being introduced to "Sir O of K, Earl of Watercress, Sir Osis of the Liver, Knight of the Garter, and Baron of Wooster-cester-shister-shyster-schuster-shister-sister-shire...sher.", he says, "What's up, duke?"
**When his antagonist is Yosemite Sam, the short-fused Sam often takes the question literally, firing back with, "I ain't no 'Doc'!" and then telling Bugs (and the audience) who he is.

Availability

The short occurs (unrestored) in its entirety in two documentaries available as bonus material in the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection" series. One documentary is "What's Up, Doc? A Salute to Bugs Bunny Part 1", which is available as a special feature on Discs 3 and 4 of the ', with the original title cards. The other documentary is " Part 1", which is available as a special feature on Discs 1 and 2 of the ' with the Blue Ribbon reissue titles and 'dubbed version' end title, although it has not been refurbished or released independently in that series yet. The most noticeable effect of this is that the backgrounds appear to be in muted, autumn-like tones (visible in the picture of Elmer and Bugs above), rather than the vibrant springtime colors the backgrounds were painted in. An uncut, restored version appears on the "Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection - 15 Winners, 26 Nominees" DVD set, but did not surface on the "Golden Collection" series, despite it being a debut cartoon for a major character; ironically, that character is Bugs Bunny, Warner Bros.' most popular cartoon star.

Notes

ee also

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

External links

*imdb title|id=0033260|title=A Wild Hare